Namibia Craft Centre: "824 268 km2 under one roof"

When trying to define the character of the Namibia Craft Centre in Windhoek, its recent marketing campaign provides some guidance. One of the flyers produced for the promotion depicts a crocodile carving set against a red background. Two lines complete the simple yet striking design: GET A CROCODILE (AND MAKE IT SNAPPY).

"That particular advertisement really captures the essence of this place", says Karin le Roux, director of the Omba Arts Trust, who also manages the craft centre. Seated at a table in the little café overlooking many of the 31 stalls inside the historic Old Breweries building housing the craft centre, she surveys the familiar surrounds from her elevated position, clearly pleased with what she sees. Then she takes another look at the advertisement featuring the wooden crocodile, warming to the creativity behind it.

After a short pause she observes: "This centre is truly unique in southern Africa in that it is more than your average craft market. It is above all a design hub for contemporary Namibian craft and at the same time also an avenue for people in rural areas to sell their products and earn an income in the process."

While the aim of job creation and income generation is important to the Omba Arts Trust, there is a selection process when choosing stallholders . "We want to showcase authentic, distinctly Namibian, exclusive, hand made arts and crafts that make use of African materials and resources", she stresses and adds: "As such we promote artisans who sell hand made goods and artefacts that are not readily available elsewhere."
In order to ensure as wide a variety of wares as possible, the craft centre favours applications from vendors who offer unique products preferably not available elsewhere in the centre. Furthermore traders may not include more than five percent foreign products in their selection with a further limitation being that non-Namibian goods being offered for sale must originate from African countries.

"We want to develop local creativity and encourage artists who draw on Namibian images and ideas", le Roux emphasizes by way of explaining the restriction on mostly cheap and often mass produced merchandize from outside the country. In order to guarantee clients that the assortment of goods available at the craft market consists of original Namibian products, stallholders need to attach a label to their merchandise identifying where it was made.

The incentive of being able to showcase their ware to the over 40.000 guests who visit the craft centre each year, has spawned a vast selection of merchandise being presented there. Ranging from wood carvings, essential oils, embroidery, jewellery, woven baskets and clay pots to textiles, candles, ceramics, linen, unique post cards, leather shoes, CDs with Namibian music, Mahangu paper products and dried mopane worms, the craft centre offers something for everyone.

While that fact seems general knowledge amongst tourists, who account for most visitors at the centre at 40 Tal Street, le Roux would like to see more residents of Windhoek as well as tour guides and their guests stopping over. One of the reasons for the comparatively small number of local patrons she attributes to the decline of consumer-numbers in the central business district following the expansion of shopping malls like Wernhil Park and Maerua Mall which attract many of the shoppers that used to flock to shops in the CBD in close proximity to the craft centre. "First time local visitors are often amazed at the selection we have on offer and once they have experienced it for themselves we get return visitors who pop in with their guests or to buy gifts," says le Roux. "We have a number of very loyal tour guides and operators who seek out only the best experiences for their clients and ensure that the craft centre is on the itinerary."

Although the potential for more Namibian visitors may not have been fully realized yet, the craft centre has more than met expectations in the 15 years since its establishment. "When we took over the venue from Ohlthaver & List (O&L) about 10 years ago, there were very few Namibian traders and even fewer visitors", remembers le Roux. Since then the café was added and the gallery included, drawing additional visitors. Three years ago the facility was extended to include the old cold room of the long since decommissioned Breweries Building, which now houses a book shop specializing on Namibian and African books and photography. Prior to this, an additional loft was created and named after Hilde List, the widow of the late chairman of O&L, who was very supportive of the Namibia Craft Centre.

Above all the craft centre owes its success to clever marketing which has increased the awareness and visibility of the centre substantially. "When we took over the Centre ten years ago, there was a lot of unused space for exhibitors and there was a big turnover of vendors due to a lack of customers" recalls le Roux. Today the opposite applies with the capacity of the centre being exhausted long ago and new applications from vendors having to be added to a waiting list.

For the monthly fee of renting a stall, the craft centre not only offers a clean and secure trading space as well as marketing assistance for merchants but more importantly a source of income for the many rural people involved in manufacturing the products being sold. "We try to give preference to projects that benefit rural communities and as such include a developmental and/or fair trade aspect", says le Roux referring to established organizations like Penduka, Work with our Hands and People in Need that are also represented at the craft centre.

One such linkage between the producers and the Omba Arts Trust is Mut Hut Trading that was started in 1992 in response to the need for a marketing body to support rural craft producers. Today Mud Hut Trading promotes a wide range of locally made crafts through its stall in the centre and by means of wholesales to customers both locally and abroad. The organization works with over 20 small groups and enterprises and over 400 producers in several regions of the country, assisting them in capacity building, design and product development, while encouraging the use of sustainable, environmentally friendly materials and advocating for free trade of their products.Considering the many initiatives undertaken by the management of the Omba Arts Trust, among them training and workshop programmes with various organisations and conservancies, the craft market in the former Breweries Building can truly pride itself on being a small centre with big ideas. While the mere trading space of the centre may be limited, the area where the products being sold originate from is almost endless. As the banner that used to greet visitors above the main entrance aptly stated: "824 268 km2 under one roof."