Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-wg55d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-30T19:19:29.677Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Changing Strategies in Marketing Kenya's Tourist Art: From Ethnic Brands to Fair Trade Labels

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 October 2013

Dillon Mahoney
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

This article explores recent changes in Kenya's curio or handicrafts industry. In addition to a crisis in access to raw materials and a diversifying tourist market, the rise in the use of cell phones and the Internet during the early 2000s present unique challenges. Nonetheless, innovative Kenyan entrepreneurs are using these challenges to market and brand products in new ways—by representing modern global interconnectedness as “fair trade” or creatively promoting the authenticity of their products in other ways. Kenya's artisans and traders have also adapted to diverse and complex tastes beyond the desire for an invented tradition of ethnic and “tribal” art.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 55 , Issue 1 , April 2012 , pp. 161 - 190
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Appadurai, Arjun. 1986a. “Introduction: Commodities and the Politics of Value.” In The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective, edited by Appadurai, Arjun, 3–63. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Appadurai, Arjun, ed. 1986b. The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bascom, William. 1976. “Changing African Art.” In Ethnic and Tourist Arts: Cultural Expressions from the Fourth World, edited by Graburn, Nelson, 303-19. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Belcher, Brian, Cunningham, Anthony, and Campbell, Bruce. 2005. “Livelihoods, Carving and Conservation.” In Carving Out a Future: Forests, Livelihoods and the International Woodcarving Trade, edited by Belcher, Brian, Cunningham, Anthony, and Campbell, Bruce, 1–9. London: Earthscan.Google Scholar
Biebuyck, Daniel P., ed. 1969. Tradition and Creativity in Tribal Art. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bravman, Bill. 1998. Making Ethnic Ways: Communities and Their Transformations in Taita, Kenya, 1800-1950. Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Bruner, Edward M. 1991. “Transformation of Self in Tourism.” Annals of Tourism Research 18 (2): 238-50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruner, Edward M., and Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara. 1994. “Maasai on the Lawn: Tourist Realism in East Africa.” Cultural Anthropology 9 (4): 435-70.Google Scholar
Chibnik, Michael. 2003. Crafting Tradition: The Making and Marketing of Oaxacan Wood Carvings. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Choge, Simon K. 2002. “Study of the Economic Aspects of the Woodcarving Industry in Kenya: Implications for Policy Development to Make the Industry More Sustainable.” MSc thesis, University of Natal.Google Scholar
Choge, Simon K., Cunningham, Anthony, and Ellery, William. 2005. “Chasing the Wooden Rhino: The Case of Woodcarving in Kenya.” In Carving Out a Future: Forests, Livelihoods and the International Woodcarving Trade, edited by Cunningham, Anthony, Belcher, Brian, and Campbell, Bruce, 31–42. London: Earthscan.Google Scholar
Clifford, James. 1988. The Predicament of Culture. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Cunningham, Anthony. 2005. “Global Overview: Tradition, Technology and Trade.” In Carving Out a Future: Forests, Livelihoods and the International Woodcarving Trade, edited by Cunningham, Anthony, Belcher, Brian, and Campbell, Bruce, 11–29. London: Earthscan.Google Scholar
Crowley, Daniel J. 1970. “The Contemporary-Traditional Art Market in Africa.” African Arts 4 (1): 43-49, 80.Google Scholar
Davis, Elizabeth A. 1999. “Metamorphosis in the Culture Market of Niger.” American Anthropologist 101 (3): 485–501.Google Scholar
Elkan, Walter. 1958. “The East African Trade in Woodcarvings.” Africa 28 (4): 314-23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graburn, Nelson, ed. 1976. Ethnic and Tourist Arts: Cultural Expressions from the Fourth World. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Haugerud, Angelique. 1995. The Culture of Politics in Modern Kenya. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Haugerud, , Angelique, M. Stone, Priscilla, and Little, Peter, eds. 2000. Commodities and Globalization: Anthropological Perspectives. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Hobsbawm, Eric. 1983. “Introduction: Inventing Traditions.” In The Invention of Tradition, edited by Hobsbawm, Eric and Ranger, Terence, 1–14. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hobsbawm, Eric, and Ranger, Terence, eds. 1983. The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hodgson, Dorothy. 2001. Once Intrepid Warriors: Gender, Ethnicity, and the Cultural Politics of Maasai Ethnicity. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Jules-Rosette, Bennetta. 1984. The Messages of Tourist Art: An African Semiotic System in Comparative Perspective. New York: Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Kaplan, Caren. 1995. “‘A World without Boundaries’: The Body Shop's Trans/National Geographies.” Social Text (43): 45–66.Google Scholar
Kasfir, Sidney L. 1996. “African Art in a Suitcase.” Transition (69): 146-58.Google Scholar
Kasfir, Sidney L.. 1999. Contemporary African Art. London: Thames and Hudson.Google Scholar
