Advertisement

The challenge is how to make the look of it more formal than it looks now. I don’t know the history of the ‘agbada’ but I am sure it jumped out of the fertile imagination of one Nigerian designer.
The challenge is how to make the look of it more formal than it looks now. I don’t know the history of the ‘agbada’ but I am sure it jumped out of the fertile imagination of one Nigerian designer.

The only mistake God made

Almost every Head of State of Ghana in the fourth Republic can be credited with a desire to infuse a certain spirit of Ghanaianisation. We remember Jerry John Rawlings and the big fugu.

Agyekum Kufuor raised the consciousness level several decibels higher with the formalisation of African wear. Many criticise him for stopping at Friday wear and not daily. I believe it was a great start. Dramani Mahama continued and you could sense that if he were master of his own choices, he would have worn African all day all week.

What makes Akufo Addo’s “Live Ghana” domestication drive significant is that in his previous incarnation – as a lawyer and in public office as a Minister of Justice and Minister of Foreign Affairs – his clothing choice betrayed his natural bent: western – in the footsteps of a father who, as a lawyer and (ceremonial) President of Ghana in the second Republic, he topped off his three-piece suit with a hankie in the breast pocket of his coat!

Mahama will also be remembered for the advocacy he mounted – albeit unsustained – on behalf of Ghana-made footwear, going as far as asking the TV cameras to do an extreme close-up on his feet to reveal the shoes he had on as he stood in Parliament to deliver the State of the Nation Address.

He, however, lost my admiration when he allowed Parliament to import chairs from China and Italy! It rather betrayed the short-sightedness and quality of the country’s leadership. Leaders, especially leaders of a nation should be noted for long-term planning. Knowing that our local furniture manufacturers lacked the full capacity for mass production, what an African leader should have done was to give them long-term notice.

At the time Kwame Nkrumah determined that Ghana needed a teaching hospital, he was advised that there was no Ghanaian with the capacity to head it. Feeling insulted, Nkrumah (I am told) summoned the country’s foremost medical practitioner and empowered him not only to set up a medical school but to also head it. I am told that there was much trembling arising out of a feeling of inadequacy, but the Osagyefo insisted that if a white man could do it, an African could! The rest is history.

Back to my point about Presidents and African wear, I must confess I have nothing but admiration for Akufo Addo. On his recent trip to Cote d’Ivoire, he appeared in suit for the official ceremony with his opposite number but he quickly reverted to the African wear in all other meetings, especially when he met the Ghanaian community. He is making a statement.

I am not against the suit. As I have had occasion to point out, even Kwame Nkrumah occasionally appeared in suit. The great Ephraim Amu found it necessary to be in suit when he was travelling to Europe in winter. And there were no two greater Africanist than these two.

African wear needs advocates and champions. I can imagine Kwabena Yeboah, President of  the Sports Writers Association of Ghana (SWAG) appearing in African wear to present his popular ‘Sports Highlights’ on GTV. He is such an influence! I can never forget that night, three or four years ago when he first appeared in that ash/cream three-piece suit of his. So cute the young men around me could not help noticing and applauding it. I wished it was an African wear. Same can be said of Michael Oti Adjei and the news readers on TV3, with Issah Monnie leading the pack.

The challenge is how to make the look of it more formal than it looks now. I don’t know the history of the ‘agbada’ but I am sure it jumped out of the fertile imagination of one Nigerian designer. Ghana has no shortage of great designers! To popularise their creations, I propose “One District One Catwalk’.

Same level of advocacy is needed to popularise domestic tourism. Can anybody imagine the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, Togbe Afede IX, Nana Nketsia and the Okyehene, – all from the south spending a weekend in the north visiting the Mole National Park and moving on from there to visit the Paga Crocodile Pond. As they do that circuit, the Navro-Pio, the Wa Na etc should also be doing tours into the south.

When it comes to clothing, you cannot fault our women. Their kaba-and-slit is on point. But what has happened to their God-endowed African natural hair? Did God make a mistake by giving our women the kinky hair on their heads? Can anyone imagine how much foreign exchange we shall conserve not importing Peruvian or Brazilian hair!!!

 

 

Connect With Us : 0242202447 | 0551484843 | 0266361755 | 059 199 7513 |