Saturday, August 24, 2013

What in the World is the President Wearing?

Symbols matter. And after looking at 250 images of Joyce Banda, Malawi's President who is now world famous as the second woman to lead a nation on the African continent, I notice that all those images and a thousand more have one thing in common: Joyce Banda's wardrobe hasn't changed in years. At first this may seem trivial because we think no one should care what the president wears, but this kind of thinking is naive at best. The fact that the president's fashion sense has not been the subject of nationwide discussion is not a sign of apathy on the part of the electorate, but a sign of content. They are satisfied with how the president dresses, and they are satisfied because they really do care about how she dresses. I assure you that if she went about in mini-skirts across this conservative nation, it would become abundantly evident just how much the people care about such a trifling matter. 

Moreover, if Joyce Banda's traditional outfit was an isolated incident, perhaps it would be justifiable to dismiss it as negligible. But it's anything but isolated. In fact, the fact that she dresses the same way all the time, everywhere, and  on all occasions means that her dress sense is deliberate, calculated, and orchestrated. I don't believe that the ubiquitous traditional dress, made and embroidered with local fabric of multi-colored and flowery patterns, and supplemented with a matching sash worn as an accessory over the shoulder like an emblem of honor, should ever be dismissed either as a sign that Joyce Banda lacks imagination or that it is a sign that she must really like dressing like that. I have no doubt that she likes what she wears, but even more importantly I believe she knows that her wardrobe is a powerful symbol, which is why she wears the same way all the time. 

Go see for yourself, for whether the image is of Joyce Banda sitting in her office at the State House, or sitting beside US President Barack Obama at the White House, or walking beside UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, or meeting IMF chief Christine Lagarde, or exchanging hugs with Hillary Clinton, or welcoming former US President Bill Clinton, or addressing the UN General Assembly, or giving the State of the Nation address before the National Assembly, or hosting a dozen African heads of state for a summit, or taking the oath of office, or visiting a widow in one of Malawi's impoverished villages, you will see that symbol on Joyce Banda everywhere, whether it be on a local platform or global stage. It's a fashion statement that is both private and public, both subtle and loud, and both personal and political. It's message is powerful and the kind that more and more Africans and their leaders need to be making to the rest of the world with the same kind of courage, poise, consistency, and resolve that Joyce Banda has shown in sticking to it at the risk of appearing regressive. The message is: In this world of mass consumption of things designed in the Silicon Valley and made in China, Africa will only have sustainable economic growth when Africa makes things that the world invests in, and the world will never invest in the production of African goods if even the Africans themselves would rather consume what is made by others than what they make themselves. So every time Joyce Banda appears in public, she not only elevates this traditional dress as being good enough to be worn by a president with a global audience and appeal, but she also wears something that says, Proudly Made in Africa, and that is surely more than other leaders elsewhere on the continent can say. She may not be much of a talker when it comes to articulating a plan for Malawi's economic growth, but to her credit, she walks the talk. Do you?                 

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