Omba Arts Trust

Omba Arts is a not-for-profit social enterprise that has been supporting the sustainable livelihoods of hundreds of artisans and artists, living in rural communities in Namibia, for over 30 years. We develop and market some of Namibia’s most iconic handicrafts often inspired by our beautiful landscape and rich cultures mainly through the skills of the Ju/Hoansi a San community in Namibia.

For the past twenty years, the Omba Arts Trust has worked closely with this community to foster a sustainable development model to integrate the unique skills of the Ju/Hoansi into the mainstream economy.

The Ju/Hoansi is a San tribal community in rural Namibia which mainly lives a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. With the guidance and support of Omba Arts Trust, community members fashion beautifully intricate jewellery from ostrich egg shells and create very rare pieces of art, often used as inspiration for a unique range of fabric prints also available from the Trust.

In addition, Omba has for the longest time engaged skilled and talented basket weavers from various parts of Namibia to produce a range of decorative and highly sought-after baskets; a standard feature in most Namibian homes representing an abstraction of symbols relating to wealth and fertility, in particular. The baskets are for the most part the natural colour of palm leaves, decorated with modern material or stunning patterns perfectly complimentary to their circular designs.