At its upscale boutique in Labone, Accra, a staff at Kua Designs is likely to welcome you with a glass of wine or water as you walk through its ambient space to pick something from the brand’s unique offering of African-inspired handbags, jewelry, clothes and children’s wear. 

In 2019, the Ghana Tourism Authority in collaboration with the Office of Diaspora Affairs at the Office of the President, the PANAFEST Foundation and The Adinkra Group of the USA launched the Year of Return, Ghana 2019. This was first, a remembrance of the 400th year of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in Jamestown, Virginia. It was also targeted at opening up Ghana to the global African diaspora who were looking to come back home, connect with their roots and potentially contribute to the culture and economy of Ghana and the continent. When it launched, Kua Designs was one of the brands selected to gift the first group of people that arrived in Ghana under the auspices of this campaign. Buah talks to AMAKA Studio about how she built on this opportunity to position Kua Designs as a quality and culturally rich fashion destination particularly for diasporan Africans visiting the country. 

AMAKA: You went from a career as a financial analyst with a multinational into fashion or as aptly put from finance to fashion. Give us an insight into your process of switching careers at the time and what that journey has entailed over a decade later?

Ruby Buah: I’ve always been creatively-inclined. But being born and raised in Ghana, we don’t necessarily tease out the creativity [in children]. I don’t blame parents, they want you to go into a field that, in their minds, offers a guaranteed career. And so, even though I wasn’t told outright, don’t go into a creative field, it wasn’t encouraged. One day, I got this flyer in my mail about a jewelry-making class. I applied, went for the two hour class and I was hooked. I was so hooked I went out and bought a lot of beads. And then I went, what am I going to do with all of these beads? And I said I’m going to sell them. I sort of built up on that. I started going to art shows, flea markets and it kept building up. I read different stories about women in professional fields who had made a switch and I said to myself, if I put my mind to this, I should be able to do it. After running it for some years, I packed up and went to the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York to get a degree in jewelry design. Around graduation, I had my first baby and knew I did not want to go back to corporate America. 

While in school, I had started a handbag line. Around that time, African prints were really in fashion and people were doing a lot with clothing but I thought, let me try my hands at accessories and that picked up because the African diaspora were looking to express themselves through fashion and through African-inspired products. I moved to Ghana after. Part of the reason for the move was that my husband got a job here and that made it smoother [but] it was [still] a bit of a slow transition.  

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What are your design philosophies and how do they guide/influence your product line at Kua Designs?

I like seeing things go from blah to beautiful. I always think of the end product and the end user when I’m creating. The Kua customer actually does not like overly loud things but they want to be noticed. They are real women, educated, cultured, well travelled, confident but it's an understated kind of confidence. Because I know this, when I create, I try to incorporate that. With my bags, there’s the [signature] map of Africa or some of the Ghanaian symbols. It’s one of those things where when you see the Gye Nyame symbol on a bag, the wearer knows that those who know the symbol will appreciate what it means, there’s no need to be loud about it. These are some of the things that guide me in the creating process.

With the kids products like the stuffed animals; I did not grow up with that [and I started the kids line after I had my daughter], I wanted to create something that kids could play with that ties in with their identity as Africans but is still an item that they can play with and pass on to their younger siblings. 

Your brand has become a hub for diaspora Africans returning to, or passing through Ghana. How did you position Kua Designs to serve this client base that wants to connect through culture and take something back with them?

When the campaign was launched, I was one of the brands that got to give the first group of people that came gifts from Ghana. I definitely made sure I capitalised on that. Outside that, I stay in touch with travel and tour companies and I tell them, if they bring people here, I would love to host them in my boutique. I go out of my way to seek their business and nine times out of ten they are game. 

Another way is people with YouTube channels like James Cameron of Maximum Impact and Jubril of Passport Heavy. I ask them to please share me with their audiences because this is a place I know people will appreciate coming to. When they did these interviews and posted, more people found Kua and when they come to Kua boutique, they tell me, I saw your business on such and such a page on YouTube. I made sure I positioned myself well but I also went after some of these people who I know bring crowds to Ghana and it’s worked out really well for me.

Do you source your raw materials from Ghana or a variety of places?

The African prints, I source locally. The leather I also source locally because there are some factories in Europe whose discarded leather ends up here [in Ghana]. Unused, it ends up in our landfills so I made a conscious decision that I would rather take those and upcycle it, make it into products that people value. Sometimes, it's little things like the locks on the bag, the feeds, the zippers, those ones I try to source from here and this is where some of the issues come up. Your business has sustainability at its core and at a time when we are all becoming more climate/environment focused because of what’s happening to our world. 

Your business has sustainability at its core and at a time when we are all becoming more climate/environment focused because of what’s happening to our world. What’s it like running a business with a sustainability model at its heart in Ghana, and what’s the impact that you want to make in that space?

With the leather, we decided to source from European countries who decide they’re no longer interested in them and it is something I’m committed to. It sometimes affects the brand because you make a beautiful clutch, someone buys it and posts it, ten other people want it but then it’s gone. And some people will say, why don’t you just go and source somewhere else but I stick with it and the people who follow us understand how it works. I always say I feel like I can do better because, the prints I get, I don’t know what inks are being used or the carbon footprints that they leave, do you see what I mean? There are other aspects of it that I do not have control over and I don’t know if they are sustainable. It would be nice to know that from the beginning to the end, everyone did their bit for the environment.

