strange woven tapestry with made holes

All right, now you have made me actually break out the old fashioned books (of which I have too many). According to Nigerian Weaving, by Venice Lamb and Judy Holmes (Roxford, 1980):
"Holes, known as aso eleya, or oniho, ... are usually made by gathering together groups of warp threads and weaving them together with separate wefts. The short wefts involved in this method can either be cut off when the holes in any one row are completed, or they can be left hanging to be carried over for the next row of holes. The carry-over method shows only on one side, and is called in Yoruba onjawa."
It is a technique used most frequently by Yoruba weavers. Billy's cloth is probably a woman's wrapper (a wrap around skirt). The side with the carry-over floats would be worn to the outside.
The embroidery-like designs are created with supplementary wefts during the weaving process, and often referred to as brocade.
Both techniques are documented in textiles collected in Nigeria as early as the 1840s, and continue to be produced. (Although there is a more modern, less labor intensive method of producing the eleya that involves using a punch or comb to force open holes between the warp and weft.)
None of the sources I consulted mention any function or meaning other than decorative effect, which does not exclude the possibility that there was once some other reason.
Nigerian Handcrafted Textiles. Joanne Bubolz Eicher. University of Ife Press, 1976.
West African Cloth. Kate P. Kent. Denver Museum of Natural History, 1971.
West African Narrow Strip Weaving. Venice & Alistair Lamb. The Textile Museum, 1975.

 

Nice BOOK.

 

Thank you, @2manybooks -- That is very informative.

 

Excellent research!

 

Thank you all. Sometimes books are useful, even if a dying art.

 

My world textiles book is what made me ask about the strips and then place it in Nigeria.

 

Interesting post! Thanks!
Leslie

 

Having fun digging up old threads , are we ??