UEW Textile and Fashion Students Shine at ‘Ink and Identity’ Colloquium in South Africa
Three talented students from the Department of Textiles and Fashion Education at the University of Education, Winneba (UEW) exhibited their original fabric designs at the ‘Ink and Identity’: An Intercontinental Colloquium on Identity, Heritage and Unity. The event took place on 23 and 24 April 2026 at the Centre for Visual Impairment Studies, Groenkloof Campus, University of Pretoria, South Africa.
The UEW students whose textile designs were featured in the exhibition are Inkoom Agyiri Charles, Flavia Mansa Ganyo and Beatrice Appiah. Using traditional Adinkra motifs and broader Ghanaian symbolism as their source of inspiration, the three designers reinterpreted these cultural signs to arrive at fresh, contemporary fabric designs.
Their work was exhibited alongside textile designs from students of other participating institutions, including the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (South Africa), the University of Education, Winneba, and Komenda college of Education (Ghana), Kimvuka Ntuka Kongo (Congo - Brazzaville) and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece), and University of Pretoria (South Africa).
The colloquium provided a valuable platform for cross‑cultural exchange, allowing UEW students to share their unique visual language rooted in Ghanaian heritage while engaging with peers from across Africa and Europe. In addition to the student exhibition, Prof. Osuanyi Quaicoo Essel of UEW presented a paper at the colloquium titled: “An Investigation into Ghanaian Hair Beauty Culture Visual Symbolisms.” His presentation contributed to the conference’s broader theme of exploring identity, heritage, and unity through visual and material culture.
The School of Creative Arts extends its congratulations to Inkoom Agyiri Charles, Flavia Mansa Ganyo, and Beatrice Appiah for their outstanding creative work, and to Prof. Osuanyi Quaicoo Essel for his continued contribution to research on Ghanaian cultural expressions.