Paper short abstract:

Shifting between being a code for Africanness on the one hand, and a material expression of (neo)colonial politics on the other, waxprint has become a contested fabric, which reveals discourses of belonging and 'being African' both on the continent and among the Diaspora.

Paper long abstract:

Waxprint fabric is about to conquer the global fashion market. In contrast to other fabrics, it is not associated with specific religious or sacred features, which has facilitated its widespread appropriation. Despite its global popularity and code for Africanness, however, the use of waxprint fabrics has recently faced criticisms from both the continent and the Diaspora due to its (neo)colonial history as a fabric originally produced in the Netherlands and, nowadays, also in China. In Senegal, where fabrics and clothing play a decisive role in the fashioning of persons, waxprint has only quite recently conquered the local fashion milieus. Over the last twenty years, a new generation of street wear designers has contributed to a diversification of fashion and has produced a kind of Afropolitan fashion by interweaving local practices and fabrics with global fashion trends. In doing so, they critically engage with social and political issues in a transcolonial context. In the Parisian diaspora, Senegalese tailors fashion their clientele according to the current trends in Dakar. Especially among the second generation of migrants, a young scene of designers dresses a multi-faceted urban clientele and engages in decolonizing fashion in various ways. I suggest that both on the continent and among the Diaspora, waxprint has become a highly contested fabric, which reveals discourses of belonging and 'being African'.