GUIDE TO AFRICAN WAY OF DRESSING

So i was just listening to my music when some kids passed by me and I noticed what they were wearing. I could tell they were going for a Function based on what they were wearing. And it just occurred to me; in Africa we have these unsaid unwritten rule on fashion that we all follow. Nobody has ever said it but its general knowledge that we all have and follow very religiously. So in case u didn't know here is the first ever S.O.P😎 on African fashion, it can also work as a guide if you are a tourist in Africa or in case you want to settle in Africa.

I can swear 🤣🤣🤣 that 90% of Africans have these clothes both children and adults. Speaking as a female African Adult, these are the different types of clothes that we usually have in the closet or suitcases

1)Home wear, most times they are old, out of shaped and they just look the way they want. These ones are not attractive clothes at all. They are usually work, church or outing clothes recycled. (That's our recycling system, its very efficient)

2)Then we have work clothes, these ones depending on your profession its usually very professional and serious. These ones make you look very serious and people like me even sometimes look like we know what we are doing when we wear these work clothes. These ones  are usually purchased for the sole purposes of work

3) The other category we have church/mosque wear, yes adults have these too. Now depending on where u pray. The fashion will vary but the most common denominator on this cloth is that its usually very very descent, beautiful and colorful. We wear these ones mostly for prayers and the ones with rare fashion we also use it for other functions like burials or marriage ceremonies. If you see me on sunday, hmm u will think I am assistant angel Gabriel or something, because I will look holier than the pope.

4a) The last category we have is the party outfit, now this category is crazy. It can also be known as putting outfit because its what you wear when going for a party, to club or even vacation (now this last category 80% of us don't have it, vacation is not really our thing unless you call going to the village to visit your relatives vacation) Clothes here ranges from close to no cloth to full bulky one. People who go outing depending on the function will have all sorts of styles and clothes. Then there are these ones that are specifically for marriage ceremonies only. I usually read on different websites how brides in the western world feel out staged by a guest because the guest either over dressed or wore white🤦🏿‍♂🤦🏿‍♂🤦🏿‍♂. Every time I read such articles I pray such brides don't come to Africa because they might end up not attending their own wedding because in Africa your wedding is the time for us to flaunt our nice expensive designer clothes and yes it will be white too if we feel like it. We don't do it for malice, its just our way of life. As a matter of fact in most cases its grounds for the bride to brag and show off because beautifully dressed guests complements the beautiful decorations hence a beautiful album and it in one way or another shows the class you belong to. Yea in a lot of cases its a thing and most people just don't want to say it out loud but your guest is used a measurement of the class you belong to (we just don't know how to mind our business)

4b)Then you will have crazy people like me who have clothes used specifically for burials and nothing else (like how weird are you to make  dresses to wait for people to die). Just to let you know, here u don't necessarily have to wear black to a burial. You can even wear red if you want as long as you don't mind if they assume you are the witch who killed the deceased even if the deceased died from Malaria (in Africa we don't just die, somebody is always responsible for killing us and it can range from the president of the country to your village people)

Based on these am sure you are now wondering how we have very many clothes. Nope, we actually don't have very many clothes we usually have like 2-3 clothes in most of these categories except for home and work wears.

So there u have it, welcome to Africa

By

Lucky Obangaber