Shopping in Africa
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Medina craft shops and showrooms
Tetouan's medina has the usual mix of craft shops and showrooms for the souvenir hunter. Wood and leatherwork are the local specialities. Unique to the Rif are the eye-catching mendeels (hand-woven, brightly coloured striped cloths), worn by farmers. The best place to buy them is from the women on the tiny square to the northeast of Bab er-Rouah. The tannery is the best place to browse for leatherwork.
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Sidi Ghanem
The industrial quarter 4km outside Marrakesh along the Route de Safi is chock full of made-for-export design studios selling direct from their outlets. Hire a taxi for a couple of hours in the morning or late afternoon and troll the lanes to see what's open (hours are erratic). Head to Mia Zia for Moroccan-inspired knitwear, Akkal for ceramics and Talamanzou for handwoven Berber carpets in spare modern designs.
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Cape Union Mart Adventure Centre Cavendish Square
This impressive outdoors shop offers practically everything you’d need for anything from a hike up Table Mountain to a Cape-to-Cairo safari. The shop includes a café, climbing wall, hiking-boot testing station and cold-weather chamber (to assess those thermals!). There’s also a smaller branch in Victoria Wharf, at the Gardens Centre and at Cavendish Square.
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Cape Union Mart Adventure Centre
This impressive outdoors shop offers practically everything you’d need for anything from a hike up Table Mountain to a Cape-to-Cairo safari. The shop includes a café, climbing wall, hiking-boot testing station and cold-weather chamber (to assess those thermals!). There’s also a smaller branch in Victoria Wharf, at the Gardens Centre and at Cavendish Square.
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Aya's
Deluxe, hand-embroidered designer fashions worthy of a royal reception are offered here, from chocolate brown linen tunics with geometric, sky-blue embroidery to striped-silk kaftans in jewel tones with wide black silk borders straight out of a Matisse painting. They're not cheap, but not a king's ransom, either - and unlike the chunky jewellery and leather slippers, you won't find similar designs elsewhere.
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Chay Abdelhadi
If you wish a genie would add some magic to your home décor - poof! - here's your dream pouf, in a range of shapes, colours and prices. The traditional round ones come embroidered, embossed and gilded, and the funky square ones are available outstitched, high-gloss and in rich natural shades. Prices vary by leather quality; the best is thick, durable and carefully tanned so the dye won't fade or rub off.
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Pama Sinatoa
Djenné is famous for bogolan, or mud-cloth. Although the cloth is on sale all across town, the most famous female artisan is Pama Sinatoa, whose workshop is near the town entrance. The quality is top-notch, the selection enormous, and in the showrooms they do demonstrations on how the cloth is dyed. The sales pitch is more encouraging than hard-sell and they tend to be open daylight hours.
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Ben Rahal Carpets
For quality carpets without the usual rounds of mint tea, haggling and ceremonious hoopla, ditch the Medina and head for the fixed prices and easygoing attitudes of Ben Rahal. Don't be fooled by the size of the place: the small, careful selection may leave you spoiled for choice. Get informed about antique Berber rugs and realistic carpet prices here first, and avoid buyer's remorse in the souqs later.
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Librairie Dar El-Bacha
A fine selection of cookbooks, art books, and postcards, plus stamps to send them and some wonderful antique Moroccan stamps to take to all your philatelist friends back home. Bookshop owner Noureddine Tilsaghani is also a photographer, and you can pick up some of his atmospheric shots of Marrakesh here. There's a fantastic selection of Moroccan literature and poetry in (mostly French) translation.
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Alrazal
No abracadabra is necessary to turn little ones into fairy-tale princes and princesses: a handmade, embroidered outfit from Alrazal should do the trick. For the price of what you'd pay for off-the-rack back home, you can get kiddie couture dresses and swashbuckling velvet pant sets - and yes, those silk tunics come in women's sizes right upstairs. Alterations and made-to-measure are also possible.
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Neq Broderie
Walk right to the end of this grubby lane, off Talaa Kebira near the Bou Inania Medersa, and into a modern-looking house (signposted from Talaa Kebira). It's worth the effort: here is handcrafted traditional Fassi embroidery (watch the women at work) on excellent quality cotton-linen mix. Placemats cost around DH100 to around DH200; a tablecloth and six napkins from Dh450; napkins are Dh70 each.
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Dr Socks
It's a family affair. In the summer, Dr Socks takes wool from the neck and lower back of camels, spins it and knits. His sister makes sweaters, his uncle blankets, while he and his mother get on with the socks and scarves. Dr Socks and his wares can be found at Al-Badawiya Safari & Hotel and beyond. Count on around £E10 to around £E30 for socks, and up to £E400 for a blanket.
