Turning Seaweed into Soap

The mamas of Mwani Zanzibar in Paje make all-natural skincare products with the key ingredient seaweed farmed a matter of metres away in the Indian Ocean. Mark Edwards finds out about the clean and ethical range and the way in which the company presents a model for how seaweed farming can provide independence and a secure career while protecting the islands’ fragile coastline.

Dressed in their uniform of headscarfs and flowing dresses coloured a shade of blue that is as azure as the Indian Ocean they wade into waist deep to work, the Mwani Zanzibar ‘mamas’ stand out from the rest of the many seaweed farmers that tend to their harvest around the coastline of the Zanzibar archipelago. The 17 women employed by the social enterprise also distinguish themselves in roles that go far beyond growing seaweed. In fact, that’s where the work just begins.

From Mwani Zanzibar’s production centre – an impressive hut with a roof thatched with coconut leaves – just moments from Paje beach on the east coast of Unguja, the women handcraft a range of all-natural skin products with the harvested seaweed a key ingredient. Their soaps, body scrubs and butters are also made with herbs and spices grown in the centre’s gardens or sourced from across Africa.

Seaweed is a veritable elixir of proteins, enzymes, minerals and vitamins and, as Mwani Zanzibar director Klaartje Schade details, its effect on the skin can turn back the hands of time.

“It is naturally abundant in essential amino acids and moisturising phytonutrients, protein-rich seaweed restructures collagen to combat premature skin ageing,” she says. “This treasured ingredient is also effective in the treatment of skin conditions like acne and eczema. It detoxifies and restores the natural balance of your skin, whilst its powerful antioxidants protect against environmental pollutants.”

MEET THE MWANI TEAM

Here are just a few of the 17-strong Mwani Zanzibar team who oversee the production process from seaweed farm to handcrafted soaps and scrubs

Fauzia - Production manager

Maua - Production

Patima - Production supervisor

Pili - Production

Mwanaiddi - Production

Schade believes the combination of Mwani Zanzibar’s couldn’t-befresher ingredients and an exacting, weeks-long production method mean these skin-boosting benefits are only intensified in the company’s nutrient-rich micro batches of soaps, body scrubs and oils.

A great deal of care and effort goes into every stage of the process and it all starts in the ocean shallows.

Schade says: “Each piece of seaweed is grown over a period of 12 weeks and tended to daily during low tide. Once harvested, it is dried under well-aired, shaded conditions in order to reduce drying time and maintain the nutritious benefits. “Following this, we grind it. Powders, granules or extracts are created, depending on the product that we wish to make. All our products are made by cold-process, in small batches and by hand every step of the way. We don’t add filling ingredients and fragrancing is a result of the combination of pure ingredients that combine with essential oils and absolutes. As with cuisine, each ingredient plays an important role, for example, our beeswax is unadulterated and smells like pure honey, these combinations are key to skincare that is joyous and beneficial to use. Our ‘mamas’ take care of the product each step of the way.”

Cold-process soaps

The cold-process method takes time with curing – the drying process in which the water evaporates and the soap hardens into shape – lasting weeks, but it is worth it. The lack of heat keeps the essential oils and beeswax intact throughout for maximum creaminess and the bar of soap can be tailor-made down to the last ingredient.

Schade says: “Our soap takes five to six weeks to cure, using a method that we believe is most beneficial for our clients. It allows the soap to retain the natural benefits of the oils and allows us to use pure ingredients.

“Cold process soap is made with essential oils and natural ingredients with each ingredient adding nutritional benefits,” says Schade. “With cold-process soap, there is a high glycerine content – otherwise removed in mass-produced soaps – which moisturises the skin. This along with the beeswax and organic coconut oil helps soothe and keep the skin supple.

“Cold-process is an age-old way of making soap and the lye [the mixture that spurs the soap-making chemical reaction] needed was originally made from seaweed, therefore it is a bit like a home-coming to us!”

The artisan-quality, chemical-free results have encouraged some of the archipelago’s most exclusive and environmentally friendly hotels to affiliate with Mwani Zanzibar as a luxury brand partner for their bathroom amenities.

