“Only, in my jewelry can all of Africa get along, “ Paul Muragu says smiling shyly.

Working in a shed the size of a telephone booth in the Nairobi Westlands, Paul invites the bead enthusiast in for a view of his wall of beads that range from Ethiopian silver, to seeds, to glass, to bone, to aluminum pendants made from old Kenyan cooking pots. He has beads from Mali, Niger, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Ghana, and many parts of Kenya, just to name a few. He makes many of the metal beads himself and buys glass beads from a woman’s cooperative in Nairobi that makes the beads from recycled glass.

Paul loves to tell the secrets of the beads, which promote fertility, and ward off the evil eye -- each beaded necklace is a microcosm of Africa. Paul also makes beaded earrings and key fobs with a variety of beads and bone pendants or Ethiopian crosses.

Support Paul and his beadmakers by buying their products in our store.