Category Archives: About the Basket weavers

In the Western province of Zambia, not far from the border with Angola, the mostly Mbunda speaking people weave these ruggedly unique baskets.

For many generations, weaving has been a traditional skill of the Gurune people of northern Ghana. Mostly done by women, basket weaving and other handicrafts supplement these subsistence farmers’ incomes.

Since wire baskets are woven by many men due to the difficult nature of weaving wire, they are able to stay home on their tribal lands instead of moving to cities to look for work. In the rural groups we work with, the family units are preserved so that the weavers and their families can live more traditional lifestyles.

We feature beautiful and functional harvest and storage baskets from Mossi, Fulani and Tuareg weavers.

The age-old tradition of basket weaving is usually passed down from grandmother to granddaughter. This helps to preserve Zulu culture as the grandmothers have the opportunity to recite oral history and stories to the younger generations as they all weave together.

The weavers depend on basket income to sustain themselves beyond what food they grow as subsistence farmers. They often use the money earned to pay school fees for their children.

This group is based in Kampala, Uganda and supports women within the city as well as in nearby villages. Their mission is to support as many marginalized women as possible through the promotion of their handcrafts.

The Batwa people are known as “The Keepers of the Forest” because they have inhabited the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest for over 60,000 years. The women who weave these baskets support themselves entirely by their craft.

Weavers take an average of 30 hours to create an 8 inch basket which makes these some of the most labor intensive of all African baskets.

In Rwanda, “the land of a thousand hills”, weavers from many tribes, including the recently warring Hutus and Tutsis, create sisal bowl baskets as symbols of peace, reconciliation, self- reliance and hope.