On the last day of my recent trip to Ethiopia, we had decided that it would be interesting for the staff (admin, weavers, sewers, fringers, dyers, tea lady ... everyone) to see what the products that they create look like in stores, on websites (some of them had never heard of a web site), in catalogs. So, I showed them the Creative Women website, links to Ochre and Anthropologie, (2 stores that carry our products), photos that I have taken, and our booth at the NYIGF.
With each new photo, I started hearing whispering, but since the whispering was in Amharic, I didn't know what was being said. The fellow who was translating told me that one of the weavers was telling everyone that he made the towels that I was showing and that he'd never seen them look so good. His proud grin gave made me pretty proud, too.
Weaving with a smile.
Then one of the sewing women asked me (through the interpretor) if I would comment on the pillows ... how was the sewing. This was a particularly timely question, since our first pillows often arrived in VT and went straight to a local seamstress who inserted new zippers. Today, the pillows arrive looking perfect; I showed her a photo that I took in my home, of the pillow collection. More whispering, laughing ...
Tsigist, one of Sabahar's sewers.
On of the weavers (a young man who comes to work in an ironed shirt, neat pants and loafers and changes into his weaving clothes before starting work) asked where I got my ideas for designs. I told him I look at magazines, work with Kathy on new ideas, and look around me a lot. I then suggested that he might have some good ideas for designs since he's an expert weaver, and should tell the production manager if he has any. I suspect that Sabahar has a undiscovered designer among the weavers.
The final comment came from one of the dyers ... a tall man who would smile and say hello to me each time I walked by the dyeing room. That's as far as our conversations ever got. But, now he just said "I never thought about what happens to the things I dye. eeing where they end up, I'm proud to make things that show the world that beautiful things come from Ethiopia." Wow.
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Dots Beach Blankets drying in Addis before being shipped to the US.
Yesterday my friend Meg emailed me an Opinion piece from the NY TImes, Africa Reboots, written by Bono, after completing another trip around sub-Saharan Africa. I figured that it was another story, written either by or about Bono and his development work. I was surprised because Meg knows how I feel about donor aid … who are the real beneficiaries? … and she knows how I feel about real change … it's got to happen at the local level. I try not to lecture people about this too much; when people ask me if Creative Women gives money back to the women we work with, I have an answer that speaks to equality, respect, and running a business, not a charity.
So, I was quite surprised to read that Bono gets it … African leaders have to be held accountable, entrepreneurs and civil society have to work together (yes there are African entrepreneurs who give back to their communities, both through leadership and through financial support), and the real change will be in the hands of local people who will "Make Aid History."
I read Bono's words and smiled. Bono has discovered what I have long believed, and in a small way, have been trying to accomplish through Creative Women. "Most Africans we met seemed to feel the pressing need is for new kinds of partnerships, not just among governments, but among citizens, businesses, the rest of us. I sense the end of the usual donor-recipient relationship." I agree … that's why I started Creative Women; to try out a new way of doing business in Africa … as equals.
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Aissata (manager of Cooperative Djiguiyaso) and |
~ Ellen