About Us — Shereen, William, & Megan

We are Shereen and William, founders and owners of OutOfAfrica.ie.

The idea for Out of Africa started taking shape a few years ago in 2017.

We had been operating a web-based tech company from our base in the West of Ireland for some 15 years, and were beginning to wind the business down. This gave us more time for ourselves — a bit of fishing, a bit of gardening (not enough, the weeds are still the boss), a bit of boating and a lot of dog walking!

We had both always enjoyed travel and we first visited Africa in 2011. On that occasion it was simply for a two-week Christmas break in Gambia in West Africa. From that visit on we wanted to find out more about this intriguing and beautiful continent and its people.

After a couple of more visits to West Africa, we then went east. First to Tanzania for our first safari, followed by a week of pure luxury on a beach in Zanzibar. The following year we thought we would be a little more adventurous and spent a fair bit of time putting together an itinerary of our own for two weeks in Zimbabwe followed by a week in Mozambique, which we then passed to a company to 'make happen' for us. While in Zimbabwe we met two retired German doctors who had organized their whole trip themselves — hiring a car in South Africa, driving to Zimbabwe, taking a ferry across Lake Kariba, turning up everywhere one, two or three days late, and enjoying every minute. We were inspired.

So the following year we returned to Zim (as we now preferred to call the country) on a trip we organized, managed and arranged completly by ourselves. This involved hiring a car in Harare, the capital, driving 470km (with 70km off-road) to Mana Pools, which is quite simply the most wonderful place on Earth. We returned to Harare, took an 8-hour bus ride to Bulawayo, then took a 16-hour train ride (approx $12 each, first class) to Victoria Falls, where we had four relaxing days before returning home.

Ethiopia was the next country we visited, again for three weeks. This time with a week hiking in the Simian mountains. Followed by a truly wonderful week among the extradorinary rock-hewn Christian churches of Lalibela, followed by a further week of hiking and under-the-stars camping in the salt and sulphur desert of Danakil in the north east of the country - one of the hottest and driest places on earth.

In every country we visited we couldn't help but notice the quality and beauty of the products that were handmade by local artisans.

So when we decided we wanted to set up a new business, African arisan products was an easy & natural choice. As a bonus, of course, it will give us a reason to visit countries we haven't visited before as we seek out new products. Zambia and Malawi are next on out plans. Another visit to Ethiopia and Zimbabwe is on the cards, as are first visits to Kenya, Rwanda, Ghana, Namibia, and Senegal.

The more we became aware of these products and how they are made by people using traditional methods and handed-down skills together with natural and sustainable materials, the more we found we were becoming increasingly antagonistic, like so many people, to the careless consumption of mass-produced, pile-em-high-and-sell-em-cheap, throw-away, mostly made of plastic or non-sustainable materials that seems to swamp our everyday lives.

So here we are … importing and championing ethically sourced, handmade and sustainably produced, unique products
that we love from a continent we love.