Indego Africa - MorningCalm April 2018

PDF VERSION

HAND IN HAND

Indego Africa is not your ordinary lifestyle brand. Its handicrafts are made by women in Rwanda and Ghana, with all profits going toward their education and empowerment. Its impact is proof of the power of working together.

Long ago, Chantal Nyirabambari was a farmer. “I had no money, and life was not good,” she recalls. But a lot has changed since then. Today Nyirabambari is the president of the Imirasire Cooperative, a collective of female weavers in Mayange, Rwanda. Indego Africa (IA) has been helping to change the lives of women like Nyirabambari since 2007. The nonprofit lifestyle brand was founded by Americans Matt and Tom Mitro, who, having lived in various places in Africa for over a decade, were struck in particular by the resilience of women in Rwanda, where the aftershocks of the civil war and the 1994 genocide of the Tutsi people can still be felt.

In the wake of the violence, some 70 percent of the surviving Rwandans were women. The country had to rebuild, and it was the women who were at the center of the reconstruction. Many of them became the primary breadwinners of their families. Today, over half of the Rwandan parliament is made up of female representatives, and according to an annual report put together by the World Economic Forum, Rwanda currently ranks fourth out of 144 countries in gender parity.

After 1994, the government encouraged entrepreneurship as a path to bolstering the country’s ravaged economy, and many women formed artisan cooperatives in order to start their own businesses. But there was still a significant obstacle: the artisans needed greater access to markets.

This is the gap that IA bridges. Through its online store, IA brings handicrafts from Rwanda and Ghana (where IA began partnering with artisans in 2013) to the global marketplace. On offer are handwoven baskets, various pieces for home decor, hats, scarves and baby clothes. The cheerfully loud pops of color are a signature of IA’s style, a melding of the artisans’ local traditions and the vision of IA’s creative director, Deirdre King. When coming up with a new design, she first asks questions like: “What can our partners make with the skills and materials they have? What will be a good fit for our brand aesthetically, and will it showcase their artistry?”

King has always been passionate about design, and she joined IA straight out of law school, where she studied international human rights, focusing especially on women and refugee rights in Africa. “Don’t underestimate the power of learning on the job,” she says. This wisdom exemplifies the core of IA’s mission — education as a path toward independence. All proceeds that don’t go directly to paying the artisans are used to fund educational and training programs for the women.

Starting in 2016, IA and its partners began working with the UNHCR on a project called #WithRefugees that gives business and vocational training to Burundian refugees in Rwanda. This training has allowed them to create government-registered cooperatives of their own, which makes it easier to open bank accounts for their businesses and sell their goods at exhibitions throughout Rwanda. Nyirabambari is one of the teachers who have joined the project. She and two other members of the Imirasire Cooperative are currently helping train Burundian refugee women to weave with banana leaves.

Nyirabambari has been making handicrafts for 11 years now, using mainly sweetgrass and banana leaves. Her specialty is creating handwoven baskets, some of which she designs from scratch. “I can reinvent the way of weaving and design something new which didn’t exist before,” she says. “I have been practicing this ever since I started weaving with sweetgrass and banana leaf.” Sometimes she picks the banana leaves herself, though often they’re sourced from local farmers. After they’ve been dried, it takes about four to six days to weave a larger piece.

Rwandan artisans weave many different objects, but Agaseke, a traditional Rwandan basket with a conical lid, are world-renowned for the story behind them. After the genocide, women in Rwanda continued to weave baskets to support their families. Weaving cooperatives included both Tutsi and Hutu women — the persecuted group working right alongside the majority group that had killed so many. Traditionally Agaseke are given as wedding presents, celebrating a union. Today, Agaseke are often called “peace baskets.”

Once a week the entire global IA staff meets virtually. The organization is surprisingly small. There are six full-time staff in Rwanda, two in Ghana and five in the US. In 2007, IA began by working with 30 genocide survivors. In 2017, it worked with over 1,100 artisans. Now 90 percent of its Rwandan partners can afford to send all or most of their children to school. In 2009, only half could. Don’t underestimate the power of learning on the job. Working with IA and its partners, you’ll learn what you can create with just a few willing hands.