THE MAKING OF CONTEMPORARY YORUBA BATIK DRESSES AS A SMALL SCALE INDUSTRY IN NIGERIA

BY

OLADIPUPO KAYODE OLAYEMI [email protected]

A RESEARCH ANALYST LOCATED IN IBADAN, OYO STATE, NIGERIA

AUGUST, 2012

INTRODUCTION
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Batik is one of the many ways of designing fabric. It is an Indonesian method of hand printing textile which is usually done by coating some part of the fabric with hot water to be resisted from dyestuff. Batik is a Japanese word which means, the use of wax drops in writing designs (Intercontinental, 2007). The wax used on this fabric prevents the penetration of dye into the design areas covered with wax i.e. when dye the fabric is being immersed in a dyestuff. To make batik, selected areas of the cloth are blocked out by using stencil design which can be foam design, stamp design and free hand design will put on a hot wax and shake it once before it is being placed on a desired cloth, then cloth is dyed. The parts covered in wax resist the dye and remain the original colour. Thus process of waxing and dyeing can be repeated to create more elaborate and colorful designs. After the final dyeing, the wax is removed and the cloth is ready for wearing or exhibition. Contemporary batik, is owning much to the past, is different from the more traditional and formal styles. The designers may use etching, discharge dyeing, stencil, different tools for waxing and dyeing. It is very difficult to say the origin of batik, that batik technique was widely practiced independently in South-Eastern Asia; Samples have also been found in China, India, Turkey, Japan and West Africa from past centuries. Although in these countries people were using the technique of dye resisting decoration. Within the textile realm, none have developed batik to its present days form as the highly developed intricate batik found on the island of Javanese in Indonesia. No one know exactly where or when batik came into existence, the theory is that its originate from the eastern part and this was supported by the Archeologist who have found Swatches of batik cloth in tombs excavations from Eastern countries It is probably that the Japanese learnt the act of resist dying from the Chinese as one first practiced as it was said in the quotations (Gordon, 2007) Hence, it is possible to assume that the Chinese took the technique over from these people which is been believed that, batik was of Hindu origin, it sacred importance was associated with womens birth, initiation, marriage and death (Doellah, 2003), it was particularly a medium for representing symbols of Javanese womb fertility, such as the fealtus of crowned snack whereas among the Sawu in Sund Island of Indonesia, the cloth was used as a means of clean identification (Fraser, 1982)
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The Chinese was able to developed it to a very high standard just as it was believed they have done with Ikat and other resist technique from china. During the nineteen century, the Dutch donated their textile mills in Haalem, leyden and those in overseas to produce wax prints for the west Africa markets. Before then, little quantity of wax prints were introduce to west Africa by the Europeans, first through Christian missionaries, who need the prints for converts: Second, the European producers who made wax printers for the African market, third, through West African soldiers who brought back Javanese batik for their wives after savings between 1810 and 1862 in Indonesia (Doellah, 2003) Thus, by the early decades of the twentieth century, there was a rapid increase in the export of the cloth to African and later in twentieth century additional bales of African prints were supplied from Japan and local factories for West Africa. But the most developed skills are to be found in Nigeria, where the Yoruba people make Adire Eleko and the Indigo from a plant which grow through African and used as dye fro dyeing batik.

