Although import products, the countless colourful patterns and designs of print fabrics have been shaped by African consumer demand to suit specific regional customs and tastes. As patterns of consumption are changing in an increasingly global world, consumer demand no longer has the same power of agency to make the fabrics locally relevant.

Consumer demand as agency

Where the previous section has attempted to demonstrate how specific local practices have evolved from globally traded cloth historically, this section is examining how these local practices in turn have lead to a demand for similar shapes, colours and patterns to suit such practices. Consumer demand, it argues, has acted as an agency for design participation…continue reading

Global mass consumption

How then is this currently changing in light of global fashion trends meeting local cloth traditions in rural African communities? And what is the role of emerging technologies in populating these trends locally? In rural farming communities of southern Mozambique…continue reading