May 14, 2007

Shop brings aura of exotic to NewarkBy Todd BrownInsideBayArea.com

Newark – Icha Gomet points out a huge pair of Fulani earrings she keeps in a case at the store she runs with her spouse, Jacques. They’re bronze, she said, although the preferred version of the Malian dowry from husband to wife is gold.

“I wish!” she said with a chuckle, while Jacques simply smiles.

Newark might seem like an odd setting for a retailer of goods from the Dark Continent, yet there stands Arts Africains, tucked in a Cedar Boulevard strip mall south of Thornton Avenue.

The import store is chock-full of decorative Kuba cloths, thumb pianos and other intriguing wares from across the Atlantic.

“We wanted to introduce the African art and culture here,” Jacques said, contrasting the shop’s suburban locale with Oakland and San Francisco. “We wanted to be a unique store in another area.”

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