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Centre des Traditions et des Métiers d'Art de Kairouan
To see carpets being made without the hard sell, the Centre des Traditions et des Métiers d'Art de Kairouan, just north of Bir Barouta on a side street leading to the souqs, was set up by ONAT to promote local handicrafts. The rooms upstairs are set up to demonstrate traditional techniques for weaving, embroidery and carpet making. The artisans are usually happy to show you how it's done.
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African Lodge
Before you hanker after camel-saddle coffee tables and henna-painted orb table lamps at this ultramod African design showcase, look into shipping at the DHL office around the corner. The ingenious chandelier made out of vintage crystals and twisted industrial wire looks like something an itsy glitzy spider might have made, and is certain to make design aficionados curse carry-on restrictions.
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Imiso Ceramics
At the Old Biscuit Mill you’ll find the studio of Imiso Ceramics. Imiso, which means tomorrow in Xhosa, is an upmarket brand of ceramic art developed by award-winning ceramicist Andile Dyalvane and three partners. His work represents traditional objects such as Xhosa (isiXhosa) milk pails and Ngumi storage vessels, with surface treatment inspired by tribal body scarification.
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Intensité Nomade
Mostly couture kaftans and tunics, with prices to match - but while you won't find bargains, you will find cleverly tailored men's linen shirts by major Italian and Moroccan designers. Hassan Hajjaj's silk-screened Pop Art T-shirt features colourful tea glasses for a Moroccan twist on Warhol, and a minutely pin-tucked ivory silk shirt duly humbles those of us who struggle with mending socks.
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Swazi Candles Craft Centre
This craft centre, 7km south of the MR103 turn-off for Malkerns, houses several interesting sites. At Swazi Candles itself, you can wax lyrical about these creative pigment-coloured candles – in every African-animal shape and hue; it’s fun to watch the workers hand-mould the designs. Umgololo Gallery sells art and craft on the same premises.
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Antiquité Nejjarine
Samir Bousfiha's shop bulges with antiques - large pieces of furniture, doors and even whole painted ceilings, as well as smaller items like wooden writing boards at around DH1000 for an original, or around DH600 for a copy. For more portable souvenirs, check out the wide range of silver jewellery: thick bangles, old fibulas (brooches) and necklaces. Old silver is Dh15 per gram.
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Green Plaza Mall
Slightly older but still a big hit with locals is Green Plaza Mall, out beyond the suburb of Smouha on the Agricultural Rd to Cairo. It is as kitsch as things get, a local shopping version of Disneyland, with shops and shops and shops plus a noisy funfair, snooker hall, bowling alley, food court, cineplex, Hilton hotel, and a gaudy 'Roman temple' housing a conference and marriage centre.
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Sousse Medina
Sousse medina probably has the most interesting combination of religious and historical monuments. It is also one of the most convenient places to shop in all of Tunisia. Besides an enormous array of traditional shops, and souvenir shops that operate on the barter system, there are many price-fixed centres scattered around the medina and along blvd de la Corniche in the Ville Nouvelle.
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Marché Kermel
The covered Marché Kermel, behind Av Sarraut and within walking distance of Marché Sandaga, sells a mixture of foodstuffs and souvenirs. It's mainly worth visiting for the beautiful building that shelters its busy stalls. The original 1860 construction burnt down in 1994, but the 1997 reconstruction has been closely modelled on the building's initial structure and decoration.
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Cabinet Populaire
Stop and taste the rosewater, anoint yourself with healing essential oils and, on hot days, kindly Sidi Aboubida will pour a little cooling orange-flower water on your head. This is a full-service Berber pharmacy and cosmetics counter, with roots, powders and lotions in folk-art packaging for any conceivable complaint, from spots to shyness. Prices are set, and very popular indeed.
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Marché Capitale
Marché Capitale offers a bit of everything. Potential souvenirs include brass teapots, silver jewellery, traditional wooden boxes with silver inlay, pipes, leather bags, sandals, cushions, beads and grigri. You'll find dress material, colourful Soninké tie-dyed material, Senegalese batiks and the inexpensive, crinkly malafa (fabric) that Moor women use as veils.
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Ministero Del Gusto
You may have to elbow David Bowie and Iman out of the way to snap up that Moroccan Pop Art painting. Stop by to ogle the Gaudí-gone-Berber décor, and score custom-designed accessories such as hand-carved lemonwood cutlery plus vintage finds - including some killer vintage party dresses on the mezzanine. Call ahead, or you might find the place closed for a fashion mag photo shoot.
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Medebar Market
Duck up northeast to soak up the atmosphere of the Medebar Market. No doubt you'll be awestruck the minute you enter this mind-boggling place. It is like an open-air workshop where absolutely everything is recycled: old tyres are made into sandals, corrugated iron is flattened and made into metal buckets, and olive tins from Italy are made into coffeepots and tiny scoopers.
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