Tribal Textiles Family Day 2019 from Tribal Textiles on Vimeo.

WALL ART

We love our workplace here in Mfuwe: this is such a joyful place, full of music and laughter from our team, where creativity, sustainability and gender equality are key.

Many of those who visited us in the past noticed (and took photos) of the chalk board in the sewing room, where we wrote our philosophy. We thought it was high time to share those believes even more proudly, to keep us working together, happy as a team and allow visitors to reflect on them.

So we did what we do best: we used vibrant hand-mixed colors and brushes and painted Tribal philosophy on a big wall in the workshop.

We left this (more difficult than expected) task to our new intern Jannis, a graphic design student specialized in wall arts. Using an ingenious method, he drew the words at night using a homemade projector to avoid distortion before painting them.

He also pimped up our Glass Recycling workshop wall with this statement that we love: “Time for Change, there is no planet b”. Food for thought…

FAMILY DAY 2019

Talking about food, Tribal Textiles celebrated Family Day early August. 25 chickens, 15kg steak, 50kg rice, 30 cabbages, 5kg onions, 10kg tomatoes, 600 soft drinks, 300 eggs and packs of biscuits is what it took to feed our Tribal family this year.

This is one of our favorite moment each year, where our team members bring their family to show their workplace, do a bit of arts and a lot of dancing, and above all share a big hearty meal.

We were honored to be joined by Royal Highness Chief Mnkhanya - the chief of the area where our workshop is located who came to show his appreciation for the employment Tribal Textiles gives in his Chiefdom. 

He was greeted by dancers from the Malaila Traditional Ceremony, held every year by the Kunda speaking people of Zambia.

The dancers performed a traditional dance called the Ndongwe dance, that involves both men and women, drumming and a lot of shaking!

We were so impressed with the dancers that we sponsored them for the Malaila festival later that month and offered to sponsor them with bright new printed tshirts. Which provided Chief Mnkhanya with the opportunity of a good joke, wondering out loud what they would be wearing below if they had only tops…

Overall, the day was a great success. Many new friends were made, old friends reunited and most importantly the hard work of our team members was celebrated. Can’t wait for Family Day 2020!!!

 Read all about it here or watch the video below:

Tribal Textiles Family Day 2019 from Tribal Textiles on Vimeo.

MEET PAUL & TOM, OUR TIRELESS GROUNDSMEN

When we reopened the workshop in March, we went into a painting frenzy and decided to paint all our buildings white! This has certainly kept our fantastic Groundsmen duo Paul and Tom busy: as one can imagine, it doesn’t take only one layer of paint to cover terracotta bricks!!! And those who visited know that we don’t have only one building here.

Men in the shadows, those two always work in pair and hold the fort during the rains when the workshop is closed. Paul began working with Tribal Textiles as a gardener in 2000 and Tom quickly joined in 2003. Their positive outlook and fantastic work ethic soon marked them out for promotion to Head Groundsmen and Storesmen.

Paul has 6 children and is proud that his only son Jeff also works with Tribal Textiles in our dispatch department. Tom has only 4 kids but a better balance between genders with a very equal 2 boys and 2 girls.

While Tom can’t say no to a good football game, we think Paul secretly likes being in charge of the Tribal sound system, where he loves to mix up the Zambian tunes with his favourite – James Brown!

If you want to meet the rest of the Tribe, head here.

STUDENT PHOTO EXHIBITION

We believe in empowering our local community and are delighted to showcase the wonderful creative work of local pupils at tribe, the smaller shop we opened in 2017 near South Luangwa Park main entrance.

This photographic exhibition was produced by students of Mfuwe Day Secondary School. They are all members of the school’s Conservation Club and Camera Club, which is facilitated by Chipembele Wildlife Education Trust.

The Camera Club members wanted to share the joy and interest they have experienced in capturing images of wildlife, the environment and their community. These photos are a window into the very special world of South Luangwa as seen by the youth who live there.  

BIG APPLE WELCOMES TRIBAL TEXTILES!

