I was the only black student in my class to complete a major in visual communication. It was not easy to do so; I recall my professor declined to enter my painting into a national illustration competition. Fortunately, all Tyler students had their pieces displayed and the judges were blown away by my anonymous entry. After declaring it the winner, they were quite surprised that this was the work of an African and strangely I did not get the position at a local newspaper which was meant for the winner.” After completing his studies, Eboka stayed on in the U.S. pursuing a career in fashion and design. He remained in the state of Pennsylvania where he opened a studio in the prestigious Chestnut Hill area. Towards the late 1980’s, there were signs that SA was coming out of apartheid rule and through the country’s embassy
officials in America, Eboka was convinced to relocate to SA where they were certain he would have an impact in the fashion landscape of the liberated nation. “I arrived in SA in 1992 with a pre-approved permit. At the time there were virtually no reputable black designers in the country save for me and Nandipa Madikiza. The colours people were wearing were all grey which in my view reflected the mood of the country; colour blocking was completely unheard of when I got here.” Some of Eboka’s early clients included the founder of Co s m o p o l i t a n magazine Jane Raphaely and the then mayor of Cape
Town Patricia Kreiner. He was also charged with dressing the new black leaders of the country and had a seat at the presidential dais during the inauguration of President Nelson Mandela. The list of famous people who have donned Eboka’s clothing include Grammy nominees, Africa’s first ‘afronaut’ billionaire Mark Shuttleworth, King Zwelithini of the Zulu Kingdom, “Mama Africa” Miriam Makeba, Former Deputy President now chair of the ANC Baleka Mbete, Former President Thabo Mbeki, President Jacob Zuma, a number of Miss World contestants and Hal Walker, an African American inventor noted in the Guinness book of world records for developing laser equipment that projected images of the moon back to the earth during the 1969 Apollo moon walk. “It is a very intimate process to design clothing for someone because you need to understand their personality to fashion something that would reflect their style. People generally get shocked on hearing the names of the people I have met and dressed. I recall when I recently visited Houghton to design a dress for Graca Machel. I received a phone call from an uncle