Imagination and Vision-003
003 Reconnecting with the vision 👁
Imagination rules the world — Napoleon
The power of imagination created the illusion that my vision went much farther than the naked eye could actually see. — Nelson Mandela
Vision, conviction and imagination. Very important qualities for a founder — My vision from the start was to create a global made in Africa brand — to create jobs and to be a part of the African growth story vis a vis manufacturing.
Which part of Africa — the short answer is that it didnt matter — the longer answer is…probably Kenya.
Despite the fact that my placenta was sent from Manchester to be buried in the land of my ancestors — Cameroon, and so a natural choice for picking a country to dedicate my best years to — taking the rationale view — East Africa made more sense (see fashionomics report)
Despite my romantic ideas and vision for life — my decisions and energy are driven by reality and rational thought — and despite raising finance — and spending time with great potential partners in Kenya — reality leads me to the conclusion that until we can source fabric in Africa — It makes sense to continue to produce in Europe — based on both practical and environmental considerations.
Let me rephrase that….there are a limited set of circumstances under which I will ship my precious fabric to Africa for production — these are:
- Financial backing from the number of funds and institutions supporting African Fashion / Made in Africa
- The support of the relevant government ministry in my African partner country
- Support for my longer terms plans to establish digital printing in Kenya (more on this another day)
I came to this conclusion in 2018 when two quite significant things happened:
2. I collaborated with the Kenya Government on a World Bank sponsored project…
Through these pivotal experiences I was able to form an opinion based on research and first hand experience. It became clear that — although it was possible to produce in Kenya — with there being a number of great potential partners, it didn’t make sense to just focus on the cheapest part of the value chain, the last thing that African governments want is to develop like Bangladesh and not like Portugal or Italy, in summary to be stuck at the lowest level of the value chain — we can see how that is playing out now in Ethiopia…and how it worked out at Rana Plaza.
My plan is to tackle the most difficult challenge first — which I still consider to be quite low hanging fruit — until that time we have parts of the process to contend with vis a vis building a global brand 🙈
In terms of supporting brand Africa at this stage, I think there are many things that we can do at this point — one of which is collaborating with African creatives on campaigns — I believe in doing so my brand can also support the efforts of African governments in boosting tourism. Quite important when one considers the damage that Covid 19 has done to African tourism, which is a significant driver of income for many African countries, including Kenya.
I think the Kenya government understands very well the impact that fashion can have on the tourism…..hence signing up Naomi Campbell as an ambassador….Great move…
Chi Atanga is the founding director at wallsofbenin.com chi@wallsofbenin.com
