Category: Textile Industry

Here is what is at stake: $4 billion.

That is the estimated retail value of Sub-Saharan Africa's wax print market. Billions spent every year on fabric worn by millions of Africans. Fabric that, for nearly two centuries, has been manufactured in Europe—not on the continent where it is sold and worn.

Vlisco has been selling to Africa since 1846. Almost 180 years. Their profits come almost exclusively from African consumers. The company's former British owner, Actis, had no connection to the continent except through the money Africans spent on their products.

In 2020, a $190 million financing facility was secured from Afreximbank to acquire Vlisco. The total bid was approximately $200 million. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) publicly supported the bid. Its Secretary General, Wamkele Mene, stated: "We cannot express a value judgement as to the reasons for the bid of Made in Africa – which was the higher bid – being rejected. We do however firmly believe that where an African company puts forward a formidable bid for a foreign company that appears to profit exclusively from sales to Africa, supported by a leading African trade finance bank, the African company has a reasonable expectation to successfully conclude the transaction in favour of Africa" .

The bid was rejected. The higher bid. Rejected.

In 2023, Vlisco was sold to Parcom, a Dutch private equity firm.

Why does this matter for Africa's economic future?

Because the same pattern repeats across the continent. Africa produces cotton. Africa exports raw materials. Africa imports finished goods. Today, 90 percent of Africa's cotton is exported raw. The continent imports over $23 billion in textiles, apparel, and footwear annually .

Think about that. We grow the cotton. We send it away. We buy back the clothes. We lose the jobs, the factories, the skills, the wealth.

The textile industry could be Africa's path to create more industries. It employs thousands. It creates value at every stage: ginning, spinning, weaving, dyeing, cutting, sewing, retail. The International Trade Centre estimates that if African countries fully developed their textile value chains, the continent could export €5.8 billion in cotton garments by 2026—and nearly 15% of that could be destined for African markets alone. Two-thirds of intra-regional export potential is still untapped. The industry could generate 5.8 million jobs across the continent .

Therefore we need to own the companies that serve our markets. Look at how Dangote Refinery is servicing the African market in times of oil scarcity around the world. Despite facing technical and political challenges—including difficulty securing local crude and competition from dumped foreign fuel—the 650,000 barrel-per-day refinery now produces some 550,000 barrels of refined products daily. Nigeria's fuel imports fell from 500,000 barrels per day in early 2023 to 88,000 barrels per day in early 2025 . That is what African ownership can do.

The Vlisco bid was not just about one company. It was about a vision.

The AfCFTA's objective is to accelerate industrialization in Africa, consolidate an integrated market of 1.3 billion people with a combined GDP of $3.4 trillion, and place Africa on a path to global competitiveness . At the heart of that vision is the textiles and clothing sector.

When a company that profits exclusively from Africa rejects African ownership—despite a higher bid, despite Afreximbank backing, despite AfCFTA support—that is not just a business decision. It is a statement.

And the statement is: we want your money, but not you.

The question is not whether we have the resources. We do. The question is whether we will keep playing a game where the rules are written against us—and where our own capital is rejected.

The AfCFTA cannot compel a private sale. But it can shape policy. It can reduce non-tariff barriers that cost the continent an estimated $20 billion in annual GDP growth . It can help build regional value chains that keep cotton in Africa and turn it into cloth, garments, and wealth.

Will African governments act? Will they prioritize local textile production? Will they create the conditions where African capital can buy African markets?

Some African nations are making the moves for our futures:

Mali is building its textile industry. The government, through the state-owned Compagnie malienne pour le développement des textiles (CMDT), is targeting over 650,000 tonnes of seed cotton for the 2026–2027 season—a more than 50% increase from current estimates. The West African Development Bank has committed significant resources to support Mali's cotton sector and local processing . This is not foreign-owned. This is Mali building for Mali.

Benin stopped exporting raw cotton. The country banned raw cotton exports to force local value addition. Through the Glo-Djigbé Industrial Zone (GDIZ), Benin is now manufacturing its own apparel—creating jobs, building skills, keeping wealth. The managing director of GDIZ stated: "We have decided that in this country, we are no longer going to sell this cotton raw. We are going to transform this cotton, in particular by installing integrated textile factories" . Benin is not waiting. Benin is doing.

