Boubacar Doumbia is a legend in Mali. Few artisans have impacted, directly or indirectly, as many lives and livelihoods as he. His story began in art school in Bamako, Mali’s capital, over two decades ago when he teamed up with five other art students to form Group Bogolan Kasobane, which was dedicated to revive bogolan (or mudcloth), Mali’s traditional cloth...
Read the entire article by Elaine Bellezza on the Handey Eye Magazine website.
AfricaNow! is proud to participate in the Design Network Africa (DNA) Program, launching 24-27 September, 2011 in Johannesburg, South Africa.
30 of the very top African designers, from 15 countries throughout the continent, brought together for the first time, for the DNA, exhibition and workshop.
The Danish Center for Culture and Development with funding from DANIDA is initiating a Network Program linking producers of outstanding design from East, West and Southern Africa. The 36-month program aims to establish authentic interaction between 30 renowned design companies from throughout the continent, who produce beautiful, contemporary work, revolutionizing the perception of African design in the global marketplace
This year, the USAID Trade Hub participated in full force at the largest home décor show in the world, Ambiente, in Frankfurt. We have been working for nine months to prepare for the show. Cheick Diallo, internationally recognized Malian Designer was particularly instrumental in helping artisans realize new, upscale, and market savvy designs. The hard work of designers, artisans, and the USAID Trade Hub team coalesced into one of the most striking stands in the show.
Elaine Bellezza, the USAID Trade Hub’s home décor sector lead said, “6:30 pm, after two days of frantic set-up, rearranging spotlights, moving furniture, clearing packing boxes, hanging paper maché animals and rearranging beautiful pottery, we swept the floor, stepped back and looked at each other in amazement. It was more beautiful than any of us anticipated. The hard work paid off. The deluge started the moment the show opened the next morning with a constant influx of wholesale buyers over the next five days. At times it felt like people were standing in line, waiting to talk to the companies.”
Interested buyers were from around the globe, from Austrialia to Japan, US, Russia, Peru and Norway. They included some of the largest distributors in the décor sector as well as higher end design driven companies, particularly from Italy.
See sample products from the show here.
Handcrafts is an outdated word and in fact, an outdated concept. But, they are not outdated products. In developed countries a premium is paid for handmade items. The premier market for handmade crafts is the developed world, particularly if they are authentic ethnic products. The Trade Hub has been a leader in positioning West African handmade products to the important buying communities. Our interventions have helped artisans, producers and exporters reach important markets where their indigenous handmade preducts find avid markets and eager buyers.
In Africa, we know handmade for what it really means. Locally grown cotton is spun into beautiful knobby, expressive threads by thousands of women in villages taking a break from farming and family. These threads are woven into 20 meter strips by men on handmade footlooms as their ancestors did a thousand years ago. These strips of natural cotton cloth are sewn together to form fabrics by villagers across the continent. These bolts of cotton cloth are hand-dyed over hot natural dyes by women who harvest the leaves from their own gardens. These dyed cloths are sewn into garments or bags or décor accessories and sold across the globe. For every thousand pillows sold to the United States or Europe countless families are gaining access to valuable funds to feed their families, send their children to school and buy essential medicines.
The Trade Hub seeks to find markets for these indelibly handmade and authentic products, help producers alter their products just enough to attract the market while retaining authenticity, and upgrading the products just enough to have a bit larger share of the market value to increase profits along the value-chain. This is sustainable development. This is the strategy that changes lives, on a daily and subtly significant basis.
Registration is now open for the West Africa Trade Hub's training seminars at the Salon International de l’Artisanat de Ouagadougou (SIAO), the world’s largest African handcrafts show, October 30 to November 5, 2010.
For more details and to register for the training visit the Trade Hub's website.
Read an article detailing AfricaNow! success at the New York International Gift Fair and Ambiente ealier this year.
Want to know more about product design? Start with this article on product design by the West Africa Trade Hub's Elaine Bellezza.
