Finalist in "Global Junior Challenge"

eShopAfrica was a finalist in the "Global Junior Challenge" a competition that is dedicated to all young people, from school children to teenagers and youths taking their first steps on the job market. It is open to cities, institutions, local authorities, businesses, NGOs, communities and individual citizens and all those who are interested or involved in child and youth education and training, and more broadly, in helping in the construction of a more inclusive society.

One of the aims of eShopAfrica is to put money and prestige back into the African artisan sector. Many of our artisans express a wish to be able to give their children a decent standard of living and education so that they remain with the family and inherit the skills instead of moving away to urban areas. Visit the Global Junior Challenge website

What's it like to work for eShopAfrica?

Deborah Jones, a UK post graduate volunteered to work for eShopAfrica during the summer of 2004. Although she is still continuing her studies she wanted to know what it was like to work for an African fair trade arts and crafts business. We were very happy to have her! As well as helping out in the office she helped survey our artisans on what their goals and aspirations are.

As an outsider coming from the UK she was full of ideas and initiated a bead marketing campaign for UK beadshops. She also had some good ideas to make the website better.

Deborah is now continuing her studies at the School of African and Oriental Studies in London and we wish her all success and hope that she'll come and visit us in Ghana again soon.

This is what she said about us:

"Working for eShopAfrica in Ghana taught me that whilst running a business in Africa is challenging, it is also immensely rewarding.

Part of the work I did out there was to interview the artisans about their plans and ambitions. Before I went, I thought the company had set itself a big challenge in helping these people earn a good living from selling their products, but I was not prepared for how enterprising and resourceful these men and women were. I was really impessed by their plans to speed up production and break into new markets.

The challenge they faced on a day to day basis; competition from others selling similar goods, the difficulty of getting hold of raw materials and the pace of life in Ghana, which means everything takes a long time, were akin to the challenges eShopAfrica faces. I really liked the fact there was no conflict of interest between the artisans who were all trying to develop their businesses, and the company that buys from them. They are all small concerns, but they can, and are, helping each other."

Feedback: Ga Coffins: G Winston, UK

I ordered a decorated chest from eShopAfrica in the shape of a pepper. It's brilliant - a real collector's item. I had seen the work of the Ga carpenters in National Geographic but never thought I would be able to have one without going to Africa to get it.

A Maasai at the 2004 Olympics

eShopAfrica gets a lot of emails from all over the world asking for help in getting African products. One day we got an email from H&H Sculptors in England who were looking for authentic Maasai attire.

They were casting a full sized Maasai scupture for the exhibition: Ptychoseis: Folds + Pleats: Drapery from Ancient Greek Dress to 21st-Century Fashion organised by the Peloponnesian Folklore Foundation and the Cultural Olympiad.

Although eShopAfrica has some contacts in Kenya, we don't source authentic Maasai products (yet) so we asked for help from some friends working with AMREF the Kenyan based NGO.

One of their staff bought the complete Maasai outfit including earrings, armbands and hair clips and sent them to London where the statue was dressed before being sent to Greece. The photos below show the Maasai modelling for for the cast and the finished sculpture - it's hard to tell which is which:

The Masaai who modeled for the statue

The Masaai statue

eShopAfrica nominated for the Tech Awards

eShopAfrica was nominated for the Tech Awards 2004 that awards innovators who use technology to benefit humanity. Visit the Tech Awards website

Media: FHM Magazine: Getaway Caskets

All the fun of a funeral in Ghana without ever having to live there. No-one knows where we go when we die. If it's LA though, you're going to need a set of wheels. Thanks to coffin-makers in Ghana, the dead can now take to the afterlife in a hand-carved Ferrari, Subaru or whatever they fancy.

"Ghana's Ga people bury their dead in coffins that represent the life of the deceased," says Cordelia Salter-Nour of eShopAfrica.com, the business that's bringing Ghana's best to the West. The designs come in full, half and table top models. "Half size is a children's coffin," Salter says.

But do Westerners want to spend eternity in a giant phone? "Sure they do," Salter insists. One customer wants to be buried in a peacock so ordered her own coffin.  June 2004

Order your own Ga chest from the eShopAfrica.com online shop:


Find out more in this book:

Going into Darkness: Fantastic Coffins from Africa

Media: Playboy Magazine: Fatal Distraction - Going in Style

Playboy Magazine:  Fatal Distraction - Going in Style


Crazy caskets cheer up the grimmest of reapers. If you sell shoes for a living, you may as well step into the hereafter in a giant wingtip. At least that's the thinking in Ghana, where a coffin is the last word in style. Fifty years ago* a Ghanaian angler shipped off in a seven foot fish and started a trend; today there's an endless variety of silly, folk-arty things on the market. Cabdrivers are buried in wooden taxis, preachers in Bible-shaped boxes and suds lovers in beer bottles. Want your own? eShopAfrica.com can help get you one for your living room.   June 2004.

Order your own Ga chest from the eShopAfrica.com online shop:


Find out more in this book:

Going into Darkness: Fantastic Coffins from Africa