Ethiopia is not waiting either. The country has 13 industrial parks with more than 177 manufacturing sheds, supporting over 100,000 jobs. New investments keep coming: a $200 million agreement with UK-based Intrade Co., a Chinese textile manufacturer setting up in Dire Dawa Industrial Park, an Italian textile giant exporting from Kombolcha Industrial Park . Kenya just opened the Vipingo Special Economic Zone—a $3 billion textiles and apparel hub with $800 million in financing from KCB Group and Afreximbank. Botswana launched "Made in BW" to revive local production. Ghana's garment sector is targeting $2 billion and 150,000 jobs by 2033.

The continent is moving.

Vlisco still sells to us. Wax prints still dominate. The profits still leave.

How do we move Africans to buy differently?

Not out of charity. Out of strategy. Out of self-interest.

Right now, 90% of Africa's cotton is exported raw. The continent imports over $23 billion in textiles, apparel, and footwear annually. We grow it. We send it away. We buy it back. We lose the jobs, the factories, the skills, the wealth.

If Africa fully developed its textile and apparel industry, processing cotton locally instead of exporting it raw, the sector could generate up to 5.8 million jobs. But only if we process the cotton here. Only if we manufacture the fabric here. Only if we buy from each other .

The Vlisco bid was not just about one company. It was about a vision.

The vision that African capital can own African markets. That African cotton can become African cloth. That African consumers can choose African manufacturers.

The bid failed. But the vision cannot.

Africa's textile industry is at a crossroads. We can continue to export raw cotton and import finished clothes. We can continue to let European and Asian companies profit from our markets while we collect the crumbs.

Or we can build.

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References

1. African Law & Business. "Vlisco rejects USD 200 million acquisition offer." August 2021. Available at: https://www.africanlawbusiness.com/news/16948-vlisco-rejects-usd-200-million-acquisition-offer/
2. African News Agency. "Economie : la Zlecaf soutient Made in Africa pour le rachat de Vlisco." July 2021. Available at: https://africannewsagency.com/economie-la-zlecaf-soutient-made-in-africa-pour-le-rachat-de-vlisco/
3. University of Electronic Science and Technology of China West African Research Center. "Cotton exporter Benin developing home-grown textile industry." February 2025. Available at: https://cwas.uestc.edu.cn/info/1042/3464.htm
4. International Trade Centre (ITC). "How to invest in a viable textile and cotton value chain in Africa." April 2025. Available at: https://www.intracen.org/news-and-events/news/how-to-invest-in-a-viable-textile-and-cotton-value-chain-in-africa
5. S&P Global Commodity Insights. "Technical, political challenges thwarting African refining: Dangote." July 2025. Available at: https://www.spglobal.com/commodity-insights/en/news-research/latest-news/refined-products/072225-technical-political-challenges-thwarting-african-refining-dangote
6. African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET). "Reducing Non-Tariff Barriers to AfCFTA Implementation in the Cotton, Textiles, and Apparel Industry." August 2025. Available at: https://acetforafrica.org/research-and-analysis/reports-studies/reports/reducing-non-tariff-barriers-to-afcfta-implementation-in-the-cotton-textiles-and-apparel-industry/
7. Ecofin Agency. "Mali Increases Farm Spending to $289 Million With Focus on Cotton and Food." April 2026. Available at: https://www.ecofinagency.com/news-agriculture/0604-54437-mali-increases-farm-spending-to-289-million-with-focus-on-cotton-and-food
8. Overseas Recruitment Network. "东方工业园招聘信息" [Eastern Industrial Zone Recruitment Information]. 2025. Available at: https://www.hwzpw.com/job/27096.html
9. 24 Heures au Bénin. "Voici pourquoi l'Etat autorise à nouveau l'exportation des produits vivriers." July 2025. Available at: https://24haubenin.info/?Voici-pourquoi-l-Etat-autorise-a-nouveau-l-exportation-des-produits-vivriers

There is a technique hidden in the folds of African textile history. It uses cassava paste—simple, abundant, biodegradable—to create patterns on fabric. The paste resists indigo dye. When the cloth is dipped, the paste protects the areas beneath it. What emerges is pattern. What emerges is mathematics. What emerges is centuries of knowledge encoded in starch and leaf.

The West knows wax. The West industrialised batik. The West also knows cassava resist. European traders collected samples. They studied the patterns. They understood the technique. They chose to ignore it.

