Accra, Ghana – On a weekday this December, the fabrics section at Accra’s frenzied Makola market was unusually quiet for the festive end-of-year period. Female traders with big woven hats sat in front of their stalls chatting and tiredly swatting away flies. Behind them, colourful African wax textiles were stacked in rows from ground to ceiling, waiting to be bought.
Vida Yeboah, one of the traders, said the stalls would normally be teeming with customers hunting for the latest designs to take to their tailors to cut up and sew into different styles from wide-mouthed A-Line dresses, to tops and skirts, for the New Year festivities. But Ghana’s shaky economy has forced many to shun that tradition.
