The History of Clothing

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Modern · Sub-Saharan Africa · 1900 - Present

Modern Sub-Saharan African Clothing

From vibrant ankara prints to the global rise of African Fashion Weeks, modern Sub-Saharan African clothing has become one of the most dynamic and influential forces in contemporary fashion.

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By Dan Schnau · Last updated

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Wax Prints, Independence, and Pan-African Style

1960s commemorative wax-print cloth with portraits of Modibo Keita, Mali's first president, and maps of Mali
Photo: Tommy Miles. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

The story of modern Sub-Saharan African fashion is inseparable from the region's colonial history and independence movements. Ankara (also known as African wax print) — brightly colored cotton fabric with bold, graphic patterns — became the most recognizable textile of the continent, despite its complex origins in Dutch imitations of Indonesian batik.1,2 By the mid-twentieth century, West African markets had made these fabrics their own — and from the 1960s African factories increasingly produced them alongside European firms — with designs that carried cultural meanings and were used to commemorate political events, celebrate leaders, and mark social occasions.2,1,3,4

President Mobutu Sese Seko seated in a dark collarless abacost jacket with a patterned scarf at the neck, a leopard-skin toque and a carved walking stick
Mobutu Sese Seko, president of Zaire, in an abacost and leopard-skin toque during a meeting in the Oval Office, Washington, 10 October 1973. Photo: Jack E. Kightlinger, White House. Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain.

Independence leaders of the 1950s and 1960s used dress to project new national identities, mixing African and imported styles: Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah wore hand-woven batakari smocks to rouse the country at independence, yet he also invested in custom-made British suits.5 Nkrumah also brought kente cloth, the prestige cloth of the Asante and Ewe, to the world stage in the 1950s; photographs of him in traditional dress circulated widely, and kente became a symbol of pan-African pride.6,24 In Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), Mobutu Sese Seko's authenticité campaign banned Western suits and ties from 1972 in favor of the abacost (from à bas le costume, "down with the suit"), a tieless suit that closely resembled the Mao suit.7,8 The dashiki — a colorful, loose-fitting garment of West African origin — crossed the Atlantic in the 1960s, when African diasporic communities in the United States adopted it as a symbol of Black pride and African heritage.9

Drummers in Accra performing in loose printed dashiki tunics with bold border patterns at the neckline, alongside drummers in white tunics
Drummers in Accra, Ghana, wearing printed dashikis and kufi caps, 2007. Photo: Emilio Labrador. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

African Fashion on the Global Stage

Olufeko on the runway at Lagos Fashion Week 2018 in a design by Kiki Kamanu
Photo: Analacanada. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

The late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries witnessed an explosion of African fashion creativity that commanded global attention. Designers like Duro Olowu (Nigerian-born, London-based), Lisa Folawiyo (Nigeria), and Ozwald Boateng (British, of Ghanaian descent) brought African aesthetics to international runways, while Lagos Fashion Week (founded 2011), Dakar Fashion Week (founded 2002), and South African Fashion Week (founded 1997) established the continent as a serious player in the global fashion calendar.13,25,14,15,10,11,12 These platforms showcased a new generation of designers who drew on local textile traditions while engaging with global trends — producing work that was distinctly African and unmistakably contemporary.

Man in a flowing royal-blue agbada with wide draped sleeves over a matching embroidered tunic and trousers, with a patterned cap
Man in a blue agbada, Nigeria, 2018. Photo: Ayobami99. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

The rise of Afrofuturism in popular culture — most visibly in Ruth E. Carter's costumes for Black Panther (2018), which drew on the dress of peoples such as the Dogon, Tuareg, and Ndebele — brought African-inspired design to a vast global audience.16,17 Social media let African designers reach international clients directly: Beyoncé's stylist, for example, contacted the Abidjan designer Loza Maléombho after seeing her work on Instagram.23 The agbada — a flowing, wide-sleeved robe, called riga in Hausa — is today pan-Nigerian men's national dress, while wax-print cloth, also called kitenge, enjoyed a revival from the mid-2000s and new kanga designs keep coming: Zanzibar's largest kanga dealership sends up to 30 a month to its factory in Mumbai.20,22,19 Traditional techniques also held their ground: adire (Yoruba indigo dyeing) is still made in Abeokuta, and bogolan (Malian mud cloth), which the Malian designer Chris Seydou took to Paris runways, remains a source of inspiration for designers worldwide.18,21 The result is a fashion scene of remarkable vitality that continues to reshape the global understanding of style and luxury.

