Ujamaa Collectives First Direct International Fair Trade Contract
By Renee P. Aldrich
The terrain of lush greenery, palm and pine trees grow beside each other; the red clay soil that creates the roads in Tanzania’s Village of Kagera located in East Africa tells only a fraction of the journey. The rigorous travel which consisted of 3 airplane flights for a total of 19 air hours. Traveling from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia, to Qatar, situated between Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf, then to Uganda. All this followed up with an overnight stay in a mysterious hotel; then, an additional 6-hour ground transportation by bus and two jammed packed mini-vans to get across the Ugandan and Tanzanian borders, as well as, the equator, is another part of the journey. 
The terrain of lush greenery, palm and pine trees grow beside each other; the red clay soil that creates the roads in Tanzania’s Village of Kagera located in East Africa tells only a fraction of the journey. The rigorous travel which consisted of 3 airplane flights for a total of 19 air hours. Traveling from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia, to Qatar, situated between Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf, then to Uganda. All this followed up with an overnight stay in a mysterious hotel; then, an additional 6-hour ground transportation by bus and two jammed packed mini-vans to get across the Ugandan and Tanzanian borders, as well as, the equator, is another part of the journey.
With a three tiered mission to create a global opportunity; building an international relationship; addressing poverty and building wealth, LaKeisha Wolf, Executive Director of the Ujamaa Collective and Ujamaa member/couture designer Ruby Dawn Surgest embarked on a life changing journey in November 2015.
This trip was to establish production on Ujamaa’s clothing brand —Royal Roots. The venture is a partnership between Ujamaa Collective and a group of sewers in the Karagwe (Kar’ ag we) Vocational Developmental Poverty Alleviation Program (KVDA). KVDPA is located in the northwest region of Kagera, Tanzania, bordered by Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda and Lake Victoria.
LaKeisha Wolf and Ruby Dawn Surgest
Surgest and Wolf found truth in what they were told about the beautiful terrain and welcoming people. Surgest shared, “It was so beautiful to see both Palm and Pine trees standing side by side. Wolf, shared, “It was remarkable that night when we arrived to witness what looked like 1000 stars in a clear black sky.”
As a result of extreme poverty in Uganda, through which they traveled extensively to
arrive at their destination, there was a great deal of navigating that had to be done to avoid the “rush” of indigenous who may have seen some opportunity from these two women who were obviously “outsiders.”
Wolf said, “While we had a clear understanding of where we were going; what it would take; what we needed to do to be ready, there is only so much you could plan for – it was that humanity and social planning that we may have been short on.” She continues, “You’re talking about an entirely different level of poverty. In Uganda there is no welfare system, nor government or non-profit agency support/assistance what so ever. Also, combined with the fact that this country has experienced a civil war – and who continue to experience corruption at the top, it was in this context which we witnessed, the survivalist mentality while we were on route to our destination.”
The region of Tanzania itself is not only beset with its own level of poverty, but they also face overriding issues with diseases (HIV/AIDS, malaria, diarrhea); poor education, income generation and much more.
It is the presence of these ongoing issues that motivated a caring sister, Kemilembe, (Kemi lem’ bey) to become the founder of KVDPA. She has worked for many years to uplift the women and girls in her community. Wolf, shared, “An avid sewer, Kemi has shared her passion for textiles and design by teaching over 50 of her members to sew as a vocation.”
These are the women Ujamaa Collective worked with over the two-week period in the creation of the Royal Roots, a fair trade collection of skirts and accessories, that is now on sale at the Ujamaa Collective Boutique at 1835 Centre Avenue. Wolf says, “With all the dynamics, this was an incredible journey one purposed to build sisterhood, connect over textiles and practice fair trade economics.”