As you might know, we sell our beautiful textiles directly to visitors in our shops in Zambia as well as in lodges throughout Eastern Africa (this is without mentioning our online shop of course).

But we also export them to stockists in over 20 countries. By far, our biggest export market is North America and we were thrilled to know that our beautiful textiles were so nicely represented in two significant booths at NY NOW tradeshow this year!

Swahili Imports and Wander Handmade are both long time wholesalers of artisans’ crafts from all around the world. Carefully curating a different selection of our styles (animals, contemporary African…), those two wonderful long-time partners should be your first point of contact if you want to place a small trial order within USA / Canada directly shipped from there.

Contact sales @ tribaltextiles.co.zm for details.

WILD LINES IN PROGRESS

This time of year, our workshop is usually busy fuming with ideas  of new designs to exhibit at ZADS (Zambian Arts and Design Show) in November, before releasing them in our shops and for wholesale.

This year, we wanted to create a collection at a lower price point and Jen and Cece came up with this brilliant new animal range. These designs are made up of one continuous line of starching, forming the shape of various animals.

Contact sales @ tribaltextiles.co.zm for prices and wholesale enquiries.

That’s all for now from the Tribal team… and don’t forget to keep it shaking!

THE TRIBAL DRUM 

NOVEMBER 2017

It’s been an exciting couple of months since our last Tribal Drum and we’ve got lots of news to share before the rains start.

We are very proud to introduce our new shop tribe, located just outside the gates of the South Luangwa National Park. In a very central location, tribe displays a colourful variety of contemporary Zambian and African artisan gifts, in a light and airy space.

It has an educational ‘Conservation corner’ that sells a range of fundraising products for local conservation programs and offers a small taster of the best of Tribal Textiles’ designs.

Working on the outside signage turned out to be yet another interesting experience for our talented head starcher Tiza, stencilling and painting – and managing to keep his unwavering broad grin – while perched on a ladder in the October heat! One more Zambian miracle, congratulations Tiza! Last but not least: we are offering cappuccinos and croissants at tribe, a very “Parisian” treat in the middle of the Africa bush!

Life continues apace at our main workshop as well – with its Artisan Market, Art safaris and Courtyard Café, Tribal Textiles HQ remains the heart of the business and is an invigorating place to spend some time. There’s nothing quite like watching our talented artisans at work with traditional Zambian music pumping out in the background and singing and dancing all around!

Besides construction work, we have been extremely busy fine-tuning stunning new designs, now available for wholesale purchase.

We are thrilled to reveal our new Carnivores range – inspired by the lions, wild dogs and leopards in the South Luangwa National Park. Sales directly support the vital research carried out by the Zambian Carnivore Programme (ZCP), with 25% from each sale going towards ZCP’s great work in Zambia. 

And not forgetting the little ones, we’ve created some newbies for children with Stick Animals, our latest kids’ range! 

With bright funky colours such as fuchsia, lime, orange and teal and a contemporary twist, this design will transform children’s rooms into a playful domestic safari park. Be ready to welcome elephants, giraffes, zebras and warthogs into your home!

For wholesale information, please contact sales@tribaltextiles.co.zm.

With temperatures reaching nearly 45 degrees, our brains - and creativity - have been boiling accordingly and we have developed a whole exciting new range of products: door stops, hammocks, bean bags, oven mitts...

But one of our favourite new creations is our beautiful banana paper cards – block printed designs decorated with traditional Zambian fabrics and artefacts. The organic banana paper is made by One Planet Café - right next door to Tribal Textiles. We started with bush animals and have moved onto wonderful silhouettes, working with our creative staff to embellish the cards with small scraps of traditional chitenge fabrics and natural feathers.

The ingenuity and imagination of our lovely ladies here at Tribal Textiles now amazes us every day, with our shop assistant Christine being by far the most creative!

These unique handmade cards are sold in our shop in a variety of animals and people. If you fancy sending unusual and fairtrade greetings cards, they are also now available to buy on our online shop https://shop.tribaltextiles.co.zm/.

The paper, made from recycled Zambian banana fibres, is WFTO (World Fair Trade Organization) verified and processed in traditional Japanese Washi-factories, constructed here in the Zambian bush, to use as little energy, water and chemicals as possible in the process.