Kasfir, Sidney L.. 2004. “Tourist Aesthetics in the Global Flow: Orientalism and ‘Warrior Theatre’ on the Swahili Coast.” Visual Anthropology 17 (3/4): 319-43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kasfir, Sidney L.. 2007. African Art and the Colonial Encounter: Inventing a Global Commodity. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Kingdon, Zachary. 2005. “Sculpture and Identity: The Makonde African Blackwood Carving Movement.” In Carving Out a Future: Forests, Livelihoods and the International Woodcarving Trade, edited by Cunningham, Anthony, Belcher, Brian, and Campbell, Bruce, 53–65. London: Earthscan.Google Scholar
Low, William, and Davenport, Eileen. 2005. “Postcards from the Edge: Maintaining the ‘Alternative’ Character of Fair Trade.” Sustainable Development 13: 143-53.Google Scholar
MacCannell, Dean. 1976. The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class. New York: Shocken Books.Google Scholar
Mahoney, Dillon. 2009. “The Art of Connection: Negotiating the Digital Divide in Kenya's Curio Industry.” Ph.D. diss., Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey-New Brunswick.Google Scholar
Marcus, George, and Myers, Fred, eds. 1995. The Traffic in Culture: Refiguring Art and Anthropology. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
M'Closkey, Kathy. 2000. “‘Part-Time for Pin-Money.”” In Artisans and Cooperatives: Developing Alternative Trade for the Global Economy, edited by Grimes, Kimberly M. and Milgram, B. Lynne, 143-58. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press.Google Scholar
Miller, Judith von Daler. 1975. Art in East Africa: A Guide to Contemporary Art. New York: Africana Publishing Co.Google Scholar
Mugambi, Kaburu. 2007. “Tourism Again Tops in Foreign Earnings.” Daily Nation, February 1.Google Scholar
Nash, June, ed. 1993. Crafts in the World Markets: The Impact of Global Exchange on Middle American Artisans. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Ndegwa, Stephen N. 1997. “Citizenship and Ethnicity: An Examination of Two Transition Moments in Kenyan Politics.” American Political Science Review 91 (3): 599–616.Google Scholar
Ndegwa, Stephen N.. 1998. “Citizenship Amid Economic and Political Change in Kenya.” Africa Today 45 (3/4): 351-68.Google Scholar
Nyangira, Nicholas. 1987. “Ethnicity, Class, and Politics in Kenya.” In The Political Economy of Kenya, edited by Schatzberg, M. G., 15–31. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
Obara, Alex O., Höft, Martina G., and Höft, Robert. 2004. “Neem (Azadirachta indica) A. Juss. (Meliaceae) and Its Potential for Sustainable Woodcarving in Kenya.” Economic Botany 58(1): 98–111.Google Scholar
Obunga, R. 1995. “Sustainable Development of the Woodcarving Industry in Kenya.” Technical Project Report for the WWF/UNESCO/Kew People and Plants Initiative. Nairobi: National Museums of Kenya.Google Scholar
Oucho, John O. 2002. Undercurrents of Ethnic Conflict in Kenya. Boston: Brill.Google Scholar
Phillips, Ruth, and Steiner, Christopher B., eds. 1999. Unpacking Culture: Art and Commodity in Colonial and Postcolonial Worlds. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Price, Sally. 1991. Primitive Art in Civilized Places. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Price, Sally. 2007. “Into the Mainstream: Shifting Authenticities in Art.” American Ethnologist 34 (4): 603-20.Google Scholar
Raynolds, Laura T., and Long, Michael A.. 2007. “Fair/Alternative Trade: Historical and Empirical Dimensions.” In Fair Trade: The Challenges of Transforming Globalization, edited by Raynolds, Laura T., Murray, Douglas L., and Wilkinson, John, 15–32. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Redfern, Andy, and Snedker, Paul. 2002. “Creating Market Opportunities for Small Enterprises: Experiences of the Fair Trade Movement.” SEED Working Paper No. 30. Geneva: International Labour Office.Google Scholar
Reichman, Daniel. 2008. “Justice at a Price: Regulation and Alienation in the Global Economy.” PoLAR- Political and Legal Anthropology Review 31 (1): 102-17.Google Scholar
Schmitt, Susanne F., and Cunningham, Anthony B.. 2002. “Reducing the Ecological Footprint of the ‘Wooden Rhino’: The Case for Certification of Kenyan Wood-carvings.” In Tapping the Green Market: Certification and Management of Non-Timber Forest Products, edited by Shanley, Patricia et al., 259-64. London: Earthscan.Google Scholar
Schmitt, Susanne F., and Maingi, David R.. 2005. “Certification of Woodcarving.” In Carving Out a Future: Forests, Livelihoods and the International Woodcarving Trade, edited by Cunningham, Anthony, Belcher, Brian, and Campbell, Bruce, 229-48. London: Earthscan.Google Scholar
Simpson, Kate. 2004. “‘Doing Development’: The Gap Year, Volunteer-Tourists and a Popular Practice of Development.” Journal of International Development 16 (5): 681-92.Google Scholar
Sindiga, Isaac. 1996. “Domestic Tourism in Kenya.” Annals of Tourism Research 23 (1): 19–31.Google Scholar
Spear, Thomas, and Waller, Richard, eds. 1993. Being Maasai: Ethnicity and Identity in East Africa. London: James Currey.Google Scholar
Steiner, Christopher B. 1994. African Art in Transit. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Steiner, Christopher B.. 1995. “The Art of the Trade: On the Creation of Value and Authenticity in the African Art Market.” In The Traffic in Culture: Refiguring Art and Anthropology, edited by Marcus, George and Myers, Fred, 151-65. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Throup, David W., and Hornsby, Charles. 1998. Multi-Party Politics in Kenya: The Kenyatta and Moi States and the Triumph of the System in the 1992 Election. London: James Currey.Google Scholar
Wright, Kristina Dziedzic. 2008. “Cleverest of the Clever: Coconut Craftsmen in Lamu, Kenya.” The Journal of Modern Craft 1 (3): 323-43.Google Scholar
Wright, Kristina Dziedzic. 2009. Art, Culture, and Tourism on an Indian Ocean Island: An Ethnographic Study of Jua Kali Artists in Lamu, Kenya. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press.Google Scholar