By Katrina Manson
1 hour, 46 minutes ago
Adama Kai, a fashion designer trained in New York and
Paris, organized the photo-shoot to promote her new store and
company, Aschobi Designs. The 25-year-old has eschewed job
prospects in the developed world to come home and follow her
dream.
"Maybe I have more opportunities as a designer over there,
but I'm making a bigger statement over here," said Kai, who was
born in New Jersey but moved to Sierra Leone shortly afterwards
and lived there until she was four.
"In the same way that Ralph Lauren stands for America,
Chanel for France, and Versace for Italy, I want Aschobi to
stand for African fashion," she said.
Her store is tucked between a small printers and a
newspaper office in hilly Freetown's hectic downtown.
"I know this is the last place you'd expect to find haute
couture. But I want to replace all of this darkness of the past
with beauty," she said.
Sierra Leone, ranked the world's least developed country by
the United Nations, is recovering from a 1991-2002 civil war
that shocked the world with images of drugged-up child soldiers
hacking off villagers' limbs with machetes.
An estimated 30-50 percent of skilled Sierra Leoneans fled
the conflict, in which 50,000 people were killed.
"Everybody thinks I should be in Paris, London or New
York," said Kai, who attended the same fashion school as
designers Marc Jacobs and Donna Karan. She worked in New York
as a styling assistant on Flaunt magazine and later handled
creative portfolios for a management agency.
"I've given up a lot to be here and I miss Paris and the
fashion life in America. But this is really important to me,"
said Kai, who launched her business in January.
"This is my only job. This is my life actually."
HOMEWARD BOUND
Sierra Leone may be one of the world's poorest countries
but President Ernest Bai Koroma said in March foreign investors
were showing fresh confidence and the former British colony
could become a leading investment destination in West Africa.
The economy is expected to grow by 7 percent this year,
after between 6.5-7 percent last year. But around 57 percent of
its people still live on less than $1 a day.
Most of Sierra Leone's 750,000-1 million-strong diaspora
are still abroad, and the remittances they send home are worth
around $250 million a year.
(Additional reporting by Alphonso Toweh in Monrovia;
Editing by Alistair Thomson and Clar Ni Chonghaile)
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