This is not ignorance. This is a decision.

What Is Cassava Resist Dyeing?

The technique is called adire eleko among the Yoruba people of southwestern Nigeria. Cassava flour is mixed with water, boiled, and strained into a thick starch paste . The paste is applied to cotton cloth using a feather, a brush, or a stencil cut into a design . Where the paste touches the cloth, dye cannot penetrate. The cloth is then dipped into an indigo vat made from the elu plant (Lonchocarpus cyanescens), which is pounded, shaped into balls, dried, and fermented for anywhere from three weeks to six months . The cloth is dipped repeatedly. Each dip deepens the blue. When the final color is achieved, the starch is scraped off. What remains is a pattern of white or light blue against a deep indigo ground.

The technique is slow. It takes roughly three days to complete one yard, and about two weeks to complete five yards . The starch is applied by hand. The patterns are not random. They encode Yoruba history, mythology, social commentary, and even the sound of beads on dancers' hips—a pattern called Sun Bebe, which means "lifting up the sun" and refers to beads that would move up and down as girls danced before their future husbands .

This is not craft. This is technology. This is chemistry, material science, design logic, and cultural memory all at once.

The Knowledge Keepers

In Ogun State, particularly in Abeokuta, adire eleko is not taught in schools. It is not written in books. It is passed down within specific families. One particular family is known as the master of this art, and it remains so to this day . The technique is taught and learned only within the family.

This is not a limitation. This is protection.

While the patent system requires public disclosure, the Yoruba knowledge system protects through lineage, through trust, through generations of embodied practice. The knowledge does not leave the family because the family is the institution that holds it.

This is why the West ignored cassava resist. It could not be easily extracted. It could not be industrialised without the consent of the families who hold it. The technique survived not because it was documented, but because it was guarded.

The History That Was Never Written

Resist dyeing is not new to Africa. It was not imported. It was not taught by colonizers. The Yoruba people developed adire independently, using cassava starch as their resist agent of choice . The technique was practiced almost exclusively by women, who made, designed, dyed, and sold the cloth . Knowledge was passed from mother to daughter, from grandmother to granddaughter.

The first major production of adire began in the late nineteenth century . By the 1910s and 1920s, it was flourishing. Then came the disruption.

The Hostile Takeover

European traders did not bring resist dyeing to Africa. What they brought was competition—unfair competition. Companies like GB Ollivant Ltd, a Manchester-based firm, collected samples of adire cloth to study . They were not collecting out of admiration. They were collecting to replicate. They wanted to understand the patterns, the aesthetics, the market preferences so they could produce their own versions and sell them back to African consumers .

The same pattern we have seen before. Study the knowledge. Industrialize a different technique. Undermine the local producer. Capture the market.

The West knew about cassava resist. They chose not to develop it. Not because it was inferior. Because developing African knowledge would mean competing with African producers on their own terms. It was easier to industrialize wax, control the supply chain, and capture the market.

By World War II, adire production had dwindled . The colonial economy had done its work. Cheaper, faster, machine-made imitations flooded the market. The women who had spent generations perfecting the technique could not compete.

Wax became the dominant resist agent. Not because it was better. Because it was industrial. Because it was controlled by European manufacturers. Because the system was rigged.

The Environmental Cost

Wax resist dyeing is polluting. The wax must be removed from the fabric after dyeing, often using hot water and chemicals. In Thailand, where similar wax-resist techniques are used to produce batik, the wax residue clogs drainage pipes and contaminates water sources . The textile and dyeing industries release wastewater containing dye remnants and chemical substances into rivers and streams .

Cassava paste does none of this. It is made from cassava flour—a food crop. It is water-soluble. It scrapes off cleanly. It biodegrades. There is no chemical residue. There is no pipe-clogging wax. There is no pollution.

Cassava is also abundant across Africa. Nigeria is one of the world's largest producers of cassava. The raw material is already here. The knowledge is already here. The technique is already here.

So why are we not using it?

What Others Are Doing

While Africa has allowed cassava resist dyeing to remain a footnote, other nations are paying attention.

In Thailand, researchers at Rajamangala University of Technology Phra Nakhon are developing cassava starch as a substitute for fabric dye blockers and natural powder colors . They recognize the environmental damage caused by wax resists. They are looking for alternatives. They are looking at cassava.

