Any cultural appropriation issues with this dress from Ghana?
June 26, 2018 9:41 PM Subscribe
A friend bought this dress at a local consignment store, and realized after buying it that - based on the tags and a conversation with the clerk - it seems to have been hand-made and bought in Ghana. She really likes it but is concerned about cultural appropriation issues.
Does the pattern have any special significance? Does it look like a dress that might only be worn at certain times of year or by certain populations? etc. We're hoping someone with some experience with Ghana and Ghanaian culture can let us know if there's a reason why a white American lady should/shouldn't feel comfortable wearing it (she has a day or two in which to return it, if it turns out that it's not the best thing).
Does the pattern have any special significance? Does it look like a dress that might only be worn at certain times of year or by certain populations? etc. We're hoping someone with some experience with Ghana and Ghanaian culture can let us know if there's a reason why a white American lady should/shouldn't feel comfortable wearing it (she has a day or two in which to return it, if it turns out that it's not the best thing).
Best answer: I am not Ghanaian either, but I recently spoke with some people running a shop selling fabrics very much like this, and they were delighted that more people have been wanting to wear these patterns lately - especially in the wake of the Black Panther movie, which may not be explicitly Ghanaian but does showcase a lot of African fashion.
On the cultural appropriation issue, I feel that it's a misleading issue sometimes, like, it's not acceptable to say 'don't dress like *those* people' anymore, so the warning label of cultural appropriation is used instead. Basically, if the original culture has been scrubbed away and left with a caracature - think Pocahontas, or golliwogs, or gypsy fortune tellers - then that's cultural appropriation. The respectful use of the culture while remembering where it comes from and taking every opportunity to learn what it means is not.
posted by HypotheticalWoman at 2:08 AM on June 27, 2018 [27 favorites]
On the cultural appropriation issue, I feel that it's a misleading issue sometimes, like, it's not acceptable to say 'don't dress like *those* people' anymore, so the warning label of cultural appropriation is used instead. Basically, if the original culture has been scrubbed away and left with a caracature - think Pocahontas, or golliwogs, or gypsy fortune tellers - then that's cultural appropriation. The respectful use of the culture while remembering where it comes from and taking every opportunity to learn what it means is not.
posted by HypotheticalWoman at 2:08 AM on June 27, 2018 [27 favorites]
I have a bunch of clothing I had tailored from African fabric while I was in the Peace corps. In East Africa, not Ghana, but that's a fabric I can imagine having seen in my local market.
So, take this with a grain of salt as I am a white man, but while I think it's good your friend has this concern, it's ok to wear it. I think cultural appropriation is most of concern when it steamrolls culture into only an aesthetic -- for example if that fabric was worn by a certain tribe, or hand made in certain way by a certain group of people, and then by wearing it out of those contexts you'd be helping erase that history and knowledge. But that dress, to me, looks like wax process fabric, as HyptotheticalWoman notes, which is mass produced and sold and worn across many African countries (and everywhere else in the world) because it's beautiful, colorful and durable.
To me, the drawback is more that by wearing a garment someone else had made for them, you are missing the best part of having clothing tailored, which is the story buying the fabric, interacting with the tailor, choosing the design, etc, which is a big part of the enjoyment I get from wearing the clothing I had made, all those memories. Wearing a thing someone else hadade seems weirdly personal. But this dress might not have been made by anyone specific, and anyway, these it was in a consignment shop. My vote (once again, as white dude) is go for it.
posted by Rinku at 3:02 AM on June 27, 2018 [2 favorites]
So, take this with a grain of salt as I am a white man, but while I think it's good your friend has this concern, it's ok to wear it. I think cultural appropriation is most of concern when it steamrolls culture into only an aesthetic -- for example if that fabric was worn by a certain tribe, or hand made in certain way by a certain group of people, and then by wearing it out of those contexts you'd be helping erase that history and knowledge. But that dress, to me, looks like wax process fabric, as HyptotheticalWoman notes, which is mass produced and sold and worn across many African countries (and everywhere else in the world) because it's beautiful, colorful and durable.
To me, the drawback is more that by wearing a garment someone else had made for them, you are missing the best part of having clothing tailored, which is the story buying the fabric, interacting with the tailor, choosing the design, etc, which is a big part of the enjoyment I get from wearing the clothing I had made, all those memories. Wearing a thing someone else hadade seems weirdly personal. But this dress might not have been made by anyone specific, and anyway, these it was in a consignment shop. My vote (once again, as white dude) is go for it.
posted by Rinku at 3:02 AM on June 27, 2018 [2 favorites]
Best answer: Please go ahead!
I'll note as an Indian person that a big driver of the war of independence in India was that Britain during the Industrial Revolution placed huge import duties on Indian hand-woven textiles and clothes in order to make them less competitive against those made in factories domestically in the UK. It's one thing to avoid the native dress of a particular country for cultural appropriation reasons but I don't think that should extend to anything handmade in a country not your own - people are usually happy to have their textiles and clothes appreciated and demand for them for them is good for the economy.
posted by peacheater at 4:04 AM on June 27, 2018 [10 favorites]
I'll note as an Indian person that a big driver of the war of independence in India was that Britain during the Industrial Revolution placed huge import duties on Indian hand-woven textiles and clothes in order to make them less competitive against those made in factories domestically in the UK. It's one thing to avoid the native dress of a particular country for cultural appropriation reasons but I don't think that should extend to anything handmade in a country not your own - people are usually happy to have their textiles and clothes appreciated and demand for them for them is good for the economy.
posted by peacheater at 4:04 AM on June 27, 2018 [10 favorites]
That dress reminds me a bit of some of the clothing available at a shop in Stockholm called Afroart. The owners work with various groups in various countries to develop products, including clothing, sold to Swedes. I am a white lady with white privilege so I am not a source of wisdom on cultural appropriation. Even so, it seems to me your friend can wear that dress without shame. It is a dress she likes that she found at a consignment shop. That does not make your friend a Sarah Huckabee Sanders nor Stephen Miller, someone working to destroy lives and cultures during the day then going out for Mexican food in the evening. I say she can wear it and happily.
posted by Bella Donna at 5:01 AM on June 27, 2018
posted by Bella Donna at 5:01 AM on June 27, 2018
Best answer: Mefi resident Ghanaian here. Tell your friend to go ahead and wear it. Nothing about the fabric screams "traditional" to me. Looks like your run of the mill Ankara fabric used for anything and everything. Very pretty dress.
posted by ramix at 7:00 PM on June 27, 2018 [6 favorites]
posted by ramix at 7:00 PM on June 27, 2018 [6 favorites]
I don't think it's appropriation if the thing was made and sold in Ghana for export.
That said, it may get awkward in the US to explain how an African dress that appears to be a watermelon design isn't racist in some fashion. Nothing to do with Ghanan culture there at least.
posted by pwnguin at 9:53 AM on July 4, 2018
That said, it may get awkward in the US to explain how an African dress that appears to be a watermelon design isn't racist in some fashion. Nothing to do with Ghanan culture there at least.
posted by pwnguin at 9:53 AM on July 4, 2018
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But the fabric looks like a wax print/dutch process/ankara cloth, which has its own complicated appropriation history. Here is an interesting Slate article about fabrics like these.
posted by BusyBusyBusy at 10:52 PM on June 26, 2018 [2 favorites]