THE CONCEPT OF BATIK With the advent of machines, tremendous changes have taken place in techniques and style of traditional textile designs and crafts in response to the changes in taste, political and social scenes. Actually the change is a continuum that absorbs creativity, needs and style within the wide range of methods in textile design is the techniques. By definition Batik is an Indonesian method of handprinting textile by coating with wax the parts not be dyed (Gordon, 2007) the Longman Encyclopedia supports this statement by saying batik is a methods of decorating fabric used for centuries in Indonesia, with melted wax a design is applied to the cloth (cotton) which is then dipped in cool vegetables dye According to Doellah (2003) says hot wax, resin paraffin, as well as starch, rice paste are used as resist materials. However, in the contemporary approach the batik-wax resist techniques is the most current the resist is obtained by applying wax to part of the fabric to be wax, it may be painted, drawn or printed on the cloth ( Drost, 2007). The application of wax will be determined
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by the desire designs drawn on the fabric and the type of fabric used, including the technical knowhow of the practitioners on the combination of colour. Effect of knowledge on colour combination Colour itself, as flame begets light, so light engenders colour. Colour esthetics may be viewed from three angle, impression (visually)expression (emotionally) constuctuion (symbolially). The doctrine of aesthetic colour theory originates from the experience or intuition of a painter or an artist- Doellah (2003). Colour produce illusions, colour may vary depending on their composition, they have qualities of lightness and darkness. Eye react to these colours in different ways (Damanpour, and Evans, 1987), also the hue, value and the intensity of colour is very important. To appreciate the design of objects in our daily environment one needs to know a basic pigment colour theory. Because the designer most frequent contact with colour pigment and colour materials. Blue being a primary colour is strong and distinctive but unlike red which is warm and aggressive, blue is cool and retiring. Yellow: represents purity and brightness and it is the most luminous tint the spectrum Red: is designated a primary colour on both the light and pigment theory of colour, red, orange and yellow have being classified as warm aggressive, shown and brilliant. Red being a bright colour, it is used in the blending process when several shades of materials are compared to produced a mixed yarn. As a good batik designers must takes it into consideration the knowledge of combination of colours, so that the finishes could yield good design result. According to the new age encyclopedia design is the intended arrangements of materials to produce a certain result or effect. Before a good batik practitioners can yield a good result, knowledge of colours is very essential, small scale batik practitioners in Abeokuta is been observed that they lack knowledge that is why their finishes is not yield good result.

CHALLENGES OF BATIK DRESSES AS SMALL SCALE BUSINESS IN NIGERIA

Batik marketing is a major source of income for people in Abeokuta because large number of men and women are involved in the business. But despite this large number, batik productions are not still gaining ground in order to achieve higher margin for production. The practitioners level of knowledge on batik production in terms of colour combination. Dye selection and material used likewise social issues like marriage, education could also be linked to improve production, therefore the essence of this study will look on the internal and external factors that can influence batik production in either positive or negative condition in order to yield greater profitability. HOW TO MARKET BATIK DRESSES AS A SMALL SCALE BUSINESS
According to Chiahemen, (2006), the ability of china to produce product efficiently at a lowercomparative cost is threatening those textile and apparel industries that are unable to complete solely based on price. Consequently, firm located in these countries, such as Nigeria, are looking for ways to remain competitive, the recommended way forward is niche marketing (Amubode, 2009) a product focus with a better position to compete in the global market place and achieve higher margins for products while yield greater profitability (Drost, 2007). Implementing consumer. This helps a company compete against lower priced imports because the company will be able to identify the most profitable market segments. The most important factor on which a firm needs to focus understands the consumer (Chiahemen, 2006). Niche marketing is usually used by smaller firms because they can concentrate on establishing a strong image and position in their niche. Also niche markets are usually ignored by larger multinational firms who are not interested in the low sales volume yield by small segment. Such ventures are profitable because of disinterest on the part of large business and/or lack of awareness on the part of other small companies. A business that focus on a niche market, is addressing a need for a product or service that is not being addressed by mainstream providers (Byfield, Judith 2002). Similarly, Byfield Judith (2002) defines innovation as the process of bringing new ideas, process, products or service. Innovation is a complex activity which proceeds from the conceptualization of a new idea to the solution of problem and then to the actual utilization of economic or social value (Byfield, Judith 2002). Drost (2007) define innovation as any idea, practice or material artifact perceived to be new by the relevant unit of adoption. On the other hand, Byfield, Judith (2002) state that innovation need not involve absolute
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novelty. It may be the introduction of something familiar from one context to another context where it is unfamiliar. Competition stimulates innovation (Drost, 2007). A business is created to provide competition goods and services at competitive price. Purposeful business systems are influenced by the environment, principally because the business system input derived from the outputs are consumed by the environment. The environment is characterized by complexity, turbulence and uncertainly, offering both opportunities and risk (Olajire, 2004). Hence the need for tie and dye/batik practitioners, to recognize their relevant environment from the cascading environment. A high degree of turbulence in the environment (instability and unpredictability) will stimulate innovation, by making the organization more aware of the cues to innovation (Aiken and Alford, 1970). However, successful entrepreneur must use systematic innovation, which consists of a purposeful and organized search for change and the systematic analysis of the opportunities such change might offer for economic and social innovation. A niche market is composed of individuals and business that have similar interests and needs which can be readily identify and can be easily targeted and reached (Drost, 2007). A perfect niche market is the location or domain in which you are mostly readily accessible to those people who are mostly likely to benefit from (and thus value) the offer that you are simultaneously most free to exercise your brilliance. According to (Eades, 1993), your offer is who you are and what you do, while your niche is where and with whom you do it. In a highly competitive trade, serving customer better than the competition is the key to success. However, tie and dye/batik practitioner should set goals for customers satisfaction, and improve their business interaction with customer in how to prepare and deliver responses to customers requests. Also, through extensive research and analysis, practitioner should provide answer to the following question: Who are our customers? What do they want from us? Who are our most profitable customers? What do we need to do to keep existing customers and attract new ones? Practitioner should seek to: Target the most valuable customers and maximize their value; Improve communication and connect with customer; Transform the business culture so that it is more conducive to putting customers first rather than profit; Build customers loyalty through gaining and demonstrating a deeper understanding of customers needs and preferences; Present a more unified view to customers and acquire a more unified view of customers; Built and use a data warehouse which bring together information from core transaction; and Adopt and promote electronic business strategies.
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Therefore becomes necessary to understand customers needs practitioners capabilities and their competitive strengths and weaknesses. Recognizing customers are different in terms of their needs for production and service, interaction with customers. They are very importance and they need to welcome at ease, creativity is very important as a designer and one should be always current with what is happening, with new designers in vogue by reading fashion magazines, newspaper, and every magazine e.g. ovation because customers always goes for new designs. A good designer must be able to versatile been able to look at individual and recommended good design that will suit the figure and taste. Take these procedure into account will grow a business and makes our batik industry be competitive with the market globalization. Disappointed is not good. One should avoid it for good reputation
Neatness is very good and important as a designer i.e. goes finishing because it will promote sales