Vietnam is also exploring the technique. The global market for sustainable textiles is growing. Consumers are demanding eco-friendly alternatives to polluting industrial processes. Cassava resist dyeing offers exactly that.

Meanwhile, on the African continent, the technique survives in pockets. Practitioners like Gasali Adeyemo, a Yoruba artist based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, travel internationally teaching traditional adire eleko techniques . He learned from his elders. He teaches in America. Not because he wants to leave, but because there is more demand for his knowledge outside Africa than inside it.

This is the irony. The knowledge is African. The technique is African. The material is African. But the innovation, the investment, the market development—these are happening elsewhere.

The Opportunity We Are Missing

Cassava resist dyeing could be a cornerstone of a sustainable, ecologically responsible, distinctly African textile industry. It uses local materials. It produces zero toxic waste. It generates employment for rural women who already know the technique or could be trained in it. It produces cloth that is beautiful, culturally specific, and globally marketable.

But none of this will happen without investment. Without research. Without government support. Without a conscious decision to develop the technique, scale it, and bring it to market.

The revival of adire began in the 1960s, with new patterns and new uses emerging . But revival is not enough. We need transformation.

Other countries are developing cassava-based textile technologies. If Africa does not act, the same pattern will repeat: African knowledge, developed elsewhere, patented elsewhere, sold back to Africa.

What Must Change

First, documentation. The knowledge exists in the hands of elderly practitioners and within families. It must be documented, archived, and made available for future generations—with the consent and benefit of the knowledge holders. Universities and research institutions across Africa should prioritize the study of indigenous textile techniques.

Second, research and development. Cassava paste formulations can be improved. Application methods can be mechanized. Color fastness can be enhanced. All of this requires investment in materials science and textile engineering—on African soil, with African researchers, leading the agenda.

Third, market development. Sustainable textiles are a growing global market. African cassava-resist cloth could be positioned as a premium eco-friendly product. But this requires branding, certification, supply chain development, and access to international markets.

Fourth, policy support. Governments must prioritize indigenous textile techniques in procurement, education, and industrial policy. If Nigerian schools wore uniforms made with cassava-resist cloth, the industry would have an immediate market. If public events required locally made textiles, demand would rise.

Fifth, respect for family knowledge. The families in Abeokuta who have guarded this knowledge for generations must be centered in any effort to develop the technique. Their consent, their benefit, and their leadership are non-negotiable.

Sixth, rejection of the colonial framework. We must stop treating wax as the default. We must stop treating European techniques as superior. Cassava resist is not primitive. It is not a craft to be preserved in museums. It is a technology to be developed, scaled, and owned.

The Question

I first read about cassava resist dyeing in Claire Polakoff's African Textiles and Dyeing Techniques. The book is decades old. The technique is centuries older. The West knew about it. The West chose to ignore it.

The question is not whether the knowledge exists. It does. The question is whether we will finally decide to develop what we already have.

Other countries are watching. Other countries are learning. Other countries are investing.

Cassava grows in our soil. Indigo grows in our soil. The knowledge lives in our communities and in the families who have guarded it for generations.

What are we waiting for?

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References

1. Fashioning Africa. "R6139/6 Textile; Adire." Brighton Museums, 2020. Available at: https://brightonmuseums.org.uk/fashioningafrica/objects-and-stories/object/r6139-6-textile-adire/
2. Rajamangala University of Technology Phra Nakhon. "Using cassava starch as a substitute for fabric dye blockers and natural powder colors." Green RMUTP, 2023. Available at: https://green.rmutp.ac.th/cassava-starch/
3. Penland School of Craft. "Traditional Yoruba Dyeing Techniques with Indigo." 2023. Available at: https://penland.org/class/traditional-yoruba-dyeing-techniques-with-indigo/
4. Fashioning Africa. "R6038/6 Shirt; Adire." Brighton Museums, 2019. Available at: https://brightonmuseums.org.uk/fashioningafrica/objects-and-stories/object/r6038-6-shirt-adire/
5. The Centenary Project. "Adire: The Art of Tie and Dye." Google Arts & Culture. Available at: https://artsandculture.google.com/story/adire-the-art-of-tie-and-dye/8gXxRjT3ZkRUKg
6. Cornell University Library. "Inspiration: Resist Dyeing." Fashion & Feathers Exhibit. Available at: https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/fashion/exhibition/inspiration/
7. KOTITI Testing & Research Institute. "Resist dye patterning." Textile Information, 2002. Available at: https://www.kotiti.or.jp/eng/publication/backnumber/2002/12/
8. Lancashire Textile Gallery. "Sample of Nigerian adire resist dyeing with fish and chevron pattern." 2023. Available at: https://lancashiretextilegallery.org/adire-fish-chevron
9. Smithsonian National Museum of African Art. "Wrapper (Adire)." Object 96-1-17. Available at: https://africa.si.edu/collections/view/objects/asitem/items@11222
10. Nigerian textile practitioner account. "Adire Eleko: The Family Art of Abeokuta." (Source as provided)
11. Polakoff, Claire. African Textiles and Dyeing Techniques. (Original source)

