I honestly didn't know how to title this post. It's about something that has baffled me for a long while now and so I decided to put this post up and see if I could get some answers/clarification (or whatever).
Many people these days like the look of 'African Wax Print' and would love to have their clothes made with such material. Even shoes, slippers, bags and other accessories these days have a touch of these wax prints.
Before I go on, I am a big fan of such fashion as well but I also do patronise non-African attire. It's just personal preference. Some people like to go along with anything as long as it suits fine.
So as I was saying, it's suddenly become a big thing in Ghana, my homeland. But I have a concern. Most of the Ghanaian designers who use these wax prints, always advertise with phrases like "made from African print", "...proudly African..." etc. and yet (correct me if I'm wrong) most, if not all, the fabric used is cheap Dutch wax prints.
In Ghana we have two major factories producing our locally made wax prints - Tex Styles (formerly GTP) and Akosombo Textiles Limited (ATL). Whatever happened to people patronising our own wax prints? Is it because they're more expensive? That is the only excuse I would buy; otherwise it makes no sense to me why we preach 'proudly African' while donning European wax prints.
I don't mind buying any wax print from whatever country. My only problem is with those who claim their stuff are made from African print and are using Dutch wax prints instead. I think that's deceit of self and of public.
It's possible these people are not aware...or maybe they are and are just having a good time selling us stuff which are not what they say they are; and we're also buying and supporting falsehood blindly.
It's in our best interest to patronise our home made goods in general so that our value as a nation will rise gradually.
It's not just the wax prints that's a problem. There's also the amazing issue of the current 'fufu flour' craze in the food industry.
I've heard of (never tried) imported fufu flour from Europe -I don't know where exactly- which tastes really awesome.
Why are we depriving our own friends and relatives here (who are farmers) of their livelihood and feeding mouths that already have more than enough? It's quite sad what we do, isn't it? I want to believe we're unaware but sometimes we must stop for a minute and think; ask ourselves a few questions and try to find the right answers.
I don't think I can go on any further. If you have thoughts on this, please share. I may have some wrong info or something. These are just my own and sharing yours might help me understand better.
Cheers!
People buy fufu flour so they wont have to pound cassava and/or yam. So it doesn't fit into the initial argument. They don't eat fufu made from fufu flour to "seem" more Ghanaian.
ReplyDeleteAgain we operate in a global market, our friends and relatives have to up their game if they want to out compete against their competition.
Fahiz, about the fufu flour, i believe they food stuff used is not as imperial as our own locally grown food and that is where my argument lies. If we can produce food which we already know is better, why patronise the inferior just because other things have been added to make it 'seemingly' tastier and not healthier?
ReplyDeleteWell, the final articles are made in Africa. There's a bit of "African" in them. It makes business sense reducing cost.
ReplyDeleteThe problem will be if they claimed the "African Print" was made in Africa. Personally, I feel the local producers should brand themselves as pretentiously as they can afford. There's quality they produce that they can sell to those willing to pay for more authentic prints.
I don't think all "Swiss chocolate" is made in Switzerland. But those who have good tastes know where to look.
Thanks Jesse. That makes sense.
DeleteThe branding is generally the tricky thing here. I read somewhere that some of these fabrics are made in China. Here it's still a play on minds by we ourselves since we the buyers look out for the cheap produce, the foreign sellers on the other hand are aware of our shallow-mindedness and use this to their advantage. I've seen Burberry use the Ghana-must-go sack print pattern to produce real expensive produce.. So chale it's basically us, the problem that is..
ReplyDeleteHmmm...true. Thanks for your input.
DeleteI've not really given much thought to this particular topic but reading it now brings a whole bunch of other stuff to mind. For example some the shoes we buy from the market, that have really weird Italian names are actually Ghanaian-made products. But of course no one would buy them if they're not foreign. So basically it's really all about us.
ReplyDeleteThanks Dela. I guess we have work to do as a people.
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