We are walking with Ooni to empower women, revive African art & craft — Princess Ronke Ademiluyi
Princess Ronke Ademiluyi is the Founder of African Fashion Week, London and Nigeria, Adire Oodua Textile Hub, a global Ambassador of His Imperial Majesty, Ooni of Ife, Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi Ojaja II. In this exclusive interview with FAIZAT ADEBOYE AND FLORENCE AYOOLA, she speaks on the journey of the conception of the African Fashion Week, London and Nigeria, which has led to the acceptance of African fashion globally. Among her points of emphasis is how the good works of the Queen Moremi Ajasore (QMA) Initiative, in partnership with the Ooni of Ife, have continued to shape and transform the lives of women through empowerment. According to her, women needs to be driven by passion, and not money to record great success
What prompted you to create the African Fashion Week in London?
Wow! While I was growing up, I wanted to study fashion but then fashion was not seen as a lucrative profession. My parents frowned against it so I studied Law. Immediately after my Law degree, I went straight into the fashion industry. I established a couple of boutiques in Lagos called Ronkies. I was selling Western clothes and I think in mid 2010, I just got tired of selling Western clothes because I travelled to London and I had a Nigerian event you call “owambe”. I searched the whole of UK and i couldn’t find anything; there was no shops selling African outfits. Then, I thought to myself don’t we have African designers in London? I remembered when I was growing up, I grew up between London and Lagos—it was the same. We did not have any access to African designs.
If you wanted an African outfit then, you would have had to send a message back home, whether you are from Nigeria or Ghana or South Africa. So, I thought to myself, this is almost 20 years after and it is still the same, don’t we have African designers in London? I started my research and survey and I found out that we have hundreds of African designers scattered around London, UK, and Europe at large but there was no platform that brought them together; they were excluded from the mainstream fashion industry. So, that was how I started African Fashion Week London.
How was promoting African fashion in London?
Initially, while I started in London in 2011, the idea actually came about in 2010. I started telling people and they were telling me that nobody buys African outfits in London. The idea African Fashion Week London was questioned. What a name! It was questioned and I was told that I needed something that will sell. I was told to forget it, change the name and look for something else to do, but you know I went with my gut instinct. I had done my research and my survey. It is important that when you are going into a new business or a new terrain, you always do your research just to make sure the product or service you want to put out is something people want. So, I had spoken to many designers; I had spoken to a lot of young people in London and they were all hungry for African fashion and that was how I was able to do it. It was received very well. Initially, we had a venue for 750 people but over the next two days we had 4,500 people in attendance.
As regards African Fashion both in London and Nigeria, have your expectations been met?
I was the pioneer; I started African Fashion Week in London in 2011 and since then almost every city in the world now has an African Fashion Week. So, everybody received it. It was like a global fashion revolution; celebrities like Rihanna, Beyonce, all wear African outfits now. Michelle Obama wears a lot of Adire. So, it has been so receptive. The world has now accepted that African Fashion is here to stay. We are not going anywhere; even in Ghana now, they have started using fabric to make school uniforms. They don’t use the traditional Western fabrics for uniform anymore and I will love us to be able to do that in Nigeria as well to promote our own indigenous fabrics and it will also bring a lot of job creation as well.
What have been the challenges so far?
With every business, there are challenges. The first challenge that I will say I faced was that I was so passionate about the African fashion that for the first five years, I forgot to identify revenue stream. So, I had to sell my flat in London to sustain it. So, sometimes when you are starting a business, don’t become too passionate. You must always identify revenue streams; you must always identify how that business can become sustainable because if you are going to meet investors and you are telling them about the business and you don’t show how it’s going to sustain itself, it will put them off; they won’t want to invest in it. So, you must always be able to identify the revenue streams that are there. Another challenge that I faced as well was getting a team whose dream aligns with mine. A lot of people just saw the glamorous side of fashion. Oh! It’s a fashion week, we can do hair, we can make up but they do not see the nitty gritty of the hard work that is meant to go into it. So, now I have a brilliant team; a wonderful team but before then it took me years. I had to kept on changing, changing and changing my theme; that was another challenge as well. For me, I wouldn’t say money was a challenge because if you are passionate about something, money will always come. So, anything you want to do, let it be driven by passion, do not be driven by money. I have worked with many young people from models to make up artists to hair stylists, name it, a lot and I have seen that a lot of them are driven by money and not passion. Let your passion come first and money will always come in. Look at the owner of Amazon, who, is now the richest man in the world, he was driven by passion. He started from the garage of the house of his parents; that’s how he started and now he has become the biggest e-platform in the entire world. So let your passion come first.
What are your goals for Adire fashion in relationship with Yoruba culture and Nigerian content in the textile industry?
His Imperial Majesty, the Ooni of Ife decided that we should open this Adire Hub to promote our indigenous fabrics. He likes what is being done in Ogun state by his Excellency, Governor Dapo Abiodun, who is at the forefront of promoting the Adire of Ogun state and His Imperial majesty who is also a grand patron of African Fashion Week, Nigeria and London saw how Adire is always showcased on our catwalks. Adire has been something we have been doing for centuries in Osun state. Listen to the anthem of Osun; ‘Osun Ilu Aro’. ‘Aro’ started from Osun State but the craftsmanship of Aro – tye and dye in Osun state had gradually died so it was the Imperial Majesty’s interest for us to bring it back to Osun state in addition to what His excellency the Governor of Ogun state is doing in Abeokuta, joining forces to enable us to keep on promoting the craftsmanship and the Art of Adire making. Adire means Tye and Dye, ‘A n di, A n re’ we are tying and dying. We can also use Adire to pass so many messages. We have so many signs, so many symbols, so many meanings that can be printed on Adire.
