Let me tell you a story about a modern-day superhero.
She neither flies nor wears a cape
Or is bulged with muscles to save the day.
She may not feature in news headlines
But she does save lives…
one African product at a time.
Her skin is dark and she adorns her head with locks.
She is an African who indeed walks the talk.
I heard she lived in a foreign land
So I thought perhaps,
she’d not make it home to us.
But lo behold that plane did fly
To be with her people and in fact change lives.
Let me tell you about a modern-day superhero.
“Go to the ant, consider her ways,
Be wise” Is her mantra
- With wisdom she saves lives!
Let me tell you about a modern-day superhero:
MEET EYETSA
Eyetsa Lorraine Ocloo is an entrepreneur and business executive whose work goes beyond the shores of Ghana. With businesses in Accra, Lagos and Abidjan, she has proven that with persistence, hard work and a drive, anything is possible. She is the owner and founder of The Shop Accra and has skills in Strategic Leadership and Change Management, as well as in Team, Communications and Relationship Building. In the past ten years, Eyetsa has grown and expanded The Shop Accra to not only be an African retail space but to be an events and tours planning centre, a garden and plant shop, an interior designing hub and an outlet for African clothing and accessories.
Before forming The Shop Accra, she worked as a Political Appointee in the Office of the President, serving in the capacities of the Deputy Administrator to the then President of Ghana, an Executive Assistant to the Secretary of the State, a Private Secretary to the Cabinet Secretary, a Programs Coordinator at the UNDP/DFID and a Manager in Knowledge and Innovations.
Between 2012 and 2013, she served in the Institute of Economic Affairs managing project collaborations, planning presidential and vice-presidential debates, being involved in press and communications management as well as in procurements and budgeting for the nation.
She was also an Executive Legal Research Associate and Executive Assistant on the Constitution Review Committee where she worked on fundraisings and sponsorship management projects, research and consultation management and UK-Diaspora consultation management among others.
She holds a master’s degree in Knowledge Management and Information Strategy from Columbia University in New York, USA and a bachelor’s degree in History and African Studies from the SOAS University of London, UK. She also studied at the Orpington College, UK, where she did her A-Levels in German, Communication and Media Studies.
She speaks English, German and Twi and has received awards for The Shop Accra being the Best Shop in Accra in 2018 and was the Best Research Associate for the Constitution Review Committee in 2012.
Eyetsa is passionate about making a difference in the art community in Ghana and seeks to extend the cultural beauty and tenacity of the Ghanaian to all of Africa and the ends of the world. She believes that creativity has absolutely no limits to it. “If you’re able to come up with an idea”, she says, “there is another person that will be willing to exchange money for it.”
She describes herself as an art lover and collector and was inspired to love and get into the business of art by her grandmother. Growing up, her grandmother would keep for special occasions, beautiful traditional headwraps, cloths, beads, artefacts and slippers, all of which made a deep impression on her. She remembers being in awe of the various designs, styles and colours that made her grandmother stand out in the most regal way when she was among others. The impression of African royalty began to form on her and before she knew it, she was an advocate for the culture.
To widen the scope of her understanding of Ghanaian art and what it truly means to be Ghanaian, Eyetsa, over a period, took the pains to travel to all the then ten regions of Ghana and lived the way each ethnic group she visited lived. This first-hand experience greatly influenced her to love and embrace her roots and the product of that experience has been manifested in the lives that are impacted daily through The Shop Accra.
Her hard work has awarded both her and the shop with articles in many blogs and digital magazines owned by foreigners who got to experience Ghana spectacularly because of The Shop Accra. She has also been mentioned in the NewYork Times T Mazagine as 1 of 3 African Beauty Stores to visit, Yale’s Globalist Educational Online Content as well as on Forbes.com pointing to The Shop as an ideal platform to purchase African Artisinal products.
I told you I’d tell you a story about a modern-day superhero
Who neither flies nor wears a cape.
But her work does speak for itself
As she saves lives, one African product at a time!