Mohammed Ali Abdul Somed, the General Secretary of the Smock Makers Association at Morshe market in the Northern Region in March 2019 stated that they regret not naming one of the smocks after the late former President, Jerry John Rawlings.
Smock popularly known as 'Fugu' in the local dialect is often named after their patterns, source of the primary material, and quite recently, substantive individuals in the society.
He said they regret this action because former President Rawlings was one of the first presidents to outdoor the traditional cloth to the world by wearing them for official functions.
“Currently, we are naming materials after dignified people around us, important people around...we have a wear named Lordina Mahama because she was wearing it, we have named it after her,” he said on the People & Places show.
“The material itself was in the system not quite long before they came to power but because she wore it and introduced it to the world, we named it after her. Samira Bawumia also came, started wearing a particular dress, so we named that after her.”
“Then, our maturity in selling our material was not up to that level, look at how he marketed the 'Fugu'. But then we never named it after him. But the kind of dresses he was wearing, the material is called 'Bonga', but we never took the pain to name it after him,” he explained.
Watch the video as published in 2019 below:
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