Laboring Experiences In-Between “Traditional” and “Modern”: A Comparative Study of the Production and Fashioning of Guinea Brocade in China and Nigeria

Paper Abstract: Guinea Brocade (bazin, Shadda) is a kind of raised floral or figured woven fabrics widely used for male attire in West Africa. Recently, it has also become a key material for the reviving hand-(resist)dyeing industry in Abeokuta, Southwest Nigeria. One of its main production sites is the rural jurisdictions of Zhuji city in East China. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Zhuji and Abeokuta in 2022 and 2023, this paper explores the laboring experiences in both locations that defy the conventional dichotomies of "traditional" versus "modern". In rural Zhuji, villagers, whose mobility to cities was limited, acquired industrial jacquard looms from liquidated collective enterprises to produce brocade at home. In Abeokuta, artisans collaborated with intellectuals to refashion indigo-resist-dyed àdìrẹ as alternative modernity. While both exhibit features of traditional economies, they adapt to, negotiate with, and appropriate elements of the prevalent version of modern economy rather than resisting or falling victim to it. Furthermore, responding to the collective actions of West African dyers, the Chinese producers eventually ceased to use dyeing machines to replicate resist-dyeing. However, a simplified printed imitation persisted, contributing to mass consumption, even in Abeokuta’s iconic àdìrẹ mall. This paper suggests that while the comparative methodologies have often been used to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of emerging economies in supplying the Western-dominated global market, they can also be effectively deployed to better understand the shared yet historically and spatially contingent experiences of African and Asian laborers within the global system, which provide conditions for the multilayered trans-local interactions.