A'nger (Tiv striped cloth)
Black-and-white striped handwoven cotton cloth, the primary ethnic-material identifier of the Tiv; worn at burials, coronations and rites of passage.
A'nger is the handwoven black-and-white striped cotton cloth that functions as the primary ethnic-material identifier of the Tiv people. It is produced by male weavers on horizontal strip looms and worn at rites of passage, burials and coronations.
The stark two-colour stripe pattern is immediately recognisable as a Tiv marker; its bold parallel rhythm is formally related to the line-work of Tiv scarification, two systems operating on a shared visual logic of parallel contrast. A'nger is the most reliably authenticated and widely surviving category of Tiv material culture — more so than figurative carving — and is the correct anchor for any Tiv collection entry (Bohannan 1956).