PR TIMES AFRICA PRTimesAfrica (March 2016) | Page 22

A LIVING STUDY
IN HOW TO TURN
PASSION INTO A
LIVELIHOOD
“The male artisans on some of the sites we worked on
would usually express surprise when my workers told
them I was their boss,I had to prove my worthiness and
break through to the very top.”
Constance Elizabeth Swaniker, Founder & CEO of Ac-
cents & Art, is an uncommon woman in every sense of
the word; not only does she seamlessly combine beauty
and brains, she also makes effective use of her hands,
in creating some of the finest sculptural pieces to come
out of Africa, pulling down societal barriers and tearing
stereotypes to pieces. She has risen to the very top of a
male-dominated industry in an environment where it is
difficult for fledgling businesses to thrive and doubly so
for female entrepreneurs.
She was born in Ghana in August, 1973, but grew up
in a number of countries like Botswana, Zimbabwe, The
Gambia and Ghana, blending the cultures and influ-
ences of each with her Ghanaian roots to build an Afri-
can creative colossus. She earned her Bachelor of Arts
Degree in Sculpture from the Kwame Nkrumah Uiver-
sity of Science & Technology (KNUST), College of Arts
in 1999. She set out, immediately after graduating, on
the journey of entrepreneurship through self expres-
sion in her creative works. Her entrepreneurial genes
were developed by first her mother, a widow who start-
ed a school in Botswana with 6 kids and grew it into a
thriving institution with 300 kids, and her aunt, Ophelia
Akiwumi, in whose woodwork factory she worked as a
carpentry apprentice alongside 60 males while studying
at the KNUST. Her foray into business was sealed by
her realization that white collar opportunities were few
and far between for her, due to the fact she majored in
Sculpture, hence the decision to work for herself came
CONSTANCE
SWANIKER
22 | PRTIMES AFRICA MARCH 2016