All the best for now (and the end of the year) from the Tribal Team!

THE TRIBAL DRUM

JULY 2017

It’s been an exciting couple of months at Tribal and we’ve got lots of news to share.

It’s been an exciting couple of months at Tribal and we’ve got lots of news to share. In our last newsletter, we were hard at work with our biggest export order yet. We’re extremely proud to say that we managed to complete and send off to the US, in record time, over one and a half tonnes of beautiful Tribal Textiles cushion covers!

The experience was a huge learning curve for us all and our target wouldn’t have been achieved without incredible team efforts. We are extremely grateful to our staff for their dedication and look forward to producing more bumper sized orders in the future! 

In September last year we attended our very first tradeshow (the Trade + Impact summit) held in Morocco. This event introduced us to a lot of great contacts and even led to the big order to the US at the beginning of the season.

This year, we decided to go bigger: we’re going to New York in August. Yes, the Big Apple! We will attend NY NOW - one of the biggest tradeshows in interior decoration - in their Artisan Resource section, an area of the show that showcases artisan groups from all over the world. We will fill our bags with as many beautiful Tribal samples as possible, ready to show them to the thousands of attendees and buyers.

Our founder Gillie stopped by a few weeks ago and came up with an array of new contemporary designs for us to showcase there! We’ll definitely keep you posted with more news and pictures in upcoming newsletters but we can already say that she has been very inspired and productive!

We didn’t just stop at new designs. We also recently launched a new product: Tribal’s very own fabric storage pots! Like babushkas, they come in various sizes, colours and prints and you can stack them inside one another or fill them individually with anything you like – from plants to pens! We got really positive feedback about them on social media and are looking forward to seeing how sales will be in our shops.

Whilst it’s great to be busy with orders and shows on the International stage, we still love nothing more than seeing Tribal’s décor around camps and lodges in the South Luangwa valley.

Kafunta Safaris recently added a wonderful new tented camp to their portfolio – Three Rivers Camp. We hope you also love how stylish our screen-printed cushion covers look in their tents!

If you follow us on social media (which we hope you do), you probably know our latest great addition… we opened a café! That’s right, not only can you tour our workshop, browse for products in the shop or paint your own cushion covers during an Art Safari. Now you can also indulge in a delicious meal or simply enjoy a drink at The Courtyard Café.

Of course, we had to test out the café ourselves before opening it up to the public and we can confirm that the food prepared by the local legend Dorica is absolutely delicious! With tasty food and more beautiful textiles, we’re confident there’s more exciting news ahead and we’ll keep you updated in our next Tribal Drum.

All the best for now from the Tribal team!

Read more

THE TRIBAL DRUM 

August 2016

Last weekend we celebrated family day! It was a fantastic day with everyone beautifully dressed, having fun and proud to celebrate our Tribal Textiles family. Over 300 guests sat down with family and friends to a delicious lunch, lovingly prepared by some of the amazing ladies from Tribal Textiles!

The choir entertained, singing traditional songs, as well as a more modern favourite, “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” with beautifully harmonised “awimbaways”. It was the first time many of the Tribal Team’s family members had visited the workshop, so to mark the occasion we did what we do best. We created a beautiful wall hanging, to which everyone added their handprints, from tiny tots to Grandparents. It can now be seen hanging up in the workshop, a lovely reminder of such a fun day!

We have also been busy developing a new collection of colourways in our screen print range . The fabrics are hand screen-printed onto premium slub weave
cotton and linen fabrics. The luxe feel and finish of the designs make them perfect for décor, especially with beautiful colour stories. We have created beautiful colour combinations, matching dove grey with coral and sage with duck egg blue amongst others. Staying true to our roots we have also created a starch interpretation of each design. For those looking for something specific or just something a little different we are also offering pantone matching, which means you can choose any colours you like creating truly original pieces.

