Textile queen Maman Creppy has died: the last of West Africa's legendary wax cloth traders has left her mark
Dédé Rose Gamélé Creppy, who has died aged 89, was one of west Africa’s most influential wax cloth traders.
- Dédé Rose Gamélé Creppy, who has died aged 89, was one of west Africa’s most influential wax cloth traders.
- She was the youngest, and the last living, “Nana Benz” – the legendary first generation of women cloth traders from Togo.
- Wax cloth was a European adaptation of a classic Indonesian batik hand printing technique which created designs using hot wax.
- The cloth was introduced to west Africa by Dutch and English textile manufacturers in the late 19th century.
From beads to cloth
- So, once she had acquired a small trading stock, she switched to cloth.
- As Maman Creppy accumulated more capital, she switched to English wax-prints from Arnold Brunnschweiler & Company (ABC) and later to Dutch wax cloth from Vlisco.
- Maman Creppy became a Nana Benz – one of the super-wholesalers of wax cloth.
Nana Benzes boom
- Nana Benzes therefore became a key part of the wax print trade and enabled the Dutch to penetrate other African markets.
- The Nana Benzes also had a monopoly over patterns – many of them unique.
- It was their effective monopoly over pattern rights that garnered the Nana Benzes unparalleled wealth.
- The Nana Benzes soon established distribution rights for these classic designs from colonial firms, such as Unilever’s United Africa Company (UAC).
The downfall
- The end of the Cold War and the democracy movement that liberalised political and economic spaces had serious consequences for the cloth trade.
- A devaluation of the CFA franc (by 50%) in 1994 turned an everyday consumer good, wax cloth, into a near luxury almost overnight.
- To add to the demise of the Nana Benzes, Chinese counterfeits entered the market in the early 2000s.
Maman Creppy’s legacy
- Like many of her older peers, Maman Creppy was married but lived independently with her children, whom she would later send to study in France; she owned a property in Lyon.
- The legacy of Dédé Rose Gamélé Creppy is preserved in her daughter’s work.