Explore the World of Indego Africa on Design/Story

Starting today, Indego Africa and some of our best-selling products will be featured in a week-long campaign on Design/Story, an online site that showcases an assortment of globally sourced designs together with the unique stories behind them. Design/Story’s vision is to bring innovative design and the stories of their designers to life by providing a shop-tainment experience that allows a community of design lovers to explore, purchase and engage with modern home and lifestyle products and their untold stories. Through week-long campaigns, Design/Story spotlights the best and most interesting designs from around the world on an exquisitely crafted site.

Design/Story initial discovered Indego Africa’s products at our booth at the New York International Gift Fair this past January. A few months later, we now have the privilege to be featured in one of their design campaigns. Indego Africa’s collection is a natural fit for Design/Story, as each of our handmade products carries a remarkable story: whether the story of Indego Africa, the story of one of our partner artisans, or the broader story of how social enterprises can create positive change in the global community.

The campaign, entitled “Indego Africa: Good Design For A Good Cause,” will feature our banana bracelets, plateau baskets, textile bracelets and more, and runs from today, Thursday, May 26th, to next Wednesday, June 1st. Sign up is required but free. If you miss the campaign, stay tuned - you might even see some of Indego Africa's products as part of Design/Story’s permanent collection!

We are so excited for this artistic new partnership and so proud for Indego Africa's handmade product line to be showcased in the Design/Story community! Be sure to check in throughout the week by going to https://www.designstory.com/design-studio/indego-africa.

-Deirdre McGuigan, Retail Director

Indego Africa Wins Fair Trade Award for Product Design

Indego Africa is delighted to today announce its receipt of the Fair Trade Federation’s 2011 award for “Excellence in Product Design.” The award acknowledges exceptional work in the field of product design for Indego Africa’s collection of Nicole Miller bracelets, encompassing both textile bangles made by its partner cooperative Cocoki and woven bracelets made by its partner cooperative Covanya.

“Indego Africa stood out among the ten nominees for our 2011 Excellence in Product Design Award,” explained Mary Rose Parrish, the Fair Trade Federation’s program manager. “Their hip, innovative design and responsible use of materials have resulted in a great product that both speaks to consumers and creates a tremendous impact on artisans’ lives.” The notable fair trade accolade stamps an exclamation mark on part one of what is shaping up to be a dynamic and ongoing collaboration between Indego Africa partner cooperatives Cocoki and Covanya and designer Nicole Miller.

Indego Africa is a proud member of the Fair Trade Federation, a trade association that strengthens and promotes North American organizations committed to fair trade principles such as transparency, capacity-building, prompt and fair payment, environmental sustainability, and safe and empowering workplaces.

Despite its status as a relative newcomer, Indego Africa has elbowed its way to rapidly become a standard-bearer among North American fair trade organizations. Last year, Indego Africa was honored by the Fair Trade Federation with the coveted “Most Positive Change in a Producer Community” award at the 2010 Fair Trade Futures Conference.

Winning isn’t everything (or so says sagely youth sports coaches), but it does mean a lot when it validates the considerable relationship-building and development efforts of so many. Indego Africa is very grateful to the Fair Trade Federation for this recognition and overjoyed that it can share it with partners as uniformly outstanding as Cocoki, Covanya, and Nicole Miller.

-Conor French

bluma/Indego Launch at Anthro, Shopbop and Steven Alan!

Indego Africa is excited to announce a fabulous new fair trade line -- "bluma/Indego" -- of tote bags and cosmetics cases, now on sale at Anthropologie, Shopbop, and Steven Alan!

Designed by bluma project’s Beth Schaeffer, and hand-crafted by the talented women at Indego Africa's partner co-ops Cocoki and Abasangiye, these stunning bags are from made from Dutch wax cloth and feature traditional African prints and warm summery palettes of teal, pink, yellow, orange and blue. Why wait, shop now!

• The Lined Shopper features a contrasting lining and both an inside and outside pocket and is a great choice to carry your beach essentials. Available at Shopbop and Steven Alan (Venice, CA, Tribeca, and East Hampton).
  

• The spacious Patchwork Weekender features an array of dazzling textiles and a zipper closure, making it perfect luggage for a weekend getaway to the shore. Available at Steven Alan (locations above).
  

• The Stitched Cosmetics Case features a contrasting lining, and a zipper closure. It’s the fashionable way to carry your make-up and tackle clutter. Available at Shopbop and Steven Alan (locations above).

• The Market Tote Bag is an upgrade on an Indego standard (available on our online store). These bags feature matching linings, an inside and outside pocket, and now come in all new patterns! Available at Anthropologie, Shopbop, and Steven Alan (locations above).
  

These chic bags will keep you looking great all summer and best of all, as with all of Indego Africa’s products, all of our profits are re-invested in long-term skills training programs for the artisan women.

A Woman is a Rock: Society for Innovation in Africa (SoFIA)

Guest Post from Magogodi Makhene, Social Edge blogger, co-founder of Zenzele Circle, long-time friend of Indego Africa, and, most importantly, co-founder of The Society for Innovation in Africa (SoFIA).

Women’s strength is revered in an old South African adage, wa thinta umfazi, wa thinta imbogodo—if you touch a woman, you touch a rock because a woman is a powerful force. African women in particular are the rock of African families, communities and economies and yet these women remain under-represented in key leadership opportunities and positions. Only 67 African girls enroll for tertiary education for every 100 boys. In 2009, only 0.8 percent African women owned a business with employees. If African women are indeed the rock of Africa, then empowering these women to transform the current education and business statistics could strengthen African communities inside out.

The Society for Innovation in Africa (SoFIA) is a startup nonprofit founded to meet this opportunity of investing in African women so they can lead. We focus on accelerating African women’s opportunities in education, asset-ownership and entrepreneurship, working in support of organizations and individuals already impacting African women in these fields.

SoFIA was co-founded by the same team that spearheaded the Africa Social Enterprise Forum in 2009—the first convening of its kind and scope in the US (Social Enterprising blog post and video HERE). SoFIA is growing. We have the support of an esteemed Founder’s Circle, which includes Ben Stone of Indego Africa, and have already named our first SoFIA Fellow—an African PhD candidate woman from Nairobi. But we are still recruiting for our summer fellowship program. If working as part of an entrepreneurial startup interests you and if you want to enable African women to empower themselves, then we want to hear from you. Please e-mail your resume and coverletter to jearryanne(at)conceptlink.com or magogodi_makhene(at)yahoo.com. Instead of a full cover letter, please include a paragraph in your e-mail describing why you would like to be a SoFIA and a word on an African woman you admire and why.

- Magogodi Makhene