The Nairobi-based pan-African gallery, African Heritage, recently won the "Visionary Leadership in the Arts in Africa" award from the continental Pan-African Broadcasting, Heritage and Achievent Awards in recognition of its efforts in promoting African culture globally.

However the future of this organisation which has over the years discovered, nurtured and presented hundreds of craftspeople, artists, musicians, models, cooks, designers, beauticians, and dancers to the world appears uncertain due to a decline in tourism,rampant piracy, and bad publicity of Kenya.

African Heritage models promoting African culture abroad

Alan Donovan, the only surviving founding director after the deaths of Joseph Murumbi and his wife Sheila in 1990 and 2000, respectively, laments that their exclusive jewellery for the export market are copied locally even before they are shipped abroad to their customers. He says this unfair competition could kill African Heritage.

Due to economic problems, African Heritage no longer maintains the large design department she once boasted of and many of the craftspeople who produced jewellery and other components for her have been laid off. They are now producing their own designs which compete with their former employer's.

Moreover, numerous galleries targeting ethnic handicrafts, have sprung up and Africa Heritage is no longer unique.

The glass beads; brass and aluminium earrings from the Turkana; the aluminium beads made of melted down cooking pots by the Borana and Gabra; the hand-carved wooden items from the Kamba; metal bracelets and amber beads from the Somali; water reeds from the Pokot and tiny brass and copper rings from the Giryama now hanging in shops and peddled by individuals in major towns and along highways have sprung from Africa Heritage.

Of this development, the philosophical Donovan says, "Imitation, they say, is the first sign of success.

Supermodel Khadija Adam gracing the cover of Cosmopolitan

Most designs in wood and stone carving in Kenya are basically those of African Heritage."

Donovan nevertless appeals to the government to hasten in turning the Copyright Bill into law so that intellectual property rights are respected.

He further calls upon the government and everyone in the tourism sector to promote Kenya and bring back the tourists who are going to South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe as the bad publicity has convinced them that southern Africa is safer than Kenya. He contends that the Nelson Mandela mystique of the 1990s had pulled tourists who used to come to Kenya to southern Africa. At the time, he argues, there was massive bad publicity against Kenya which the government failed to counter.

Since 1975, Africa Heritage has travelled across Europe and America promoting Kenyan culture, handicrafts and tourism. The organisation had raised African crafts from the level of souvenir trinkets to objects d'art with world class appeal, according to the World Bank.

As to why Africa Heritage has never designed a national dress for Kenya despite her immense creativity, Donovan says Kenyans do not care about a national costume. The only time Kenyans crave a national dress, he contends, is when they are representing the country abroad and are embarrassed to discover they are the only one without a national dress.

"This is the only time they panic wondering what to wear," he says, adding that the khanga and Maasai beadworks can be taken as the Kenya national attire for women. "This is the concept I used in designing the dress worn by Debra Sanaipei Ntimama who whose outfit took first prize at the Miss Planet Tourism contest in Greece last July," he says.

As for men, Donovan says the kikoi around the neck can be taken as a national dress.

Hence the recent appearance of the Kenyan delegation in London during the world tourism promotion in kikoi.

Africa Heritage, which was the first organisation to feature black Africans and African textiles on the catwalk in Kenya in 1972, has over the years provided costumes to Miss Kenya contestants in Miss World and Miss Universe competitions.

Iman Abdul Majid, the most famous of all African models, and Khadija Adam, the first Kenyan ever to win the Miss Africa crown, are products of African Heritage. And so are model Emma Too, African contemporary music kings Jabali Africa, and music producers Suzanne and Gido Kibukosya of Samawati Productions.

African Heritage were local casting agents and jewellery advisers to Academy Award-winning Out of Africa film that was shot in Kenya in 1983. The animated film, Lion King, has also drawn a lot from African Heritage including the name Nala which is the backward spelling od Donovan's first name-Alan-spelt backwards. One of their jewellery line is Nala, the name given to a female lion character.

As Africa Heritage goes through the leanest time ever, will its logo of a silhoutted profile of the Nimba fertility mask salvage her? So far its legacy had proven true as it lives on through the creativity of thousands of people around the world. Back to Front Page