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AFRICAN FASHION HOW "AFRICAN" IS ANKARA SEHF?!
from AFRICAN WHISTLE
This may come as a surprise to most Africans, but the origin of Ankara isn’t wholly African. Africans adopted this clothe into their culture, but the fabric did not originate from Africa.
African Ankara fabric is also known by many names suach as Dutch wax print, Real English wax, Veritable Java Print and many more. This fabric has become the epitome of our ‘Africanness’ but it has a diverse and complex history
The issue of the popularity of the fabric in Africa is debated. What is certain is that the fabric started off as an imitation of the Indonesian batik locally produced in Java. Through colonization by the Europeans and Dutch, the Fabric spread through several continents
After being colonized by the Dutch, the Javanese Batik was introduced to Holland and other parts of Europe but it did not gain popularity
This triggered textile industrialization as the Van Vlissingers established a company in 1894, which mass produced these fabrics in Europe. The company is known today as Vlisco brand
Until the 1960s, under colonisation, most of the wax materials in Africa were made in Europe, but with independence, things changed.
Ghana had several high print wax manufacturing companies, including Woodin - a subsidiary of Holland’s Vlisco and ATL, a subsidiary of Manchester-based ABC textiles.
One thing is for sure. If we don’t promote our own fabrics we will spend tons of foreign exchange importing them, and that won't be good for the African economy.
