Papa Awori, a man with an infectious smile and a laugh that echoes in the room, is from Nairobi, a city in Kenya, Africa. He is one of two other people who work in the store.
He completely turned my day around.
I guess you could say I woke up on the wrong side of the bed that morning. I was even cranky to my roommate, and I’m never like that with her.
But something changed when I walked into Swahili Imports, a shop in the 5th Street Market that sells products completely handmade by people in Africa. Every time I have come into the store, Papa has greeted me with a smile and eagerly told me about a product I’d find interesting.
For example, Swahili Imports sells flip-flop key chains that are made out of the same material flip-flops are made of. The first time I saw these in the store, I was amazed. When we throw away flip-flops, they don’t always end up in the “trash.” They turn up on the shores of another country. Turns out, a lot of them wash ashore in Africa. The artisans who find them recycle the material and create something that earns them money and enables them to pay their rent and other expenses. How incredible is that? The Saturday Market might have unique vendors, but I’ve never heard of anyone making flip-flop key chains from actual flip-flops.
Walking through the store, it’s almost breathtaking realizing that everything in it was handmade by an actual person, not prepackaged by a machine. I must admit that every time I have stopped in “just to look,” I always end up buying something. There are soapstone earrings, purses made from banana trees, antique brass and zinc magnet clips from Cape Town, South Africa, and my personal favorite: telephone wire baskets. With so many products to choose from, there is one thing any customer can count on: you will go home with a little piece of Africa.
Serena Piper: How did you get started working here?
Papa Awori: The founder of the company and I met 14 years ago – at the time, I was doing trade shows – and she was just starting out. I told her I was moving to Oregon, and she suggested I work here for six months to see if it would work out. Fourteen years later, I’m still here.
SP: Is the store doing well financially?
PA: We were doing well up until about 2008. When the recession hit, then we started feeling it. It’s gotten much harder, much tougher for us because people are not traveling as much, and it’s [usually] been a good location for people to travel through. We’ve been in the same location for at least 10 years. The economy and recession really affected us.
SP: What do you think makes Swahili different beside the fact that everything is made in Africa?
PA: The main thing is the art in design. If you look at all the products, there’s a certain design quality and standard, and then also, we bring things from 11 different countries which are representative of West Africa, or Ghana and Mali, and East Africa, like Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania – and also South Africa – Mozambique. Because we cover such a stretch of continent, I’d say it helps us be more representative of what products are available from Africa. A lot of companies just go to one region or one country. [Swahili Imports] tries to offer a broad spectrum.
SP: How do buyers choose which pieces to bring over to the U.S.? What do they look for?
PA: If there’s something that we think is going to sell and has a good design, and it’s made in a sustainable way, that’s what we look for.
SP: How does the shipping process work?
PA: The process is a fair trade business, so we work directly with the artisans. There’s no middle man involved, and the buyers travel two to three times a year, so they go see these artisans. Most of the artisans, we have been working with for the past 10 years, so we know the quality of their work. If we want them to make something new, we have the samples made, and we’ll see if the samples are good enough. If we like them and they are good enough, we ask them to make a bigger order. When we do this, we give them 50% down to order the materials. Once everything is made and delivered, we give them another 50%. Finally, our logistics broker collects the items at a warehouse and then packs and ships them by sea. Shipping takes about a month.
SP: Is there anything that you would most like people to know about the store?
PA: The main thing I’d like people to know is that we’re a fair trade store. By fair trade, I mean that the prices that we pay to the artists from the various countries for the products – if [the price] was changed to the equivalent of a wage, then you would make a living wage as opposed to a minimum wage. A living wage is something you can use to pay for your housing, your education, your health, your kid’s education, your food…So when you buy things from the store, the money actually makes a difference to people back in Africa.
If you’re looking for something unique and want to support a good cause, stop in at Swahili Imports. Not only will you have the opportunity to pick out something one-of-a-kind, but you can also rest assured that your money is supporting an individual, not a faceless company.