Lord “J” Dyeing House – for hand-painted African fabrics

By Jana-Mari Smith

When she moved to Namibia from her home country of Ghana, Rita Bankie brought along her love of colourful, high-quality fabrics.

Rita Bankie with the children’s dresses she makes.

Although she is a qualified teacher, Rita’s circumstances at the time dictated that she secure her own business opportunity. She decided to focus her energies on fabrics. Since 1996 she has owned the Lord “J” Dyeing House stall at the Namibia Craft Centre (NCC), where she sells a wide variety of items, such as clothes, hats, bags and quite a lot more, all made from carefully selected imported fabrics.

Rita imports the fabrics from all over Africa – and her passion lies in sourcing high-quality material she will be proud of selling at her stall. As a teacher, Rita believes in precision and quality that lasts. She has transferred these values to her business.

She takes painstaking care to source the fabrics, which she then transforms into items to sell at her stall. “My products are high quality and well made.” She says some of her products might be pricey, but this is the result of her vision to use and make only the best of the best. “I buy handmade fabrics, which are created by professionals. They put a great deal of work into the fabric painting.”

Her stall showcases a wide assortment of products, from small items such as holders made for glasses and a selection of bags and purses.

Dresses and T-shirts for children, boys and girls, clothes for adults, caps, tablecloths, and tablemats – anything that can be sewn – are available here. Different types of loose fabrics are also available.

While she has three part-time seamstresses who assist with designing and making the products, Rita herself is at the helm of the sewing side of the business. She says she was ‘forced’ to teach herself sewing, as she had no experience before starting her business. But looking around the stall, it becomes apparent that she has taught herself well.

Rita prides herself on the type of fabrics she buys. She says most are cotton based – in stark contrast to the mass-produced fabrics that are ubiquitous in shops these days.

Rita also imports the colourful Kente cloth, which she says, ‘invokes Africa’ and is a hit with tourists.

Rita dislikes waste and has come up with the good idea of putting fabric off-cuts to good use. She and her sewers use the off-cuts to create patchwork, which is then used to make dresses, skirts or blankets. Tourists are also keen to buy the patchwork fabric to use for creating their own pillows or blankets, or as throws.

Browsing through the stall, you’ll find a diversity of items for sale, including unusual ones such as mopane and glass-bead key rings, key holders and decorative balls made from monkey fruit. Rita says the unusual ones are bought from the husbands, relatives and friends of the women who work for her. She says this is one of her ways of supporting others, which she believes is the right thing to do ‘as a teacher and mother’.