Ghanaian Fashion Stylist and model, Nana Kwasi Wiafe embodies being patriotic
As the founder of travel lifestyle brand ‘VERY GHANAIAN,’ he is leading a young crop of Ghanaians heavily invested in promoting the West African country through their craft.
The brand represents Wiafe’s love for his motherland, and his quest to consistently frame in good light the narrative about the country – and to a large extent the continent of Africa.
He is also the creative director of THOU ART KWASI, a styling brand that creates “high end fashion editorial looks and aesthetics that reflect the stories of brands and individuals.”
Based in Accra, Wiafe is signed to South African modelling agency, MyFriendNed.
He has worked with clients including Ozward Boateng, Vlisco, Diesel, Sarkodie, M.anifest, Dior, Amoako Boafo and Apple.
In 2020, he scored a gig with his biggest client yet – Beyoncé – doing styling work on the Shatta Wale-featured ‘Already’ video off the ‘Black Is King’ film which premiered exclusively on Disney +.
GQ caught up with him to discuss working on the ‘Already’ video, his vision to change the narrative about Africa on the global stage and a lot more.
GQ: Can you speak on the specifics of what you did regarding the Beyoncé and Shatta Wale ‘Already’ video?
NKW: My friend, Joshua Kissi reached out to me regarding this project and we were to shoot the Ghana section for the bigger vision of the whole project. My exact contribution was to style the models and the talents to fit the overall vision and storytelling that they were trying to do.
GQ: What kind of story were you looking to tell when you agreed to be a part of the project? What was your thought process working on this project?
NKW: My process goes hand in hand with the actual vision of the project. And the main vision of the project is to empower, and that is one of the things for me – to empower, to represent and to tell our story in the most authentic way. My process was to be able to represent that, and to be able to show that on that platform. To compliment that, I had to take into consideration, our culture, our history – certain things that go hand in hand with the story they are trying to tell. I had to put in styling items like beads, gold rings and things that connect with culture. It has to do with representation. It has to be empowering and reflect us pretty much.
GQ: What does it mean to you to showcase our culture on an international platform?
NKW: For me, it’s amazing. I have been telling my story in my own way without the international media seeing it. Now it being on an international platform like that means I have a bigger and better platform to show the world more of what we have. It is also the right time to show who we are as a people. Storytelling goes in hand with self-definition so defining ourselves and taking control of our narrative.
GQ: Can you speak on the significance of showing an international audience what you’ve been doing until recently on a relatively small scale?
NKW: Personally,it is huge for me. In the sense that I am that person that is super passionate about my people, telling their stories, changing the narrative, rewriting the narrative, breaking the picture that they paint for us. The West has always painted a picture of what Africa supposedly is. Starting out as a model, I knew to tell the story of self-love, self-definition and accepting one’s self. For me, it is about the impact this will have on people.
I set out to come into this industry to change certain things. I didn’t know how but I told myself I want to change certain stereotypes and stuff like that so this puts me right on the path that I need to be. From now going, it’s going to be about telling my story and impacting lives for the next generation to come.
GQ: You stated earlier that Joshua Kissi reached out to yourself, David (Boanuh), and Sharifah (Issaka) when he was contracted to work on the project. What’s your take on what it says about the need for Ghanaian creatives to have a community – not just as a word thrown about but means something in the sense of sharing ideas, working together on opportunities?
NKW: I feel the creative scene needs to change a few things as to how we do things – people doing things by themselves. Collaboration is the best way forward right now. You don’t want to be the only one doing things by yourself. You can do it by yourself but having other people on makes it much stronger. Collaborations and doing things by way of community brings the vision to a stronger point compared to doing it alone. It should be a collective effort - the example of a stick of broom compared to a bundle represents the effectiveness of working together. Keeping that connection is very important.
GQ: How are you taking advantage of this opportunity to make more inroads with your craft? What’s your advice on how the creative arts community in Africa can turn this into bigger and better opportunities considering the attention on the continent now?
NKW: What we need to understand is to believe in who we are and what we are doing here. What this shows and emphasizes is that we have a lot that we can build on as a people, and it is as good as anywhere in the world so we need to believe in ourselves, and do what we love doing, and keep showing our culture, and our people.
People outside will know that it is a glimpse of something that can be huge in the long run. We need to keep showing who we are, and the right people will come for it.
And with this opportunity, I am looking at working with top brands around the world, A-list celebrities, and creating more brands/spaces that will impact the lives of my people here.
GQ: What are the lessons you learnt being a part of this project that would forever be a part of you and shape your thinking, initiatives and whatever you’ve got going on? Can you share what lessons the Ghanaian creative arts community can learn to make the industry better?
NKW: Patience is very important. I am a very patient person but I still learnt patience on this journey as well. I still learnt the importance of research, the importance of connections, also the importance of unity and working together. Community is very important and representation matters.
We can’t do things anyhow, we have to be very conscious and intentional with everything we do. And I am so happy I could learn from people like Joshua (Kissi) – his craft, how he is always representing and trying to show Black people in the best possible way. And that has had some influence in my work, how I do certain things as well.
Professionalism – the fact that we were able to keep this for a long time without leaking it – that is professional. The fact that things had to be done in a professional way – in terms of ‘this is an idea that I have. I’ve sent you an email. This is the process. We have put the contract to it. How much are we taking? This is your fee.’ The due process of how things have to be done is taken into consideration and is done that way. That is something that the industry needs to pay attention to.
The fact that a friend wants to work with you doesn’t mean that you don’t have to have a contract or charge him or her for it. Yes, you could have a friend discount for you but send an email, a breakdown of what is required and sign a contract to protect each other so the international community will see us as serious because this is the standard out there. There is a release form for every image or everything that is going out on the project. You don’t take someone’s work and not credit them or say ‘this is my friend or we are in the same industry,’ let’s treat each other with respect. Work hard to get to the very top because we have the talent here, the energy, the people with the capabilities, the human resources, inspiration everything. Let’s change our attitudes in that regard.
I am very cautious of how comfortable something will look on someone – a talent or a model. Any person I work with, I want to know how the person feels about it. I have a certain human aspect approach to my work as well and these are some of the things I have learnt over the period and working on this project.
GQ: Any final words?
NKW: To the international community I would say it is great to work with the people on the ground when working on projects in their country. It helps with getting a better understanding of the ecosystem of the creative community and helps make the project better in that direction.
Also pay local collaborators the same as the international workers especially when the quality of value added to the project is on the same level.
Also, my brand ‘Very Ghanaian’ is a travel and lifestyle brand which is reinforcing and inspiring patriotism, identity and love for Ghana through tourism and garments. That is something that Ghanaians need to follow closely. We are trying to inspire Ghanaians to be as patriotic as they can, and to be able to love who they are, where we are from and embrace ourselves entirely. Also define who we are. Change the perception – because for me, the new Ghanaian is very patriotic, hardworking & law-abiding – when Ghanaians travel all around the world – we are the most hardworking, the most loving. There is a lot of praise for Ghanaians around the world - that is something we need to be proud of and let people know this is who we are.
I also want to add that self-definition is the first step to self-control so in order for us to control our narrative – we have to define ourselves. And in defining ourselves, what we think is ‘us’ is how the world would see us. They can’t come here and define who we are for us so it has to come from us. We have to define who we are so people can take that from us, and share it to the world as well.
Also team work makes dream work. I couldn’t have done it without the incredible team led by Joshua Kissi, David Boanuh and Sharifah Issaka.
Originally published by GQ South Africa on August 31, 2020
Comments