We love coming up with unique and original gifts that you can’t easily find in the shops and we are very excited to be launching a new range of wine bottle carriers and ipad covers! After drawing, designing , meetings and all that goes along with bringing a new product to life they are finally ready! The beautiful screen-printed items are lovingly printed in our workshop and sewn by our talented sewing team here in Mfuwe. Don’t miss out and pick up yours in our store or atour online shop: www.tribaltextiles.co.zm

Tribal Textiles continues to work with Malimba Primary School, which we have been supporting since 2001. Malimba has had a really successful year with great
exam results and success outside the classroom, with netball and football competitions against other schools in the area. Mary Nkhoma is also due to start back at Malimba next term, having become a qualified teacher thanks to Make me Smile and Tribal Textiles, adding to the growing list of fully trained teachers at Malimba! Also we are happy to say that we have just finished rebuilding and painting a brand new sign for the school!

All the best for now from the tribal team!

Read more

THE TRIBAL DRUM 

November 2015

THE TRIBAL DRUM 

APRIL 2015

We were delighted to welcome our artists back a few weeks ago after nearly three months’ absence during the rainy season. During that time there was much change in Zambia; we have a new President in His Excellency Edgar Chagwa Lungu; the rains have turned the dry, desolate bushvelt into a lush green wonderland; the farmers are getting ready to harvest their maize and at Tribal Textiles, we have made some improvements both front and back of house!

The PF government made improved roads one of their manifesto promises, and certainly better communications will help Zambia’s development. In the process of upgrading the road past Tribal HQ, our painted sign-pillars came off worse in an argument with a bull-dozer! Now that the rains have started to ease, we have rebuilt these pillars and Kennedy and his team of painters have decorated them in even greater style than before.

In the offices, the team have been busy too. In June, we are proud to say that we will be launching our own online shop, selling our products online and shipping them worldwide from our base in Mfuwe! See above for a couple of ‘screen grabs’ taken from the site. Our best-selling products will be available from the start, with more products introduced over time. Keep an eye on our website, Facebook page and Pinterest boards for details of launch date, promotions and further information. Our stockists will continue to hold large ranges of up-to-date stock in their shops worldwide, and we thank them for supporting us over many years of operations. Details of all our stockists can be found on our website.

While our online shop is a nod to the future, much of Tribal remains as it has since the company began nearly 25 years ago; the production process has evolved, but still relies on the skill, concentration and dedication of our team of artists. We have recorded excellent early-season production results and for that we thank each artist and the heads of department under the watchful eye of Moses Musa, our veteran workshop manager. New this year, working in partnership with Moses, is Priya Shah who joins us as Production Manager after many years of work in the safari industry. She is already proving a great asset and is leading the artists into a new year of producing high-quality textiles in the middle of the bush!

One of Priya’s first assignments is to develop Tribal’s new screen-print range. In advance, founder and Director Gillie Lightfoot has been working on new designs which are modern in their look but inspired by Tribal’s rich heritage. Her drawings and motifs echo the symbolism and creativity of Tribal but are more versatile in their possible applications. Products using these new designs will be available later in the year, both at our shop in Mfuwe and also online. Here are a few photos as a sneak preview of what we are working on.

The rains is also a time when we take stock of our designs and colourways and refine our range of products. We have shot new photos of an old favourite, Raindance in Rajasthan (coming soon to our website!) and we are pleased to announce the launch of a new design: Plume in Pomegranate (see images below). The photoshoot for Plume was heavily threatened when two vehicles got stuck in the mud on route to the site, but with perseverance, a fair amount of sweat and plenty of manpower, both were freed and we set everything up in time to catch the warm evening sunshine.

