Woman builds fashion brand, recycling textiles, plastic bottles

Ngwa Akonwi Susan hails from the Mezam Division of the NorthWest region of Cameroon and owns a local fashion line known as Susan’s Artistry. The brand specializes in dying and tying, and the production of accessories like bangles, slippers, and tote bags, from recycled textiles and plastic bottles.

“We are specialized in recycling old cotton clothes, by giving them a new color, with our dye. Those who have worn out clothes bring them to us, to give them a new look, so they can wear them for a longer period, ” Susan says.

The norm for most residents of the NorthWest region of Cameroon has been to dump old clothes and textiles in the environment or burn them, and both methods are greatly discouraged by Environmentalists, given the hazards they cause.

Businesses like Susan’s, are quite instrumental in reducing the amount of fossil that goes into the air when waste is burnt. “Apart from creating and promoting our local designs, that spares us the expenses of using foreign brands, by so doing, we try to do away with what would have been lying about as waste in our environment.” The sixty-one-year-old woman reiterates.

Making money while combating pollution and indiscriminate waste disposal is a concept that many are yet to embrace in this part of the world, but women like Susan are proof of the fact that there is indeed value in what many terms useless.

Susan tells me, nothing is useless as she goes as far as fabricating plastic bottles into accessories like bangles. She formulates the liquid used in coloring her fabrics from kitchen wastes like avocado seedlings and turmeric peelings. “We use avocado seeds and some herbs, and these help in reducing production cost, given that the industrial colors are very expensive.” She says.

Susan’s Artistry has been in existence for more than ten years, now and the owner considers her craft quite necessary in promoting a sustainable world, providing employment and a source of livelihood to young people in her community. That is why she also passes down the skills to others. Her beautiful and organically dyed fabrics, were on display at a festival organized in Bamenda to valorize the traditional attire of the people of the NorthWest region of Cameroon, known as “Atoghu Festival,” that is how I met Susan.

By Mercy Kusi*

Mercy Kusi is a journalist working with State Media, CRTV North West region, with eight years of experience reporting in the same region on several topics. Mercy has a deep passion for environmental issues. She has spent the past three years reporting on climate change, sustainability efforts, and the impact of human activity on the natural world on the radio. Today, she brings a critical eye and a knack for storytelling to complex environmental challenges, making them accessible and engaging for a wide audience online.

Email: mercykusij@gmail.com