As an example, this one workshop where about seven young men scrape goat skins, sand empty wooden shells and skin drums. I do it for the passion of music. I wish that one day I will, like my friends, go to the United States or somewhere else, and finally be able to live from this art. In fact, small djembe makers hardly evaluate their revenu. The profit margin is narrow.
Profits are bigger for the intermediates.
Wearing a nice suit, cellular phone in hand, a woman is looking for 127 djembes. She touches the instruments and discusses before buying. Living in Spain, this Senegalese woman, whose treated skin appears paler, does big business. From Dakar, every two months, she ships containers filled with African art objects, mostly djembes. Since one exporter alone cannot send as much djembes all at once, expeditors group themselves to fill a container.