Reclaiming tradition, fashioning citizenship: Ankara in contemporary Brazilian Afrocentric fashion

Abstract

This article explores the ways in which fashion consumption shaped the understandings of citizenship and belonging in colonial and postcolonial Nigeria and Brazil. It focuses on ankara , a printed textile that was brought to West Africa by European merchants and Christian missionaries. The article examines how African materials, such as ankara , challenged modern beauty standards and have been used to control people during colonization. In Nigeria, ankara became a symbol of the new Christian citizen, while in contemporary Brazil, it was used to challenge western fashion and celebrate African heritage. The article uses visual art, literature and interviews with fashion designers in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Salvador to show how ankara has become a part of Afrocentric Brazilian fashion. Overall, the study of ankara shows how fashion has been used as a tool of oppression and how its oppressive history is in the process of changing, thanks to modern Afro-Brazilian fashion designers.