Cultural Investment
Africa’s rich history and brimming cultural reservoirs also hold some of the continent’s most untapped resources. The nuances in our heritage provide another critical source of economic collateral to fuel our development and innovation engines.
SIWWAA was founded to practically and sustainably shift the paradigm in which we continue to miss the opportunities presented by the uniqueness of our traditions and everyday realities. We are leveraging Africa’s vibrant culture, and teeming creative reserves. We are joining hands with leading lights in Africa’s growing creative community to consciously and jointly capitalize on our heritage, and give them a global platform to showcase their talent.
We are also spotlighting and investing in the gems of African heritage.
For the visual story of the Chanzo Collection, SIWWAA’s firstborn, we chose Kenya’s Rift Valley for its scenic, otherworldly geological formations, and its archaeological history that gives it relevance to beginnings, as the cradle of mankind.
We made financial support towards the National Museum of Kenya’s preservation of an archaeological site in the area, and donated funds towards a community sustainable tourism project. This is one of the ways in which we acknowledge the custodial role that these communities hold over the cultures that inspire and nourish us as a company, and the first of SIWWAA’s pledged incremental investments in Africa’s cultural heritage and the arts.
Shared Stakeholder Value
At SIWWAA we celebrate many aspects of African culture. One of them is our sense of community. We believe in, and always intentionally seek to create shared prosperity.
Our initiatives to create exponential value for our stakeholders have been built into every critical aspect of the SIWWAA value chain. SIWWAA’s operations will steadily lead to the streamlining of supply chains and increase routes to market for Africa’s raw materials producers. We will provide a ready market for materials, equitable pricing, and employment opportunities that cut across our value chain.
We put our money where our mouth is. Research shows that every job created in manufacturing supports fifteen other jobs. The Chanzo Collection has supported over 300 jobs, which translates into 4,500 jobs, supported directly and indirectly. For our heritage research, we hired young anthropologists from Kenya’s University of Nairobi, giving relevance to a field that is not traditionally held in high esteem in Africa. Strategic collaborations with seasoned and budding creatives of African descent are underway. We intentionally employed local models for Chanzo Collection’s visual story created in Kenya’s Rift Valley.
While our grasp of Africa’s socio-economic landscape will see us create real impact in Africa, SIWWAA’s impact need not only be limited to Africa, as our collaborators are global. We are also cognizant of the fact that, as we step-up our enterprise-level impact, there will be a multiplier effect that extends impact to the macroeconomic level.
Provenance
Another key commitment is to build a 100% raw material traceability model that supports accountability with our customers and stakeholders.
Our current strategy includes the hybrid sourcing of raw materials and joint production between partners in East Africa and Italy. We plan - over the next 5 years - to move decisively towards initiating investments in skills and technologies that will expedite SIWWAA’s plan for 100% traceability, and production that utilizes as close as possible to 100% Africa-sourced raw materials.
Within 10 years, we will have 100% traceability of production and raw material provenance, with SIWWAA production using as close as possible to 100% Africa-sourced raw materials.
