IPETU-IJESA AND THE EXTINCTION OF MAT MAKING!

IPETU-IJESA AND THE EXTINCTION OF MAT MAKING!

Ipetu-Ijesa is in Oriade Local Government Area, Osun State. The women in Ipetu-Ijesa were predominantly Mat weavers and they were renowned for it, while the Men were Farmers. There was hardly a household in the town where mats were not woven. Ipetu-Ijesa was then the largest producer of mats all over the mat-reed growing regions of Yorubaland. The women of Ipetu-Ijesa were the trendsetters of their own type of mats which was called “Eni Ipetu” before the craft was copied from elsewhere.

The people from Ikeji Ile, Ogotun, Ile-Oluji and Ipoti-Ekiti that were also known with mat weaving copied the craft from Ipetu-Ijesa. The raw materials for mat weaving are sourced locally; the mats were made from a local long grass, called “Eni” in the local dialect. The mat makers were predominantly the aged (about 60-90 years old). Mat making processes was reportedly very tedious, it causes fatigue; on the average, the fastest mat maker may be unable to make more than three big coloured mats in 2 weeks.

The equipments required for mat making includes a cutlass, a knife, pots for dyeing sliced mat stalks (alufa), a small plank of wood of about 5cm thick and 20cm long, and a small mat (ateere), upon which the weaver sits. All these are locally fabricated and, therefore, readily available.
No formal training is needed for mat making. A young girl can learn by sitting down by her mother and watch her work. Soon, the girl is allowed to try her hand at weaving, and she soon perfects her skill.

The procedure for making mats can be broken down into four steps:
• On-farm activities
• Smothering and Drying
• Dyeing
• Weaving.
The On-farm activities involve:
• Growing the mat stalk,
• Weeding the farm,
• Harvesting the mat stalk. A mat stalk takes an average of 3-5 years to mature.
• Final harvesting of the matured mat stalk is done by hand.

Harvesting and transporting a bundle of mat stalks to the homestead takes a full day. The smothering and drying stage commences the second day, with slicing of mat stalks. A sickle-like knife is used to slice the content (pulp) out of the mat stalk. After sun-drying for 2 or 3 days, the sliced stalks are dyed or left plain.

Ipetu-Ijesa people later created a Mat Weaving Industry (Local Industry). It was the site where mat weaving was their craftsmanship. It gave people the opportunity to learn how mat is weaved. When there was large production of mats, a local market for mats selling was organized. Buyers come from far and near, big cities like Ilorin, Osogbo, Benin, Ede, Akure, Ilesa and from the Northern part of this country to buy the mats.

The mat weaving art boosted the economy of Ipetu-Ijesa, which makes it one of the cosmopolitan towns in Ijesaland; this is the reason natives of Ipetu-Ijesa refers to themselves as: “Omo Ipetu Eleni Ewele”, meaning “Son of Ipetu the Weavera of Fanciful Mats.”

It saddens my heart that the craft is not practiced anymore in Ipetu-Ijesa and in all the towns that came copied it. From my assumption, Mat Makers dwindled in Ipetu-Ijesa and its environs because the aged mat makers were not readily replaced by the younger ones. Moreso, it extinct because the making process causes fatigue and there was no introduction of modern implements or method of mat making.

Methinks if the making of mats was well developed, the mats woven would today be bought by Industries, where the mats would be made into fashion bags, dining-tables mats, conference bags, purses, shoes, e.t.c. Many of the products would be exhibited at national and international trade fairs which will earn Nigeria a substantial amount of foreign exchange.




Yours truly,
Oluwatomilola K. Boyinde,
Ijesaland Renaissance Initiative.