Following on our series of staff stories, we would like to tell you Stella Sakala’s story this time around. Stella is one of Tribal Textiles’ older members of staff; she is 55 and has worked with us for thirteen years. She is Head of our Washing Department, a role she attained in 2006 due to her very hard work and positivity. When we asked her what she most enjoys about her job she told us that she gets great satisfaction from seeing all the washed pieces blowing on the washing line at the end of the day. Knowing that she is taking home a regular, reliable wage is also a huge bonus to Stella as she has three children still in school. In total Stella has six children – her eldest daughter is 37 and her youngest is 7, so she has spent all her adult life raising children. Stella’s husband passed away in 1998, at which time she began to look for employment to support her family.  Her second eldest daughter is 30 and still lives at home as she suffers from serious epilepsy, so Stella also has to take care of her. Happily one of Stella’s sons passed Grade 12 at school so now works for a local safari lodge and brings in extra income to help the family. Stella’s wages have supported her family for many years and she has also saved enough to build a small house that they now live in. When she is not at work, Stella is very involved with her Church – she helps to run the Sunday school and also assists with offering free counselling to members of the community. In the future she hopes to build another house that she can rent for extra income.

As this newsletter goes out, there is a hint of dryness in the air, and the cacophony of birdsong is quieter than before – both of these are sure signs that the rains are coming to an end and we can look forward to 6 or 7 months of dry days. The promise of a new season is always exciting both for Tribal and for the safari world from which Tribal has always drawn so much creative inspiration. 

That’s it from us for now; we look forward to bringing you more of our news later in the season. In the meantime, here’s a lovely photo of George (the son of Evans, our head of painting) taken during our Raindance in Rajastan photoshoot

THE TRIBAL DRUM 

April 2014

It’s hard to believe that the rainy season has nearly finished and we’re welcoming back our production team already! Although there are still some thunderclouds hanging around the Luangwa Valley, our artists have now been back to work for a month and 2014 is looking set to be a great year for Tribal Textiles.

The rainy season is always a great time to reflect on the past year, and what a year 2013 was for us. We launched exciting new products including our stunning 100% cotton adult and kids’ duvet cover sets. Two favourite Tribal Textiles’ designs, Flamboyant Pod and African Circles, were released in our latest colourways Earth and Maasai with both emerging as new top sellers. And in November we photographed our beautiful new design Honeycomb which can now be found on our website www.tribaltextiles.co.zm/new/honeycomb.

Our artists have thrived in the creative atmosphere of the past 12 months, as have the record number of clients who have joined us for Art Safaris. Last but by no means least, we have been thrilled to welcome new stockists from around the world in countries such as Singapore, Kenya and Germany.

Did you know… That wrinkles can be good for you? Elephants are born with their famous wrinkly skins that are essential for keeping cool. The wrinkles boost the surface area of the elephant’s skin and increase the radiation of body heat. After a mud bath, the wet mud trapped between the elephant’s wrinkles continues to cool the elephant long after it leaves the puddle!  So the next time you worry about wrinkles remember the elephant and yours might not look so bad!  

For the beginning of 2014, we’re really excited to introduce you to our seriously talented wood carver Mike Mbewe.

Entirely self-taught, Mike creates breathtaking, life-like animal carvings from memory and the occasional printed picture. Last year we asked him to carve us a rhino which he did with astonishing accuracy despite never having seen one in his life!

Mike’s beautiful carvings have starred in many a photo shoot over the years, with these stunning pieces perfectly complementing the African motifs found in our designs. Watching Mike carve is mesmerising and we hope you love his work as much as we do. 

This year we are also thrilled to be developing new resources for our international and local stockists. We thought it was high time we shared our expertise in all things textile and so we have been busy creating fun and informative presentations and infographics that will be popping up on our SlideShare page in the coming months. Look out for the story of Tribal Textiles from birth to today, top tips on merchandising different spaces and the How To of creating our textiles.

We love feedback too, so if there is something you’d like to know more about, please drop us a line and we’ll see about turning it into a helpful and colourful presentation that will brighten up your day!

In the meantime why not visit us on Pinterest and see what’s inspiring our design team this week!

It’s set to be an exciting few months as our General Manager Kirstie returns with her new daughter, we plan fresh photoshoots to update our website and our staff return from the long Easter weekend.

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!

THE TRIBAL DRUM 

July 2014

It’s been a busy few months at Tribal Textiles. We’re excited to have dispatched our first orders of the year to the US, UK and Australia amongst others and we celebrated Africa Freedom Day along with our artists and some mischievous visitors to the workshop! As winter sets in, we were also lucky enough to hit upon a sunny day to reshoot our Kunda design in Kalahari and Moroccan in Clays. See the full behind-the-scenes story here, while the new beautiful images are now available to view on our website.