Being the Legacy Ambassador of the iconic queen, Moremi, and co-founder of QMA initiative with his majesty, the Ooni of Ife kingdom, what are the challenges you faced while trying to advocate for the rights of girls and women?
I will say with the backings of the Imperial majesty, we haven’t had any challenges; we have just been promoting her legacy. We started by His Imperial majesty erecting the biggest statue in Nigeria of Queen Moremi Ajasoro and that was followed by cultural and leadership pageant every year for young ladies where we empower them with knowledge and the finances and the winner with a car as well. The winner also becomes a global ambassador; a young cultural global ambassador to his majesty; she becomes one of the entourage when his majesty goes on foreign trip. We also started with a book. We published a book on Moremi that is in Yoruba and English versions. We also did a musical drama, ‘Moremi The Musical’ to enable us reach out to Millennials especially those in diaspora who had never heard of Moremi. By the time we did that Musical, they were just so intrigued that we actually have an African Queen who did so much. So, we haven’t had any challenge, we have the support; we also have the Yeye Moremi, Chief Mrs Olufunsho Amosun who has also been continuously a pillar of support to us. Our next project is to have Moremi Microfinance bank where we can lend women money because women are the best borrowers; we always pay back. If you lend us money, we pay back. So, that is another thing his majesty is going to do, opening the Moremi Microfinance bank.
Where do you see this initiative, (QMA) in the nearest future?
It is just going to keep on growing. We are going to have a movie on Moremi; we are going to have a TV series on Moremi. We are going to have a Moremi foundation where we can continue to empower and support women. We want some of our Moremi participants in the future to become Governors, Senators, House of Representatives members and even to become a female president. We also have our ‘Moremi Say No To Rape Initiative’ where we support victims of rape. We encourage them to speak out. We have our Ambassador, Fatimah of ‘House of Fatima’ foundation. She was a victim of rape; she was raped by her stepfather from the age of 10. So, we supported her in publishing 1000 copies of her book that she can distribute to other people going through that same ordeal and they can learn from her. We also have our ‘Moremi Say No To Slavery’ where we work with victims of modern day slavery. I am sure you must have heard of young girls going to Oman, Lebanon, among others. So, when the victims come back, we encourage them to go to school, we sponsor them, we give them grants to start up their businesses and the first victim that we supported is actually going to graduate in business and entrepreneurship next year. So, we do a lot under the Queen Moremi Ajasoro Initiative and his majesty is just phenomenal. He is a quintessential leader of the 21st century.
What has been the response of women dignitaries towards this initiative; aside the Yeye Moremi, Chief Mrs Olufunsho Amosun, are there other women dignitaries who have expressed interest to be of help to this initiative?
Oh yes! They have. We have erelu Bisi Fayemi, the first lady of Ekiti State as well. She has established a Moremi home in Ekiti for victims of abuse and sexual assault. Moremi was a powerful woman. We all know the story of Moremi; we all know what she did. She wasn’t silent, she was courageous, she took a great, bold step. So, we use her story to encourage other women.
Do you think people have now accepted that women and men are equal?
For me, gender equality, I see it in two ways. First, I see it as the same right for men and women. If you have a female doctor and a male doctor, they should receive the same pay, same rights as well; there shouldn’t be any discrimination. They should have the same rights; that is how I see gender equality. However, I also see it in a way that, the male is still the head of the house you know. So as women, we must still do our roles at home. We must be a mother; we must be a wife and we must do what society expects us to do as a woman. However, in our places of work, we are entitled to the same rights as men. You know, a female doctor and a male doctor must be paid the same wages if they are on the same level.
Do you think women’s rights are still being violated as before?
Of course yes! Women’s rights are still being violated and that is why the Queen Moremi Ajasoro initiative under the grand patronship of his Imperial majesty is at the forefront of getting women to speak. We should not be limited in anything we want to be; we should attain to reach any height we want to reach. We should not be told that as a woman you can’t do this or that. Moremi’s era was over a thousand years ago; you can imagine what she had been told then, that you, a mere woman want to do this, you want to do that but she didn’t listen. She decided to take that bold step; she wasn’t silent. So, we shouldn’t be silent on issues that concern us and concern the society in general. We should be agents of change.
As an iconic woman who has achieved a lot, what do you have to say to young girls out there?
Put your passion before money, listen to your gut instinct; have an idea. Even if someone tells you that idea will not work, do it. African Fashion week is not the first thing I tried to do. So many other things before and after; some of them worked, some didn’t. If you tried something and it did not work, don’t be discouraged, see it as an experience or preparation for the next stage. So don’t get discouraged; don’t limit yourself; don’t be silent, try to achieve whatever thing you want to achieve; try to be a mentor to other young women as well. That is my message.
