After more than a decade of promoting Nigerian and African fashion in Los Angeles, organisers of the Ankara Festival Africa are turning their attention to Nigeria, with plans to establish Lagos as the starting point for a wider expansion across the continent.
The festival, which began in Los Angeles in 2010, was created to promote African culture in the diaspora through fashion, music and entertainment. Organisers now say the growing global visibility of African fashion and music presents an opportunity to bring the platform back to where its cultural story began.
Peter Efezokhae, convener of Ankara Festival Africa, Los Angeles, said the festival had initially focused on Nigerian designers before expanding to creatives from other African countries.
‘We started with Nigerian designers, we had to open it up to other African designers,’ Efezokhae said at a press conference ahead of the Lagos edition.
According to him, the festival’s original mission was shaped by the limited visibility of African culture in Los Angeles and Hollywood when the event began.
‘At that time, African fashion wasn’t popular where we are in Los Angeles and in Hollywood,’ he said, noting that African music and fashion have since gained significantly greater visibility internationally.
Efezokhae said the organisers now believe that part of their work in the diaspora has created an opportunity to bring the platform back to Nigeria.
‘I think it’s important for us to now bring it back home where everything started,’ he added.
The Lagos festival is expected to go beyond a conventional fashion show, incorporating music, food, art, interior design, hospitality and other creative activities.
Laura Udoh, co-convener of the festival, said the Lagos edition would create opportunities for creatives and businesses to connect, collaborate and showcase their work.
‘Aside from the fashion show, which definitely has to be there, the food, the culture, and the place would form part of the experience,’ she said.
Udoh added that music would also be a major component, alongside games and opportunities for participants to network and do business.
Isi Atagamen, who is also a co-convener of the festival, said the aim of the festival is to look beyond fashion to create a broader platform for the creative and hospitality industries.
The plan, she said, is to bring together art, music, fashion and hospitality in a single space where practitioners can showcase their work, build connections and access new opportunities.
‘We want a space where the art and hospitality industry can come together,’ Atagamen said.
The organisers also want the Lagos platform to serve as a bridge between African creatives and the diaspora.
According to Atagamen, the festival will provide an avenue for talent from West Africa to gain visibility among audiences and industry players connected to Los Angeles and the wider diaspora.
The expansion into Nigeria comes as Ankara continues to evolve beyond its traditional use as clothing material.
The festival’s concept document describes Ankara as a cultural medium that has moved across generations and social classes, appearing in fashion, art, design and other forms of creative expression.
The organisers say their ambition is therefore not simply to stage an annual fashion event but to create a platform that documents cultural stories, creates opportunities for creatives and encourages new interpretations of African heritage.
According to the organisers, they are not interested in preserving culture by putting it behind glass. ‘We believe culture stays alive when people continue to use it, question it, reinterpret it and make something new from it.’
For Efezokhae, the festival’s origins were also linked to a desire to change the way Nigeria and Africa were represented in the diaspora.
He recalled that when he moved to the United States in the early 2000s, stories about Nigeria in the diaspora were often dominated by negative narratives around fraud and poverty.
Rather than ignore those realities, he said, the festival sought to put greater attention on the music, fashion and films coming out of Africa.
‘We can’t change everything, but we start in our own little way,’ he said.
Over the years, the Los Angeles festival has featured designers from several African countries and attracted entertainment acts, according to the organisers. Its most recent edition also brought together designers from Burkina Faso, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Senegal and Ghana.
Efezokhae said the event had recently completed its 16th year in Los Angeles, with Hollywood celebrities and media organisations attending the latest edition.
The Lagos expansion is now intended to become the next stage of that journey.
The festival’s organisers say they eventually want the platform to move beyond Nigeria into other African markets and, ultimately, connect African creativity more directly with the global diaspora.