Fidèle Ebia

Fidèle Beletchei Ebia
Postdoctoral Fellow, Duke Africa Initiative

Fidèle Ebia received an MA from Duke 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 Holland, 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 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; “Traders and Informality in Global Value Chains: African Print Textiles in Togo” (co-authored with Stephanie Barrientos, under review at Development and Change); “From North-South to South-South: Togo and the Restructuring of African Print Textile Value Chains” (under review at Geoforum).