In 2015, surfaced the first signs out of the African continent that the governments are starting to make and implement the necessary policies in order to safeguard not only the livelihoods of local textile practitioners, but also the preservation of local designs and aesthetics alongside the weaving skills.
While there has been numerous African scholarly attention on own decline of the local textile industry, it has taken over 20 years to arrive at a point where local governments are active in the sector.
Each of the 54 countries in Africa, can boast of a rich ancient tradition of cloth making, dating far back in the BC’s. Some textile designs have risen more in popularity than others, and some has been more researched and documented then others.
In 2019, the Rwanda president took a brave and bold step in halting second-hand clothing shipping containers that were arriving from America and Europe. These second-hand clothing (and cheap Chinese knock-off prints) were decimating the remaining textile practitioners chances of making some type of livelihood for them and their families.
These imports do not just affect one of people, but many segments and supporting Textile industry practitioners as illustrated in the graph.
With the Rwandan government interventions they were able to start the arduous task of rebuilding a prosperous industry, manufacturing industry in the Pearl of Africa.
In 2022, the Kenyan government started taking steps to protect the local textile industry from second-hand clothing imports and cheap Chinese faux prints fabrics.
Along side these policies, concerted efforts are being made by locally run NGO’s to reintroduce weaving and other textile making skills back into the workforce.
Ghana in 2021 mandated that the school uniforms should have traditional Ghanaian designs. This policy does not only imparts identity back into the populous, but it also help boost the local manufacturing mills that will now be producing and selling throughout the country, regaining portions of the local market segments.
With the new governing system in Burkina Faso, the government, as one of their first policies, also made the school uniforms to be changed into local traditional designs. These policy changes strongly boost the Burkinabe identity and increase jobs locally.
The textile industry in Burkina Faso has long been suffering, but was able to still continue to exist with small export opportunities in Central Africa.
Ethiopia has long maintained its textile industry despite other African countries struggles. The famous white cotton woven fabric with beautiful colourful surface needle work has been exported worldwide as Ethiopians promote their cultures worldwide.
Ethiopians themselves are large consumers of their own cloth in so sharing in the continuity of textile practitioners livelihood and its technical making skills.
In Nigeria, the Yoruba, Ibos, Hausa and other groups, still largely wear their traditional textiles not only for special occasions, but also as part of daily life.
During my visit in 2022 to Port Harcourt in Nigeria, the fridays were used to allow hotel staff to wear traditional attire. The hotel itself had beautiful local textile artworks throughout, evidencing how the Nigerian people actively find ways to incorporate their traditional identity into a contemporary setting.
Unlike the western concepts of museaums in America and Europe, African traditions are lived, are very much alive and touches peoples life on a daily basis. Traditions interact with it’s people, allowing it to be part of the peoples consciousness.
