Yala Jewellery
Community + Connection to the Artisans of Kenya
By JULIA LE
Yala Lela 3-Way Hammered Brass Earrings, Mwezi Half Moon Beaded Necklace, Ortum Brass and Horn Cuff Bracelet, and thrifted blouse.
“Nimefika! I’m here!”
Those were the words that greeted me. On a white cardboard box were four black letters printed boldly on the sides in a patterned font: Y-A-L-A. Inside, were three beautiful jewelry pieces: a necklace encasing white beads, a cuff made from recycled brass and reclaimed horn, and a pair of modular hammered brass earrings. Boxed and cushioned by recycled paper materials, the package included printed cards featuring the makers behind the pieces—Nasuju Murunya and Austin—and the stories behind the makers. A hand-written card read, “We hope you love your Yala pieces as much as we do. Keep your jewellery in its box, but please help us to stay eco-friendly and recycle all the other packaging.” At the very bottom, it was signed, “Audrey”.
Yala Jewellery is a modern African jewelry brand based in the UK, currently paving the way for sustainability through its continuous efforts to improve the lives of people through transparency, community and connectivity. Crafted by artisans in Kenya, and packaged and signed in the United Kingdom, the pieces had traveled across the ocean—having passed through many hands before finally arriving here in New York. In just a few minutes, with jewelry then unpacked, each part of their journey began to unfold—each element of the package, a piece of the story ready to be told.
Meet the Makers: Nasuju Murunya (left) and Austin (right). Nasuju Murunya is a member of the BMB workshop near the Masai Mara, which is certified by the International Fairtrade Association. Through her work at BMB, Nasuju has been able to put her four children through primary and secondary school, a level of education she never had. Austin is a brass specialist based outside of Nairobi. Father to three children, he is the last person to check ever Yala piece before it leaves the workshop. Yala Lela 3-Way Hammered Brass Earrings, Mwezi Half Moon Beaded Necklace, and Ortum Brass and Horn Cuff Bracelet.
THE ORIGIN STORY
For Audrey Migot-Adholla, Founder and CEO of the brand, Yala evokes a sense of nostalgia. Named after the town her grandmother lives, Yala celebrates Kenyan culture, craftsmanship and artisanship by empowering local communities, and sharing their stories and craft with the world.
In conversation with the founder, it was easy to see how this sense of openness went beyond the design of the product. Transparency is inherent to Yala’s culture, and apparent in Audrey’s oration of her story and those of the artisans she works with. We spoke of the challenges she faced, as well as her thoughts on the international conversation of environmental impact. In speaking with SUSTAIN about her journey and how Yala came to be, Audrey shared a piece of advice: “You can’t be too proud to admit you don’t know what you don’t know.” Afterall, that’s how Yala came to be.
Yala Mwezi Half Moon Beaded Necklace & thrifted blouse.
Growing up in Kenya, Audrey was immersed in the color of traditional craft. Everything from knitting and basket-weaving to beadwork and wax prints were things her grandmother taught her, and they were part of her everyday life. At thirteen years old, when Audrey left for boarding school in England, these were the images that reminded her of home, and what she missed most. As she grew older and moved on to university in Scotland, wearing traditional Kenyan textiles and indulging in craft was her way of sharing a piece of herself and her cultural heritage with those around her. Her peers would ask questions out of curiosity rather than ill intent. They were open and interested to learn, and she was more than happy to share.
In 2008, after graduation, Audrey began a blog, exploring her journey in crafting upholstery and quilts, influenced by Kenyan wax prints and proverbs. As the popularity of her work grew, Audrey decided to quit her job and build out her business for the first time, selling her pieces on Etsy. However, as the business started growing more quickly than Audrey anticipated, after a couple of years and the onset of creative fatigue, she decided it was best to return to her projects as a freelance endeavor.
