Woman creates marketplace to help African artists

Haoua Cheick wants shoppers in the little city of Rainier to help women artisans in little villages in Africa. The goal may sound simple, but it's taken Cheick several decades of work in both Africa and the United States to assemble her marketing package.

Cheick (her whole name is pronounced "Ow-a Shake") sells appealing African crafts every Saturday at the Rainier Marina Market. Her section of the weekly market features purses and sacks of varying sizes, colorful clothes, jewelry and carvings. It's all made by women - and less often, men - in 13 African countries.

Cheick, 58, is an energetic, cheerful woman who wears her gray hair in cornrow braids. She grew up in Mali, a country in West Africa. She speaks her native language, Bamana, along with Mali's official language, French.

In 1975, Cheick received a degree in chemistry from The University of Abidjan in Ivory Coast, then worked in that country's higher education ministry for four years.

She moved to California to study English and business management, and later, Washington, D.C., where she worked for consulting firms for eight years.

But her entrepreneurial spirit moved her in another direction in 1998.

While visiting Africa. "I was moved by the way people were creating beautiful things," Cheick said. "It was fascinating what they were doing. That's how the whole thing started. They have a talent. I decided to help them sell."

She started buying the goods with her savings and having them shipped to the United States.

Cheick later opened a gallery in Bethesda, Md., a suburb of Washington, D.C. She also supplies gift shops at the Kennedy Center in D.C. and the University Museum of Philadelphia. Cheick started working with a gallery in Santa Fe, N.M., last summer.

Her work has garnered her several honors, including a Verizon entrepreneurship award in 2002.

Cheick's work has taken her to conferences in Switzerland, France and Mexico, along with trips to train artisans in several African countries.

And she loves to explore this country, too, with road trips to

Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. "I love to drive the coast. I love to know."

Cheick's life entered a new chapter two years ago when she married Andrew Seip, an environmental consultant, and moved to his home town of Rainier.

"I had to start again in the Northwest, where people aren't familiar with Mali, except for the music," she said.

Last year, she connected with organizers of the weekly indoor Rainier market.

"We were so thrilled with her," said market organizer Sue Drummond. "She's such a personality. I love the fact the proceeds go back to the African women."

Drummond said Cheick runs around at the market, dancing to the live musicians and entertaining the other vendors.

"She's enthusiastic about her products and the women in Africa," Drummond said. "You can tell it's sincere. She's hard to resist. She's an excellent sales person. When she gets you in her corner, you're a goner."

Cheick buys artisans' works from Swaziland and Lesotho in southern Africa, Benin and her Malian homeland, among other African nations. She sometimes enlists American Peace Corps volunteers to help with her buying network, she said.

"My main goal is to preserve traditions" of the women who make the works. Though most African crafts are made by women, some, such as leather, are made mostly by men.

"They can really support themselves if someone can help them," she said.

She sometimes suggests design variations to make the goods more marketable here.

More than places to buy and sell goods, African markets are spots for social networking, Cheick said. "The marketplace is the only place for the African woman to be free ... and that's where she gets all the gossip!"

Though her goods in Rainier change, they now include sandals, big dangly gold earrings and necklaces of colorful seeds and glass.

Her tables also display foot-wide baskets from Zambia, and others from Zimbabwe. She holds one out for a visitor to sniff the perfumey smell. "Africa is full of scents," she said.

She also sells chunky brass Bamun bracelets formerly used for money in Cameroon and bright cloth strips from Ghana. Though they're designed to be scarves, she recommends them as table runners and has even sold some as religious vestments. "Even a rabbi buys from me!" she said.

Cheick, who calls herself "a social entrepreneur," said she keeps from 25 percent to 30 percent of the profits for her expenses.

Never one to sit still for long, she's planning to enter Portland State University next year to get a master's degree in finance.

"I have a passion for African crafts, but I can't draw. What I can do is the marketing.

"This is my way to contribute to my people."

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Information from: The Daily News, http://www.tdn.com