It has been an especially magical few weeks for our General Manager Kirstie, who returned to Zambia in April with her fiancé Ed and baby daughter Sukey. In May Ed and Kirstie tied the knot in a magical ceremony on the banks of the Luangwa River, attended by friends and family, as well as a few baboons and elephants for good luck! Of course the day just wouldn’t have been complete without a Tribal touch, and it was with huge pride that the Tribal Textiles choir sang Kirstie down the aisle, and later treated the guests to traditional Zambian marriage songs to celebrate the day.

Another Tribal Textiles couple celebrating this year is our Assistant Head of Starching Max Sakala and his wife Hilda, who will be marking their 35th wedding anniversary in 2014! Max and Hilda were married at home on October 26^th 1979 and now have 6 children and 4 grandchildren who all live on the same family plot together, just down the road from our workshop.

When we asked Max what he believes is the secret to a happy and peaceful marriage he gave Kirstie and Ed the following advice:

“Think of your marriage as more than you two, it is the union of two families who will now help each other into the future. In marriage it is also important for a wife to have her own business where possible, to add to the family’s prosperity and also the wife’s character. Finally, try not to drink too much beer as it leads to misunderstandings!”

Wise words we feel, from our legendary Super Max.

Did you know….That the iconic African baobabs may be the oldest trees in Africa? Baobabs don’t develop growth rings like other trees, but have to be radiocarbon dated like ancient artifacts. Some baobabs have been dated to nearly 2,000 years old and one in South Africa is so large it houses its very own pub with wine cellar next door!

As always, our staff are at the forefront of our minds in 2014. Our Workshop Manager Moses and Accountant Nathan have been working to become Peer Educators with SHARe II, a USAID project dedicated to HIV/AIDS training and treatment. The project trains Peer Educators to provide guidance on getting tested, counseling, prevention, financial advice and positive living. Nathan and Moses have brought this knowledge back to our workshop, where they hold lunchtime meetings open to all our staff members.

The project has met with an incredibly positive response from our staff, with the opportunity to discuss issues in a supportive environment and gain up-to-date information encouraging many people to find out their statuses and get much needed treatment. Nathan explains that many of our artists have also begun holding meetings in their own communities, using the information from SHARe II to educate friends, neighbours and their families too. Although the issues involved can be very difficult to talk about, the process of communication has been vital in helping to destigmatise a condition that affects so many people in Zambia.

The project is ongoing, and Nathan and Moses will continue to work with SHARe II in 2014. Nathan says the most rewarding part is seeing people gain the confidence to get tested in the knowledge that with the right treatment they have the chance to go on to live healthier, more productive lives.

We are very lucky at Tribal Textiles to be surrounded by the stunning Zambian bush and we are always keen to support environmental initiatives. This year we have also been promoting our fantastic cushion bags in a bid to help reduce plastic bag use. With over 1 million plastic bags consumed worldwide per minute, our colourful and spacious cushion bags are a fantastic eco-friendly alternative that can brighten up grocery shopping for years to come! We are delighted that visitors to our Mfuwe outlet agree, and cushion bags have now become one of our top selling products.

Cushion bags come in our full range of beautiful designs and colourways; please see our website www.tribaltextiles.co.zm or drop us a line at sales@tribaltextiles.co.zm for more details.

It’s hard to believe that we’re thinking about Christmas already! Nevertheless, we are preparing our artists for our first Christmas orders to arrive and gearing up for the Zambia Arts and Design Show in November 2014. We’re also looking ahead to peak safari season here in Zambia and working hard on innovative and exciting new products for our range.

For more information and the opportunity to chat to us about placing an order, please email sales@tribaltextiles.co.zm. You can also keep up to date with all our activities on our Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest pages.

Until next time, we’d love to thank all our wonderful clients and stockists for supporting Tribal Textiles and all our fantastic artists and staff!

THE TRIBAL DRUM

March 2013