Discipline of staff is very important and essential for success to take place.
Punctuality to work is another thing that is very important in industry and every worker should

motivate the habit. All these procedure can make the change to our small scale industry and be competitive with cloths from foreign countries selling in a cheap prices, it will also reduce the levels of unemployment in Nigeria. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS (i) Government should intensify their effort in the research area for the invention of intermediate technology to ease fatigue. This will reduce labour drudgery (ii) Moreso, government should help financially, so that batik practitioner will have enough facilities that will increase their productivities, source of income and also reduce the level of unemployment.

REFERENCES Afigo A.E and Okeke L.S (1985), weaving tradition in Igbosland, A Nigeria magazine publication, Nigeria. Adetoun A.A (2009). The cheap cloths introduced from Asia and Europe, Abeokuta. Aiken, M. and Alford, R. (1970), community structure and innovation: the case of urban renewal, American Sociological Review, Vol. 35, pp. 650-65. Barbour, Jane, and Doug Simmonds, eds (1971). Adire Cloth in Nigeria. Ibadan: The Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, 1971. Excellent source on dyeing technology, history, and motifs. Beier, Ullied (1997). A Sea of Indigo: Yoruba Textile Art. Enugu, Nigeria: Fourth Dimension Publishing,. Social history of adire, particularly contemporary conditions. Byfield, Judith (2002). The Bluest Hands: A Social and Economic History of Women Dyers in Abeokuta (Nigeria), 1890-1940. Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann. A definitive history of the peak years of adire production. Chiahemen, J. (2006), Tsunami of cheap goods overwhelms African jobs, The New Zealand Herald, available at: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/print.cfm?-id = 151 & objected = 10360687
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Damanpour, F. and Evans, W.M. (1987), organization and performance: the problem of organization lag, Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 29,pp. 392-409. Doellah H,S (2003) the impact of the an environment, Batik. Oxford University press Plc. Drost, H. (2007), Niche marketing, available at www.discountdomainsuk.com/articles/8/343/0/1 Eades, J. S. (1993) Strangers and Traders: Yoruba Migrants, Markets, and the State in Northern Ghana. Edinburgh, London: Edinburgh University Press for the International African Institute, 1993. Fraser S. (1986) processes and places Indonesian batik Oxford university press Plc Gordon, M. (2007), Niche marketing: be yourself in a focused niche market, available at:www.authenticpromotion.com/niche-marketing Intercontinental Bank (2007), Review of Nigeria textile industry, available at:www.intercontientalbankplc.com