9rivermedia

  The invention of roller printing enabled Dutch fabric designers to replicate Indonesian batik. By 1852, the Dutch company Vlissingen & Company used its factory-produced textiles to barter during stopovers in West Africa.  By 1927, Vlissingen & Company had adopted the name Vlisco, and its products became widely recognized as Dutch Wax. African fabric markets have long celebrated the distinctive Dutch wax block-printed cotton fabrics.  Although the original designs incorporate Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Arabic, and European motifs, African women have used Vlisco fabrics as a means of expression.  For example, an unsung Sierra Leonean street trader in the 1970s wore a dazzling array of Vlisco fabrics as she sold deep-fried dough balls, bean cake, steamed bean puddings, and organic ginger beer to students at the Annie Walsh Memorial School, years before her own daughter attended the institution.  The Annie Walsh Memorial School, an all-girls secondary scho...

There is very little space, political or otherwise, for women to truly thrive in Sierra Leone. When they are not being locked behind bars and denied bail, as in the case of Zainab Sheriff, they are publicly defamed, bullied online, and body-shamed, as Marcella Macauley has repeatedly experienced. Many of these women are not merely participants in national life, they are contributors to Sierra Leone’s progress. In a country still struggling under the weight of corruption and weak institutions, they have helped push conversations about accountability, transparency, and social development forward. Yet time and again, obstacles appear in the paths of women who attempt to lead, speak, or challenge the status quo. This piece will not even attempt to unpack the full range of challenges facing women in Sierra Leone, like domestic violence, sexual violence, and systemic discrimination, because doing so would require confronting a reality that runs painfully deep. These issues have become so nor...