About SAHEL design
Beauty. History. Diversity. Africa’s indigenous crafts are as varied and enigmatic as her people. To learn about them is to learn a language, giving insight into hearts and minds. To sit at the feet of a craftsman and follow his hands is to give him dignity and show respect for a culture. To find modern applications of his work and pay him fairly for his skill is to breathe new life into a dying art.
It saddens me that so much beauty has disappeared from the every day lives of people in the Sahel where I live. Tourism, modernisation, cheap imports and even international aid initiatives have accelerated the demise of authentic, quality, hand-crafted goods.
The Fulani word finatawa means ‘to wake up and find’ and refers to customs and skills that go back centuries, as far back as anyone can remember. But there will be little for future generations to wake up and find if new adaptations for old skills are not sought and found.
SAHEL Design is about discovering, celebrating and reviving traditional craft techniques. It’s about learning from and respecting the people who make them. It’s seeing the continuation of skills into future generations by making them profitable today.
About Charlie Davies
SAHEL design is the result of Charlie Davies’s love of fashion and passion for the poor. As a missionary in Burkina Faso her desire is to relieve poverty in ways that are sustainable and respectful of culture.
Charlie graduated in Fashion Design from Nottingham Trent University (1994). She worked in Fashion PR and then as Assistant Fashion Editor for The Observer. From 1998 to 2003 she was Fashion Editor for The Sunday Telegraph Magazine (byline Charlotte Apatu).
In 2004 she swapped her Manolos for flip-flops and moved to Phnom Penh, where she founded Precious Girl Magazine, a self-affirming publication for the garment workers of Cambodia, which became endorsed by the UN and ILO.
After marrying children’s author Stephen Davies in 2007 she moved to West Africa where she has been developing her love of indigenous craft and learning Fulfulde while carrying her daughter Liberty around on her back.