Global Development Institute podcast
Global Development Institute podcast
Unravelling African print textiles value chains - with Dr Fidèle Beletchei Ebia
Dr Elisa Gambino (GDI) interviews Dr Fidèle Beletchei Ebia, a postdoctoral researcher with Duke Africa Initiative, about her recent paper analysing how the rise of South-South value chains disrupts the trade of African print textiles.
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Intro music Anna Banana by Eaters
Speaker 1 [00:00:02] Welcome to the Global Development Institute podcast. Based at the University of Manchester, we're Europe's largest research and teaching institute addressing poverty and inequality. Each episode, we'll bring you the latest thinking, insights, and debate in development studies.
Elisa Gambino [00:00:23] Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of the GDI podcast. I'm Dr elisa Gambino from GDI. And today, we're joined by Dr Fidèle Ebia from Duke University. Fidèle previously finished her PhD with us in GDI, and today, will be discussing her most recent paper published on GeoForum, which was cottered with our very own Rory Horner. And the paper is titled Colonial Threads to Made in China. Fidèle, welcome to the GDI podcast.
Fidèle Ebia [00:01:00] Thank you, Elisa. I'm happy to be on this podcast.
Elisa Gambino [00:01:06] That's fantastic. So just a few weeks ago, I was at the Science and Industry Museum here in Manchester, and I saw this very beautiful African print textile cloth, these very colourful textiles called APT. And I know that in the past, you've worked as an APT seller yourself, and it made me think about how the global value chain of APT, of African print textile, is truly global. And I think you're the perfect person to talk to us about APT. What its significance is. And so, could you tell us a bit more about what African print textiles is?
Fidèle Ebia [00:01:51] Of course, I will simply say that African print is a brightly coloured cloth that is widely consumed and worn by Africans on both everyday and special occasions. Where I grew up in the West Africa country of Togo, surrounded by APT, everyone in my family and neighbourhood owned African print. And was introduced to its culture of names, patterns, and colour at an early age. It is hard to exaggerate how important this cloth is for West Africans. It is also big business. The traders who source APT in Europe and China are wealthy, and the distribution sends the operate support. An army of local wholesalers, sailors, strict vendors, and tailors. It has been often been said that APT flood the entire Togolese economy. After receiving my bachelor's degree in Togo with a specialty in private and commercial law, I had a hard time finding a job and decided to open a small boutique in the capital city of Lomé. Where I sold APT, I sourced my cloth from famous Togolese traders. Dutch APT from Nana Benz and Chinese APT from Nanette. Selling APT enabled me to take care of myself and have a life. When I later had an opportunity to further my education as a graduate student in the U.S. And APT. And as a PhD student at Manchester, it also become an intellectual and academic passion. And I eventually returned to Togo to conduct research and write a dissertation about the famous APT markets. I think I will stop like that.
Elisa Gambino [00:04:07] Thanks so much, Fidèle. Indeed, this is clearly like a global business and African print textile is absolutely everywhere in West Africa and especially in Togo. In your paper, you talk about a very, very interesting change that has taken place over the decade around the trade and the production of APT. Your paper does a great job at outlining this change. And it shows that there has been a shift in who produces APT. So can you tell us a bit more about it?
Fidèle Ebia [00:04:40] Elisa, you are right. There has been a lot of change in the APT market during the colonial and early independence periods. Europeans manufactured APT cloth and distributed it in West Africa. But in the 1990s, during the period when Togo was experiencing serious political and economic crisis. And at a time when China was becoming the world's factory, Chinese began to manufacture and market imitation APT that sold for one-tenth the cost of European APT and become attractive for Togolese. Today, Chinese counterfeit APT whose quality continue to improve each year. It is hard to tell real. European from fake Chinese cloth has taken over 90% of the West African market today.
Elisa Gambino [00:05:44] Well, 90% definitely is a very, very high market. And this really highlights the role that West African traders have in this value chain. And in your paper, you make this argument of how traders are playing a pivotal role in this valuable chain. So can you share something more about this with us? So who are the Nana Bens that you mentioned and how are they different from today's Nanette?
Fidèle Ebia [00:06:15] The Togolese traders who sold Dutch APT were called Nana Bens because of their wealth. They became millionaires, I will not exaggerate. He named them to purchase Mercedes automobiles. When Chinese imitation cloth flooded the market in the 1990s, new traders called Nanette, meaning little Nana. Emerge also. Both traders are known not only for their gift as distributors of APT in West Africa, but also for their input into its production in Europe and China. Nana Bens earlier and Nanette today visit site of production in Holland and in China to select and name patterns and to refine the colours used. It's production. Because of their contribution to the culture of dress and to the national economy, both Nanette and Nanette have become cultural heroes for Togolese.
