Fashion & Style
The Secret Maps Hidden in Plain Sight: How Cornrows Guided Slaves to Freedom
On the surface, they looked like nothing more than a neat way to keep hair tidy during long days in the fields. But for enslaved Africans in the Americas, cornrows carried secrets that meant the difference between bondage and freedom.
The practice dates back to the late 1500s in Colombia, where a man named Benkos Bioho transformed hair into a weapon of resistance.
Bioho, a king kidnapped from his native Guinea-Bissau by Portuguese slavers, escaped bondage and built San Basilio de Palenque—one of the Americas’ first free African settlements. His strategy was brilliant: have women weave escape maps directly into their cornrows.
The logic was simple. Slave owners saw African hairstyles as primitive. They never imagined those curved braids hugging women’s scalps were actually road maps—paths through the forest, routes to meeting points, directions to freedom.
Different styles carried different meanings. “Departes,” thick, tight braids tied into buns, signaled a desire to escape. Curved braids traced the actual escape routes.
But the maps were only part of the story.
Hidden within those braids, women concealed gold fragments and tiny seeds. The gold bought passage. The seeds planted hope—nourishment for survival after escape, crops for new lives in liberated territory.
Scholar Judith Carney documented this practice in Suriname, where maroon communities still tell of female ancestors smuggling rice grains in their hair from slave ships.
Was this widespread across the American South? Historians debate the evidence. No slave narratives describe it directly.
But folklorist Patricia Turner offers perspective: stories like these matter because they center Black resourcefulness rather than white saviors. In Colombia and South America, oral tradition affirms it happened.
What we know for certain is this: enslaved Africans used every tool available to resist. Their hair, which colonizers tried to strip away, became a repository of culture, communication, and coded intelligence.
When you see cornrows today, you’re witnessing a tradition that once carried gold, seeds, and the geography of liberty across enemy territory.
Sometimes the most powerful maps don’t look like maps at all. They just look like hair.
Fashion & Style
Dressing for Your Shape: How Strategic Styling Can Transform Everyday Fashion
Great style is not always about chasing trends or buying the latest designer outfit. Sometimes, it comes down to understanding how different cuts, colours and patterns work together to create a silhouette that feels comfortable and confident.
For people with an apple-shaped body, a few thoughtful wardrobe choices can open up fresh possibilities for personal style.
The Power of Shape and Structure
An apple-shaped figure typically carries more fullness around the midsection, with the shoulders and upper body often appearing broader than the hips.
Rather than hiding the body, strategic styling can create balance while allowing personal taste to lead.
A peplum top paired with white-leg jeans, for example, can introduce definition around the waist while adding structure to an everyday outfit. Wrap dresses offer another option, using adjustable fabric and diagonal lines to draw attention towards the waist.
Structured V-neck tops paired with bootcut jeans can also create visual balance between the upper and lower body.
For occasions that call for something more polished, ruched dresses in solid colours provide texture and shape, while dresses with darker side panels can create a subtle contouring effect.
Patterns deserve consideration, too. Strong horizontal lines may emphasise width in certain areas, whereas diagonal details can guide the eye across the body and create a different visual effect.
These are styling suggestions, not rigid rules: fabric, fit and individual proportions all influence how an outfit looks.

Confidence Beyond the Clothing
For Ghanaian fashion lovers, where tailored outfits, colourful prints, occasion dresses and contemporary streetwear all have a place in personal expression, these principles offer another way to approach the wardrobe.
A peplum blouse can work for a professional setting, while a wrap dress can transition easily from a social gathering to an evening event.
Ultimately, dressing well is less about fitting a body into fashion rules than finding clothes that make the wearer feel at ease.
The best outfit is one that works with your proportions, reflects your personality and lets confidence take centre stage.
Fashion & Style
Christian Louboutin’s Kumasi Visit Puts Ghana’s Footwear Craftsmanship in the Spotlight
Christian Louboutin is famous for turning a flash of red beneath a heel into one of fashion’s most recognisable luxury signatures.
Now, the French designer’s reported visit to Kumasi is raising a bigger question: could Ghana’s Garden City become a new meeting point for international luxury fashion and local craftsmanship?
Louboutin met Lady Julia Osei Tutu, wife of Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, at her private residence on October 12, 2026, following his attendance at the Akwasidae Festival at Manhyia Palace.

Accompanied by members of his team and representatives of Studio Dream, the designer’s visit has drawn attention to discussions about a possible Christian Louboutin outlet in Kumasi.
The significance extends beyond luxury retail. Kumasi has a longstanding reputation for craftsmanship, commerce and creative enterprise, while Ghanaian shoemakers and leatherworkers contribute to a wider fashion industry built on practical skill and entrepreneurial ambition.

An international luxury brand exploring a presence in the city invites questions about how global fashion houses might engage with local talent.
Could such interest create opportunities for Ghanaian artisans, strengthen professional networks or bring greater international visibility to the country’s footwear makers?
For now, these possibilities remain speculative. No confirmed announcement establishes a production partnership with local manufacturers, and the reported discussions centre on the possibility of an outlet rather than a footwear factory.
Still, the encounter offers a compelling fashion story. Louboutin’s presence around Akwasidae, an important Asante royal festival, also places the visit at the intersection of luxury branding, cultural heritage and traditional authority.
Whether Kumasi eventually becomes a retail destination for the red-soled heels or something more, the conversation highlights an opportunity: Ghana’s creative industry deserves attention not only as a source of inspiration, but also as a potential partner in the global fashion business.
Fashion & Style
Twenty Years, One Red Carpet: BellaNaija Celebrates Two Decades of African Culture in Style
Some birthdays are marked with cake. BellaNaija marked twenty years with a runway.

On October 2, the Nigerian media powerhouse gathered some of the country’s biggest names for its BN20 High Fashion Icon Grand Red Carpet Experience, and the theme was never going to allow a quiet night.

Guests arrived ready to interpret “icon” in leather, velvet and architectural gold.

Veekee James set the tone early in a custom oxblood leather coat-gown by Abbas Woman, its exaggerated shoulders and sculpted hips crowned by an oversized black hat.
Mercy Eke chose icy glamour instead, drifting down the carpet in blue velvet with cobalt detailing and pearl-inspired embellishments.

Osas Ighodaro brought structure and shine in ivory and gold, while Mide Iwasokun delivered the night’s most theatrical moment: a white Komeh Swish gown with a fan collar and a cascading ruffled train that refused to go unnoticed.

The roll call read like a living archive of Nigerian pop culture. Mercy Eke, Rita Dominic, Ini Edo, Ebuka Obi-Uchendu, Denrele Edun, Mai Atafo, Idia Aisien and Blessing Nze shared a room that blurred the line between guest list and guest book.

That was the quiet achievement beneath the flashbulbs. When BellaNaija launched in 2006, social media had not yet reshaped culture, and African fashion and entertainment were still fighting for global attention.

Two decades later, the platform has grown into a brand that no longer simply covers the culture, it helps shape it.

For anyone watching from Accra, Nairobi or London, the message landed clearly: African storytelling has arrived, and it dresses exceptionally well.










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