Kwasi Owusu, owner of Timbuktu African Imports at 500 South Ave. in Syracuse N.Y. Mike Greenlar | Central Current.

Kwasi Owusu paced throughout his store collecting items off the shelf to stow away or ship out for delivery to his clients. Much of the store’s inventory remained intact behind the register and glass counter.

Timbuk Tu African Imports was a one-stop shop for authentic African products in Syracuse’s Southside for the last 30 years. But Owusu, who has called Syracuse his home his entire adult life, has chosen to close the staple on South Avenue and will stop taking orders in early February. 

“I wish somebody can continue with it,” Owusu said of the store. “But nobody wants to continue.” 

Owusu has been a staple on the Southwest side of Syracuse. He opened Timbuk Tu in 1992 after seven years running a record store. He got the idea for Timbuk Tu from the record store’s  customers who were interested in purchasing imported items from Africa. 

He’s closing the store now because he’s tired. His wife, Gwendolyn Owusu, already retired, and he wants to travel and spend more time with his family, Owusu said. 

Irvin Hanslip, more commonly known as Bongo, owns the Jerkhut Restaurant next door. Hanslip said he’ll miss Owusu, who bonded over their businesses and immigration to the United States. Owusu is from Ghana and Hanslip is from Jamaica.

“I will miss him dearly,” Hanslip said. “The community will be suffering a big loss because there’s no other. People come from all over Central New York and maybe further to buy stuff.” 

Owusu came to Syracuse from Ghana in the 1970s to play soccer and study agriculture at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. He initially became a state employee working in agriculture, but eventually left to help his cousin run a furniture and appliance business. 

He opened his own set of businesses. Owusu became a street vendor in 1993, selling leather handbags and jewelry made in Ghana. He opened a record store, Global Records in 1985 on North Salina Street before moving it to the South Side. Then in 1992, he opened Timbuk Tu. 

Owusu settled on Timbuk Tu because he sold imported African goods alongside reggae, jazz and African music records and soon realized the goods were more needed, he said. 

Owusu’s wife Gwendolyn, is also connected to the neighborhood. She was born and raised on the Southside. The new location allowed him to be closer to their family. 

He was also inspired by Dorothy Peterson, a Southside community member who sold jewelry and hair products on South Salina Street, Owusu said.

“I’d take some bangles and oils to her and she’d sell it for me sometimes,” Owusu said. “She also was keeping me going.” 

Over the years, Owusu said he’s seen new generations of the families that first started buying from him continue to shop at Timbuk Tu. He described an interaction with a mother who said she’d come with her mother to buy bangles from Owusu. She brought her daughter, meaning three generations of the family shopped at Timbuk Tu. 

“So I say I’m too old here,” Owusu said. “I have to go.”

Owusu has tried to pack up the store, but Timbuk Tu is more reminiscent of a store in transition than one closing. Artwork still hangs on walls, oils and fragrances still sit in the glass counter, garments still hang on display. 

A box of shea butter sits on a table with smaller containers surrounding it. Owusu was still packaging shea butter to sell to customers. The organic Ghanaian shea butter is offered in two sizes: 4 ounces for $5 and 8 ounces for $10. 

In addition to the skincare products, the shop sells an assortment of apparel, fabrics, jewelry, furniture, cultural books, music, painting, body essentials, and handmade leather bags.

Boxes with orders of portable furniture like stools and foldable tables still sat on the store’s floor. 

“Business is very, very hard,” Owusu said. “I believe if we didn’t own the building we would’ve gone out of business long ago.” 

The business held value beyond just the products it sold. It helped Owusu build community in Syracuse. He was among the first Syracuse residents and vendors involved in the early 2000s with pioneering the Pan-African Village at the New York State Fair. For three years, he served as a board member for the Juneteenth celebration. 

He’s connected his business in Syracuse with his former home in Ghana. Owusu bought many of his products, including leather handbags and baskets, from the village of Atwima Asamang, where he lived in Northern Ghana. He said buying products from the villages has helped the families that make the products. 

“Everything we sell here from the village, the percentage goes to those mothers,” Owusu said. “The baskets and the leather bags, I have people in the North who make them for me. It gives some kids a chance of schooling.”

The store also helped foster his friendship with Hanslip, who also shopped at Timbuk Tu. Years ago, the pair started a dance and drumming troupe and also played on the International Stars, a semi-pro soccer team in Syracuse. 

But in early February, Owusu will leave the business, which has been central to his life, behind. He’s still figuring out what the next chapter of his life will include. His wife suggested he take up coaching soccer. He knows he wants travel to be part of that chapter. 

Owusu said people have already come in to purchase the building from him, but he’s been reluctant to sell it. 

“I want to make sure the business coming in here would be something that would benefit the community,” Owusu said. “I would prefer that.” 

read more of central Current’s coverage

Yolanda Stewart was raised in the Bronx, New York City. Before choosing a career path in journalism she found a voice in writing plays, short stories, and a myriad of other creative outlets. She is a 2022...