From Ethnic Brands to Fair Trade Labels

Abstract

This chapter discusses how the strategies and aspirations of Kenyan traders and the realities of connecting to the global economy have shaped the aesthetics and meanings of Kenyan arts and crafts. These changes demonstrate the ability of connected and savvy Kenyan traders to adapt to an ever-changing and diverse tourist demographic, including Afropolitans. This chapter explores how Kenyan tourist art and handicrafts have been marketed in new and creative ways—as Fair Trade, of a particular tree species, or as representing modern global interconnectedness. Facing ethnic tensions and insecurities that bring instability to their lives and businesses, traders regularly downplay ethnicity in their branding and often de-ethnicize their products. The art of connection motif and its artistic representation are successful on the market because they portray an ideal of egalitarian, transparent, and even Afropolitan-style of human interconnection acceptable to both tourists and Kenyan artisans and traders.