The Sporadic Edition is a newsletter I will send every other Sunday in which I will share personal thoughts, an excerpt of the following newsletter, and some recommendations.
I was born in 1987 in Douala, Cameroon's economic capital, but left for France when I was three. I came back when I was eight and left when I was twelve. The last time I was in Cameroon, I was twenty-two. And I am thirty-six now, which means it has been an awful long time since I haven't been back. Each year that passes, I realise Cameroon never really left me. I have carried it with me even when I didn't want to.
Consequently, my relationship with my home country is complex because it is home, yet I don't know it. So, to compensate for the physical and cultural distance, I am constantly looking for information about Cameroon. So when I stumbled upon a Business of Fashion article entitled Why Cameroon is fashion's getaway to Central Africa; it triggered some thoughts.
Business of Fashion is a subscription-based publication, so here are some key insights from the article shared by writer Kingsley Kobo to give an idea of the topic:
Cameroon is seen as a potential hub for the wider central Africa subregion despite geopolitical tensions and a challenging business environment.
The country is a promising second-tier market on the continent even if it lags leading markets in the west, east and southern Africa subregions.
Formal retail space remains limited but suitable shopping malls in major cities like Douala and Yaoundé have recently opened.
Cameroon is not a country the media cares about. It rarely appears in international news. The last time I remember it appearing in a famous newspaper was in a 2018 opinion piece by Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in the New York Times depicting the Cameroonian Civil War. So, no wonder this BoF article caught me off guard. It was about a facet of my country the media barely reports on, which interests me: fashion.
Honestly, it never occurred to me Cameroon had a strong fashion industry. But it doesn't make it less fascinating. Cameroon's moniker is 'Africa in miniature.' With a surface area of 475 442 km² and a population of almost 28 million inhabitants, the tiny triangle is no less enticing than Nigeria, one of its neighbouring countries, boasting a surface area of 923 768 km² and a population of 213 million inhabitants. Within its tiny surface, Cameroon counts 250+ languages, meaning many cultures, people, traditions, types of food, and savoir-faire. If you ever have the chance to travel there, you will understand that its moniker suits it well.
Blurry or vivid, my memories of Cameroon involve all my senses. The palm wine from my grandfather's village, the dark honey we got from our trip up north in the Adamaoua region, the indigo blue of the Ndop fabric and the motifs of the Thogu fabric I saw in the Grassfields and Grasslands regions, the smell of wood in the artisans' ateliers making canoes for the Ngondo, etc.
To me, these memories reflect the cultural and craftsmanship richness that makes Cameroon a unique place. Despite a growing interest in the continent, these qualities are yet to be recognised.
The Ngondo is a water festival involving all the Sawa people (Sawa means people living by the coast, meaning the festival involves all the ethnic groups around Douala) l who compete in a boat race to celebrate the jengu - the spirit inhabiting the Wouri river crossing the city of Douala.
As I have been working in the fashion industry for ten years, I noticed it grew interest in Africa around the 2010s, with anglophone countries at the forefront, such as South Africa and Nigeria. But in the last couple of years, francophone countries, such as Côte d'Ivoire and Senegal, started to attract Occidental fashion luxury brands. I wrote an article for Ndaane - a platform dedicated to fashion in Africa and its diaspora - about the topic with Senegal and the last Chanel Métiers d'Art collection as an example of that shift.
Chanel surprised everyone last year, when they showed their Métiers d'Art 2022/23 collection in Dakar, Senegal. It was the first ever show the French brand has done in sub-Saharan Africa. The move from the storied fashion house could be surprising given the driving forces in the luxury category on the continent which, according to Statista, are South Africa and Nigeria. This year, the two countries boasted $783 million and $459 million in revenue so far in the luxury goods market category. Meanwhile, with almost 17 million inhabitants and $141 million in luxury goods market revenue, Senegal on first glance looks like a relatively small market to dive into.
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No wonder brands such as Hugo Boss, Lacoste or Tommy Hilfiger have already opened stores in the city. But, in the case of Chanel, they didn't come to Dakar to open a store or show a ready-to-wear collection; instead, they tapped into Dakar's cultural and creative scene.
As you can read above, Chanel's approach was unlike what Occidental luxury brands have done so far. It tapped into the cultural and creative richness of Senegal rather than exclusively relying on a growing middle to upper class that can afford more luxury. Chanel's goal as a fashion business will always be to make money. Still, its unusual approach to Senegal made me think about how fashion journalism reports on new markets such as Cameroon. The interest in new markets in Africa doesn't come from observing local fashion industries, its actors and the value they add locally and globally. Instead, it is the presence of Occidental brands that determines their worth. And that's how fashion journalism in Occident looks at these places. Of course, some African designers got profiled and even broke through globally. Lisa Folawiyo, Kenneth Ize, Sarah Diouf, and, more recently, Thebe Magugu are some designers who got the spotlight.
