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Paper short abstract:

The paper examines the momentum rupturing in the collective sense of dressing and appearance culture among the Yorubas through a ethnographic juxtaposition of certain African Proverbs vis-a-vis the notions of what is apt appearance from selected individuals in the public space.

Paper long abstract:

Of Omoluabi Aesthetic Discourse of Certain African Proverbs on Dressing and their Significance in Yoruba

Cultural Space

This paper argues that there is a way the art/act of dressing in the Yoruba sensibility informs certain values of the individual dressed on the consciousness of the public that it prompts reactions of approval and or disapproval. The reaction, either ways, is often predicated on the collective sense of apt appearance at both public and private space as located in certain African proverbs. Thus, to distill its literary and metaphoric significance, it explores the cultural system through the examination of certain African proverbs on dressing/appearance as ethnographic sites of collective understanding. It however attempts to answer certain questions that; at the advent of certain development in dressing/appearance culture as informed by modernization, how should we regard dressing/appearance around gender line? What is the motivation for dressing and arbitrary appearance among youth populace? Going by the imports of modernity and the seeming relegation of cultural codes of appearance, how can dressing/appearance be codified along social status? Through the adoption of ethnographic method of data collection and Omoluabi Aesthetic Perspective, the paper concludes that dressing/appearance culture will continue to reflect the dominant force of power as global influence continues to transcend boarders and change individual taste.

Keywords: Omoluabi Aesthetic, African Proverbs, Dressing/Appearance