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The Depository documents 5 techniques in Sierra Leone; by risk level: 2 critically endangered, 2 endangered, 1 vulnerable. Each record opens with a public summary; the full research record is free to view once registered.
The tie-dyeing, stitch-resist, and wax-block-stamping of cotton cloth using natural indigo and kola-nut dye, practiced predominantly by Temne women centered on Makeni, northern Sierra Leone.
The manual digging, transport, and water-sieving of alluvial soil to recover rough diamonds, practiced by an estimated 120,000 artisanal diggers across Sierra Leone's diamond-rich Kono and Kenema districts, where deposits were first…
The hand-building of unglazed earthenware pottery by Limba potters of Bafodea Town, capital of the Wara Wara Bafodea Chiefdom in northern Sierra Leone, documented through direct academic fieldwork as having declined to the point of…
The hand-spinning, dyeing, and narrow-strip weaving of thick, heavy cotton cloth by Mende (and related Vai and Gola) weavers of Sierra Leone and neighboring Liberia, using a tripod loom found almost exclusively in this region of West…
The single-piece carving of black wooden helmet masks for the Sande (also called Bundu or Bondo) women's initiation society, practiced by Mende, Temne, Sherbro, Vai, Gola, and Bassa carvers across Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, and Côte…