Women, textiles, communication and Dutch wax prints in Ghana

What is it about?

Wax prints are colorful message-bearing printed cloths produced in Holland, based on Indonesian batik designs that express meaningful messages in West Africa and particularly in Ghana. This article explores how Ghanaian women culturally redefine factory printed textiles from a foreign import to an object that is synthesized and indigenized into something that is meaningful and useful to them, becoming a “visual voice” for creative expression.

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Why is it important?

This essay presents Dutch wax prints as a realm in which women play a key role not only as distributors and consumers, but also as producers of knowledge and of a new cultural form. It positions women as active participants in the global markets who have taken advantage of the economic opportunities offered by technological changes and the subsequent reordering of class relations of production.