At a Ghanaian wedding, funeral or church harvest, look around and you will see families dressed in matching prints: bold patterns of birds, leaves, letters or geometric shapes. Many of those fabrics come from GTP, Ghana Textiles Printing, a company that has produced wax prints in Tema since the 1960s. Its designs have names, meanings and loyal fans. Yet like the rest of Ghana’s textile industry, GTP has had to fight hard against cheaper imitations flooding the market.
Origins and named designs
GTP was established in Ghana in the 1960s, with links to the Dutch textile company Vlisco, which had been exporting wax prints to West Africa since the nineteenth century. Wax print fabrics are made using a process inspired by Indonesian batik. Wax is applied to cotton cloth, which is then dyed, creating patterns with a characteristic crackle effect.
GTP’s factory is in Tema, Ghana’s industrial city, where it designs and prints fabrics. Many prints carry names given by traders and customers, often linked to proverbs, events or sayings. Some designs have remained popular for decades.
Family cloth, traders and counterfeits
Families often choose a single print for weddings, funerals and celebrations, ordering large quantities for relatives. Women traders in markets such as Makola have long played a key role in selling wax prints and naming designs. Cheap imported fabrics, some copying Ghanaian designs, have hurt local producers. Ghana’s textile industry has shrunk since the 1970s.
Manufacturers have campaigned against fake prints that copy their patterns and labels. Governments have introduced measures such as tax stamps and campaigns encouraging people to wear locally made fabrics. National Friday Wear initiatives have encouraged Ghanaians to wear African prints on Fridays.
Fashion, jobs and mourning colours
Designers use GTP fabrics in modern fashion, from dresses to suits and accessories. The textile industry employs workers in factories, markets and tailoring shops. Local producers hope that pride in Ghanaian-made products will help them compete. For funerals, families often choose prints in black, red or dark brown, while white and bright colours are used for celebrations and thanksgiving.
Every GTP print starts with a design drawn in Tema. By the time it reaches a family funeral, it has usually been given a name that the designers never chose.