The sale of textile prints designed for funeral purposes has seen a significant leap at various sales points, following the demise of President John Atta Mills.
In the run-up to the one-week commemoration of Se Aresident Mills�s death, traders cashed in on the 'Se Asa' (literary meaning, It's ended) fabric, designed by local manufacturer, Akosombo Textiles.
Other traders selling other designs such as �Agya Atta, Asomdwehene; Damirifa due; Onipa Nni aye; Kokonsani bebre, among other textiles, are also recording significant sales.
Although the Se Asa design has been on the market over the past decade, it became the most popular after the death of President Mills on July 24, this year.
To many supporters and sympathisers of the late President Mills, it was the constant verbal attacks and vilification of the President which were partly responsible for his early death. The Se Asa fabric, is, therefore, seen as a fitting design to mourn the late President Mills.
Sympathisers of the late President, including some government officials, have been adorning it to taunt political opponents believed to have used the late leader�s health as an issue on political platforms in the past.
The full piece of the cloth, which was previously sold at GH�15, has witnessed a price surge and is currently being sold for GH�60.
Another fabric that has also caught considerable attention on the market is the Aboa bi beka wo a, na efri wo ntoma mu, to wit, the enemy is within. The fabric is said to be receiving high patronage from members and sympathisers of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP).
From Rawlings Park, through to the Kingsway Building, traders were seen parading the streets in their bid to attract the attention of buyers to patronise the various cloths.
A trader at the Makola Market, Madam Vida Darko, who had stock the Se Asa, cloth in red, black, red and black, and black and white colours; told graphic.com.gh, during a visit to the market, that since President Mills passed on, there had been a high demand for the cloth.
According to Madam Darko, wholesale dealers of the cloth were making further arrangements to increase supply prior to the burial slated for August 8-10, this year.
�This cloth, until President Mills�s demise, was just an ordinary one on the market,� she said.
Other designs that have the portrait of the late leader and the umbrella logo of the NDC are also witnessing massive sales, particularly among supporters and sympathisers of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
A trader, Madam Christine Agyemang, who described herself as a sympathiser of the NPP, said the committee planning the late president�s funeral should have come up with a uniform mourning cloth, since the late president was not president for only NDC supporters.
�I will support any action by the NPP to adorn the �Enemy is within� cloth to the final funeral rites, if government officials and the NDC sympathisers continued to parade in the designs that had the late President and the NDC logo,� Madam Agyemang told graphic.com.gh during a visit to her shop.
According to her, although the traders had been informed of a design, the cloth with the portrait of the President was yet to hit the market.
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