Zahra Gordon

at the onset this article, “Is British designer Vivienne Westwood Kenya’s friend or foe?” seemed like it would present fierce questions about vivienne westwood’s exploitation of poor kenyan women. but it turned out to be yet another sympathetic, liberal, hippie-point-of-view magazine piece that put all the attention on westwood and none on the kenyan women (and with sales pitch at the end to top it off!)

i’m no longer interested in stories about wealthy celebrities who lend their faces, names and logos to charity. i’m not interested in them lending their faces, names and logos to initiatives that are not considered charities but “opportunities”. this story is old. it is tired. we have been hearing and reading it for too long. what i am interested in is the story of these “poor” kenyan women who are making bags for vivienne westwood.

do these women have names? famillies? what languages do they speak? why are they “poor”? where did they learn to sew? what are their dreams? do they dream? why is the continent of africa always spoken about in terms of poverty and charity cases and violence and AIDS? there are almost a billion people in that continent and it just so happens that these issues are all they have to offer the world?