“We are working with a select few eco-luxury hotels, such as Zuri Zanzibar,” says Schade. “They have invested heavily into sourcing locally and the use of ecological practices. We supply a hotel amenities’ range and cold-process soaps that are made bespoke for them.”

Scaling up operations

The emphasis in the production centre is on attention to detail, but the highly trained team is now so proficient that Schade tells me “just under 1,000 bars of soap are produced each day” by Patima, Pili, Khadija and Maua without compromising quality. Mwani Zanzibar now has distributors in Germany and Poland with online stores of its products while it can also ship direct to international customers who get in touch

through the company’s Instagram and Facebook pages. Retail outlets in Tanzania stocking Mwani Zanzibar products include Dar handicraft hub Make It Matter and Kumi Gifts and Treats in Stone Town, Zanzibar.

This operational expansion has had to contend with Covid-19 for much of 2020. Currently the team works in shifts for social distancing and staff and surfaces are disinfected with Mwani Zanzibar’s homemade natural hand sanitiser, in which almost all of the virus-killing alcohol is derived from cane sugar. Created to keep Zanzibar protected from covid, the price was deliberately kept low and distributed for resale among vulnerable communities.

Still, with its steady flow of international orders, Mwani Zanzibar continues to be a success story on the island and its mamas carry a prestige in Paje with many continuing to wear the branded blue robes outside of their work hours, Schade tells me, such is their pride in working for the company.

Paying a livng family wage

The job satisfaction is easy to understand. As well as the chance to learn valuable skills and the sensual pleasure of working with such natural, fragrant materials, staff at Mwani Zanzibar have the security of permanent contracts that pay well and offer benefits such as holiday and sick pay.

Schade says: “Our lowest paid member of staff is paid 30 per cent above minimum wage and we are striving towards offering each staff member a living family wage – an income level that allows a family of 5.3 members – the average amount of dependents in our region – to live in adequate living conditions. Mwani Zanzibar is the first company on the island dealing with seaweed to fully employ its staff and offer full employment benefits. We have launched a programme that includes paternity leave and health care insurance for employees and their families.

“Although our team is not large, our impact on the women’s lives is. We hope that the financial success of our model will prompt more companies to think seriously about committing to environmental and social company models.”

It’s a big ask. Mwani Zanzibar is just a small, independent outlier within a huge global business. Multi-national companies are vying for seaweed as a key ingredient in thickening agents used in products from toothpaste to ice cream. Still, the market price for seaweed has, Schade says, “barely shifted” in the past decade, fast losing pace with yearly inflation.

Protecting the island

Mwani Zanzibar pays a premium price – in fact, 30 times the price regularly sold to the seaweed buyer, Schade tells me – to the casual groups it asks to farm for them to supplement the mamas’ harvest, but their largesse is limited. Some farmers have resorted to unsustainable practices – such as cutting back mangrove forests for seaweed stakes and clearing seagrass beds to expand seaweed farms – to increase yields and income.

It’s an issue that affects the long-term livelihoods of seaweed farmers and the fragile coast they live beside. Mwani Zanzibar has from the start sought to carry out its work in harmony with the exquisite natural beauty of Paje with its expanse of sandy beach and its tidal flats protected by an offshore reef.

The seaweed farms provide a habitat for marine life and the mamas handpick branches one at a time to protect creatures such as hermit crabs and sea horses that might be taking shelter.

Schade says: “Seaweed farming helps create calm breeding spaces for sea creatures on a coast line that is increasingly busy with tourism. Our farming requires no destruction of the local eco-system in order to grow the crop, nor do we need to use pesticides or fertiliser.

“The harvest is done by hand, using locally woven baskets, making every step of the way sustainable. Previously our seaweed sticks were made of wood, which required replacement every year. This month, we are moving on to sticks that are made from recycled plastic and produced by an innovative Tanzanian company.”

The work of Mwani Zanzibar blends as beautifully with nature as the blue-robed mamas merge with sky and sea. These are new horizons for sustainable, supportive employment in Zanzibar. “As the company grows, we expect our staff to grow with us,” says Schade.

Wanu - Production

Khadija - Production

Salma - Sales

Pius - Manager

Gabriel - Host

For more information or to buy Mwani Zanzibar products, visit its Instagram and Facebook pages @mwanizanzibar