OMBA Arts
Celebrating Women and Partnerships
The bright light of hope and optimism for 2022 following the Covid fall-out of 2019/2020 is fading somewhat with all the troubles around the world right now.
But there is still reason to celebrate….
World NGO Day on the 27 February, put the spotlight on NGOs around the world and the value they add by promoting social or political change. In Namibia, Omba Arts has been a long-term partner of several local NGO’s who are working to support the livelihoods of communities as well as community based natural resource management and conservation. We are also proud to be a member of WFTO (World Fair Trade Organsation).
International Women’s Day was celebrated on Tuesday 8 March 2022. Working with over 400 rural women throughout the country for the past 30 years, Omba has witnessed first-hand the hardships, abuse, discrimination, isolation, and challenges they face. Single mothers raising children with no support, grandmothers feeding orphans, teenage mothers who have had to leave school. We have, however, always been amazed at the tenacity, resilience, and the absolute determination of so many female artisans who make a better life for themselves and their children… whilst sharing much joy and laughter!
Omba has given over 11 rural women artisans and staff the opportunity to travel regionally and internationally - Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Germany, South Africa, Spain, Kuwait, and USA (even a rushed day site-seeing in New York with a basket weaver from a remote village in the north!). Sometimes challenging to get passports and visas when there is no street address for the application form, but always a pleasure seeing the impacts of meeting new people and travelling far away. Many of our artisans have travelled to Windhoek where they have visited Omba HQ and seen the city lights.
We are excited to announce the new partnership with Khwe San basket weavers from the Bwabwata National Park in the Zambezi region. Their basket-weaving tradition was revived some 20 years ago when an Omba friend working for a NGO in the region at the time, discovered an old and tatty sample in a homestead and within a couple of months, women were producing these rare and unique baskets to support their livelihoods.
What makes these baskets so special is that normally basket-making in Namibia is linked to agricultural or pastoral practices (harvesting, winnowing and storing grain or curdling milk). These are the only baskets from an ancient hunter-gatherer culture where they were used to collect and gather wild fruit or ‘veldfood’– the handle providing a practical and functional element to the design; the colours all natural dyes.
One would think life for hunter-gathers in a national park surrounded by wildlife and wild edible plants would be idyllic. Sadly, the Khwe face immense challenges on a day-to-day basis; their subsistence has been described as pure ‘survival’. There are increasing land invasions whilst anti-poaching measures have denied them access to traditional gathering areas in the bush. Harvesting devil’s claw is a critical livelihood opportunity whilst basket-weaving has provided intermittent income when there has been a reliable market – unfortunately production all but ceased these past few years due to limited access to palm and distrust in the ‘middlemen.’
Thanks to collaboration with IRDNC and the Kyaramachan Association, Omba has embarked on, what we hope, will provide a regular and sustainable livelihood opportunity for the weavers in this area.
These rare, beautiful, hand-made and culturally authentic baskets are back on our shelves, and we are looking for buyers and/or collectors (so that we can keep the home fires burning for the weavers by buying regularly!).
Namibians are celebrating the excellent summer rains and our unusually GREEN landscape (even the Namib desert dunes are tinged with green!) We do however, give thought to those impacted around the world by war, flooding, and drought.
Stay safe and stay well.
Karin le Roux, Director, and all at Omba