Nonetheless, a deep analysis of the cultural context and fashion industry in the designers' respective countries is often left to be desired. For that reason, African luxury fashion e-commerce Industrie Africa and Ananse decided to create thorough and informative pieces about Africa's fashion industry specificities while exploring the cultural wealth and savoir-faire of the continent. And by doing so, they are filling a gap in fashion journalism out of necessity. I have come to understand that fashion in Africa isn't a mere question of consumerism. It intersects with many aspects of society, such as preserving traditional techniques, economic independence for women, entrepreneurship as a way to provide for one's community and family, and fighting against a corrupt system with creativity. That is why knowledge about the industry's inner workings in this area of the world is essential for the creatives there and international brands.
BoF is a platform I peruse as a fashion professional to get the pulse of what is happening on the business side of fashion. It is also one of the rare platforms in Occident that writes about fashion outside of the United States and Europe, so I am always eager to read their fashion coverage in other parts of the world. Nonetheless, as Ndaane founder and my fellow Cameroonian Stéphanie Chendjou said, "We shouldn't forget that BoF's point of view goes from a global one to a regional one, not the contrary. When you look at the piece's title, it is for international brands to know where to go in Central Africa to make money. It's not about Cameroonian designers."
Next time in Le Journal Curioso…
Below is an article I co-wrote with Naïfs Magazine Editor-in-Chief Amanda Winnie Kabuiku for All The Pretty Birds - a platform founded by digital talent Tamu McPherson.
“The French girl” is a concept Paris loves selling to the world. She is always white, thin, bourgeoise, and Parisian. The world is utterly enchanted by her; fascinated by her beauty secrets (she pretends not to have) and her (life)style. Straight out of a New Wave movie, she is Brigitte Bardot, Catherine Deneuve, or Jane Birkin. She is an archetype we, Amanda Winnie Kabuiku and I, Emmanuelle Maréchal, ATPB French Black Editors, want to debunk. Even before discussing our blackness, Amanda and I discussed how we didn’t fit the French girl’s image because we are not Parisians. Our observations on how segregated the Parisian girl is made us reflect on our identity and what it means to be Black French.
In Conversation with ATPB Editors Emmanuelle Maréchal and Amanda Kabuiku
“Why is the Token French Girl Always Parisian?”
Emmanuelle Maréchal: Let’s talk about that image of the “Parisian girl” we’re known for abroad, and that (quite frankly) irks me.
Amanda Winnie Kabuiku: I remember watching this French series called Paris etc., in 2018. The female lead is French white, lives in the heart of Paris, doesn’t shower much, but always looks great. She eats cheese and bread, and drinks wine, but ever so thin. She is like the women in Vogue Paris. I come from the North of France, and when I see that woman, I feel much more French than her!
EM: Agreed. There is always this gap between Paris and the rest of France. As if we don’t exist.
I grew up in Bordeaux, which is an entirely different atmosphere than Paris. The city’s history is heavily linked to the slave trade. I also have roots in another region called Vendée, which is known for being the only monarchist region during the Revolution. If you look at where I am from in France, I am much more French than this “Parisian woman”. That is why I don’t know what they are talking about when they tell me, “I’m not French” or “I don’t conform to the French woman’s image”. We talk a lot about the Parisian girl’s beauty standards, but we don’t speak enough about her cultural standards.
Looking at our background, we are the French woman because our cultural standards are not reduced to a Parisian arrondissement.
AWK: In France, we hate communitarianism. Yet, no one is more communitarian than the Parisian girl stereotype. She has her clique and keeps herself in a state of mediocrity because she believes in that fabricated identity that people abroad crave. Hence, she writes books and creates series with her friends about The Life of A Parisian Woman. One of my friends who works at Vogue Paris explained the magazine only catered to the Parisians living in the 17th arrondissement. And it’s true. It doesn’t target French women at large, but this is a very niche demographic. When I think about the Parisian woman, she doesn’t embody the French woman in all its diversity.
The cabinet of curiosities
Since this Sporadic Edition is about Africa, let me share some podcasts and pieces I read online about it with you.
I fell in love with Ndaane by reading this interview of fashion journalist and creative entrepreneur Innocent Ndlovu, in which he tells about his path as a fashion writer based in South Africa.
Listen to this episode of How To Make It in Africa, in which host Fadel Jaoui interviews Industrie Africa founder, Nisha Kanabar. It’s an insightful listen to understand how Industrie Africa was born and aims to put African fashion on the world map.
One of my favourite podcasts ever to listen to is Afropop Worldwide. Hosted by French-Cameroonian George Collinet, it makes you travel through Africa and beyond with music. Here’s below some of favourite episodes: