Find Your Chitenge Cheer
The Zambezi Joy Society brilliantly blossomed into business in June 2020 with a deep, dedicated desire to spread chitenge cheer around this great and giddy globe. At first, we called it the Royal Chundu Online Shop but we knew we needed something funkier to show the joy we were excited to share with others.
Through the ribald, ridiculous and repugnant trauma of COVID, the soil and soul of our team of local, Zambian artisans was fertile with new ideas. This is how our Little Shop of Colours was foundered, flowered and fruited.
CHITENGE (CHI-TENG-GEH)
Zambezi Joy Society’s heart is wrapped in the most boisterous and beautiful chitenge, the name Zambians give to the bold, bright, and blissful fabric used in the majority of our products.
Worn by women traditionally as a sign of respect, chitenge is wrapped around the waist, chest, over the head as a headscarf, or even as the most snuggly baby sling. Zambian women also use this fabric to make beautiful outfits which are used for celebratory occasions.
The spectacular spectrum of colours and sometimes discombobulating designs on the fabric were originally done using traditional techniques, but have evolved to include more modern practices too.
This is the kind of cheer that also helps to empower small local business women and men. Through the Zambezi Joy Society, we have been able to help members of our community, using the profits of the shop sales to gift laptops and contribute to school fees for keen students living on the Zambezi.
For example, Prudence Munyanya is doing her nursing diploma. We were able to donate a laptop to her for her studies. Another beneficiary of a laptop is Given Nyambe. He is the son of one of the housekeeping staff at Royal Chundu. Given is doing a degree course as a clinical officer at Mwanawasa Teaching Hospital. Aggie’s daughter Mwiza Banda benefited from a laptop for her studies too.
We have also been able to assist in contributing to school fees for student, Nyarai Goba as she studies to be a nurse.
With the profit from our Shop Sales, we’ve been able to purchase an industrial, electric sewing machine for Mrs Njapao, who is creating our beautiful tablecloths for the shop! She has been using an old, non-industrial Flying Dove machine that could only be powered by foot. Her new Juki industrial machine can be powered by electricity or by foot (if load-shedding hits). Mrs Njapao was ecstatic with the new machine! Small steps with huge consequences!
Through the shop, we are able to give opportunities to our neighbouring makers to earn an income through their craft. So they can support themselves and their families here in the remote reaches of the riverbank.
The Zambezi Joy Society Team includes:
Aggie Banda – Founding Partner, Online Host & Brightest Star In The Sky;
Tina Aponte – Founding Partner, Chief Table Layer & Background Crafty Person.
The Makers
We have been working for many years with local makers in the villages around us or in the town of Livingstone, Zambia ~ including women who have empowered themselves through small businesses, making and selling Chitenge designs and other traditional crafts, such as reed and wood items. These are the women behind our shop!
Many incredible men around Royal Chundu have created items to accompany the tablesettings, such as napkin holders! Bathrewmeo is our dedicated carver and uses both his hands and feet to create his pieces. Mabi, who lives in the Malambo Village next to us, is the incredible artist behind our hand-carved and beaded Zambezi doorbells – which are available for purchase in the link below.
We have expanded our reach of artists and suppliers to incorporate more of the families who continue to inspire us with their can-do, will-do, never-give-up spirit and the love and passion with which they create their goods, here on the banks of the Zambezi River in Zambia, as well as elsewhere in the country.
As our shop grows so will our collections that are available to order! We’re excited to have friendly shipping prices and we are able to deliver to anywhere in the world!
We’re incredibly grateful for all the support our sweet little shop has garnered thus far! Not only for the joy of sharing our vibrant Chitenge cheer and the patterns of the Zambezi with you, but also because it’s meant that our Zambezi makers have been able to bring in an income.
