Created in Hong Kong in the 1960s, this carryall bag migrated to African cultures in the 1970s. In South Africa, it is called the Mashangane bag. In Namibia, it often signals someone has traveled for a funeral. In Zambia, it is known as the ukwa. Across West Africa, it carries a heavier name:
The Ghana Must Go bag.
In 1983, Nigeria expelled approximately two million undocumented immigrants. Nearly half were Ghanaian. Families had only hours to leave. They packed everything they owned into woven, striped nylon bags, cheap, durable, and large enough to carry a family’s life. For millions of Africans, those bags became symbols of displacement, survival, and memory.
Today, they can still be purchased across southern Africa, and many other countries, for just a few dollars. In 2007, Louis Vuitton released a leather version of the same bag as part of its Spring/Summer collection, retail price: $595. Today, resale prices reach more than $2,000. Louis Vuitton described it as a “play on high and low.”
The Ghana Must Go bag is not an isolated example. Louis Vuitton’s Damier Ebene pattern echoes centuries-old African textile traditions. Its monogram reflects motifs long associated with the Kwele and Kuba peoples of Central Africa. In 2012, the fashion house released a Maasai-inspired collection featuring the iconic Shuka cloth without acknowledgment or compensation to the communities whose cultural traditions shaped the designs.
Fashion scholar Dr. Erica de Greef of the African Fashion Research Institute named it plainly, “Global brands want the appeal of African style, but they rarely give credit or payment to the communities behind these designs.”
Obinna Obioma worked with designer Chioma Obiegbu and fashion stylist Wuraola Oladapo as reverence to create the pieces in slides 3-7 to explore the themes of migration, displacement, and cultural heritage by transforming the iconic “Ghana Must Go” bag into high fashion.
The Ghana Must Go bag carries the memory of forced migration. They are objects that carry a home and act as a means of survival for one who does not have much. Louis Vuitton transformed that memory into a luxury accessory. That isn’t just fashion, It’s one of the oldest business models in history.
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Photography: Obinna Obioma
