Enhancing The Wealth Of Handicraft

The Yaounde International Handicraft Centre remains a veritable tool for employment and tourism in times of great events like the Female AFCON.

Barely half a year since the fifth edition of the International Handicraft Exhibition (SIARC) was organised at Yaounde’s Tsinga fairground offering another opportunity for handicraft people to showcase their products and woe customers, the sector is once more in the limelight. At that trade fair, participants who came from about 20 African countries saw in it a milestone in transforming what was initially considered primitive arts into something of international value.

One would certainly be asking how things that generally represent the tradition of the people could be internationalised. The good thing with handicraft in general and Cameroon’s in particular is that it is diversified and portrays the multinational nature of the people. Going by almost universally accepted definition, handicraft, also known as craftwork or simply craft, refers to a type of work where useful and decorative devices are made completely by hand or using only simple tools. Usually the term is applied to traditional means of making goods. Such items often have cultural significance.

The International Handicraft Exhibition seems to have opened the floodgates of opportunism. One of such is the on-going Female Africa Cup of Nations taking place in Yaounde and Limbe. In effect, the Yaounde International handicraft Centre has flung its doors open to the public to showcase what is in its backyard in terms of handicraft.

This initiative portrays the continuity following the Decree of July 03, 2007 by the Head of State regulating activities of handicraft in the country. As a follow up to the decree, in January, 2013 nine handicraft centres were created even though seven of them have been able to see the light of day. They have as mission putting in place the mechanism for craftsmen to enhance their po...