This article was a shameful undertaking, and no doubt it will make a good read if expanded into book form. Nonetheless, rather than being concerned about why African Americans are wearing (rocking) African clothing, you should be more concerned about who is manufacturing the African fabric. Furthermore, you should be educating those of us who lack appropriate knowledge about our ancestral heritage, rather than treating us as though we just kicked your child.

www.africaimports.com states that “Most Africans wear Western-styled pant suits, shirts, dresses and shoes…others combine the old [African] and the new.” The site goes on to say, “For business owners, having a variety of wholesale African clothing is normally the best way to increase your sales and to keep your customers coming back for the newest styles.” The article made pejorative statements about global/diaspora Africans instead of directing those thoughts towards the small group that may have violated wearing traditional African cultural attire. However, those in business don’t seem to care one bit about why a person is wearing any of their clothing.

The article also slaps African Americans in their faces when it designated the wearing of the clothing as “fancy dress” without an explanation of the term. When many African Americans wear African clothing, it is an opportunity to dress up and represent our cultural heritage. Africans all over the globe should wear African clothing to honor those ancestors whose clothing were taken away from them during the horrors of the African holocaust of enslavement, the Maafa, the Maangamizi.

The question becomes, why don’t you wear the Ichafus (a traditional head dress) as a normative practice? Have you forsaken your traditional dress in order to appropriate European clothing? The article is correct when it states that we must give more thought to what we are wearing. The global African family needs to be more informed and respectful of our origin and present locations so that when the discussion and discourse takes place it will not be more contentious than cordial. Understand that we are all members of an African people whether we know it or not. And, who knows, those who paint on the tribal marks maybe expressing themselves on a spiritual level without being physically conscious of the fact. This article can be construed as an awl that adds yet another crack to the other obstacles to global African unification.