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If you google aso ebi the oyibo equivalent that confronts you is the word uniform.

That
in normal parlance means a single standard, a sameness or exactness
that identifies a group or a set of rules with uni implying one measure
or set of the same form.

In
Mao’s China where the ideology aimed to establish a utopian ideal of a
classless society the drab blue or black of the “Mao suit” was supposed
to be

the living embodiment of everyone being the same, no haves and have nots in the peoples army.

South
Africa’s militant labour unions often wear identifying uniforms as they
toyi toyi in protest, singing as they perform that acrobatic step of
throwing their feet in the air. Any visitor could be excused for
thinking this is a major boogie down party rather than a belligerent up
yours to the owners of industry.

For
Thailand’s red shirts there is no party going on, it is a serious
matter of political protest to peacefully topple the government in
power.” Fight and be tired for a few more days. This is better than
being tired for the rest of your lives due to injustice” ousted prime
minister Thaksin Shinawatra told his supporters in April in the third
week of their mass rallies.

These
are none of the sentiments with which we associate aso ebi. Yes town
unions and ethnic groups in the home-away-from-home Diaspora will make
uniforms to identify their members as they meet weekly or monthly out
in the wide metropolitan denizens of Lagos or Kano to commune together
and maintain their links with their roots. In this sense tying the same
cloth worn in the same style, dissolves those divisions created by
income disparity.

Who
can forget President Goodluck Jonathan decked in resplendent Igbo
attire in a photo op uniform threesome welcoming Theodore Orji from his
political odyssey by way of the PPA, APGA and hopefully finally into
the PDP?

Textile mills all over the continent have been busy for decades rolling
out bales of cloth emblazoned with the faces of Kwame Nkrumah, Mobutu
Sese Seko, Robert Mugabe, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Jomo Kenyatta, Milton Obote,
to name a few. When we identify we go the whole hog, warts and all.
Supporters of convicted Bode George pulled no punches about showing
their colour at his trial and turned up to be identified.

Only
when it comes to sports like soccer do we share our allegiance and
accommodate different personalities and teams in one body.

But
that is aso ebi (family cloth) in the narrow definition, in the much
wider sense with which it now identifies every celebration or
announcement or launching, the purpose seems less about blending in
than about standing out. Nothing wrong with that per se, it is just
that the peculiarly Nigerian tension between being the same and yet
standing out as eminently capable of affording more, since that is how
we ‘measure’ a persons status, produces some interesting ironies.

A
man wants to attend the wedding of a lifelong friend. Before he invites
a female associate to accompany him he has to factor in how much the
aso ebi is going to set him back, what different and unexpected
categories of it might he be expected to put out for: jewelry, shoes,
handbag or all inclusive? The levels can be dizzying and impoverishing.

My life for your party?

The
organisation and security aspects of the celebrations of the well
heeled have taken on different dimensions in today’s Nigeria. There is
fear of kidnapping which has significantly altered the freedom of
movement of those whose means should have opened up new possibilities
for them. And those smartly turned out ushers at the entrance to a big
do are there to keep an eye out for the ‘uninvited’ who think that
wearing a version of the aso ebi will give them the opportunity to
drink and eat well for a day.

A friend described to me an encounter at a reception some ten years ago in Lagos.

Being
the host he had intended to save some bones for his guard dogs and
returning after seeing a guest off saw his driver and reminded him to
fill the bowl for the dogs. People who had been pressed against the
fence watching the festivities heard this and were incensed. Here they
were hanging around to see if any leftovers would come their way and
this man was saving food for a dog!

Levels; yes indeed, but it does seem that for a long time to come
the message for any young person starting out in this tough world might
be buy a sewing machine. In the immortal words of the late great Fela:
uniform na cloth, na tailor dey sew am.