Heritage
A house, in its own words
Maiada El Khalifa grew up between Sudan and France, absorbing two distinct cultural worlds. Her path into perfumery was not conventional; she pursued training in Grasse, the historic heart of French fragrance production, before establishing her practice in Paris. Under the umbrella of The House of Aba, she founded Tayshaba as a vehicle for expressing her dual heritage through scent. The name itself carries personal and familial weight, rooted in her Sudanese lineage. With Tayshaba, Maiada set out to tell Sudan differently, moving away from familiar narratives and toward something more intimate and specific. Her work narrates family history alongside broader Sudanese evolution, weaving individual memory into a wider cultural framework. The brand's positioning within The House of Aba connects it to a broader creative structure, though Tayshaba operates as a distinct fragrance project. The 2024 collection introduced five new fragrances, including Cachemyrrhe, All Nile Long, Flambois, Ahmar Dance, and Asfar A Way, each exploring different facets of Sudanese identity, landscape, and tradition. Part of the brand's sales proceeds reportedly support causes connected to Sudan, embedding the enterprise within a framework of cultural stewardship rather than pure commercial activity. For Maiada El Khalifa, fragrance operates as a medium of storytelling and cultural transmission. She does not approach perfumery as a purely aesthetic exercise but as a means of communication between past and present. Her scents are described as daring, carrying narrative weight that extends beyond smell alone. The brand's philosophy centers on ancestry, art, and culture as interconnected forces. Tayshaba fragrances do not merely smell pleasant; they evoke lives, influences, and histories. The founder has spoken about narrating Sudan's history through her work, with particular attention to her family's role in the country's evolution. This perspective informs every composition, positioning each fragrance as a chapter in a larger story. The brand rejects the notion that niche perfumery should exist in isolation from meaning. Instead, Tayshaba treats scent as an act of witness, a way of preserving and sharing cultural knowledge that might otherwise remain unspoken.