BBC article on the origin of wax print cites Ineke van Kessel

In the BBC article 'Wax print: Africa's pride or colonial legacy?', Ineke van Kessel's texts in an exhibition at the Elmina Java Museum in Ghana are quoted. The Dutch had employed 3,000 soldiers from West Africa between 1831 and 1872, to help in the expansion of the Dutch colonies in the East Indies. Legend has it that 700 of these soldiers eventually returned to the Gold Coast (today's Ghana), carrying with them rolls of the Dutch-manufuactured batiks - 'a myth', according to Ineke van Kessel, as 'the returning soldiers were poor and would not have been able to afford the fabric'.

Read the article.