Swynnerton worked her way from being a country town newsagent assistant in Warwick, Queensland, to the giddy heights of the fashion world as a Vogue, Australia, fashion editor, London freelance journalist, and New York advertising coordinator during the 1980s.

But twists and turns over the next 20 years found her in Africa recycling dhow fishing and trade boats. She now makes furniture from their historical teak, mahogany, and other exotic African hardwoods before exporting it around the world. In doing so she helps to conserve forests and enables Africans to acquire new jobs and skills.

This is her story.

There is a gentle murmur as men talk. Laughter rings out. A hammers chinks on a nail’s metal. And a machete makes a slapping noise to a steady rhythm as its wielder cuts a piece of wood to size. He begins to sing; quietly at first. Others follow his lead and the chorus escalates. More join in until a heart-rending resonance of 36 fundi (tradesman) workers bellows out. The men harmonise as they stand in thongs and toil under a hot tin roof held solidly by wooden poles.

They are making furniture and their performance is being played out in Nicola Swynnerton’s Nzito (heavy wood) Furniture factory in the Tanzanian capital of Dar es Salaam. The pieces they make include stylized chairs, tables, beds, chests and other household furniture that appears internationally in safari lodges, hotels, embassies and private homes.

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