A tool to offer national outlets to local craftsmanship
Every edition is dedicated to one specific area of Niger: this year it is the Maradi area in the south of the country which is being honoured. With over 100,000 visitors in 10 days, 26 African countries invited and more than 500 exhibitors at 216 stalls, the 2007 Safem was a widely attended event. There were stalls of jewel-makers, weavers, tanners, basket-makers, as well as food-stalls offering local products such as millet, rice, sorghum and fonio. Among the most attractive exhibitions was “the modern bride’s bedroom” whose objects had all been made by thirty Nigerian women, under the guidance of two French designers. An imposing fashion parade took places on Nigerian and African music, bringing to light modern clothes inspired by tradition.
As a testimony of the diversity of the peoples which compose Nigerian society, the different forms of craftsmanship are cleverly practised by many men and women: alas, it is difficult for them to make a living with their talents. The Safem has been implemented with a view to valorising their work and to offering them outlets. “It all began in the early 199Os with a development project I took part in, initiated by Luxemburg, whose action was about helping and supporting Nigerian artisans” Mrs Aïchatou Boulama, the Safem coordinator, tells us. “We had realized that artisans couldn’t live on their work, because Nigerians did not consume the local products. Women being the ones who prescribe the household consumption, we then decided to make them our main target.” They are able to largely influence the consumption mode of Nigerian society and thus to influence the local economy. Therefore, the Safem not only bets on them but, far from reducing them to being mere consumers, it also gives them a place as producers.
Women in the foreground of local development
The path has been particularly long and riddled with ambushes for Aïchatou Boulama and for the group of active women she belonged to: “We were about twenty women to launch the first edition of the 2000 safem”, she continues, “and the year after we were already about a hundred. Together we went and met political leaders, and the managers of companies which imported their products from China, to sensitize them into consuming the local products. We also invited the countries of western Africa to join us.” These meetings made it possible to set in the heart of all debates about economical development, the matters of production and access to market. Little by little the Safem made itself heard. Aïchatou Boulama tells: “The only financial helps we had at the time were those of the Luxembourg cooperation and of the European union.
The Nigerian state did not help us at first. But we carried on trying and our efforts were finally successful. “In 2007, the Nigerian government decided to support the event and the wife of the President of the Republic sponsored it. The Safem now is institutionalized and functions as an independent structure. These are obvious signs that the exhibition, by offering women a key-role in the local development of Niger, was right. The women-organizers of the Safem now wish to incite women-artisans to make exportable products, which would then be likely to attract the interest of both visitors and foreign buyers.
Also read: Resonances Africa N°20 - January 2008
