LEATHER BAGS CAN TELL
MODERN AFRICAN STORIES
By
Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted December 14, 2017)
Before Chebet
Mutai founded Wazawazi and started making high-styled leather bags, she was a
trained economist who worked as a consultant at the World Bank.
“It was
while I was at the World Bank that I saw that Africa needed more entrepreneurs
and more manufacturing to solve some of our continent’s major problems, like
unemployment among our youth,” says Chebet who became an entrepreneur herself
in 2012.
She’s been
on a learning curve ever since. Initially, she went into fashion design. But it
didn’t take her long to realize the way she really wanted to go was into
specializing in high-styled leather bags.
“I design
all my bags,” she told Business Daily. But beyond the designs, Chebet knew she would
need to set up a workshop of her own. At first, her bags were made in her
house. But gradually, as interest in her designs picked up, she realized she’d
need a bigger place.
It took some
time for Chebet to find that space. But then friends introduced her to the
Jamhuri Showgrounds where there were vacant spaces that seemed vast. They had
high ceilings and plenty of room for the sort of set up she hoped to establish
as her business grew.
By then, her
brand name, Wazawazi had been born and her branded bags were breaking into the
local leather goods market in a big way.
“I made up
the name ‘wazawazi’ using two Kiswahili words,” she explains. “It basically
means ‘open-minded’ since waza means ‘to think’ and wazi means ‘to be open’.”
Being ‘open-minded’
is the way Chebet feels more people ought to be. It’s also the way she sees
increasing numbers of young Africans thinking about what they want to do and be
in the wider world today.
“I’d also
like the world to be open-minded enough to recognize and appreciate where
Africa is going because modern Africans are moving fast and setting trends that
are exciting and innovative,” she adds.
Currently,
Wazawazi makes everything from leather backpacks and clutch bags to change
purses and laptop or tablet leather cases.
But one
thing Wazawazi is definitely not, emphasizes Chebet, is a leather tannery. “There
are plenty of excellent tanneries in Kenya already. It’s from them that we get
our leather and then create our bags.
”
But she no
longer counts on casual contacts. Instead, she’s found it’s quite useful to
attend trade fairs and commercial conferences where she can meet people,
particularly those who can help her distribute her bags and establish broader,
more global networks. Thus far, she’s attended trade fairs everywhere from Hong
Kong and Frankfurt to Las Vegas and New York.
But as keen
as she is for Waziwazi to go global, Chebet is also concerned about addressing some
of the challenges she identified in the region way back when she was at World
Bank.
Issues like
training of young people in entrepreneurship and helping to eradicate
unemployment are still close to her heart. Her workshop is one arena where she’s
doing what she can for the youth who come to her looking for work.
Just a year
ago, Chebet also opened a Wazawazi shop in Nairobi’s Valley Arcade. It is from
there that she wants to do more than just sell her stylish bags.
“I’d like
the shop to be a space where creativity can flourish, where other artists can
bring their artistic expressions, be they in the shape of visual art, jewelry, music,
fashion or even books,” she says.
“I’d like
that space to serve fellow storytellers, since I feel the time has come for
Africans to share their stories, and not for others to tell our stories for us.”
To her, the
region is moving fast into the future and the rest of the world isn’t necessarily
aware of how enlightened, progressive and pace-setting young Africans are.
“That’s why
we need to be the ones to tell our stories of modern Africa.” Ultimately, that’s
what Chebet wants ‘Wazawazi’ to be and do.
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