The West African arts and crafts industry is going through a huge creative resurgence, but all the while we are loosing business to Indonesian, Bangladesh,Vietnamese and Balinese craft workshops. The Asian workshops have a very organised factory style set up and the owners have access to cheap capital that African craft makers cannot compete with. When it comes to finance the African craft worker is at a huge disadvantage. In Ghana and Nigeria it's easier to get long term and decent interest rates on a loan to build a church, an institution that taxes its members, but pays no tax to the country.
Try to get a long term low interest loan to start a manufacturing business and you will find no banks to finance your deal. This is how the world is set up so its nearly impossible for Africans to go into manufacturing in a way where we can compete with Asia, but we must find ways round this situation.
The African crafts industry does not have money to travel to markets learn what their customers want and the coming trends. Craft businesses dare not take the risk of loosing money, so they carve the same masks and make the same tables year after year, even as sales go down. But like all rules there are exceptions.In Ghana, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Kenya I have met artists and crafts people working in 'out of the way' workshops in small groups or sometimes on their own. They are making amazing works, but the production costs are high compared to the cost of production in Asia. So their goods only make it to specialist markets for international galleries and the homes of collectors. Unfortunately this is not how a big industry is created. However, there is space for building a niche market, based on creating small quantities of quality goods. That's a market that requires clever and targeted marketing.
At the Birmingham Spring Fair 2017 (The biggest gifts fair in the UK) African crafts were completely under represented, especially when compared to goods from India and other Asian countries. Not only were they few in number, the designs were limited and old fashioned. I spoke to some companies selling African crafts from West and East Africa and many complained of low sales. Some companies had mask designs dating back to the 1980's; it's hard to believe that these buyers travel all the way to Africa and return with nothing original.
While speaking to buyers I realized that they have become stuck. They don't know where to go to find original works. Many have had bad experiences with introducing new ideas because they don't know how to do research and development work.
There are organisations to help buyers, but many new buyers don't know who is out there. This tells me that 'in country' organisations and the trade ministries are not doing enough to contact international buyers. I have seen the Ghana export promotion service abroad and although they are really trying to push non traditional exports, they do not have a huge list of makers. The Ghanaian government gives grants for Ghanaian producers to go to foreign trade fairs, but there is no financial support for makers to grow their business for research and development, market development and strategy. What I saw was an opportunity to bring modern up to date African crafts which are being made all over the continent at the moment.
In November 2016, many European buyers including two of my good friends Jonathan Wells (Rainsticks trading an international craft goods wholesaler) and Malika Beraud (Rachel and Malika's International retailer of handicrafts) made a trip to Burkina Faso for SIAO, West Africa's largest and most important craft fair. the fair was amazing, but I know that there are many workshops in Bobodelasso and others who did not have a stand at the fair, In an ideal world an international should spend five whole days at the fair and maybe another week traveling round the country. But that is a rare luxury.
The internet offers an avenue which African makers can use to sell directly to Western shops and customers at a premium. Naturally these avenues have been difficult for Africans to negotiate. Try and open a pay-pal account or sell online with an African bank account and one finds that conveniently for the status quo African banking is seen as somehow porous and untrustworthy. I believe that it is time for African craft workers to contact retailers in a smart way directly through trade and craft organisations. We need to develop new models that bypass the old models that were developed to keep Africa in her place.
I have always believed that we can encourage research and development by creating sponsored competition and award schemes that would encourage innovation and would also bring makers and buyers out of the wood work. Can you imagine how wonderful it would be for Habitat to sponsor an annual craft awards scheme. It would be a great marketing opportunity and the winner could get a order as well as exposure. The people who entered would also get a lot of exposure as well.
It's not all bad news on the crafts front though. In Ghana and Senegal basket weaving is a huge non traditional export producct. they are making lots of people rich and keeping many communities in employment. The Asian countries are copying these baskets, but their quality is very low. The best thing the African basket industry can do is to market it self on quality.
We will never be able to compete with Asia under the old system, so we will have develop some new systems to create a blue ocean of opportunity for African arts and crafts. African governments are tied up in bad trade deals and loan conditions that force them to make decisions that favor donor countries. It's up to African craft workers to educate themselves and find loop holes that will help them to excel in the international market place.
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We source all sorts of hard to find one off pieces and semi mass produced West African antiques, arts and crafts for galleries, museums, interior designers and shops. Send us your inquiries and we will respond as soon as possible or visit the website As Black as Love
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