Osotua is a Maa word meaning umbilical cord. The Maasai use it for a bond between people who help one another in need, and once made it lasts and passes down to the children of those who made it.
Supported so far by our amazing partners the Swiss Foundation for Solidarity in Tourism, Selina Wamucii and Oltau Maa Women Group, the purpose of the Osotua initiative is to keep the traditional craft knowledge of indigenous women alive and earning. Elder women artisans teach younger women the beadwork and craft of their own people, those women sell their work to the travellers Nasheko brings and other customers at large, and each one goes on to teach others in her community.
The beadwork of these communities carries a deep meaning in addition to the beauty we have all come to admire. The colours and patterns carry meaning, marking age, standing, passage and belonging, and the full body of that knowledge now rests with a small number of elder women. Younger women have grown up watching it thin out, since a skill that earns nothing struggles to compete with the pressures of an ordinary day.
Osotua puts the craft back into earning hands. Elder artisans teach younger women the beadwork and craft of their own people, working beside them until the patterns are theirs. Those women then produce and sell to visitors and other customers, earning an income of their own in communities where women have had few earning opportunities. Each woman who learns goes on to teach others, so the knowledge moves through the community faster than any programme could carry it.
What changes is not only income. A young woman who once saw her grandmother’s skill as belonging to the past now makes a living from it. An elder who had watched her knowledge lose its audience is sought out, paid and listened to. The standing of the craft rises with the standing of the women who hold it.
The bond Osotua describes is one that outlives the people who form it. That is what this project is for: knowledge given from one woman to another, and carried on to the next generation.
For organizations that would like to support this initiative, kindly get in touch via our contacts page and we are very grateful to work with you.