Coming from where I’m from

Do you ever get that warm fuzzy feeling when a random stranger smiles at you? Sometimes it’s enough to make one’s morning. I am back in the freezing cold again, after weeks of some intense tropical heat, and I find that the little things really do brighten up my day.  Will hot mugs of hot chocolate and white mochas from Starbucks make up for the iced cold glasses of bissap from Tante Marie that I left behind in Accra? *Sigh* …

Kua’s girls give me little time to ponder over this, however.  The girls from the new spring collection are feeling quite disoriented too, and I do not blame them one bit. You see, they have come a long way from different corners of the big GH, and they are having to travel right past the crimson haze of Amsterdam’s red light district, over a highway bypassing Atlanta’s rather silent Atlantic Station, to their temporary storage hideaway underneath the shadow of the Big Apple, only to be shipped out God knows where to a doting new, but nonetheless unknown, girlfriend. Yup, I would be anxious too. This is why I’m helping the girls out; they have requested that I tell you a little bit about where they’re coming from, just so you can relate a little better when one of them becomes your new girlfriend.

The Bolga line: This is Kua’s new pride, the first of its kind among all the girls. Bolga girls originate from the very North of Ghana, and are made of the finest calf fur.  Do not be fooled by Bolga’s chic and rather posh appearance and attitude. She gets that from the French influence of her neighbors in Burkina Faso.

Instead, focus on her wild side: she has been caught many a day riding wantonly on crocodiles’ backs in nearby Paga. See Bolga for yourself: chic, posh, wild and sexy rolled into a Kua clutch.

The Axim line:  If you find Axim rather edgy, it has everything to do with the metropolis she comes from: close to Cape Three Points, the southern-most point of her country. She looks directly over the little village of Nkroful, where the Founding Father of her nation was born, so excuse her cool confidence and her stubborn nobility.

Axim clothes herself in plain pattern-less fabric, only allowing herself a singular adornment of a colorful bow, rosette or other embellishment. How does she manage to remain so pure in spite of the recent discovery of a crude oil reservoir within her belly? That’s just our Axim: an edgy yet understated treasure.

The Nkran line: It doesn’t get any more cosmopolitan than within the capital city.  Nkran is the girl you want for a night on the town, for the cocktail at that fancy restaurant, or as you simply relax underneath some shade on the sand along the lovely Bojo Beach.

What’s more, the savannah vegetation just outside the city limits provides Nkran with enough straw and elephant grass for the beautiful woven look that her girlfriends absolutely love. If urban, fun and cosmopolitan is what does it for you, Nkran is the way to go.

The Kumasi line: Classic royalty. These ‘dadaba’ ones were raised mainly in the Manhyia palace on cocoa and the finest game (yes, aka akonfem in the Akan dialect, but who needs to know that?). If you are thinking richness and affluence to the point of indulgence, you are looking at the right set of girls.

They look up to their great grandmother Yaa Asantewaa, so watch out, for these girls are fierce and feisty. Made of Kua’s favorite African prints, Kumasi is an embodiment of the essence of its Asante people: fierce pride tempered by cultured royalty.

These new girls cannot wait to meet you, so when you see them on display in the next couple of weeks on Kua’s website, remember to smile and wave, just to make sure their feelings remain intact. They know I’ve told you this much about them, and if random strangers take time to smile at them, they will be expecting you to get to bonding with them just like old buddies!

Keep an eye out for Kua’s spring clutch collection!

Watch a video of this post: Meet the Kua Girls

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………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. R ü b y ♦