Our palm basket are ideal shopping baskets or laundry baskets. These baskets are light but strong. The further finishing with fabric, leather or beads makes these baskets very practical and pretty.
photo gallery
the making of video
The palm leaves have to be split and platted into one long strip, before it can be sewn into a basket. Watch the making of video below to admire the process, shown to you by Jane from Kajire.
ABOUT THE Artisans
ABOUT THE BASKETS
Out Palm weave baskets are all made in the region of Kajire. Kajire is a relatively new settlement, about 50 years old, and lies at the base of Sagalla hill near Voi town. Most inhabitants are Duruma, which is one of the smaller sub-tribes of the Mijikenda who live in Kenya’s coast province.
Weaving this type of baskets goes a long way back in history and is a tradition of the Mijikenda tribe.
People in Kajire have limited access to water, and rely on subsistence farming. Unfortunately there is insufficient rainfall in Kajire, so crops often fail. In recent years Hadithi Crafts trained 4 more women groups in the area to weave palm baskets to keep up with the demand.
This ideal shopping or laundry basket is woven from palm leaves. The local name for this material is Magangachi - a type of indigenous palm that grows on Sagalla hill. After buying the baskets from the Women’s groups, we take them to the Hadithi Crafts HQ and assure the further finishing.
The Palm shopper is finished with round leather handles. we bring the baskets to Buguta Disabled group where also our leather group is based. They work with local goats leather to make the handles for these baskets.