Fidele B. Ebia

Fidèle Ebia received an MA from Duke University in 2018 and a PhD in Global Development Studies from the University of Manchester (UK) in 2023. Her dissertation focused on the African Print Textile trade in her home country of Togo, long a hub of the cloth trade in West Africa. The thesis examined the intersection of two cloth value chains, a North-South chain originating in the Netherlands, and a South-South chain originating in China. She was interested not only in the competition between these two chains and the role played by counterfeit cloth in this encounter but also in questions of power, governance, and opportunities for Togolese female traders to upgrade their earnings and standing within the value chain.

Her current research focuses on global South value chains beyond African print textiles (APT) to examine whether the dynamics she observed in trader-led APT chains are more widespread--for example, whether they also define West African value chains of housing materials (from China) and used automobiles (from Europe and the US).

Her publications include: “African Print Textile Value Chains During the Time of COVID-19” (2023), University of Manchester Global Development Institute Working Paper Series No. 2023:064; “Colonial threads to made in China: Togo and the Restructuring of African Print Textile Value Chains” (co-authored with Rory Horner) Geoforum 163 (July 2025); “Traders and Informality in Global Value Chains: African Print Textiles in Togo” (co-authored with Stephanie Barrientos, under review at Development and Change).