African Women’s Cultural Fashion and Styles

African Women's Cultural Fashion and Styles.

 Modern West African women, both in the diaspora and Africa continue to affirm their cultural fashion styles. Being a West African, Nigerian woman is not about wearing the African style of clothing or the braiding of the hair. Having had an opportunity to observe the lived experiences of many African women, I recognized the strong sense of cultural traditions, beauty, talents and resilience among these women. Despite the hash conditions in many West African countries and the exclusion African women are facing in different parts of the world they continue to strive for economic and social wellbeing. Modern Nigerian women, for instance, have become the pace of fashion, beauty and style. These women are utilizing their unique talents to reinvent new cultural fashion to serve and transcend the beauty of African women. Factually, new generation of women are more beautiful than the previous ones.
  
      The advancement in technology and gender equality are the major factors why modern women have more resources and freedom to beautify themselves, and continue to define their own aging processes.  Most of the material resources we are enjoying today were not available during our parents’ generation. For instance, when I was growing up in Nigeria in the late 70s, women were not encouraged to wear pants or trousers in public spaces. My mother was a primary school teacher in the 70s and mid 80s. As an academic professional, her wardrobe was limited to skirts, blouses and African attires. The general norm of many Nigerian societies at that time was not in favour of women who intend to wear any outfits outside the traditional dressing code. But, in my generation, women have more fashion styles and freedom to wear variety of styles. Moreover, many modern African men found women’s fashion to be very impressive and they often encourage their wife/partner to beautify their body!  However, some of the modern norms are grounded in our popular culture, which impart placed more emphasis on female body! As a result, women are subjected to confirm to these norms and expectations.

By Nekpen Obasogie