Emancipation Support Committee launches ‘greatest African fashion show’

THE Emancipation Support Committee (ESC) launched its upcoming Ewa Afrika 2024 fashion show at its Emancipation House headquarters on Bergerac Road, Maraval.

The fashion show, with the theme The Folk Lure, will take place at Queen’s Hall, St Ann's, on June 2.

Executive chair of the ESC Zakiya Uzoma-Wadada said the show promotes African culture, which is important, as it encourages people to feel ensconced in their African traditions.

“It’s another way of us demonstrating pride in ourselves, pride in our culture, pride in who we are, as expressed through how we dress and how we present ourselves to the world...

“It is part of the deepening of our culture. It is part of ensuring that our people love and appreciate all that is part of their tradition, so that we can have humans in this society – particularly African people – with a better sense of love and understanding of self.”

Uzoma-Wadada said a lot of healing is needed as history continues to affect people’s lives and will continue to do so until they are able to properly “reconnect, transform, and redevelop” themselves – further affirming the need for cultural fashion events like Ewa Afrika.

“There are many people in our country who are not well.

"Culture is a healing instrument. There is so much healing that can come out of our culture. The sound of a drum, a dance, walking in your dignity in your own self, and with you own self-expression – these are healing things.”

The show’s creative director, Richard Young, touted Trinidad and Tobago as the helm of the “Caribbean aesthetic,” and heralded the event as being the “greatest African fashion show in the region.”

“The Afrocentric fashion of the region is represented really powerfully and robustly at our showcase.”

Young said this year’s theme intentionally plays on the word "folklore," as it is a “call on what is indigenous,” which he believes is organically happening worldwide and should be celebrated.

“Ewa Afrika is a celebration of what is African in style…This year, speaking with the designers, I am pushing the envelope for them to appreciate that they must reference our folk, our indigenous self, to create the style that is going to be for the future.”

Young said this year’s showcase will feature over 20 designers with an “Afrofuturist approach,” which he said will be theatrically presented.

“I believe in the griot tradition of West Africa. So I borrow from that tradition of telling stories, so that when you come to the show it is not just to see clothes. I leave you with some kind of sense of our centredness and referencing our African past – looking at what is our present state of selfhood and making a pitch for what is going forward.”

Port of Spain mayor Chinua Alleyne, FashionTT general manager Lisa Marie Daniel, Queen’s Hall managing director Garfield George, UNDP programme officer Isele Robinson-Cooper and the Tourism Ministry’s permanent secretary Videsh Maharaj all spoke at the event on April 18.

Local designers such as Robert Young of The Cloth and Dominic La Roche were also previewed at the launch.