About This Item


  • Call NumberBHAP_0002
  • SummaryBPL Ambassador Saratu Mshelia teaches how to hand sew a Buba Blouse, a traditional Yoruba blouse of Southwestern Nigeria, and talks about starting a fashion business based on Nigerian textiles.
  • Date2022
  • Physical Description1 moving image file (25 min.) : digital, MP4, color
  • CreatorMshelia, Saratu
  • CollectionBrooklyn Heritage Ambassadors Project collection
  • Cite AsBrooklyn Public Library
  • Formatmoving image
  • Genredemonstrations (presentation events)presentations (communicative events)
  • NoteThis tutorial was filmed and edited by Saratu Mshelia in New York. The first public showing of the documentary was on December 20, 2022, hosted virtually by Brooklyn Public Library on BPL Facebook. Brooklyn Public Library’s Folk Arts program is supported by funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.
  • SubjectSewing ; Clothing and dress--Social aspects ; Africa--Social life and customs ; Nigeria ; Yoruba (African people)--Clothing
  • PlaceBrooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
  • RightsThis work is covered by a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Users are free to share and adapt the work for non-commercial purposes as long as appropriate credit is given to the source and new material created with this work is shared under the same conditions.
  • TitleBuba Blouse: Nigerian Hand Sewing and Stories.
  • Biographical NoteSaratu Mshelia is a folklorist and cultural enthusiast from northeast Nigeria, who has found her passion in the craft of making clothes with African textiles using western designs for a diverse public.