Once upon a time, there was an African store located in Melbourne (Australia) by the name of ‘Shweshwe‘. Sheweshwe is a South African word which means, “the sound the cloth makes when you walk”.
Ever since I read about the store a few years ago, I had it in mind that I would visit the store one day. To my disappointment, the store is not in existence anymore! From what I had seen online, the store stocked an amazing range of fashion and accessories including beaded necklaces, homewares like the wax-print covered cushions, and collectable items like hand-knitted monkeys from Kenya. In store, you could also pick up independent zines and as well as wallpapers from Sweden, interactive wall art from Paris, and felted crafts from Berlin. The products were said to come directly from the makers ensuring responsibly production and selling in the global marketpace. These kind of stores are rare to find in Australia. There used to be an African store in Sydney many years ago. I must have probably been about 8 or 10 at the time. All I remember, was that it was very Safari like. I was fascinated, but when I think about it, I think it only represented one side of Africa. About 2 years ago, my friend and I came across boutique which stocked an amazing range of art and collectable pieces. I saw that the store stocked Kente and the gentleman in the store saw my friend and I scrutinizing over the fabric. He told us that it is a great bedspread and was demonstrating to us that it looks nice when the fabric is draped on a bed with plain covers. My friend and I tried not to laugh, because we knew the purpose of Kente and this guy obviously had no clue. So we decided to quiz him. We asked him where did he get the Kente from. He said his friend. We asked where did his friend get it from. He got a bit defensive and said that he can’t disclose that information. So we decided to give the gentleman a history lesson. We informed him that the fabric he thinks is a bedspread, is actually traditional hand woven fabric from Ghana. He realized that he couldn’t compete with what we were saying, we had the facts! We left the store in dismay. We couldn’t believe someone was selling Kente and had no idea of the process behind it.
There was something about Shweshwe I really admired, even though I had never been there. When I browsed their website, I felt they had an appreciation for all the items in the store. As if they knew where the items came from and the stories behind the items as well. It wasn’t just in store because they were pretty but because the items had meaning. We need something like Shweshwe to plant itself firmly in Sydney!
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