One of the most endearing success stories involves the cracking of the lucrative European Union curios market by Botswana’s hand-made ostrich eggshell jewellery and curios (OESJ & C).
The gambit would, however, not have been possible without the courtesy of an Office of the President’s (OP) trip in 2006 who by invitation at short notice included as special guest, the then unheard of 32-year-old Bulanda Claudia Thamae, the Souvenirs of Kalahari (SoK) Jewellery Designer.
Thamae enjoyed the unique, albeit golden opportunity to export the entire unsold OESJ & C stock, including other handicrafts as an acid test of European demand potential. The presidential entourage Thamae enjoyed the privilege of being part of, headed by the then President Festus Mogae, had paid the export permit to enable the consignment free on board (FOB) access during the diplomatic visits to some of the Euro Zone countries, where the active populations considered it fashionable to display African hand-carved artifacts and curios in their living rooms.
According to the 38 year-old single mother of three boys, “On this once-in-a-lifetime trip I had to dare Europe’s wealthiest hinterland clientele with rather archaic OESJ & C from Botswana. The other challenge was to make the most of the export permit and sell the products, given the flying nature of the itinerary.”
The West Hanahai-born and based Thamae said Botswana’s Ambassador to Sweden at that time Bernadette Sebasu Ratedi came to her rescue when she went the extra mile to circumvent diplomatic protocol.
She deposited the entire jewellery and artifacts stock with the Etinografista Museet (a Swedish Museum) curios shop for sale. Ratedi through the Botswana Embassy remitted the Swedish crown-denominated revenues from the overzealous clientele who purchased every item, through OP who paid her in Pula, before recovering from the jetlag akin to long haul flights. OESJ & C sales which were 100% on the Swedish market also reinforced efforts by the then Botswana Economic Development Investment Agency (BEDIA) and now Botswana Industry Trade Centre (BITC) to breakthrough into the European and UK curio markets.
In short the EU’s popularization of the OESJ & C market is opening new spaces at home and abroad for San participation; also a step forward in their recognition. The San handicraft skills will move the sustainable development agenda forward through recognition and respect for traditional knowledge and its role in poverty reduction. The skills used for the production of beads, hides, textiles, jewellery or sculpture could be enhanced to ensure high quality production meeting international quality standards of production of those identified items. In some cases these could be combined with diamond and other precious stones found locally in conformity with international laws or special waivers governing specified animals and products. There is scope in engaging the Rural Industries Innovation Centre (RIIC) and National Food Technology Research Centre (NFRTC) through technology transfer to introduce more innovative modes of processing veldt food and making handicrafts. The marketing strategies should ensure the products are generic and without artificial contaminants. The RIIC & NFRTC monitoring and evaluation coupled with government intervention will prevent San art from becoming mere window-dressing. If developed to full potential, the OESJ & C markets facilitates the formation of cultural groups, promotes a spirit of self identity, self reliance, preserves traditional knowledge and protects intellectual property rights amongst the San through the use of cultural tourism. Two or three stores selling San handicrafts could be opened in different malls within Gaborone or at the airports in Francistown, Maun and Kasane.
Thamae turns back the hands of time to age of five before SoK came into existence. During this tender age, she came under the tutorship and loving care of her late paternal grandmother Kobae Thamae, who instilled in her an eternal passion to appreciate what nature provides and use as a means for survival. Her granny, (Kobae) who died at the good old age of about 96 in 2011 had through contagion ingrained an irreversible passion in her granddaughter for OESJ & C well before she could either read or write. The junior Thamae says she also learnt to identity, hunt and gather for subsistence the wide variety of edible plant, animal and bird egg species, abundant in the Kgalagadi’s harsh and semi-arid weather conditions.
After completing Form V Thamae said she felt empowered to register in 1999 SoK as a commercial enterprise. However, given a high demand for ostrich eggshell products the initial drive behind the establishment of SoK was purely financial. Being the breadwinner, there was logic in cherishing “great expectations” of raising additional income for the sustenance of less financial fortunate remote area based immediate family members in a world of people living with HIV/AIDS.