Bogolan mud cloth from Mali of sewn woven strips painted in black, ochre and white with leaf, triangle and dotted motifs
Bogolanfini (mud cloth) made in Mali, bought in 2018; private collection. Photo: Rhodapenmarck. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Sources

  1. Fabric wars: Ghana's colourful prints face renewed Chinese competition — Shola Lawal, Al Jazeera, 2023.
    Return to text (2 references)Reference 1 Reference 2
  2. Vlisco and West African printed textiles — Textile Research Centre, Leiden.
    Return to text (2 references)Reference 1 Reference 2
  3. Factory-printed cloth (Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah) — Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, via Google Arts & Culture.Reference 1
  4. Cloth (Nelson Mandela commemorative print) — Victoria and Albert Museum.Reference 1
  5. Kwame Nkrumah's Suits: Sartorial Politics in Ghana at Independence — Abena Dove Osseo-Asare, Fashion Theory 25(5), 2021 (abstract).Reference 1
  6. NEH on the Road: Wrapped in Pride — National Endowment for the Humanities.Reference 1
  7. Abacost : quand le Congo s'invente une légende — Cesare Vecellio, Conflits: Revue de Géopolitique, 2026.Reference 1
  8. The Mobutu Years — Indépendance! exhibition, Royal Museum for Central Africa (AfricaMuseum), 2020.Reference 1
  9. Dashiki — Fashion History Timeline, Fashion Institute of Technology.Reference 1
  10. Momentum: Lagos Fashion and Design Week — Rana Toofanian, System Magazine.Reference 1
  11. The Legacy of Adama Paris and Dakar Fashion Week — Rolling Stone Africa, 2025 (founded by Adama Paris in 2002).Reference 1
  12. Black Carpet Beginnings: The Birth of SA Fashion Week — South African Fashion Week (first shows at Mandela Square, Johannesburg, August 1997).Reference 1
  13. at home: Artists in Conversation — Duro Olowu — Yale Center for British Art, 2021.Reference 1
  14. History — Ozwald Boateng.Reference 1
  15. Africa Fashion — National Gallery of Victoria, 2024 (touring V&A exhibition).Reference 1
  16. The Designer Behind the Stunning Afro-Futurist 'Black Panther' Costumes — Zing Tsjeng, VICE, 2018 (Ndebele-inspired neck rings and beadwork).Reference 1
  17. Black Panther Costume Designer Ruth E. Carter on Three Decades of Dressing Superheroes — Cady Lang, Time, 2018 (Dogon and Tuareg references; a Wakanda "never colonized").Reference 1
  18. Nigeria60: Adire Archives — Amanda Kirby Okoye, Horniman Museum, 2020.Reference 1
  19. Kanga's Woven Voices — Amanda Leigh Lichtenstein, AramcoWorld, 2017.Reference 1
  20. Prestige robe (riga) — Cleveland Museum of Art.Reference 1
  21. Dallas Museum of Art Presents "Bamana Mud Cloth: From Mali to the World" Opening in November — Dallas Museum of Art, 2021.Reference 1
  22. African history told through fashionable printed clothing — Franck Kuwonu, Africa Renewal, United Nations, 2020.Reference 1
  23. How Ivory Coast fashion designers find global fame without leaving home — AFP, via The Star, 2026.Reference 1
  24. Juneteenth (Emancipation Day) — Susan Brown, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, 2015.Reference 1
  25. Clothing ensemble, Lisa Folawiyo — Victoria and Albert Museum.Reference 1