It has been a busy few months at Tribal Textiles, especially for our production team, who have been working hard to finish the orders we received during the first half of 2013. In the past few months we have dispatched textiles across the globe, from the US to the UK, the French West Indies to Tanzania! Back in Mfuwe, we have been busy organising photoshoots, joining fun runs and developing new designs and exciting new products to boost our fantastic range of textiles.

Never wanting to rest on our design laurels, we have introduced two of our most popular designs in new colourways for 2013. We are now offering African Circles in stunning Maasai and Flamboyant Pod in our gorgeous Earth colour scheme. There’s something for everyone in these new combinations, and we have been thrilled with the positive response from visitors to our Mfuwe shop.

In July we were delighted to support one of the biggest events in the Mfuwe calendar: the South Luangwa Conservation Society Annual Fun Run! Now in its fifth year, the 10km Fun Run was attended by roughly 3000 people. Winning for the second year running, in a breath-taking time of 29 minutes was Given Phiri, a star in the making! Following the Fun Run spectators were treated to an afternoon of sporting action, including the hotly anticipated tug of war. This was fittingly won by the SLCS wildlife scouts whose experiences patrolling the South Luangwa National Park on the trail of illegal poachers obviously set them up perfectly for the win. The day-long event mixed conservation messages with a fun community day and was a huge success. It has even inspired many of our staff members to get fit for next year’s race!

Conservation and community support are never far from our minds and along with our environmental initiatives of rocket stoves and our organic veggie patch, we are always keen to support local and international community initiatives through our stunning retail outlet in Mfuwe. This year we have loved having the opportunity to stock beautiful Katundu products from Malawi, colourful kikoys from Kenya, and an expanded range of gorgeous artisan leather bags by our sister company Jackal and Hide in Lusaka. Last but not least, we have been delighted to help raise funds for anti-poaching patrols in the South Luangwa National Park by stocking Mulberry Mongoose snare wire jewellery. Mulberry Mongoose is run by Kate Wilson, who will be familiar to many as Tribal Textiles’ Sales and Marketing manager from 2008-2013. Sales of Kate’s snare wire jewellery in our shop have now raised over $1,340 for the South Luangwa Conservation Society, and we look forward to helping raise much more for this fantastic cause in the future.

2013 has certainly been the year of eagerly anticipated births, and here at Tribal Textiles it’s no different! The beginning of 2013 has definitely seen something of a baby boom among our staff: the phenomenon began back in January, when our Office Manager Ivan Mbewe welcomed his beautiful son Joel into the world. Since then, three further members of staff have become parents, and seven more are soon to be welcoming little ones into the world. Add to this the fact that three of our ladies are looking forward to getting married in 2013, and we have begun to suspect that there must be something in the water!

We are delighted to congratulate all our new parents on their latest arrivals and to wish them the very best of luck with those sleepless nights.

 

And finally, this month it is our pleasure to introduce Evans Chipampe as our star staff member. Evans has worked for Tribal Textiles for 7 years and was promoted to Head of Painting in 2011. We already knew that Evans was a very talented painter, but since his promotion he has also proved to be fantastic team leader and mentor for our trainee painters. When asked what he gets most job satisfaction from, Evans tells us it’s “working with my team of people to produce good orders fast!”

At home Evans runs a small but successful small holding, raising guinea fowl, pigs and goats and growing rice and maize amongst many other things! Married, with 6 children to find school fees for, Evans doesn’t have much spare time, but when he does he enjoys tending to his bees. Oh, didn’t we mention? He’s a bee keeper too!

 

August is set to be an exciting month for us as our director Gillie, and former production manager Abi James team up for a week-long design workshop. We are also thinking ahead to Christmas, and the annual Zambian Arts & Design Show.

As always, we would like to thank all our wonderful clients and stockists world-wide for your continued support of this small business in the heart of the African bush!