I had it on good authority from a number of friends who have
previously lived in or visited Ghana, that some of the best fun you can have in
the country is having clothes made at a fraction of the price you would spend
at home. A large part of the fun comes from browsing the many gorgeous batik fabrics
on offer (patterned cloths made using wax to build up blocks of colour) for
which Ghana is so famous. Find yourself a seamstress/tailor and ask them to
recommend how much fabric you need for your particular items in advance of
buying. As a rough guide (though this will very much depend on your size), two
yards should make a shirt or skirt, two-three yards should make a short dress.
For a very long dress you might need four yards, to be on the safe side.
Having had a seamstress recommended by one of my colleagues,
and having a few items in mind, I decided to dedicate Saturday to fabric
buying, so that I would have enough time to get everything made before leaving
(it can take a seamstress around a week to make a dress, and then sometimes
several fittings are then required to make sure the fit is perfect). I jumped
in a tro-tro and headed into Old Accra.
If you take a tro-tro to Accra it is likely you are going to
disembark at the chaos that is Tema Station. It’s a maze. It is probably better
not to try and understand it, but just go with the flow. There are people
absolutely everywhere, tro-tros everywhere and vendors all over the place
selling all sorts. There is an overpowering smell of sweat, petrol, sewage and
smoked fish, which you will find for sale just about everywhere, glistening in
yellow oil.
At the far end of the station a small rocky path will take
you out into a market place. Just about everything is on sale here and is worth
taking a quick look around (though be warned people in this area do not approve
of photo-taking). Keep moving quickly, though, or else you’ll be jostled to the
side by ladies carrying enormous loads balanced on their heads. The market
sells fruits, fish, homewares, basic provisions like toothpaste and washing up
liquids, clothes, and just about everything else (in the tro-tro home the woman
beside me had purchased an actual kitchen sink). There are also a fair few fabric
stalls to browse, selling materials by the yard. These are good options for
fabric buying if you only need a yard or two. However, for more choice head to
Makola Market…which is just what I did.
Makola Market is a short walk away from Tema Station. It covers
an enormous area and is made up of both outdoor stalls and several blocks of
shops. Again, just about everything you could need is on offer here. I was even
confronted by a man selling rodent killer and who demonstrated his product’s
effectiveness by waving in front of my face two dead mice tied up on a piece of
string. Lovely.
Makola Market is centred around Makola Square. You’ll know
it by the huge concrete arch in the middle (it looks a lot like half a giant
McDonald’s “M”). Immediately around the big arch are lots of stalls selling
clothing, bangles, soaps, homewares etc, as well as a few restaurants to sit
and enjoy a drink when Makola gets too much. I passed a stall selling Christian
music CDs. Strangely, rather than playing gospel, this particular stall was
blasting Johnny Cash through its speakers. I’m not entirely convinced that “I
shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die”, is entirely the Evangelical
message!
If you pass through the big arch and through the square you
will find yourself surrounded by shopping streets which, again, can be quite
overwhelming. If you are after fabrics you want the shops directly in front of
the square. Here you will find warehouses stacked from floor to ceiling with
beautiful fabrics of every colour of the rainbow and every possible design.
I found myself browsing the warehouses for several hours,
chatting away to all the salesladies as I went. One lady asked me if I would be
interested in marrying her son; another asked me my Twi name;* another
explained to me all about funeral fabrics;** and another, on discovering I was
British, proceeded to ask me just why the Queen refused to abdicate and made it
quite clear she hadn’t been a fan of the royal family since the death of
Princess Di.
After several hours of browsing and chatting I finally
settled on a selection of fabrics with which I intend to make a couple of
dresses and a trouser suit. If you do buy fabrics in Makola, be aware that most
of the stuff on offer at the warehouses (where you will get by far the biggest
selection) are wholesale only. This means you’ll have to buy a minimum of six
yards of each piece. There are a few places selling by the single yard but with
nowhere near as big a selection. Given the choice on offer, I would advise
buying direct from the wholesaler. Six yards comes in at around 30-35 cedis
(around £6-7). If you buy per yard, this is normally around 10 cedis (£2) per
yard anyway, and if you need 3 yards for a dress, buying in bulk from the
wholesaler doesn’t cost you too much more.
For anyone who wants to shop in a more relaxed atmosphere,
free from smoked fish and mice on string, there are a couple of places in Osu
that you could try. Woodin’s on Oxford Street stocks a range of high quality
fabrics and readymade items. You can also find some very beautiful designs in a
small store in Oxford Street Mall. Sarah’s Fabrics on 15th Street,
just off Oxford Street (opposite the petrol station at the northern end)
doesn’t stock batik, but is a good place to pick up lining and
also raw silk in a variety of colours, should African print not be your thing.
* In Ghana, many people are named according to the day on
which they were born. I was born on a Friday, so my Twi name is Efia.
** When someone dies, it is customary to have a whole new
outfit made for the funeral, typically in the colours red and black.
