Adapting the Jukun Traditional Symbols for Textile Design and Production

Abstract

The uniqueness of Africa is not because of its geographical location, but because of its diverse rich cultural heritage, symbolic operation and adages that surround the entire spectrum of human learning, reasoning, and communication. This research work on adaptation of the Jukun cultural symbols for textile design gives a brief introduction of the Jukun people, which are called the “karorofawas” with their rich cultural symbols. Its importance to the Jukun societies and how through symbolization, the Jukun people have communicated their ideas, fears, anxieties, moods, sensations, feelings and intuitions. All of these experiences, of course, are subjective or emotional, yet are capable of being graphically represented in line, shape, color, texture, and form. It asserts that, since people easily and readily relate with what they are familiar with, the need for adapting the Jukun cultural symbols and its intrinsic values to the Jukun communities and the world at large cannot be over emphasis. The artistic process of the cultural symbols adaptation for textile design shall also be handled.