Ankara is a fashion closely related to the West Africans, especially the Yorubas.
However, not everyone knows the secret of Ankara and how it came to be.
In this article, I will be discussing the Origin of Ankara
Ankara, is also known as African fabric. This fabric has become the epitome of our
‘Africanness’ but it has a diverse and complex history. 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 that mass-produced these fabrics
in Europe. They are now known as today’s Vlisco brand.
Until
the 1960s, most wax sold in Africa were made in Europe. After colonization,
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. Africa is yet to own a textile manufacturing
company with no links to our European counterparts.
Ankara
can be said to be an African fabric that took inspiration from the native
Indonesian designs
There are various views on how the fabric entered the African market. Some are of the opinion that Dutch freighters on their ways to Indonesia from Europe dropped these textiles at different African ports.
With the origin of Ankara we can say that we as Africans have
done well in adopting and developing the native Indonesian designs into our own
African designs as Ankara.
Thank you for reading.
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