The Swahili Story

Swahili was founded on a belief in the limitless creativity of African artisans. Long before the terms green and fair trade gained popularity, founder Leslie Mittelberg envisioned a day when consumers reached for African products to meet their need for stylish, meaningful and ecologically sound home décor, gifts and accessories.

While living in Nairobi, Kenya, Leslie immersed herself in the frenetic city market, amazed by the wealth of handmade goods that could potentially provide a perfect coalescence of function and style for American homes.

Upon her return to the U.S., Leslie discovered that there was no widespread movement toward purchasing handmade African goods, and that the African products available in the U.S. all looked mostly the same.

With nothing more than a box of sisal kiondos and a lot of hope, Leslie set out to find buyers who would be interested in selling African merchandise in their home décor and gift shops. She called her company Swahili Imports—after the people of the East African coast—whose warm, community-minded nature and amazing skill inspired her vision.

Leslie’s first trade show revealed that typical African market crafts were plentiful in the U.S. wholesale market, but their staid designs hardly represented the boundless creativity she had witnessed first hand while living in Africa.

Leslie returned to Kenya that year and worked her way from the market back to the original creators of the products. Thankfully, a handful of artisans were willing to give a chance to a tiny mzungu woman who wanted them to try something new, and that year the first invisible lines of the Swahili network were laid.

Leslie returned to the U.S. with a line of African gifts and home decor that had never been seen before, launching the trek toward today’s thriving network of artisans, buyers and consumers that extends across Africa and around the world.