How did your idea to produce high-end fashion in Rwanda originate?
Although Africa is home to almost one in five people globally, the continent contributes less than 5 per cent to the global apparel market revenue. The garment industry of Rwanda, my home country, is nascent. Since Rwanda is landlocked and without significant resources, its industries ought to be transformative, maximising the value addition for everything imported. With over two decades of experience in the garment industry, I long wanted to create a global fashion brand rooted in Africa, a brand that stands for sustainability and quality. Asantii has become a catalyst brand for fashion made in Africa – we collaborate with African designers, source African inputs and manufacture in Rwanda. Rwanda has a good chance to become a competitive location for manufacturing high-end fashion.
Could you share some insights into the materials and design elements you prioritise, and how this reflects the cultural heritage of Africa?
Asantii fashion is inspired, designed, and made in Africa. As much as possible, and increasingly so, Asantii uses materials sustainably produced and transformed in Africa. For example, we source textiles made of certified organic cotton from Morocco or viscose from certified sustainable forestry in Madagascar. Asantii embraces traditional African techniques, such as Faso Dan Fani, an artisanal cloth woven in Burkina Faso. As for our design elements, for example, the seam pattern of one of our quilted jackets shapes the Abode Santann, the “all-seeing eye”, an Adinkra symbol from Ghana. Other garments have the Akuaba imprinted, the Adinkra symbol representing feminine energy and fertility. Asantii sometimes applies beadwork made by members of a South African non-profit cooperative or embroidery hand-made by a Rwandan cooperative. Notably, all of our garment items have African names, such as our shirt Urembo (“you are beautiful” in Swahili), our dress Selma (“peace” in Amharic) or our trousers Dikamba (“friend” in Kimbundu).
What does your brand Asantii stand for? What is your vision for the company?
Asantii is derived from the Swahili word for “thank you”, a subtle message through fashion to thank a continent that has given the world so much. Our brand values are pride, wisdom, and gratitude. Pride is the emotional part of the brand, the pride of Africa’s wealth of cultural heritage, the pride of our designers, collaborators and workers, and the feeling when wearing Asantii. Wisdom is the sustainable part of the brand, our industry knowledge, our artisanship, and our invitation to slow fashion made in Africa. Gratitude is the ethical part of our brand, embracing the spirit of Ubuntu, “giving back”, our belief in shared humanity, prioritising the needs of our workers and their families through corporate social responsibility, and supporting our designers through capsule collections. Our vision is to transform the fashion business and create value in Africa.
TT CommunicationsWhich challenges have you faced when you started to manufacture premium fashion in Rwanda?
First and foremost, Rwandan garment workers need to enhance their skills. Did you know that one in two Rwandan tailors does not receive formal vocational education but informally learns their trade from peers? Even those who did will quickly realise that curricula are often not aligned with industry needs. As a result, the technical and social skills needed to produce premium fashion are hardly available in Rwanda. There are other challenges, too. Since we are sourcing as much of our inputs as possible from Africa, logistics and supply chains have been a nightmare. They even limit our options: knitwear and other technical materials, for instance, are not yet produced in premium quality in Africa. Buttons, zippers, labels – they all must be imported. Another challenge often overlooked is the lack of exposure. When a manufacturer in Italy shows premium fashion to new employees, chances are that they are already used to the quality of the product. In Rwanda, no such benchmark exists. Most Rwandans have not been exposed to premium fashion, neither as manufacturers nor as consumers.
The reward of our journey has been so much higher than the challenges, though. Seeing people improve, seeing them in good spirits – from the production line to the fashion house and management – seeing bright minds who simply missed proper opportunities, seeing to where we have progressed in little time, receiving compliments for our craftsmanship – that gives you an idea of what can still be achieved.
You mentioned the lack of adequate skills, among other challenges. What does it take to produce premium fashion?
It takes a wide set of technical and soft skills to produce premium fashion. Typically, the skillset of industrial garment workers is regularly assessed and ranked on a scale ranging from E to A++. To successfully work in fashion manufacturing, a worker should at least rank at A. At C, for instance, the highest rank you would widely find in Rwanda, workers are able to change damaged needles or adjust the thread tension. At A++, they can set daily targets and stitch full garments. Ranks do not only depend on capability, though, but also on how many machines and operations a worker mastered. Ranks also depend on efficiency, on how quickly a worker performs certain operations and how low the rejection rate is. Importantly, workers will only progress in ranks with certain soft skills which increase in complexity progressively. Learning about sexual harassment at the workplace, occupational safety and health, and acquiring problem-solving skills along the way are important factors in order to progress within the ranks.
How has Invest for Jobs been helping your company in overcoming the challenges you described?
Our development partnership with Invest for Jobs started in March 2023 and will last until February 2026. It has enabled us to launch and run an on-the-job fashion manufacturing training programme – the first of its kind in Rwanda. We contracted international industry experts, such as pattern, sampling, sewing and production technicians. Unfortunately, their level of expertise cannot be found in Rwanda yet. In total, we will train at least 360 individuals, 70 per cent of them women, and will offer at least 300 of them a decent job in the company upon graduation. The programme inivites applications from individuals with and without prior garment manufacturing experience, and matriculated fashion students. As the programme facilitator, of course, we hope to employ some of the best graduates ourselves, but all trainees are free to continue their careers elsewhere.
Without the partnership with Invest for Jobs, we could not have launched the training programme. Asantii was just established in 2022. We would have had to contract fewer experts and admit a much smaller number of trainees, taking only those with the highest skills. With the extensive training programme, we believe it will significantly promote Rwanda’s garment workforce, helping Rwanda to become competitive with other global premium fashion manufacturing locations. The partnership empowers a first generation of highly skilled Rwandan garment supervisors and trainers. We are paving the way towards the African, conscious way of fashion manufacturing we are envisioning.
Pink Mango Asantii Ltd is supported by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in the context of the Special Initiative “Decent Work for a Just Transition” (Invest for Jobs) on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).