Our Blogs

CHAKO - Recycled Glass for Greater Good

What is CHAKO? In Swahili, chako means “yours.” It’s also the fitting name of the innovative social enterprise that a Zanzibarian-Dutch couple, Soulemain Mohammed and Annaloes Roelandschap, b...

Meet our Team

"A single bracelet does not jingle."- Congolese proverbThe team at Mbare is a microcosm of the wider world: We’re diverse, and often surprising. We span three continents.   Robbie, our founder and ...

My love affair with Handmade African Baskets

My enduring love affair with antiques began with a basket, so it’s fitting that I’ve landed here at Mbare. Four or so decades ago, I drove from my home in D.C. to interview for a job in Baltimore. ...

It's a Family Affair.

When Elaine Belleza, who led a creative industry program for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), sent our founder Robbie Stewart over a decade ago to Senegal to identify...

David Ballam Photography

There are many words to describe David Ballam’s photographs, but “timid” isn’t one of them. Try a different “t” word: “Trust.” The level of confidence between subject and photographer is palpa...

Iconic Malawi chairs by People of the Sun

Ancient oral tradition holds that the people of Malawi descended from the sun. When they landed on earth, they continued to harness the powerful sun energy that to this day animates their kind spir...

2020

“The days are long, but the years are short” is a poignant quote about parenting, about how the sometimes dull, repetitive stresses of childrearing turn out to be fleeting, as the years too soon di...

Spirits in Stone, Shona Sculpture from Zimbabwe

Most of us are familiar with the lore regarding the Inuit language: There are upwards of 50 words for snow! Far fewer know that the Shona people of Zimbabwe have 200 different words to describe the...

Hands. Heart. Heritage. Home.

At the time of this writing, the United States is in the midst of an election, and humans across the globe are craving connection in the midst of a pandemic. People of good faith want to make an im...

Ngwenya, Recycled Glass from Eswatini | Mbare Blog | Mbare

Most everyone likes a good drink. Beer, wine, scotch on the rocks... whatever your pleasure. And of course we need water to sustain us. And everyone, it seems, has a favorite glass from which to dr...