Who Owns Ankara? The Fight for Cultural and Economic Control
Ankara has become a visual shorthand for African identity. Bold, expressive, and symbolic. But while the fabric is deeply rooted in cultural expression, the question of who owns its production, profits, and meaning remains contested.
At the heart of the issue is a power imbalance. Despite being popularly known as “African print,” most of the world’s Ankara is produced by companies based in Europe or Asia. Vlisco, a Dutch company established in 1846, remains one of the most influential producers, holding significant control over design output, distribution, and pricing. Meanwhile, African designers and textile entrepreneurs are often left competing in a saturated market with little access to the same manufacturing scale or legal protections.
Colonial Roots, Global Reach
Ankara’s origin lies in 19th century Dutch attempts to mass produce Indonesian batik using wax resist printing. Rejected in Southeast Asia, these fabrics were rerouted to West Africa where they found new life and new meaning. Over decades, local communities transformed the cloth into a canvas for cultural storytelling and personal style. But while the meaning became African, the profits often did not.
Read: “Ankara Wasn’t Born in Africa—But Africa Made It a Legacy” for more on its origin and cultural transformation.
The Vlisco Question
Vlisco’s presence is both iconic and controversial. On one hand, it has provided quality fabrics and recognizable designs for generations. On the other, its continued dominance raises ethical concerns about economic extraction and cultural gatekeeping. As African designers increasingly question the legitimacy of a non African company owning such a central stake in the industry, debates around cultural ownership have intensified.
Who should control the visual vocabulary of a culture? And who should profit from it?
Design, Ownership, and Power
In recent years, there’s been a surge in African designers developing their own textile prints and resisting reliance on foreign suppliers. Labels like AAKS, Maxhosa, Ziva Lagos and Emmy Kasbit are not only creating their own visual languages, but also building local supply chains that employ artisans and preserve indigenous techniques.
Still, challenges persist. Producing textiles at scale requires capital, machinery, and access to raw materials. Resources that remain out of reach for many creatives across the continent. Without policy support and regional infrastructure, the power imbalance is unlikely to shift.
Cultural Heritage or Open Market?
Some argue that Ankara, having been absorbed into African cultural life, should now be protected like heritage art or indigenous knowledge systems. Others push back, suggesting the fabric’s transnational roots make such protection legally complicated.
But UNESCO has set a precedent for recognizing cultural expressions as intangible heritage: music, language, crafts. Could Ankara qualify? If so, who would be its custodians? How would that protection extend to design variations, especially in a global market where replication is easy and copyright enforcement is rare?
One of the biggest obstacles for African textile producers is intellectual property law. In many African countries, IP frameworks are outdated, expensive to navigate, or simply underenforced. As a result, even original fabric designs are vulnerable to copying (often by larger manufacturers overseas with little consequence).
Without structural reforms, African designers will continue to play catch up in a global market that rewards speed and scale over authorship.
What Happens Next
The future of Ankara will depend not just on creativity, but on policy, partnerships, and platforms that centre African producers and protect their work. Cultural authorship means little without economic control.
To reclaim ownership, the continent must invest in its own textile infrastructure, create enforceable IP laws, and support the designers who are already building alternative models from within.
Ankara is no longer just a fabric. It is an industry. The question is: who gets to lead it?
