All over Southern Africa, you can find baskets, handwoven out of leaves and grass, being used in households and sold in shops and on the streets.
Although most of these baskets are created for practical uses, many of them are beautiful enough to be works of art.
In Botswana, I decided to learn more about basket weaving by taking a 3 hour class and attempting to create my own little work of art.
I was so fortunate to have Thitaku Kushonya as my teacher. Thitaku is a master basket weaver – she’s been weaving baskets since she learned from her mother, 25 years ago. Thitaku has competed in many international basket weaving competitions, has been the subject of magazine articles, and has won many awards. She placed fourth on behalf of Botswana in her first competition in Atlanta, Georgia, twelve years ago. But to me, her most impressive accomplishment is training thousands of Batswanan women in the art of basket weaving. She has helped to set up several coops around Botswana to empower rural female heads of households and enable them to provide for their families. I felt truly honored to learn from Thitaku. I’m not sure my work honored her, but my spirit certainly tried!
As I mentioned, baskets are woven in many parts of Africa. But as I learned from Thitaku, the materials used vary depending on what’s locally available. In Botswana, the leaves of the mokolwane palm are used for the outside of the basket, while local grasses are used inside. Once these materials are collected, the palm leaves are boiled to make them more pliable and then boiled a second time with various bush plants to produce the colors of the baskets. Once the desired colors are achieved, the palm leaves are cut into long strips and left in the sun until completely dry.
Unfortunately, collecting the raw materials can be dangerous in Botswana since elephants, crocodiles, and snakes often live in the areas where these plants grow. To help with this issue, Thitaku also works with local women to teach them which plants to use and help them to plant them closer to their homes.
I was lucky enough to have the raw materials already collected and prepared. Three hours certainly wouldn’t have been enough time otherwise! The first step in actually weaving the basket is to make a coil using the grasses and then create a spiral by repeatedly looping the colored palm leaves around the coil.
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| The small coil that was the start of my basket. |
The only tool used in making these baskets is a “lemao.” The lemao is basically a large needle attached to a piece of wood for grip. The lemao is used to poke a hole in the palm leaves in order to “sew” the palm leaf through the previous rows of the coil.
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| Thitaku Demonstrating the Use of the Lemao |
This process is repeated for as long as is necessary to get the desired size.
Once the base is created, the experts can add different colors of palm leaves to make different patterns. That was a bit advanced for me – my basket used only two colors.
A proper basket takes anywhere from 2 weeks to four months to create, depending on the size of the basket and complexity of the pattern. Since I only had 3 hours, my basket is really only big enough to hold a couple of quarters or a pair of earrings.
Woven baskets can even be used to hold liquids – to carry water from the river or to store traditional sorghum beer. To make the basket waterproof, you need a very tight weave and the basket needs to soak for 3 days in water. Once the palm leaves dry, the basket is watertight.
After working on a basket myself and learning about all that goes into their creation, I have a new appreciation for the baskets I see for sale on the streets. The price of the baskets is based on their size and quality of the weaving. (I’m sure I could get at least $.10 for mine!) Baskets made by a master weaver like Thitaku command a high price (one of her competition baskets sold for $1800!) but are worth every penny as they truly are works of art!
I have so much respect for Thitaku, her baskets, and the work she does with the women of Botswana. As for me, I have a few more years of practice ahead . . .
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