Haiti · Bamboo and straw mesh weaving
Pate de Coque / Makout
The weaving of bamboo or straw strips into mesh-pattern baskets, mats, rope, cord, hats, and the traditional makout satchel — a woven carrying bag long used by Haitian market women and rural farmers. Documented by peer-reviewed academic research as continuing directly from the post-Haitian Revolution period, when both men and women weavers sustained a rural cottage-industry economy in rope, cord, mats, hats, and satchels alongside fishermen's own wickerwork fish traps and nets. Scholar Jean Casimir frames these craft practices — straw weaving, leatherwork, and metalwork alike, all rooted in the pre-revolutionary period — as historical acts of 'self-defense' and contre-plantation resistance against the export-oriented, commodity-producing plantation economy, giving this craft a documented political as well as practical dimension.
Risk level: Vulnerable · Not Applicable — no UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage inscription exists for this craft at time of writing
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