Tafari Tribe
“I’m in the back-to-Africa business,” says Sandra Marshall-Haye, who co-owns Tafari Tribe boutique with her husband, Michael Haye, and their daughter Saidah (pictured). “I think every Black person should own a piece of Africa and get back with our roots, you know?”
The Jamaican Rastafarian family offers this through a gorgeous array of Afrocentric clothes, handbags and accessories, home furnishings, jewelry and custom-crafted artwork — a mix of Sandra’s original designs and wares from other African and Caribbean artisans. After selling at Brooklyn street fairs for decades, they opened Tafari Tribe eight years ago in Flatbush/Prospect Lefferts Gardens, where they serve a diverse clientele seeking eclectic, one-of-a-kind finds.
Every nook, cranny and surface of Tafari Tribe harbors gems. “People always say it’s like a museum in here,” says Saidah, except in her family’s shop you’re welcome to touch the merchandise and relax in their vintage settee, beautifully reupholstered in African prints.
“I think every Black person should own a piece of Africa and get back with our roots, you know?”
With a seemingly endless selection of crafts — including gold Fulani earrings, silver Berber necklaces, Maasai beaded bracelets, ankara print jackets, traditional white Ethiopian dresses with colorful embroidery, headwraps, kente baby rompers, men’s military jackets with Rasta-color patches and lion-shaped brass buttons, patterned throw pillows, sculptures, wooden masks, natural soaps and tubs filled with a variety of nourishing butters (cocoa, shea and mango) — you’ll want to take your time to take it all in.
591 Flatbush Avenue, 347-529-1697, tafaritribe.com