Efforts to secure donor funding from Skillshare International Botswana (SIB) hit a snag, largely due to the requirement for group than individual beneficiaries. Another requirement for sponsorship was to engage a business consultant who SIB would pay to verify the group’s viability vis-├á-vis commercialization of the handicrafts. In conformity, Thamae hastily rallied a group of 9 local women into a NGO cartel specializing in hand-made ostrich eggshell beads, necklaces, earrings and pendants. The group also explored the financial viability of tanned leather and indigenous tree seed varieties for making beads, necklaces and embroidered hand bags. The women engaged in cultural activities in the form of live performances of the “Bushmen Walk & Dance”, a special treat for foreign-based cultural tourists keen on learning about the San of the Kalahari. Tourists can also go on San game tracking excursions and the unique experience of using bows and arrows. Royalties are credited to the women to use for developing to the next level.
After submitting the registration papers to the Registrar of Societies the women suffered from a lack of self-esteem to forge ahead with the business. However, through the University of Botswana/Tromsoe joint collaboration efforts, the Ghanzi Land Board allowed businesses to operate and construct a shelter to display their products from residential premises, compromised shortage of commercial plots.
In 2003, the Basarwa Research provided Thamae sponsorship to study for an 18-months Diploma in International Travel & Tourism at the Gaborone Institute of Professional Studies (GIPS). Part of the sponsorship included P3 000 monthly subsistence allowance for the duration of the study programme. It was through prudent savings from this allowance that she raised enough money to register SoK and buy a Trophy Dealer’s Licence from the Department of Wild Life HQ in Gaborone and inputs to get the ostrich eggshell business up and running. She was employed as the Ghanzi Craft Shop Manager where she had the opportunity of networking and receiving hands-on-feel of the OESJ & C market.
Getting to the basics of the ostrich eggshell curios trade, Thamae who also holds a Certificate in Community Based Natural Resources Management (CBNRM) obtained from a South African university says: “The arduous process of preparing ostrich eggshells for necklaces or jewellery ranges from three to nine months beginning with the collection and breaking them up into smaller pieces by hand, empty bottles or hard plastic. The next stage involves hand-drilling using a hand held stick fitted with bone or metal very similar to art of kindling fire through friction of wooden sticks and threading with twisted plastic (or tendon). The shaping into the right size is done through the use of nail cutters of duiker horns. After the final wooden smoothing the semi-finished jewellery pieces are soaked in bark sap for the odourless, ornate and indelible colouring. The final air-drying readies jewellery for sale.”
However, the OESJ & C business suffers from a myriad of challenges bottlenecking the supply of raw eggshells. Over the years, about 70 percent of the ostrich farms have closed down due to poor market conditions. The Department of Wild Life prohibits the collection of the eggshells which are eventually destroyed by wild fires. There appears to be reluctance from the powers-that-be to protect indigenous knowledge for the colouring and pigmentation using herbal species as exclusive San Intellectual Property, she says.
The OESJ & C apart from being a viable and lucrative business has become popular for its aesthestic handicrafts. For instance, she has won first prize at all annual Women’s Expos since inception in 2009. For this track record, skeptics believe this could not have been possible without some underhand payment or collusion between SoK and the adjudicators. “This proves beyond reasonable doubt of the uniqueness of OESJ & C. There is yet handicraft to equal or beat ostrich eggshell jewellery in its present offering.”
Furthermore, she is on record as having sold entire stocks at the Swaziland and Angola Trade Fairs. Due to overwhelming demand on the Angolan market, she has received e-mails in Portuguese lingua that she doesn’t know how to handle because of her ignorance of the language. Her last best hope lies in requesting the Botswana Khwedom Council (BKC) to sponsor French and Portuguese language courses, to tap into the respective countries markets.
Thamae said the ostrich eggshell business has the potential for introducing sustainable poverty alleviation projects to out of school young women. There is tangible proof of the financial viability especially in markets abroad which pay in foreign currency.
The unstoppable Thamae also occupies a number of influential positions beginning from that of Ghanzi West Hanahai Community Mobiliser benefitting craft groups. She is also Botswana Kuru Women Cultural Society patron, head of the Ghanzi District Crafters under the auspices of the Botswana Visual Art Association as well as Crafters Representative of the Ghanzi 7 Kgalagadi Districts under the Import Substitution Task Force.
She cherishes the idea of becoming a renowned global supplier of the OESJ & C market within the next decade.
