Reclaiming Ankara: Nigerian Designers Champion African-Made Wax Prints

Walk through Balogun Market on a Saturday morning and you’ll see Ankara fabric stacked floor to ceiling in a riot of colour and pattern. Vendors move with the practiced rhythm of people selling a fabric that the world now can’t get enough of. Despite its deep ties to African weddings, ceremonies, and daily life, Ankara was first manufactured in the Netherlands by a Dutch company called Vlisco. For decades, Europeans designed patterns they sold to African consumers who embraced them as their own heritage. Now, Nigerian designers are rewriting that history by championing fabrics made entirely within Africa. Lagos-based designer Funmi Adeyemi explains that the goal is to build a truly African value chain — from production and printing to design and retail.

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