Why beaded royal crowns still matter in Nigeria

DW (English)

In Africa, sometimes tradition is everything. That's especially true with the art of creating traditional royal beaded crowns in Nigeria.

Transcript

00:01This is no ordinary cap.

00:04This is a Yoruba crown.

00:06Modern Yoruba kings usually have several crowns,

00:09which they wear depending on the occasion.

00:13But it's actually just a beaded cap, isn't it?

00:30The beaded crown is very, very significant,

00:33particularly in Yoruba land.

00:36In southwestern Nigeria,

00:38the traditional beaded crowns of the Yarabe monarchs are indispensable.

00:42Even ancestral figures such as Oduduwa have crowned heads.

00:47You can't do without them,

00:49and that's where the royal cultural heritage is under threat,

00:52because the kings are running out of crowns.

00:55If we see the life of the graduate these days,

00:58we're all looking for white-collar jobs that will always pay high.

01:01But there are some little, little jobs that are being inherited

01:06from your forefather or from your father,

01:08that is even giving you money more than what you might be expecting.

01:1334-year-old Kalada from Ile-Ife in Osun State, Nigeria,

01:18is actually a computer science graduate.

01:20So why did he decide against an office job

01:22and now prefers threading glass beads?

01:26What kept my interest in this work

01:28is my dad was a crownmaker.

01:31He always tell us something,

01:33that he knows that we are all graduates,

01:36that he don't want this work to go down.

01:38The purpose of him sending us to school

01:40is that we should go and learn more.

01:43As if crownmaking itself wasn't already inefficient,

01:46Before Kalada shows us how a simple cap becomes, in Adi,

01:50a symbol of royal heritage,

01:52let's discover the symbolism behind the beaded headdress.

01:56No two Yoruba crowns look the same.

01:58A crownmaker chooses colors, patterns, images, and even the shape,

02:03depending on the king's personal interest or taste.

02:09This is what we call a boat crown.

02:12This is what we call a boat crown.

02:15You can see it looks like it's in the form of a boat.

02:19The Yoruba can put it on whenever they are doing their traditional festival.

02:25Or you can even use it to go to church, since it's white.

02:28This is a six-colored crown.

02:31You can see we have six sides of it, on top of it.

02:36So this is what we call a six-colored crown.

02:39It can be made of beads, and it can be made of stones.

02:42This one has a pointed front.

02:45And it has, like, five bows around it.

02:51Crownmakers often work with precious materials and intricate designs.

02:56In the late 19th century, beads would have been imported from the British.

03:01At this time, glass beads were a sign of wealth.

03:04Elaborate bead embroidery still emphasizes royal status today.

03:09Where does Kalada get his seed beads from?

03:13This is one of the markets where I buy some of the stuff that I use in making the crown.

03:19Sometimes I do go to Lagos to get it in bulk,

03:22because there are some projects that I might need that I might not find here.

03:27Making crowns requires experience and attention to detail.

03:30The craftsmen who still master this art are usually of an advanced age.

03:35Could Kalada offer the craft a future?

03:39I love small boys or small girls doing their mother's job or their father's job.

03:44The job is not an easy job.

03:49Back at his workshop, Kalada is preparing to make a new crown.

03:54First, he has to cut the patterns from burlap.

03:56Each part is glued with fabric and left to dry in the sun for three to four hours.

04:01Other crowns get their shape by using a capformer.

04:05Making crowns requires patience and commitment.

04:09I've been on this work for over 25 years now.

04:14And we work with a lot of kings.

04:17Even through my dad, when my dad was even alive.

04:20And presently there are some kings that I'm still working with.

04:23One of the kings to rely on Kalada's designs is Obamayoa Adesiyan.

04:28What is the significance of a skilled crownmaker for a king?

04:32Those people making adi, I mean the beaded crown,

04:35that are inheriting the thing,

04:37they know much more than those who are learning about it.

04:42Because when you are with the art of making beaded crowns,

04:48you must know how to do it.

04:50Each crown is studded with colourful beads.

04:53Each colour stands for a different Yoruba god.

04:56As the king is protected by all the gods,

04:59the colours symbolise his divinity.

05:02Made entirely by hand, a piece takes weeks or even months to make,

05:07depending on the type and style.

05:10The crown is made by hand.

05:13The crown is made by hand.

05:16The crown is made by hand.

05:19With passion and patience, Kalada creates symbolic crowns

05:23and ensures the preservation of a truly royal craft.

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