Safety clothing for handicrafts - Import export

Johanna Shilongo produces all the clothing sold at her stall. The distinctive striped material used for the traditional dresses worn by Namibia’s Owambo women, represent the three different tribes – the Kwanyama, Ndonga and Ngandjera. Traditional the pink colour was obtained by grinding stone, and the fabric is known as Ondelela. Johanna also buys traditional Owambo baskets and wooden utensils and animals from the north of Namibia. Anyone desiring to have a taste of Owambo customs and tradition in their homes, must visit Ondjaba stall.

The quirky charm of Maid in Africa lies in its distinctly modern and rural African narrative. More than anything the everyday images, such as shebeens, bottles of Marmite and cans of sardines, carefully reproduced on the bright, hand-painted fabrics are accompanied by amusing and humorous African sayings, a tongue-in-cheek twist added to the regularity of contemporary African life. Andrew and Micha Weir started Maid in Africa in 2006 after their domestic worker, Priscilla, was diagnosed with HIV. They were forced to watch helplessly as her condition worsened even though Priscilla expressed a desire to continue being productive. Micha Weir showed Priscilla how to silk-screen paint and produce hand-painted fabrics. Tragically, Priscilla succumbed to AIDS in 2007 but her passing inspired the Weirs to spread a wonderful, celebratory message, including immortalising Priscilla’s smiling image as ‘Maidonna’ on a variety of surfaces and a range of beautiful.

The Kasupi Crafts exclusively retail ‘fashionable’ clothing, jewellery, accessories and selected apparel, like T-shirts, made or decorated by hand, almost entirely originating from the Namibian craft sector. Owner of the stall, Josephine Kasupi, formerly worked for 13 years for the owner of Tomcat, and later became the proud owner and renamed it aptly to Kasupi Crafts. She enjoys providing visitors with an experience of a ‘different’ kind of craft stall. Kasupi offers the adventurous fashionista leather bags made from flawless springbok and zebra hides which follow the design and pattern of mainstream handbags, clutches and shoulder-slings, yet conventional enough to take to the office. Kasupi Craft’s famous leather springbok fur sandals are often available in fashionable colours like bright greens and screaming pinks.