The article begins by introducing the reader to a
certain category of women in Ghana’s Ashanti Region which are called preman. A preman, which in English
translates to playman or playboy, is a very expensive type of woman. She wants
to be seen at every social occasion dressed gorgeously in the latest most
fashionable styles. The article then explores the relationship between the flamboyantly
fashionable behavior of the preman
and the long-established Asante cultural practice of potawa, visual and verbal assertions of superior status.
Hightimers
and Asante Competitive Display
Funerals are at the center of the Asante life.
Fridays and Saturdays are dedicated to the observance of customary funeral
rites. Towns and villages throughout the Ashanti Region are filled with men and
women dressed in mourning ensembles made of red, black, and brown textiles. These
funerals constitute totalizing events.
This refers to events that touch on almost every dimension of social life.
These funeral events bring together great numbers of extended family, friends
and colleagues and are considered high-visibility occasions or fashion
showcases where one will see prestigious textiles sewn into the ensembles worn.
It is at these events that you find a high concentration of preman, sometimes they even attend grand
funerals of complete strangers to have the largest possible audience.
Imporance
of Dressing Well in Asante
The Asante are always concerned with dressing well
as a means of gaining social prestige. In the Asante Region’s capital, Kumasi, there
is an ongoing sense of social accountability maintained by regular face to face
interaction because the city is “like one big village”. This adds a strong
social pressure to dress well and often beyond their means.
There are terms coined by the Ashanti to refer to
women as fashionable non-fashionable women. “O pe laif” is used to compliment
women who dresses fashionably while the opposite, “o ye atetekwaa” is regarded
as an insult and means the woman doesn’t like to dress well all the time. There
is also pepee which refers to a person who doesn’t dress well because of
extreme frugality.
Special
Significance of African-print Cloth
Women of the Ashanti
Region participate in a unified system of value in respect to ensemble fabric
and style. Women’s ensemble fabric are broken into two basic categories ntoma (cloth) and material. Ntoma is an umbrella term for three highly valued
textiles; kente, adinkra, a cotton cloth stamped with symbolic designs, and a
factory produced fabric known as African-print cloth with symbolic imagery. The
term material refers to all other factory made fabrics aside from African-print
cloth.
Relationship
between Fabric and Ensemble
There is a disctinction
of value between the two categories of ensemble fabric, ntoma and material.
Ntoma fabrics are used only for women’s prestigious ensembles while materials
are relegated to Western-style ensembles comprised of dresses or skirts and
tops. “A woman’s selection from among these three categories depends on the occasion
and on her stage of life”.
African-print
Cloth as Women’s Wealth
The accumulation and
wearing of prestigious African-print cloth is considered emblematic of female maturity
and financial well-being. Due to its historical value as a circulated commodity
and form of currency, cloth is regarded as a form of wealth.
Women’s
Cloth Wealth and the Asante Display Imperative
Women’s dress in the
Ashanti Region begins receiving scrutiny once she reaches adulthood, marries,
and bears children. If a woman fails to wear good-quality African-print cloth ensembles,
she is laughed at or ridiculed. Most women are familiar with the current market
value of African-print cloth and can differentiate between prestigious cloth
and cheaper grades of locally produce cloth. The women expect men to provide
gifts of cloth and clothing to help them keep up their appearance, and the
women often spend a significant percentage of their income on it as well. According
to Asante women, “A good husband must try to help his wife acquire good-quality
African-print cloth”.
Fashion
as Status Seeking Display
Fashionable new styles
develop and spread rapidly throughout Kumasi. Currently, there are two
categories of kaba ensembles; simple
and fanciful. Simple styles are modest and ladylike. The women use better
quality cloth for these styles because they will remain in fashion for a long
period of time. Fanciful styles are more distinctive and intricate. Less expensive
wax-print cloth is used for these relative short lived styles.
Fanciful styles are
symbolic of a woman’s wealth because they are a lot more expensive to sew due
to the intricate detailing and expensive decorative materials. Also, it
symbolized a woman’s wealth because they are willing to spend more money on an
ensemble that will be short-lived.
Along with ensembles, a
woman’s ideal body shape is valued in the Ashanti Region. A plump, rounded
woman is considered visible evidence of a woman’s inner state, indicating
wealth, a good marriage, and a peaceful state of mind.
Fashionable
Display and the Controversial Preman
Not all women in the
Ashanti Region participate in dressing extravagantly. Some view it as being
wasteful and a burden, not a status-seeking opportunity. Others view preman as a scandalous type of person
with revealing necklines and slit skirts. Wearing revealing clothes leads
others to criticize premans because
they behave like prostitutes.
Conclusion
As Ghana’s economy
worsened, women’s acquisition of African-print cloth became limited. By 2007, a
new cheaper version of African-print cloth from China enabled women to continue
wearing fashionable African-print cloth.
Status and Dress
Status and Dress
Textbook stated that “the concept of fashion relies on
people wanting to dress like other people, or more
precisely to emulate others
though dress” (including clothing, shoes, accessories, and hairstyle). We
smoothly accept the appearance of respectable fashion pioneers who wear and attach
some new pieces ahead of trend. And, we try to find its identical items in
order to receive benefits (rising social status) from reflecting their
lifestyle to our own. But, once your fashion friend, so to call a fashion
competitor, appears with the ‘center of trend’ items, you may feel jealous to
his/her ownership or anxious about taken status as a fashion leader. Thorstein Veblen’s
classic theory of conspicuous consumption suggests that every person appeal one’s
status through visible evidence of their affordability of luxury goods. Fashion,
what you wear occasionally, talks your status, the position in a social
hierarchy.
In the history of fashion, one’s knowledge knowing
appropriate wear gains social reputation as a professional at certain field. So
if you want to be successful, you have to dress appropriately, such as wearing
suit and tie to business interviews. But, at recent business scene, wearing
inappropriately often earns
respect from the public. Recent Harvard University
research which published 2013 and discussed about Red
Sneaker Effect states
that wearing appropriately is wrong way to get ahead of life. Other study based
on this Harvard report finds out that a person who wears T-shirt and jeans and
has a beard look more confident and successful than one wears suit and tie. This
is because of changing occupational majority and minority ratio. At the beginning
of 20th century, only about five percent of US population engaged in
tech business while majority was factory worker and farmer. Suit and tie represented
his social status that no one else has. But, now office jobs are most common
occupation, and people don’t receive any special impression by whom wearing
business attire. On the other hand, by increasing numbers of successful entrepreneurship
in tech field, self-made millionaire at home-base job who does not need to wear
suit and tie represent current confident and successful individual. Here,
ironical flip of ‘fashion talks status’ exists.
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