halaqah admin

Don't be fooled, every single business on this planet is political. Very political. When #BDS calls out companies like HP for profiting from apartheid in Israel or artist who makes money off of the system we see how political the world is. During the peak of

Covid has destroyed the global economy. Many businesses have vanished. We are clinging on. Our greatest challenge during this Covid pandemic is postage as well as a diminished market due to lockdown. 

In a Video by “Business of Fashion’ (link below), they went through all the steps to create branding, how to work with CMT, pattern makers, sample makers, etc, how to get funding etc. But what they could not help us with is how to deal with RACISM and the challenges unique to the African. 90% of the steps they teach are irrelevant to Africans. For one we just do not have that infrastructure. There is no item of clothing that we make, that will be sold in any major retail outlet in AFRICA, because all (yes all) of them are controlled by Europeans (physically or otherwise) who have Zero value for African clothes, especially those owned by conscious Africans. Despite talking all day about a “rainbow” . Do the fashion schools in Joberg teach you about dealing with racism? They teach Africans how to try to fit into a Eurocentric racist fashion world by crossing their fingers and hoping someone will exploit them as the “Next Black thing”. Do the fashion sho

In 2014, a handful of East African countries imported more than $300 million worth of secondhand clothing from the United States and other wealthy countries. The used items have created a robust market in East Africa and thereby a decent amount of jobs. But experts say the vast amount of these imports have devastated local clothing industries and led the region to rely far too heavily on the West

Long ago in the 60’s when Africans were starting to look for their true identity and wear authentic African clothes we had an opportunity to own what we wore and keep on going we did not do that. Actually, we have never done that. We did not do it with jazz nor did we do it with dance. We create wonder styles like Breakdance but let other people come and own them. African clothes is a dying industry — let us be very clear about that. I seriously doubt that post-Ocacia something else like us will come. Because the clothes are expensive to make, har

People often wonder why African clothes usually cost more than the clothes they buy on the high-street. And honestly, you can use your own thinking to figure that out. Something made in bulk for everyone will cost way less than something handmade just for one person.

Fridays are the day to wear “African print” outfits in Ghanaian offices, yet some designers are boycotting such fabrics - arguing they are not actually African.

The history behind the designs is complex - and involves several continents.

“African clothes” what makes clothes African? African clothes are modern clothes associated with the African continent, namely West African clothing popularized by the Diaspora. If one goes back 500 years most of Africa would not call these clothes African.

If Black lives matter, then they should matter first and foremost to us Africans. And by matter, it means we should add value to our "Black" lives our African culture our African business

It is cheap so people buy it. But what are they actually buying? And what is that buying saying about our dignity and the future of our native authentic industries? People say "but Chinese African clothes are cheaper" sure they are. And they are cheap to conquer our market, so China says thanks for allowing over 85% of all "African" clothes to now be included in the national products of Chinese people. Where African brands should be making moves we have Aliexpress supplying us with our own culture. And most are very comfortable with that. It is funny how people would feel shame wearing knock-off brands like Nike, but they feel no shame running around wearing Chinese prints and Chinese-made clothes. It is shameful that 90% of the fabric used to make African clothes is not owned by any African, let alone even made in Africa. More shameful is what we call "African" print is 100% not African. All of these clown prints were made in China by Chinese nada to do with anything African.

Linen was invented in Ancient Egypt. It is one of the most prestigious fabrics in the continent's history. Unfortunately modern Africa did not keep up this tradition and most fabrics used here are imported from all corners of the globe--especially Asia.