The pandemic has been destructive globally. In what ways has it impacted your business and how have you been able to navigate that impact while trying to keep Kua and your team afloat?

[In] the beginning, [it] was confusing. I currently provide housing for about 80% of my employees who come from different parts of Ghana. Panic set in. Some just wanted to be home and be with their families because it felt like the world was ending. But after we went through that confusion stage, we got in deep into this period of making masks. After this period passed, there was some silence. I will be honest and say that it took an emotional toll on me because I had just come off the high of the Year of Return. There are things I would do differently. I would've made sure my online store was still popping because right around this time, the whole #BuyBlack campaign picked up. I missed a bit of that because I froze. I quickly tried to bounce back but I think I missed the first wave. Things seem to be coming back to normal but everytime there’s a new variant and they start blocking people from visiting other countries, the unrest starts again. It’s still a bit unsettling but this time around, I’m going to stay ready. Luckily for me, my products are not perishable. I’m an entrepreneur, I’m built to survive this situation. 

Running a craft-based business like yours looks very different in the US versus in Ghana, I would imagine. With the stores you have outside of Ghana, can you tell me more about how running the business in both climes differs or, perhaps, is alike? 

I have a boutique in Ghana but I also do a lot of trade shows. So, at any given point, I do have my products in different boutiques. I realised, which I did not know at first, that the museum stores loved my products. So I’ve had things in different museums and a few boutiques that stock things from different parts of the world. These include: Albuquerque Museum, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Museum of the City of New York, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The Barnes Foundation and many more. 

Each clime has its pluses and its cons. For the US, as we like to say, the system works. For supply, you know exactly what trade shows to go to source. There’s also a strong sense of support because there are a lot of entrepreneurs and groups you can belong to, of people who do the same things that you do. If nothing at all, you feel so encouraged seeing other entrepreneurs who have succeeded in your field. When you come to Ghana, it’s a bit different. Everything you have to figure out on your own. I always say one of the problems is the human resource aspect of it. Managing people can be a bit tough. If you are very bent on hiring women, there are all kinds of issues that I did not even think about that women face. I’ll give you an example; I had one really good employee. Then she started coming late to work, days would go by and she wouldn’t even show up. So I sat her down and asked, what is really going on? Then she said, her cousin’s husband is sick [and] they had a family meeting where they said, she’s the youngest woman and she needs to make room in her career to take care of this cousin’s husband. I remember talking to my mom and she said, yes, you need to factor in how our family dynamics are. It’s not as simple. These are the elements you have to face. 

When it comes to sourcing materials, it's not that easy. You can’t just go online and find what you need here. You have to go to the market, you have to go sift through which ones are quality and which ones are not. Then you have to deal with shortages. And you also have power outages. We have it better in Ghana but every now and then, the light goes off. Here you are, without a budget for a generator and all the expenses that come with it, but as a small business, you have to put all these in place. In a place like Ghana where rent is high in Accra, that’s also something you have to consider. These are some of the challenges. Meanwhile , the middle-income earners here do not have the same spending power as clients in the US, so these are some of the challenges. 

You recently launched a scented candle line, as part of Kua’s lifestyle arm, what prompted the move in this direction and are you planning to scale this segment in the future?

What’s beautiful is that I’m surrounded by a number of fabulous African women entrepreneurs that are killing it in their industry. This was in collaboration with a woman-owned business called Talata. They have a line that makes candles. I sat with her to come up with a scent that I felt matched Kua. I knew the Kua woman would appreciate it because I found out that about 70% of what we sell here are for gifts and I thought this would be such a great addition. I was super excited to do the collaboration and with time we will make more scents, more candles and diffusers. 

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What has been the most rewarding aspect about building Kua Designs all these years and doing so on home soil?

I think the fact that I get to hire Ghanaians and I make an impact in their lives and in the lives of their families. I know it sounds cliché but I could do the same thing in the US and not really feel the impact on this level where I’ve had employees who have worked with me for six or seven years and I can see where they started and where they are now. That has been the most rewarding for me. 

And in what new directions would you like to see the Year of return cultural movement steered? 2019 was the “Year of Return.” This year, we have #BeyondtheReturn and this year, there’s a long line of events that’s even more than they had in 2019. There’s so much activity around this. I think the slow down is because of COVID. When you look at countries that are seen as tourist destinations, it’s not just for a year or two, they stay that way forever. I think that’s what Ghana is going to be. They are really going hard this December and once we get a hold of COVID, it’s just going to continue to grow. 

In what other creative directions do you want to take Kua Designs in the coming years?

Between December and January, I just want to get through this season! But, every year I put this on my list and I’m hoping this time, it happens. I want Kua’s website to represent the experience of the boutique. Currently, I don’t have all the products on there. And of course, you can’t experience the drinks we serve and our hospitality but I want it to be as close as possible. That’s my goal for the next few years.