African Woman and Child Feature Service

As many people go for white colour jobs, a training institution at the Coast is encouraging technical courses that also help in preserving culture.

However, what is also emerging in this is that more and more men are opting out of enrolling in technical training as women continue to enrol in large numbers.

The women are undertaking courses such as embroidery and tailoring at the Research Institute of Swahili Studies in East Africa (RISSEA). The students in this institution include university graduates and primary school drop outs.

Najash Hafidh who is in charge of Art and Craft Department at RISSEA (an institution under National Museums of Kenya) attributes the drop in enrolment to the quest by many young men to train in other technologically advanced fields.

He says a number of carpentry, construction, leather work and dhow making institutions have closed down including RISSEA’s Lamu branch.

Najash attributes the decrease in the number of young men undertaking courses like dhow making to the negative outlook that the young men are having towards the preservation of Swahili culture.

“The main reason for starting up the training centres was to pass on the knowledge from elderly craftsmen to young people since the traditional knowledge had not been documented or stored in any form,” explains Hafidh.

The dropout continues despite the fact that employment opportunities are available for those with carpentry, joinery and construction skills.

Hafidh reveals that ten former students of RISSEA have been contracted in the United Arabs Emirates where they are constructing buildings similar to Swahili structures.

RISSEA management is contemplating upgrading the institution to a higher level by introducing computer aided designs and hopes this will attract more male students.

However, female enrolment still remains high because women who undertake training at the centre want to gain knowledge that will not only help secure them employment in a production unit but will enable them do certain things within the household.

The institution admits more than 30 students every year who learn how to make buibui (an outfit worn by Muslim women), evening dresses of all designs, bed covers, pillows, baby baskets, hand made dustbins, pamper holders among others.

Domtila Mlagho and Clementina Njaka are former students of RISSEA who are now utilising the skills they acquired in their own production unit. The two started a dressmaking shop in Mombasa’s Central business District immediately they completed their training.

The business caters for most of their expenses and they are happy to have gone through the training. The two women are still students pursuing other disciplines but are earning a living from skills obtained at RISSEA.

Mlagho who is a final year student pursuing a Bachelor of Education says her passion and love for unique designs drove her to enrol at RISSEA specifically to study tailoring and curtain making.

“Apart from being able to design and make my own dresses, I feel proud when other people wear my designs,” observes Mlagho.

Just like they juggled between two institutions in 2009, the women are still shuttling between classes and work. They have employed someone who attends to customers at the shop when they are out and get back.

The busy schedule does not hinder them from meeting the needs of their customers as they are determined to stay late in the shop just to make sure they beat the deadline set for their clients.

The two make approximately two dresses a day and their outfits vary in designs which determine the prices.

According to Mlagho, a dress can cost as much as KSh15,000 or as low as KSh1,500 depending on the complexity of the design.

According to Khadija Ridhwan, chief trainer at RISSEA’s tailoring and embroidery department, the other factor that draws women to technical training schools is the Swahili culture that requires a woman to decorate her house as a wife and mother.

“A noble woman is one who can mend damaged clothes at home and even decorate the house without hiring someone to assist,” explains Ridhwan.

The disparity in prior training does not in any way affect how they relate at the institution due to the foundation for sisterly relationship set by the chief trainer. All students are treated equally irrespective of whether they are rich, poor, educated or uneducated.

“Any other education that a student may posses should help them grasp quickly what they are being taught in the technical school rather than make them look down upon fellow students,” explains Ridhwan.

The classes are held on part time basis to give students time to attend to other important activities like household chores for housewives as well as jobs for those employed or in self employment.

The training institution has been in existence since 1992 and has attracted students from as far as Tanzania and Uganda.

Ridhwan who has been training for the last 12 years says the training manual aims at preserving Swahili culture but that does not hinder them from incorporating modern technology.

“We use electric sewing machines when making evening dresses but most of the other products that have decorations such as bed covers are hand made,” she explains.

Ridhwan is encouraging women from all cultures to engage in such training and be able to do some of the sewing and embroidery by themselves.

This story was originally published on the Reject Online Issue 44 - Download Reject Issue 44 to read more stories