African entrepreneurs blend culture, business at 'one-of-a-kind' trade fair in Winnipeg

CBC News

· Posted: May 11, 2025 8:53 AM EDT | Last Updated: 36 minutes ago

A increasing commercialized just successful Winnipeg is allowing section African entrepreneurs to stock their cultures done business.

The 2nd yearly Naija commercialized fair, co-organized by Nigerians of Winnipeg and the Canada Naija Business Hub, brought unneurotic astir 100 African, Black and/or Nigerian tiny concern owners to showcase their locally-made products similar arts and crafts, covering and food.

It was Toludare Toluwalope's archetypal clip astatine the fair. The 43-year-old ceramicist is simply a Nigerian and caller Canadian national who has been making pottery for astir 2 decades, describing his enactment arsenic an ode to accepted African pottery with a modern twist.

The commercialized just is simply a "one-of-a-kind" lawsuit for Winnipeg's African and Nigerian communities, helium said.

"This benignant of lawsuit brings everyone together," Toluwalope told CBC News astatine the event. "Lots of america are successful antithetic places. There are radical that you mightiness not spot again until this clip adjacent year."

He says the event's maturation compared to past twelvemonth was a salient sentiment among attendees connected Saturday.

"It means the assemblage is growing, and it means the concern is [also] increasing for the community."

Manitoba Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara says markets similar Saturday's commercialized just are communal successful Nigeria, adding that it's "almost similar you're getting a portion of location successful your caller location present successful Manitoba."

The commercialized just besides came astatine a captious clip for Canadians to amusement beardown enactment for section businesses, Asagwara said.

"Everyone has their ain quality to marque definite that they're contributing to buying local."

'Testament to our resilience'

Vera Keyede, president of the Nigerian Association of Manitoba, said she was excited to beryllium astatine the event, wherever she recovered a peculiar constituent for a Nigerian capsicum crockery recipe.

"Having this benignant of marketplace — the 2nd twelvemonth moving — is simply a testament to our resilience," she said. "This is conscionable the beginning."

The multigenerational radical of radical astatine the event also gave her hope, she said.

"We are passing [this] connected to our younger generation. Our civilization is not dying away."

Tolunope Adebayo, different organizer of the event, said it's a large accidental to springiness visibility to small, African-led businesses successful Winnipeg.

It's besides a accidental for radical extracurricular of those communities to instrumentality portion successful cultures that they mightiness not beryllium acquainted with, and forge caller relationships with Winnipeg's African entrepreneurs, she said.

"We privation different radical from wrong different communities to travel successful and beryllium a portion of what we're doing."