African Print

A Ghanaian fabric company has launched a new line of designs inspired by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The new fabrics have symbols like padlocks, keys and planes to reflect some of the measures implemented to curb the spread of coronavirus. 

Another design shows a symbol of plane. It indicates that during the lockdown one of the measure that Africa took was to close the borders, so no flights.

But oddly enough, African textiles are not African. 

Ghana Textiles Printing, despite its name, is owned by Dutch company Vlisco.

The bold colours and evocative patterns, which are sold in the open air markets of countries like Ghana, Ivory Coast, Republic of Bénin, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Sénégal, are made by the Dutch luxury textile company. 

The Dutch company has been producing and selling the patterned textiles since 1846, when its founder, the Dutch entrepreneur Pieter Fentener van Vlissingen, discovered that he could mechanize the wax-printing method used to make batiks worn in the West Indies (today it is Indonesia). 

Therefore, African print Vlisco is a misnomer since the motif is based in non-African design and was introduced to Africa by the Dutch.

So if you want to but fabrics that are Made in Africa as well as owned by Africans, you will find out that there are not many options. 

Some people will argue that even if they are not owned by Africans, the fabric companies at least still create jobs. But Vlisco's factories are located in Helmond, the Netherlands. This means that Vlisco provides a lot of jobs in the Netherlands based factory, but not in West Africa. 

Woodin and Uniwax fabrics are produced in Ghana and Ivory Coast. Indeed, they provide local jobs, but they are not AFRICAN owned. 

The fabric has gained an African identity and African fashion designers have contributed to emphasize the visual power of this material, but it is not African.

The fabric also became a means for people of African descent to express pride. Wearing an 'African Print' can be a way to show that one is proud of ones African descent and cultural heritage.

But still Vlisco and Woodin are not African. Wax prints originally were created in Indonesia and the Netherlands.

African wax print has been internalized into the lives of West African people, but it originated in Indonesia and the Netherlands.

Indeed, the wax fabric strongly connects Africa and Europe, but sometimes in a positive way, and sometimes in a negative way. 

It definitely shows how great the power imbalance between Africa and Europe is, and it shows the socio-economic inequality between Africans and Europeans. 

All countries in Africa are dealing with the same poisonous legacy: high levels of inequality, a history of colonial expropriation, failed economic policies often imposed by the IMF and the World Bank. 

But I still believe that African governments can choose a path of more equitable growth. 

The root causes may include restricted access to land, capital and markets, inequitable tax systems, rampant corruption, unfavourable global markets, gender inequalities...

Indeed, there is no one solution to address the complex, multidimensional factors that influence inequality, but multiple responses are required.