Nana Benz: The wax prints Queens of Lomé

In downtown Lagos, Nigeria, streets bustle with life and people hustling for their daily keep. Streets are lined with shops and stalls selling fabrics, including wax prints. Many of the traders are women with informed knowledge of the trade. This scene is replicated in major cities on the West African coast.

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Women have been instrumental in making wax prints an important part of Africa’s cultural identity.

Apart from being at the heart of the sales and distribution of the fabrics, they are mostly promoters for the adoption of the fabrics as “uniforms” at celebrations and events.

And in Togo, Nana Benz women are frontrunners and purveyors of wax prints and other textile materials.

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In their heyday of the 1960s to 1980s, the group of savvy Togolese businesswomen made their fortune in the wax prints trade and stood out for driving around in expensive Mercedes Benz cars.

The now famous group of businesswomen was first started by a group of 15 women, according to Nina Sylvanus, an associate professor of anthropology at Northeastern University in Boston.

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Gaining fame with their wax-printed fabrics and giving a boost to Togo’s economic development, they became known as the “Nana Benz,” a term combining the cars and the French word “nana,” meaning “woman.”

West African coast dominance

“They are the richest people in Togo. They control everything here. Even their Men are afraid of them because of their money,” said a Togolese market woman in the 1992 documentary God Gave Her a Mercedes Benz.

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Traders from far and near trooped to markets in Lomé, Togo’s capital city, many of them not only from Abidjan, Accra, Kumasi, Cotonou, Porto-Novo, Onitsha, and Lagos on the West African coast but also from Kinshasa and Libreville.

Sylvanus and other researchers attributed their successes and wealth to the monopolistic control of rights to unique patterns of wax prints.

They cornered the networks established by Yoruba traders that spanned from Lagos to Accra along the coastal corridor, selling “Yoruba and Igbo patterns” in distinct colours and patterns in Lomé.

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“Nana Benzes…created a powerful empire founded on a monopoly over patterns – manufacturers distributed specific patterns only to specific women,” Sylvanus said of the women. “A successful Nana could be the unique wholesaler for over 60 patterns, sold to traders from all over the continent.”

Benzes grind to halt

The devaluation of the CFA in 1994 and the liberalisation of the Togolese economy after the Cold War kickstarted the decline of the Nana Benzes, Sylvanus said.

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The devaluation doubled the prices of everyday items and pushed their affordability beyond the reach of the common people. The cheaper alternatives, mostly from China seeped into the market and further decimated the wealth of the women.

With Vlisco taking over Unilever’s United Africa Company—which had worked with the Nana Benzes—the exclusive rights given to the women were taken away. This further cut into their dominance in the market.

Dédé Rose Gameli Creppy, who died on June 5, 2023, is regarded as the last of the Nana Benzes.

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Enduring legacy

Last December, Togolese authorities announced plans to start a museum dedicated to the celebration of the women. They “contributed to the emancipation of Togolese women and left a solid mark on the political, economic and cultural history of Togo,” the country’s authorities said.

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In a sign of their enduring appeal, a Togolese musical trio, who pioneered a style of digital voodoo, called themselves “Nana Benz” and toured Europe in 2023 with songs championing a strong female identity.

And young Togolese women known as “nanettes” have also drawn on the heritage of famous businesswomen, with designs appearing on the catwalk destined both for local and foreign markets.

*AFP contributed to this article.

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