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A story
a thousand-year history to carry along
Where does Tafia come from ? The word means “fan” in Soninke, one of the many languages spoken in South West of Mali.
Founder of FANKHE and French-Malian, Yaya BATHILY knows quite a deal about those woven-straw fans he grew up with. Tafia is traditionally made by Malian women who sell it on markets and flutter it with a tireless and timeless gesture, when in need of freshness. . This ancient item comes in pretty handy to withstand heat in quite an effective and easy way.
French designers worked hard to create a modern version of Tafia without it losing its West African origins and inspiration. Tafia is simply thought to fit Western expectations and play its part in facing up climate change’s aftermaths. Here is an eco-friendly refreshing source available for each and everyone, men and women.
Our team
is inclusive and encourages differences
Our multicultural board is a surprising addition of various professional worlds. We share a common belief through our game-changing Tafia project : let’s push boundaries !
90%
French people are up to 90% to expect from companies to be purpose-driven and willing to have a positive impact on societies. Here at FANKHE, we believe that responsibility and universality are the right goals to stick up to.
Our focus areas
Universality, commitment, responsibility.
Universality
We think that building relationships across cultures is a path to universality. We have a lot to learn from those numerous civilisations which have found ways to resist heatwaves for centuries. That’s why we have acknowledged West African skills to create Tafia and we aim to spread this knowledge worldwide.
Why would a fan be an exclusive item that only women can display ? Regardless of one’s gender, our FANKHE team is likely to restyle this thousand-year-old accessory for everyone to appreciate it as we care deeply about sharing and giving.
Commitment
We are eager to show our commitment towards West African peoples, especially Malian ones who inspired us and thus deserve to be repaid. That’s why Yaya BATHILY meets them a couple of times every year. We hope that, once tafias sellings are rocketing, we will be able to finance actions in the region in a way to thank them.
Responsability
We could not think our Tafia without taking responsibility as an economic player. To reduce our environmental impact, we aim to rethink our CSR approach through two key priorities:
- Putting the light on sustainable production. We forecast demand levels prior to production to avoid overproduction for it is one of our main purposes to lessen our carbon footprint.
- TUsing recycled materials, associating with manufacturers who can justify the origins of raw materials. Tafia is composed of 70% recycled materials and we target our energies towards increasing those numbers.
