Your favorite wax print wasn’t really African and a Chinese takeover means it never will be

When you think of African fashion, you often think of the variety of brightly dyed fabrics worn on the continent and in the diaspora as shirts, pants, dresses, skirts and even the occasional head wrap on that cool “woke” black girlfriend. In Africa, they are everywhere at every time—from funerals and weddings, to markets and casual Fridays at the office.

The ubiquitous batik-inspired wax print or—as it’s known in some countries—”Ankara” has come to denote Africanness. It is a fabric that represents African authenticity and helps people in other far-flung corners of the world connect with the continent. But in truth the Ankara cloth didn’t even originate in Africa.

Read more at Quartz.