When you come in to check out our Kenyan soapstone sculptures, make sure you see what other treasures Africa has to offer, among them our handwoven baskets from Botswana. Despite its economic deprivations and harsh climate, women in north-western Botswana chiefly support their families through basket weaving. Basket weaving is a traditional art which made a resurgence in the early 1970's. One weaver is Mahurero Diyeve, who fled war-torn Angola in 1967. Ms. Diyeve, who never attended school, says of her trade, "I make a lot of money from baskets. I don't know what I'd do for money without basket-weaving." Because of their mother's livelihood, Ms. Diyeve's three children have opportunities their mother never had, "All my children are in school, and my daughter is at university. I want them to become teachers or office workers, not just basket makers."
Make your Valentine's gifts fair trade! Meet Juliet Brago, a member of the Ghana-based Kuapa Kokoo cooperative, which co-owns Divine Chocolate. As she says, "It makes us all very proud to supply the best cocoa for the best chocolate and because we own it, we receive profits which help the whole village." Chief among these is a corn-milling machine, which reduced what had been an hours-long task into five minutes.
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