By Rohit Mitra Surajkund (Harayana), March 21 : Stalls of the African nations are some of the most vibrant, colorful and exotic ones at the ongoing 35th Surajkund International Crafts Mela 2022, and these are attracting a lot of attention. Sudan’s stall has a large variety of very que and incredible exhibits which include hand bags of different shapes and sizes made out of various types of leather, decorative items, incenses, bakhoor, utensils, wall hangings ornaments and much more. Ahmed Hasan M Mofarih at the Sudan stall said “All our products are handcrafted. We have hand bags of a variety of leather including leather from camel, goat, sheep, snake and crocodile. We have wall hangings made of goat and crocodile leather.” The stall offers wood carved products. “Our wood products include pots and utensils made out of Guiera plant and other kinds of wood like Calabash wood, these can be used for serving food or for storing milk and Zabadi (yogurt),” Ahmed said. The Sudan stall is also selling ornaments made out of stones, leather and even animal bones, eg camel bone earrings are on offer. Plant incense and bakhoor are also attracting a lot of visitors. The Ghana stall offers a host of wall hangings especially masks, bowls for serving food, soaps, utensils, African drums etc. Ghana’s mask wall hangings and Cocoa soap are drawing a lot of visitors to the stall. E ce Odeki Obuobi, who is managing the stall, explains “We have presented all the quality showpieces here at the stall, for example drums made out of camel skin, utensils, wall hangings and decoration items made out of ebony, mahogany and sheatbeetr- a product que to Ghana. Ghana is well known as the best quality the supplier of Cocoa in the world and we are offering cocoa soaps that are very good for skin health.” E ce who is participating for the second time in the Surajkund Mela and has also participated at the trade fair in Pragati Maidan is appreciative of India “I appreciate that Indians respect their own culture, which is great, I do not merely sell traditional crafts of my country I want to promote these as I believe that we need to go back to our traditional ways, western culture would not help us or our children.” T sian stall has on display the country’s specialties like Ceramic utensils with elaborate calligraphy, goat leather bags and olive products Daoud Med Amine has been a regular at the Surajkund mela since 2016 he tells about his products “Ceramic utensils are T sia’s specialty, these can be used both as show piece as well as for serving food, these are micro wave safe. We are also selling hand crafted goat leather bags and a host of olive products including oil, olive wood decoration items and fruit baskets. We also have baskets made from the date palm.” Daoud says that he likes to visit India as he finds Indian culture fascinating and Indian people very friendly. Robert Tumwesigye, at the beautifully decorated Ugandan stall says that Uganda’s crafts are not merely aesthetically appealing but tell stories “our artifacts mostly depict animals, women and warriors, all tell stories, not only about our history but the crafts are evolving with the times. These crafts are stories in themselves, the women who make them, their entire lives revolves around these crafts, these women go to difficult regions like swamps in harsh weather, they prepare them very meticulously during weaving they often sing songs, enjoying the process.” Robert, who is very passionate about his country, he says that a country’s crafts is its identity “I feel that through our crafts we can raise awareness regarding our country, if our crafts become more popular people would come to know about our culture and develop fondness for it. When asked why masks are ubiquitous in African crafts he says “faces depict the human condition, convey the state of mind, it is a very simple medium for expressing feelings hence these are used a lot inn arts and crafts.” RKM SHK1644