When tourists were kidnapped by terrorists on Lamu Island off the Kenyan coast in 2011, the area’s thriving tourism industry went away almost overnight.

One business, started in the wake of the terror attacks, has since grown to become one of Lamu’s best-known companies. It did that by turning old dhow sails, fishing material and whatever else washes up on the beach into high-end handbags, paintings and other artistic creations, according to a report in HowWeMadeItInAfrica.

Daniela Bleattler, a Swiss photographer, and Ali Omar, a former fisherman desperate for a job, co-founded the business, Ali Lamu, in an environment where tourism is declining and jobs are few.

Lamu Island, a Unesco-listed World Heritage site, lies just off the Kenyan coast near the Somalia border, and was considered a popular tourism resort until a few years ago.
In September 2011, a British woman was abducted and her husband killed while vacationing in Kiwayu on the Lamu Archipelago. Two weeks later, a 66-year-old disabled French woman was kidnapped from her beach house. Both attacks are believed perpetrated by Somali gangsters linked to terrorist group Al-Shabaab, according to HowWeMadeItInAfrica.

British and U.S. governments warned citizens to stay away from Lamu. This shattered local businesses that had previously catered to tourists.

Omar asked Swiss Bleattler for a job in 2008, and instead they started a business.

Ali Lamu is named after the nickname islanders have for Omar. The company has grown to include 34 permanent staff, with up to 70 people working to help with the growing demand for their handmade products.

“Ali Lamu is a growing family and to feed everyone every day, and send all the children to
school, is another, not small challenge,” Omar said.

Omar and Bleattler sold their first piece of art to tourists visiting Lamu in 2008. The business now relies heavily on exports.

“We would never have survived if we had to depend on tourism in Lamu in these last three years,” Omar told HowWeMadeItInAfrica. “We made it because of exports, and this has been our focus for a few years. We produce everything in Kenya but sell outside of Kenya, so that we can survive through all weather.”

Despite the drop in tourism, Omar said the island still offers opportunities for business, although success will not necessarily come easily.

“Of course, there are many opportunities here, but one has to be ready to commit and be patient…Africa is tough but Africa can. Everything is possible here if you want it enough, and work hard enough,” he said.

The company has distributors in the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Australia and the U.S. selling Ali Lamu creations online. Omar said they are planning to market their products on their own website soon. However, while exports form a large part of business, the cost of transporting goods from Lamu to elsewhere in the world can be expensive and unreliable.

Transportation is always a challenge. “Donkey, boat, bus, tuk-tuk, and then finally on a big
plane; the cost is high and clients complain. Sometimes boxes disappear. We have lost a lot of money over the years, but it is all part of the game – we live, we learn and we grow,” Omar said.

Another challenge is finding enough materials to keep up with production demands. “Our main material is the old sails of the boats. We do not buy it in a shop; we travel, we sail, we encounter fishermen and buy old sails from them,” Omar said. “It’s not easy when you start to produce hundreds and hundreds of bags. But when we think that we won’t be able to continue, a new little door always opens up for us and up we start again.”

Recently, Ali Lamu got some international attention and was featured on CNN’s
African Start-Up.

“I remember six years ago when we sold our first painting and Daniela said to me: ‘One day you, Ali Lamu, will be known all around the world.’ I smiled with a taste of a dream and hope in my heart,” Omar said.

Ali Lamu products have appeal because of their signature heart design, often painted on handbags or duvet covers. People “feel” that, Omar said.

“We always try to involve as many people as possible in one bag or painting because we have so many people who need to work,” he said. “So this means the price may go up and up together with the quality and the feeling of the product too.”