Elisa Gambino [00:07:30] Thank you so much. And you mentioned that the Nana Bens and Nanette, they visit the production plants. So what is the role of different companies in all of this?
Fidèle Ebia [00:07:42] In Europe today, there's a single Dutch company. What's global value chain theory is called a lead firm that produced APT sold in West Africa. Earlier, there were also Swiss and British companies, including the famous ABC textile firm in Manchester, which closed its door around 2000s to almost. 100 years of Africa textile production. In China, there are many sites of manufacture today, small private or state owned company who manufacture APT on demand. Each Nanette has her favourite manufacturer with whom she signed a point of purchase agreement. When the printing is complete, she arranged the shipping of large cloth. Of continuous to Lomi where she says APT in local markets. That's how it works.
Elisa Gambino [00:08:48] And when it comes to this type of trade, what does it mean? What does this shift from production in Europe to production in China mean for broader economic dynamics?
Fidèle Ebia [00:09:02] Okay, let's say that my study or my research on APT value chain provide a window into the emergence of South South value chains today. In the case China Togo chains that are becoming globally dominated. I'm interested not only in how profit making is shifting to the global South, but also in the different structural dynamics that are accompanying South value chains among. Is the presence of traders like Nanette who take the place of the lead frames and are able to navigate turbulence global South market in a way or ways that lead frames cannot. Such trader driving South South value chains provide a glimpse into a positive future of global value chains.
Elisa Gambino [00:09:57] Thanks, and indeed the role of traders really cannot be underestimated in the context of South South value chains, especially when it comes to APT. And in the paper, you argue that there's new players from global South countries that have forced traditional players from the global North to adapt some of their strategies. So what does this mean for women traders and the market more broadly in the future?
Fidèle Ebia [00:10:27] During our recent research that you and I have conducted in Ghana in Togo on Chinese private entrepreneurs, we discovered that Chinese entrepreneurs have begun inserting themselves into the distribution chains of APT. It is now Chinese traders who are also importing containers of APTs to Lomi, which they sell at factory prices. Thus in undercutting the market for Nanet, this development is still at a very early stage. So it is not yet clear whether it will become dominant, but if it does, if Chinese become distributor as well as manufacturers of APT, this long standing and lucrative markets will be lost. To West Africans.
Elisa Gambino [00:11:28] And this is a very serious concern that you're right, absolutely came up so much during our work in this context. I'd like to also, before we close, I'd to ask you a bit about methods as well, because I think that your position as a Togolese researcher working in Togo is a super interesting one. So I wanted to ask if you could tell us a bit more about the methods that you use as well and how that has helped you in your research.
Fidèle Ebia [00:12:00] An interesting aspect of my research on APT has been the fact that I'm a native ethnographer, namely that I grew up in Togo, living the culture of APT and knowing APT from the inside. Why this has provided advantages, namely the familiarity with my object of study, it has also made some of the research more difficult. Togolese traders are intensively competitive with one another and some worried whether my research was not what I said it was, an academic study on my way to a dissertation, but rather a method for acquiring research markets information that will enhance my own career as cloth merchant. So you see, there are. Some advantages and some disadvantages to being a native ethnographer. It wasn't really easy for me to work with my Nanette in the Lome markets.
Elisa Gambino [00:13:16] Yeah, especially because of your previous role as a trader yourself, right? So before we close, I also wanted to ask you what is next for you in terms of your research and how does it relate to your previous work on the value chains of African print textile?
Fidèle Ebia [00:13:37] Thank you so much. I will continue my research on APT value chains and we pay close attention to the role that Chinese are playing on the distribution side of these chains. I'm also expanding my research on global south value chains beyond APT to explore whether the dynamics I have observed. In trader led APT chains are more widespread. For example, whether they also define the value chain of housing materials, which also originate in China and use cars which originate in Europe and the U.S. For example. So these are some of my, some point of my future research.
Elisa Gambino [00:14:32] That sounds great and I'm very excited to see what comes up and also to hear that there are still many connections between our respective research. So I'm excited to see your next steps. And for everyone listening, please go to GeoForum to read Fidèle's paper titled Colonial Threads to Made in China, Togo and the Restructuring of African Print Textile Value Chains. Fidèle, thank you so much for having joined us today.
Fidèle Ebia [00:15:00] Thank you, Elisa.
Fidèle Ebia [00:15:01] Thank you so much. Thank you, it's such a pleasure.