Dankwali

By Khadija Dikko

Project Overview

The head tie, popularly known as dankwali in Northern Nigeria, is a square or rectangular piece of fabric used by women to wrap their heads in various styles — each with its own name and meaning. While head wrapping appears across many African cultures, dankwali holds a particularly layered cultural, social, and visual significance in Northern Nigerian women’s lives.

This Open Arts Fund project documents those styles, textiles, and meanings through research, photography, and a published zine — treating dauri, the act of tying the scarf, as a daily ritual that quietly sustains lineage, memory, and identity.

Ture Ka Ga Tsiya

One focus of the work is Ture ka ga tsiya — a bold dankwali style historically read as disruptive or rebellious, and later recontextualised through figures such as Maryam Babangida as a mark of class, power, and presence. The project traces how film, fashion, and public life shape the meanings attached to how women wrap their heads.

Why It Matters

• Documents living textile practices often treated as ordinary or overlooked.
• Traces how style carries social, political, and religious meaning.
• Connects archival imagery, film, and contemporary practice.
• Preserves knowledge for future research as styles and contexts continue to shift.