Artisan Duka is a startup, founded by two Kenyan women who have worked together over many years as creatives in the Kenyan TV & Film Industry. We started Artisan Duka because we love the handmade creations made by Africa’s creative artisans. Collectively, they tell a beautiful story about Africa’s history, heritage, and potential. From recycled metal sculptures, African fashion jewelry, crotchet accessories, wood sculptures carved from fallen trees... their work is represented here in all kinds of exciting materials. 

The lifeline of this enterprise is the people that produce these amazing creations.  This is why the shop is called Artisan Duka - because supporting our creative artisans to achieve soaring success is the core mission of our enterprise. As women born and raised in Kenya, who love all things African and handmade, we’ve been buying these products for most of our adult lives - both in Kenya and beyond. Our experiences over many years, and through many conversations are continuously opening our eyes to common challenges faced by African artisans. Our mission is to work with our community of artisans to take on some of these challenges so that African artisans can share more of their best with the world.

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One of the obvious challenges that African artisans face, is marketing. This platform aims to give our community of artisans access to expanded markets. By buying from Artisan Duka, you’ve guaranteed a sale for an African artisan today. On their behalf, we say asante sana! We're constantly seeking partnerships in different parts of the world to help us keep our commitment to market artisans on the world stage. 
 

But there are many other challenges as well - from financing, access to modern tools, lack of information, and many more. We're on a journey of discovery in partnership with artisans to help us better understand and address these challenges. Our dream is to see many artisans overcome these temporal limitations and achieve soaring success. We have a special interest in working with women, artisans with special needs, and from marginalised communities and empowering them through our Artisan Upskilling Programme. 

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We look forward to expanding our product base to represent every African country. The handmade creations in this emporium - and many more to be added in the months to come - collectively tell many stories about the history and heritage of Africa. We hope to share more of these stories with you as we go along.

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