Crafting a livelihood: local-level trade in mats and baskets in Pondoland, South Africa

HIV/AIDS and other household shocks as catalysts of local commercialization of non‐timber forest products in Southern Africa

“…There is stigma attached to the discussion of illness and death, especially if it is rooted in culturally taboo topics like HIV/AIDS. These findings parallel those of others (Makhado & Kepe, ; Shackleton et al., ) who found that the majority of female producers had entered the NTFP trade in response to the death of a breadwinner, illness or retrenchment within the household. Most, if not all, of the orphans trading in wild edible orchids in Tanzania were doing so as a result of AIDS deaths of their parents (Challe & Price, ).…”

“…Third, the high proportion (94%) who ranked NTFP trade as their first or second most important contribution to household cash income. These are not unusual, having also been reported by other NTFP researchers across a range of NTFP products (Shackleton et al., ; Venter & Witkowski, ; Dzerefos, Witkowski, & Toms, ; Mjoli & Shackleton, ), although not without exception where, for some, the contributions are largely supplementary (Makhado & Kepe, ). This might be related to market proximity.…”

Young entrepreneurs in Sub-Saharan Africa

“…As the raw materials can only be accessed during the dry season, Sophia's business is seasonal unless she buys papyrus in the market, but this reduces her profit considerably. As other studies have also found, most handicraft producers no longer collect their own raw materials -which, in any case, are often not readily available -but purchase what they need to save time (Gough & Rigg, 2012;Makhado & Kepe, 2006;. Sometimes, market forces put a price on raw materials that were previously free; Sophia reported that people who now live near the swamp have started to try to charge the women to allow them to pass by and collect the papyrus.…”

“…Some of the young women had no plans to expand their business, citing primarily lack of time due to other household chores or farming, or insufficient customers, as Makhado and Kepe (2006) also found in a South African context. Most of these women, however, planned to continue running their business as they considered being self-employed in handicraft production preferable to the sort of jobs they could otherwise obtain, such as domestic help where they would have a low wage and risk being exploited.…”

The role of handicraft micro-enterprises as a catalyst for youth employment

“…The importance of catalysing the handicraft industries as a future employment creation tool has also been highlighted by a number of scholars (i.e. Rogerson & Sithole, 2001;Elk 2005;Makhado and Kepe 2006;Hewitt and Janse van Rensburg 2008;Hay 2008).…”