LEATHER CHANGING LIVES

Leading new lives through leather

The Maasai depend on their livestock and a new initiative tanning leather using tree bark adds value to the herd, is kind on the environment and offers financial independence and new skills to women in the community. Dr Silvia Ceppi, technical advisor at Oikos East Africa, reveals the effect it is having on pastoralist communities across the country.

Naisiriri Mungaya, a Maasai pastoralist mother of five and grandmother of two, works deftly with her hands on a brightly beaded leather keyring as she talks. “When my husband and his second and third wife left a couple of years ago, with all the livestock, I struggled to feed and educate my children on my own. My first born has just graduated from school and would like to go to college but I can’t afford it right now. My last born is about to start school.”

Tanzania hosts the third largest livestock population of Africa, nevertheless, a number of factors have held back the development of the leather industry here. Today, the majority of the sector’s exported goods are raw skins which are shipped to Asia and Europe, therefore, the added value for Tanzanians is extremely low. However, the government has recognised the strategic importance of the leather sector.

Oikos East Africa, a Tanzanian NGO working in partnership with its Italian counterpart Istituto Oikos, has decided to take on the challenge and invest in pastoralist women, helping them to access the skills and equipment needed to create a network of micro artisanal leather industries across seven locations in Northern Tanzania.

Thanks to the support of the European Union, Oikos has trained more than 120 women in artisanal vegetable tanning and created a market for the sale of tanned leather and a range of beautifully handcrafted goods. Skins have no value as they are, but tanning can increase the value up to tenfold. The hard-earned money from selling leather can be used by women such as Naisiriri to educate their children, pay for medical bills, and invest in saving groups.

Labour intensive

But this is not all. Oikos is a conservation organisation and industrial leather tanning is one of the most polluting industries in the world. A compromise was needed and found. Natural tanning, using the locally sourced vegetable bark of black wattle – commonly called mimosa – does not require the use of chrome, complex machineries or large amounts of water and its environmental impacts are minimal.

Mimosa is used in large plantations in the Southern Highlands where the tannin is extracted and packaged for industrial use.

Natural tanning is a labour-intensive process – each tanning cycle lasts between 21 and 28 days for cattle skins and seven to 14 days for goat or sheep skins – and the women of Oikos must be exacting in carrying out the process. During each cycle, the leather must be stirred three times a day and the soaking baths of water, lime, ammonium sulphate and fresh papaya must be replaced every two to three days.

By creating skills and enterprises, women can become service providers and increase community resilience

Under the expert lead of leather designer Gabriel Mollel, a Maasai from Arumeru District, 120 informally educated women, often marginalised and deprived of the basic rights to ownership of livestock and land, have learnt a lifelong skill.

Helena, a group chairperson, says: “Working with other women helps us exchange ideas and find peace. Even when we have problems at home, when we come here we focus on work. This skill is like a big drop of water in my life. I will use it to train my kids on what to do and how to get income”.

Driving change

The empowerment cycle does not start, nor end, with the technical training. It is a layered process which combines technical skills, basic marketplace literacy and access to services such as counselling. Driving change is a lengthy, delicate process. Yet, by creating skills and enterprises, women can become service providers and increase community resilience to shocks such as extreme weather events and fluctuations in the price of livestock.

The Maasai women have incorporated their beading skills – beading is part of the pastoralists’ culture and traditions – to add value to the final products and women can bead at home, especially helpful if you very young children to look after.

At the end of the training, some women described how difficult it was to learn how to cut in a straight line. Najaya expressed her joy to have learnt how to use a ruler and take correct measurements. While beading was easy for her, cutting in a straight line, according to precise measurements, was particularly challenging.

Two of the most recent leather micro enterprises are located in Sinya and Tingatinga villages in Longido District. Thanks to EU-funded project Connekt (Conserving Neighbouring

Ecosystems in Kenya and Tanzania) project, Oikos has trained and equipped a new group of women, who live in an area with a good potential for future engagement with the eco-tourism industry.

Outlets

The leather and handcrafted products are sold directly under the brand Natural Maasai Leather and through other local organisations empowering women and differently able people. These include Vikapu Bomba and Neema Crafts in Iringa, along with a host of markets and trade fairs. Being part of a larger consortium of small enterprises means the high marketing costs can be shared and pools the knowledge of a variety of technical advisors, thus increasing the chances of success.

Times are tough, but so are Maasai women!

For more information on the leather goods available, visit the Natural Maasai Leather Facebook page.