Young Africans were given financial aid by their governments in the 1950s and 1960s to study in the West with the intention that they would return and help their nations develop. The educated elites of immediate post-independence Africa were made up of people who completed their education overseas and then returned home.
The demographics of these migrants have evolved throughout time to include professionals who migrate overseas after completing their education at home in pursuit of job and settle down there permanently. The “brain drain” – the exodus of human potential and skills – is undoubtedly one of Africa’s biggest developmental problems.
The growth of a country is seriously impacted by the exodus of highly trained workers from Africa, including physicians, nurses, engineers, and academics.
However, there is another aspect to the movement of professionals.
That is “brain gain” – the professional’s return migration – and “brain circulation” – the professional’s temporary movement across nations. This is poorly recorded, particularly when it comes to the nations of Africa.
Using a case study of the late Ghanaian fashion designer Kofi Ansah, we attempted to close this gap.
Due to the time and circumstances of his 1992 comeback, Ansah had a significant influence on Ghanaian fashion. In the UK, he had established a thriving profession over a 20-year period, and things were bright. The nation he returned to, however, was going through a significant political and economic transition. Ghana was making the transition from military to civilian authority. Political unrest was prevalent and connected to the economy’s decline after the implementation of structural adjustment programs.in the 1980s
Ansah, however, decided to move his fledgling career to Ghana.
His case serves as an example of how information and skills acquired by migrants through international job mobility may be turned into assets on the individual, national, and global levels. Returning immigrants have the power to modernize and globalize established enterprises.
Changing the fashion sector in Ghana
We are sociology, African studies, and geography academics who have been examining how geographical context, internal and external migration, and cultural and creative activity in Ghana are influenced. For the Kofi Ansah case study, we spoke with 31 Ghanaian fashion designers whose professional paths had been inspired by him both directly and indirectly. The material from social media accounts devoted to Ansah and his works is added to these interviews.
Kofi Ansah was from a and passed away in 2014
a talented family. Felicia Abban, his older sister, served as Kwame Nkrumah’s official photographer when he served as Ghana’s first president. Kwaw Ansah, his older brother, is a well-known screenwriter, director, and producer.
Kofi enrolled in the Chelsea School of Art in the UK to study fashion design after finishing his secondary education. He created a beaded outfit for Princess Anne, which earned him his first fashion headline. He then worked for a number of well-known British fashion companies, including as Gerald Austin and Guy Laroche, before opening his own studio in the heart of London in 1980.
Ansah went to Ghana in 1992 to gain new inspiration and “attempt to convince people that we can utilize our materials for different ways… despite his early success on the UK fashion scene… We
Just need to put some effort into it and make it marketable, he said in an interview.
The amount of fabric that could be produced locally utilizing strip loom technology was constrained. Additionally, their customer base was restricted by the customary clothing style. These were some of the characteristics Ansah aimed to alter. His contemporary designs made use of traditional African fabrics like kente and bogolanfini. His work with Woodin and the Ghana Textiles Production, two textile manufacturing organizations, to launch the selling of fabric in single yards rather than the customary six yards, was related to these stylistic modifications. This improved the cloth’s use and accessibility. It resulted in the creation of everyday clothing for both sexes, including skirts, blouses, shirts, shorts, and trousers. At Wooding, he subsequently launched ready-to-wear apparel.
