Nontando first opened its doors in 2002 with our retail store in Sarasota, Florida. Unlike many retailers in this niche, our buying strategy is actually travelling to Africa annually, meeting the artists, and hand selecting the best of African Art, Gifts and Home Decor. Through our travels, we meet men and women producing a wide range of arts and crafts. Working on the pavements, markets of the big cities to deep rural enclaves with every form of traditional art work.

Your support, no matter how big or small, impacts the lives of these talented people, as well as their families and communities.

Africa encompasses 53 nations, nearly a billion people and more than 800 distinct ethnic groups. This is an opportunity to join us on an adventure as we meet a remarkable people and celebrate African life.

A WORD FROM THE OWNER OF NONTANDO

I was born and raised in Africa and, over the years, have been able to forge many relationships that enable me today to find worthwhile products in every part of the Continent. To replenish my stock, I travel to the homeland every year. I do not have to depend on wholesalers or jobbers but -- drawing on my lifelong knowledge of Africa -- am able to go to the villages and deal directly with the artisans who are creating the splendid objects I bring back for you. Certainly, the purchases I make from these artisans provide welcome income for families whose standard of living is generally quite low. But more than that, through my travels around the Continent each year, I am able to make a modest contribution to the education, independence, and entrepreneurship of creative people who have known precious few advantages in their lives.

PICS FROM OUR RECENT BUYING TRIPS TO AFRICA AND MEET SOME OF THE ARTISTS

Yaya and Salim are from Doula, Cameroon. Besides having a few co-ops around West Africa where they provide job opportunity and income for locals, they are also our main source for much of the wonderful art from West Africa. It is fascinating sitting down with them and listening to them explain about the symbolism of their art, the belief and values of the artists and their respective tribe/s. We attempt to pass on this knowledge to our customers, as understanding the significance, power and skill of these wonderful pieces creates an enhanced sense of appreciation.

Rasta smiles 24 hours a day with a heart of gold. He is from Gomon, Ivory Coast, a small town near the capital of Abidjan. Fortunately, we speak some French as communicating with him in English is a challenge. However, the quality, innovation and creativity of his art does not need to be explained. It is always a thrill to meet with him every year and helping him and his colleagues with our buying, gets appreciated by folks throughout the continent as, besides his own work, he provides a source of art for us from all corners of the continent.

Daniella is from Tikrit, Congo. She is our main supplier of the beautiful Kuba cloth. She has a number of ladies in her workgroup that make some of the other textiles and assessories we carry. A wonderful, talented woman, Daniella and her husband John, serve as an inspiration to many around them and we are very proud to know them.

Aaron (left in pic) is a Shona stone sculpturer from Zimbabwe and Ismail (right in pic) is from Gabon, and is one of our primary sources for many of the great masks from West and Central Africa. On our last trip, we treated Aaron and his wife for dinner, were we learned a little about them. Because of the current situation in Zimbabwe, they now reside in South Africa in order to sell their wares. Their 3 children live with his sister in Harare, Zimbabwe. They have not seen their kids for 9 months. When they have sufficient funds, they mail it to their sister in Harare, to provide for their kids. They are hoping one day that Zimbabwe returns to stability and they can return and earn a just wage in their country for their incredible talent. They cannot afford to bring and support their children in South Africa, but we hope our little contribution each year, through the purchase of their carvings, will be a stepping stone for an improved life for them.

In a innocent and humerous way, Ismail is sort of the Al Capone of African Art. He knows everybody in the industry, he knows the history of virtually every piece, and he has sources and contacts in places we never knew existed. Through his efforts, he contributes to families and communities throughout Africa, and provides for, far beyond the world of African Art, but also in the areas of education, entrepreneurship and community building. Meeting his three sons, one gains a quick insight that they will be following his fathers footsteps and continuing the legacy. We are proud to contribute in a small way in helping these folk fulfill their goals.

As you may have read in our newsletter section, we were fortunate to have visited the Carol Boyes showroom on our most recent buying trip to Africa. We look forward to carrying her products later in 2008.

We first met Carla, and her husband Charles in Nairobi, Kenya in 2002. They are now our primary source for Kenyan crafts. They have been a great success and so many have benefitted. They have managed to create 3 cooperatives in Kenya, with over 40 residents of Nairobi and the Rift Valley area now working and earning a wage. They have, through Retail and distribution points in Southern Africa created jobs for local residents and foreigners. We have known them for a long time, and their courage and tenacity and hard work has been so impressive to witness. As any direct importer will tell you, nothing compares to being at the pulse of the action and heart of the source, and we have learned so much from Carla and Charles, not just about Kenya, and its products and people, but about integrity and virtue.

FLAGSHIP STORE

If you are ever in Sarasota, Florida, please visit our store at 6578 Gateway Avenue, Gulf Gate Village, Sarasota, FL, 34231. Call us at 941-929-7844 or please drop us an email if you need more info.

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FAIR TRADE AND FREE TRADE

As more and more of the products we use are produced in foreign countries -- especially, poor countries -- the phrase "fair trade" has become a catchword among conscientious American consumers. And why not? After all, is is not "fair" a good thing to be? Do not we all want to be fair in treating the people who make what we buy?

But if you examine how fair trade works at the village level, you get a picture much different from the high-flown rhetoric used to convince us it is the morally right thing to do. Fair trade is a system negotiated between our government and the governments of foreign countries, in which large and small commercial companies organize and manage the manufacture of products and the lives of those who make them.

In a vast continent like Africa, where distances are great and transportation often rudimentary, it is anything but efficient to go around collecting products, a few at a time, from artisans living in far-flung villages. Often, the organizers force artisans to leave their native villages and come to work in centralized factories where what they make, and the amount they earn, is dictated by the company which markets their work.

This may be called Fair Trade, but it is anything but fair to the artisans -- who are often treated pretty much like slave labor. We prefer to call the way we work "Free Trade." We work directly with the artisans in their own homes. They make whatever they choose; if we like it, we buy it. They set their own prices; if they are acceptable, we pay them.

The artisans control their own lives and their own production. But they know they can depend on us to return every year to see what they have been doing -- and to pay them an amount of money that, for many of them, will represent a significant part of their annual earnings. Free trade is a form of human freedom: it is the freedom of individuals to voluntarily exchange what they own, without coercion or legal impediments.

On a personal level, having being born and raised in Africa and traveling to Africa annually to buy our products and dealing directly with the people, we do not believe FAIR TRADE brings much if any economic benefits to the poor.

If the day ever comes when I have to look in the eyes of a 75-year-old man sitting on the road in the mountains of Drakensburg, South Africa, selling his hand-crafted wares to support himself and his family, and I have to tell him, "I am sorry, I cannot buy anything from you, you are not a Fair Trade member" -- the day that happens is the day my business, Nontando, will cease to exist.