As a few years passed, Audrey was working part-time as a dressmaker, selling her sewn creations on Instagram and Etsy, and shifting her medium to jewelry. As Audrey’s sales started picking up steam, she began revisiting the idea of a business, considered ways to scale. Following her mother’s advice, she decided to start close to home. She began reaching out to friends in Kenya and “just walking around”—meeting the different people and factories behind the brands she saw around town. When she found just the right teams, she got to work. Audrey began the sampling process and making jewelry in small batches. Unused stock was always remelted into something new—a characteristic of Kenyan culture, Audrey noted: “using things over and over again until they fall apart”. It was a mix of old and new: traditional craftsmanship with modern design. By then, it was 2018, and Yala was just getting started.
DOES IT HURT OR HINDER? BECOMING THE FIRST B-CORP JEWELRY BRAND IN THE UK
In November of 2018, Yala officially launched, becoming the first jewelry brand in the UK (and one of fifteen jewelry brands globally) to become a Certified B Corporation—a certification which upholds the high standard for businesses looking to balance profit and purpose. Through continuous social and environmental performance evaluations and legal structures, the process requires recertification every three years to push brands to constantly progress and improve. In September of 2019, Yala was honored with the Best For The World Award from B Lab, the non-profit organisation behind B Corp, placing the brand in the top 10% of B Corporations globally with strong governance policies.
Yala Lela 3-Way Hammered Brass Earrings, Mwezi Half Moon Beaded Necklace, Ortum Brass and Horn Cuff Bracelet, and thrifted blouse.
Over the course of six months, Audrey worked to use B Corp standards as a blueprint and business plan—working under the mantra, “does it hurt or hinder,” and mapping out ways to continuously improve, and measure her progress on impacting people, planet and community. The goal is to build a connection between Kenyan culture and heritage and a global audience through true traceability. For Audrey, as a new business, the challenge was in the documentation, and establishing financial history and a code of conduct. She worked relentlessly to define the mission of Yala and how it could be kept accountable in a very measurable way.
Today, all of Yala’s jewelry is produced by two groups of artisans: the women of the BMB Workshop, outside of Maasai Mara in Kenya; and a locally-owned Brass Workshop just outside of Nairobi run by brass artisan, George, and his team. The workers are paid three times the average wage in Kenya, with 10% of all profits going directly to them. Since Audrey works directly with the artisans (any of whom can be texted or called), the layers of uncertainty often seen with intermediary subcontractors is eliminated. “If you can put a face to whoever you can, why wouldn’t you?” Audrey noted. Her relationship with the artisans is not just as workers. Yala looks to these groups for their talent, and how the business can help improve their lives. For the brand, financial success is meant to be shared, and bring a sustainable future for the community. “Nobody should suffer to bring profits.”
COMMUNITY + CONNECTION
Living in the UK, and seeing how sustainability can be implemented at the policy level, Audrey, explores how awareness and policy shifts allow sustainability to become the norm. Beyond sourcing and production, Audrey’s design thinking takes it even a step further with her work with the artisans. She’s constantly rethinking her packaging and trying to avoid “pointless packaging”—using recycled paper materials, with the stories of the artisans and additional informational cards printed in soy-based inks. Opened the box of Yala goods, it was like unfolding a story of what lies behind the pieces, and how it came to be—establishing connection and community between the artisans behind the design and creation of the pieces, and the wearer.
Yala Lela 3-Way Hammered Brass Earrings, Mwezi Half Moon Beaded Necklace, and thrifted blouse.
Yala Mwezi Half Moon Beaded Necklace & thrifted blouse.
Meet the Makers: Nasuju Murunya (left) and Austin (right). Yala Lela 3-Way Hammered Brass Earrings, Mwezi Half Moon Beaded Necklace, and Ortum Brass and Horn Cuff Bracelet.
Yala presents itself in its appeal of design—an opportunity to live vicariously for people who never get to go to Kenya (or Africa, for that matter) and getting to appreciate the culture and community it supports. It challenges common misconceptions about Africa and its people through beautiful design, entrepreneurship and creative talent. And it draws a genuine connection, and unboxes layers and layers of a story worth telling.
For Yala, this is just the beginning.