(upbeat music) - The first time I heard of Ankara or African wax print was when fashion designer Stella McCartney received backlash for using it in her spring 2018 collection.

Many African communities accused her of cultural appropriation, stealing something that isn't hers But also misrepresenting it by sending us down the runway on non-black models.

Ankara prints have become a symbol of African pride and culture but despite his popularity among this community this textile did not originate in Africa.

And so if that's the case, then the question is, is Ankara African?

(upbeat music) I'm hoping Mary Hark who teaches textile and fashion design at the university of Wisconsin-Madison will give me some insights.

- The history of these wax prints is really the history of globalization.

For all the evil and all the beauty.

Well, many things that are quite extraordinary came to be culturally, and one of those things is wax print.

- After colonizing Indonesia, the Dutch created Ankara prints.

The Dutch set out to imitate and ultimately replaced the Indonesia Batik patterns which is the textile design produced by using a wax and dye technique.

However, these Dutch-made prints failed at penetrating the Indonesian and European textile markets.

And so in the late 1800s, they were shipped off to West Africa.

- It's a fabric that was embraced by the West Africans and they caught on like wildfire.

So these fabrics started to be produced for the market in West Africa and they are West African.

- What we consider quality or good Ankara is 100% cotton fabric.

But they were these prints that resonated with a lot of Africans.

It was more like a tribal-like print.

- Minnesota-based fashion designer Gladys Ogunsegha, is a Nigerian American who incorporates her traditional textiles like Ankara prints into her clothing line, Embellish ALC.

(gentle music) Describe what like a tribal-print would mean for somebody who don't know.

- Tribal prints would probably be, they can be lines, they can be figures, they can be numbers, usually is a repeatable pattern on fabric.

Prints that look like they're telling a story which is something that is very near and dear to Africans.

There's a lot of storytelling in our culture, and our heritage.

I was raised in Nigeria where my grandma was a very industrious woman.

At a very young age, she had her own shops.

And so I was raised around a lot of different kinds of fabrics like Ankara.

So I got to witness a lot of different interactions with how we as people and as women really feel about fabric and material, but also the creation of it because I did get to go with her to the factories where she placed her orders.

And so, I feel like this is my culture in fabric and I just really wanna be able to share it with people and just have it, people feel like we feel when we wear it in the different forms that we do.

- Gladys tells me that since the adoption, Ankara prints have truly evolved, catering to and being shaped by the West African style.

But not only that, this fabric became deeply rooted in their traditions.

- In our culture, when you were doing a celebrations, like weddings and coronations and other celebrations like burials and funerals, we pick a fabric that everyone wears to identify as a member of your group.

And Ankara it just happened to be that.

So now you have lots of events and people not wanting to use the same kind of Ankara.

And it just picked up from there.

(gentle music) - All right, this is your dress.

When we have an African event, most of us will wear African dresses.

And African clothing, it's something that you cannot buy from the store already made.

- Natoma Jaiteh is originally from Gambia, West Africa but currently lives in Minnesota.

Here she designs and make dresses using our Ankara print.

- Thank you so much.

- You're welcome.

I'm glad you're happy.

- Oh yeah.

- We are used to custom-made.

Even back home, you'd buy your fabric and you take it to a tailor and then they sew it for you.

That's why when we go anywhere we go, we carry that with us.

(gentle music) The African clothing that I make, it keeps me reminded where I came from.

It keeps me connected to my people, and my culture.

Yeah.

Seeing how Ankara prints are embedded into the African culture and not just in the past but very much still alive in the present, I couldn't help but agree that despite its Dutch origin and Batik-inspired aesthetics, Ankara is fully African.

- That is the history of it.

And we recognize that.

It is very African in the sense that we saw something that seemed very like us and we loved it and we popularized it.

And then we changed it up a little bit.

And I think, the joy there is, we see the beauty in where it started and the journey it's taken to where it is today.

(gentle music) There will be a traditional wedding.

That's where the parents meet.

And his parents are basically saying, "Hey we have brought our son.

He wants to marry her."

And the parents kind of go back and forth on what have you brought for us?

It's all really just ceremonial.

- Yeah.

- Then he comes in with his friends and then this is where they beg.

- Him and all his friends?

- Yeah, oh, they beg with them.

And then after like a couple of hours, parents say, "Okay, go bring the bride".

And they asked me if I know him.

And I say yes, then they say, he's brought you many gifts.

Which one would you like?

And I go pick the engagement ring.

But at the center of all of this really is the traditions of the fabric and the cloth - very visible and rich and all its colors that people wear.

(gentle music)