How to support Sudanese businesses – Gift Edition

You are going home for vacation and don’t wanna come home with empty hands? You are leaving Sudan for good because a new job post is waiting somewhere for you? You have a close friends’ birthday coming soon and are looking for something nice?

All good reasons to buy something personally and locally at the same time.  Most probably most of you know that you can shop for leather and wood work at Omdurman Market. Mojo Gallery is a well-known address for art. And some of you might have checked out the crafts-market at Ozone on Fridays. But let me give it a try and share with you places and artists that you might not have heard of.

If you read my first article, you may already know that I love to support and promote small and emerging Sudanese entrepreneurs. The shops that you will get to know today vary from established small business until individuals who make products at home after work and sell them on instagram. So lets jump right into the first section:

Handcrafts

The first thing that I thought about before I went home for Christmas, was to buy leather bags and purses as gifts. As the livestock of cows is huge in Sudan, the raw material for leather products is easy to source locally. It is a timeless present, male and female are happy about it and it is easy to transport. I checked out the online shop from CRAFTSTORE SUDAN first as I knew the founder from the Orange Corners Incubation Program and their shop is kind of an “all in one” option. Craftstoresd.com is an e-commerce shop hosting quite a various numbers of products from different artists. Next to leather products, you can also find jewellery, furniture and paintings. From the day of delivery it takes up to 4 days to be with you.

There is also an offline shop that is selling a variety of handcraft products in Omak Street. I am talking about THE CAVE shop near the junction of Omak and Street 60 in Alryadth. They saved their location on google maps and are quite good visible from the street.

If you are looking for leather-only experts I have 4 leather specialized online shops for you – @BLACK.CRAFT.LEATHER, @GEEK_CRAFT_ @PETERANDBLACK and CADYSHOP.DE. They have products ready but also do costume orders. If you prefer shopping offline and support real talented newcomers at the market, I compiled a list of bazar’s that are happening and provide always a nice selection of products that you can see, touch and sell on the spot.

I am further listing you down some other private people who are doing handcrafts in their freetime and seeling it online. My dear friend elaf (@ELAF.GALLERY) who herself is doing costum embroidery (Yes, I had to google it as well! ;)) recommended them to me:

> CRAFTZONE.SD and SERCOZY are creating mainly handmade jewellery and also some home accessoirces. 

> PICIDAE WOODCRAFTS are also experts in jewellery but in a very special type of it. They produce high-end and very elegant wooden rings, bracelets and earrings. @picidaewoodcrafts

> NEW ART SUDAN is a female artist that has a very colorful and energetic style. You can see her art mainly on drinking cups and earrings on her facebook page.

> POTTY POTZ: going from cups to pots. For your flowers to be able to drink water and look pretty, potty potz provides you with handmade and nicely painted flower pots in different sizes.

> FANDORA Handcrafts: I saved it as a handcraft shop on google maps but I am not sure whether the artist is currently providing offline and online services. Nevertheless her purses, dream catcher, earrings, tshirts and other products on her instagram look amazing. You should check her out. If you go and look for her shop in Khartoum, please let me know whether it is currently open.

Let us go to a gift section that I personally love – paintings.

Mainly for myself but also sometimes for friends in case I know very well their taste of arts, I love to shop at least one special art piece from a country I have visited.

Most of the artists I got to know was through art exhibitions that I visited in DOWNTOWN GALLERY or in the SAVANNAH INNOVATION LAB. I fell in love with

@YASIR_ALGRAI

@MAABS_SPACE

@KHALID_RAHMAN_ART

@REEMALJEALLY__

@ARTISTWALEEDMOHAMMED and

@BAKRIJACK.

So far, more to follow most likely 🙂 I put the instagram names here directly, so that you can check out their art there and contact them directly if you like to buy something.

I found and saved other art galleries in my google maps but I did not find the time yet to go there. They are called Dara Art Gallery, Dabanga Shop and Remenar Art Gallery. In case you went there, I am very happy if you let me know whether they are to recommend for someone looking for a nice art to gift to themselves or their beloved one’s. In that case, I can add some more infos here in a revised article version.

Gifts for Kids

Surely you have nieces, nephews or friends with children and like to put a smile on their faces when you come home. For that I got to know CRAFTOUM – an instagram online shop where you can make the orders via Whatsapp. If its a small cuddely charuf (sheep) made out of crochet, a funny key holder or, stickers or earrings. They have a lot of playful things.

Online Shopping is not for everyone

As mentioned once above, online shopping is not the only option. And even there is no need to drive from shop to shop and look what they have. From time to time there are bazars where most of the named and many other small business owners showcase their products all together. If this is more your thing and it might break the barrier that online shops in Khartoum might create for you, I created a list of places that usually host or organize bazar’s:

> MOLLY BAZAR: The recently founded marketing agency that supports small businesses to market themselves online and offline. The founder is a dear friend and colleague. Her creativity and out-of-the-box thinking makes all bazars a very special and fun experience. Follow her to see when and where is the next bazar they are organizing. @mollybazar.sd

> 249startups BAZARs As we moved to a new more spacious hub, we are working with many businesses within our incubation programs and having a growing alumni network, we are going to host or organize more bazar’s in future. Follow @249startups or myself @resbloggt to get know about the following one’s.

> TRENDSVANITYFAIR.SD is the bazar that most Sudanese talk about during the week before Eid. I have only been to one but I can tell for sure that they organize ast least 2 bazars in a year. They always take place immediately before Eid (in May, after Ramadan and in July) and last for 2-3 days. The bazar is located in the International Khartoum Fair, the ticket price last time was something like 500 or 1000 SDG and they got a huge outside and inside area with at least 100 different businesses showing and selling their products.

> THE LAB BAZAR is the bazar hosted by @downtown.gallery. Once a month on a Saturday the gallery is hosting this bazar, giving all kind of artists the opportunity to showcase their art. Furthermore, the pieces that is still in the gallery from past exhibition can also be seen on that day. Everything can be bought, prices are usually written below every piece.

> ANDARIYA: Last but not least a place that is mainly known for music events. I am not sure whether they are planning to host more bazar’s but I went to one couple of month ago and got to know some businesses that I named in this article as well. If you follow them on Instagram @andariyamag, you will be updated about the next one for sure.

Ich packe meinen Koffer und nehme mit.

Translated from German it means “I am packing my bag and I am taking with me“. It is a game that we played as kids. Person after person will say that sentence and mention a new thing to pack into their bag. But the difficulty is that every following person needs to mention the other items as well. You loose and are out if you forget one thing that the kids before included into their bags. Referring to this small anecdote, I am hoping that your bags are going to be full after reading these above lines. If you are not really in a hurry to get gifts but you find some of the shops very nice, add them in your social media account. For that purpose you find their names, website or a specific instagram name is that one varies to their business name. Note that some of them are more active on facebook than instagram, so check out both channels.

My bag is empty now after sharing my gift collection with you. I hope you enjoyed the second part of my series of articles “How to support Sudanese businesses in Khartoum“. I am happy if you share that link with your networks. Stay tuned for #3.

Yours Theresia