Alphadi during a fashion show at Musée Galliera in 2004.

© Alphadi.net

Alphadi immediately points out that fashion does not just cover couture, but also jewellery, leather goods, visual arts and interior design, all of which have a cultural impact, generating revenues and creating lots of jobs in Africa. Many are undeclared, but he is convinced that fashion has more resources than other creative sectors.

We have 54 countries in which to work to show that a cultural offensive can lead to development and create employment. Today, the situation is changing because Africans are starting to take responsibility, to wear African clothes, to eat African food and to decorate their homes with African paintings.

This is a good time for your offensive then?

Yes, but like all cultural offensives, you need finance and managers, something that Africa is often in need of. We want our work to go beyond our continent. We want it to be appreciated elsewhere, in Europe and in America. We want to establish franchises, licences and points of sale throughout the world. If Yves St-Laurent and Pierre Berger had not had financial backers like the LVMH Group, they would not have created the empire that they have left behind. Though we may have become major designers, we cannot grow in any other way. At the moment, we have to do everything ourselves – design, financing and distribution. Europe is not going to do it for us.

It is a case of casting the first stone?

Absolutely not! Our problems are our own. We don’t buy our own products, either from the Diaspora or from Africa itself. Since Obama’s rise to prominence, people are starting to realise that black people are capable, and that mixing races is something remarkable. This is something we understood 30 years ago. If we help each other in Africa, we will succeed, but the Diaspora does not have finance except in the USA. All cultural sectors are buoyant, in particular areas connected to fashion and beauty, such as textiles, couture, leather goods, jewellery, cosmetics and perfumes. Billions of dollars could be made in Africa, and goods could be exported as well.

Why do the economic and political powers show such reticence towards the cultural economy in poor countries, particularly Africa?

The people in power in our countries do not always have high standards. Some think of their own pockets. Even if those at the top are voluntarist, they are not necessarily well surrounded, and those working with them do not always have the public interest at heart. Africa is in a bad state today because many leading political and economic figures do not really believe in its true values. While fashion, cinema and culture make up 40 per cent of exports in the USA, Africa could achieve the same or even more because it is a continent where every city, region and country has a thousand ways of creating fashion and derived products. It is simply a matter of adapting them to today’s fashion, modernising techniques and creating industries to generate billions of dollars from within Africa. But those responsible for promoting African fashion are not doing their jobs. Our leaders generally wear western clothing in ministerial conferences, and when they wear traditional dress, they seem to see it as being part of folklore. I personally believe that African presidents and ministers should wear African dress when attending important meetings to set an example of dynamism. They go looking for money elsewhere, and it’s been right under their noses the whole time.

The offensive has already been won in Morocco, an African country which spares no effort in ensuring that the textiles and fashion industries are a reality. Algeria and Tunisia are getting there too. These are countries that have seen what Europe has achieved.

You have always linked northern and southern Africa. This rapprochement now seems to be making progress, as the crowning of North African filmmaking showed in the last Fespaco Film Festival in a clean break with the past.

Only because the south of the continent did not see the rest as belonging to Africa. But also because northern Africa considered itself to be European for a while. They even wanted to become part of the European Union. The Maghreb region must understand that it is part of Africa. They have been successful in their offensive, covering cinema, fashion and tourism. Today, they have to lead the way. Lots of our young people go to these countries to train because it has become difficult to go to Europe. The Maghreb is Africa’s gateway in terms of sustainable development. And the cultural offensive must go beyond politics.

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