During the years 2021/ 22, I was able to take a life changing journey through 11 African countries. I was able to make valuable observations that would enable me to formulate methodologies, methods and research directions altering the ways the traditional textile designs and practitioners are being affected throughout the African continent.

The Traditional textiles and the people making them are not a very visible part of the contemporary textile industry.  You have to ask the right persons (Find the right people to ask).

You might then be able to be brought to remote places where a person might still be practicing the textile craft on the traditional loom.

During my drive I observed a mixed crowd wearing both European style clothing and Wax printed fabrics. It was rare, ver rare if ever I observed the traditional local textiles.

The roads in Africa are great, where there are patches of bad road, consorted efforts are being made to improve these. Large trucks drive throughout the continent taking goods from country to country, city to city.

Mali and Burkina Faso are countries very strong in their cultures. People there are very proud of their cultures and they incorporate traditions in contemporary settings.

Artisans have their shops throughout the cities of the country. In Burkina Faso for example I was able to visit a business centre where people from various African countries came to display their products.

On this particular day products from Morroco were the dominant products on display, as Morroco invest in Moroccan businesses to push their products on the continent. I would like to see more African nations promoting their local products in eachothers countries. There was no textiles from any country here.

My journey took me further through Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Niger, Tchad, Cameroon, CAR and eventually Republic of Congo.

As I was waiting for my Visa in Brazaville, I decided to explore the traditional Congolese textiles. During my visit to the cities large market of Poto Poto, I came across a Malian ran textile shop among the many Indian ran shops on the high street.

As I was asking for for the Congolese traditional headwraps, my eyes were drawn  to a striped heavy cotton quality worn 20-25 cm stripe cloth. I knew immediately I stroke gold.

Before this, I was contemplating the lack of intercontinental trade, which would greatly boost the textile sector if these could be exported among the African countries.

My beautiful Burkinabe made textile, was 10x more expensive than the average textiles in that store. The shop owner explained to me that transportation, from Mali to Congo, was a large part for the high cost of the cloth. Employing a tailor, with experience in pattern cutting with strip fabrics was also a challenge.  There is definitely space for specialised  knowledge creation in design and pattern cutting using traditional textiles.

The cloth was beautifully hand woven, striking colour combinations allowing me to create a beautiful long dress.

I knew, based on the weaving patterns, that the artisan used years of passed on knowledge to construct this cloth.

Design analysis

The warp colours of this textile are yellow, black and orange.  The weft is all black. The pattern sequence is constructed with a variety thicknesses of vertical lines of black, yellow and orange sitting perfectly on the weft.

The length of the textile is about 100cm, and the width was 15 inch. This would be in keeping with the use of the traditional handloom. This does not mean that larger looms looms are not also part of an older traditions of weavers in this region. This however not been investigated as of yet. But what is certain is that the yarn used in this piece are not hand spun yarn but mechanically produced yarn.

I can not state for sure that the yarn would of been imported into Mali, as Mali is a large  cotton producer and has been making consorted efforts in rebuilding all parts of its textile industry while preserving its traditional artisan textile sector.

Having had the opportunity to speak to the seller/ owner at length, I was informed that these textiles are very much loved but for the prices. The cheap imports place a role, but also the transportation and import duties make the selling prices 10x higher.

Nevertheless there is still a niche market for these fabrics and in time, with further developments of trade among the African nations, in combination with effective government policies, the prices might eventually come down.

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.