Côte d'Ivoire · Textile / Basketry
Varies by community; fila (Senufo-region strip-cloth prototype)
The weaving of narrow-strip cotton and raffia loincloth cloth by seven distinct ethno-linguistic communities of Côte d'Ivoire — Gouro, Baoulé, Malinké, Senufo, Koulango, Nafana, and Abron — each maintaining its own specific weaving technique, raw material choice, and cultural context while sharing a common structural method: dyed cotton threads woven in narrow strips on a hand loom the weaver designs and builds, with strips subsequently joined into a larger patterned cloth. The Dida communities represent a documented technical outlier within this shared tradition, weaving with raffia fiber attached to a wooden stake and worked crossways using a spoon rather than a conventional loom, producing a naturally beige cloth that can be further dyed black, indigo, red, or yellow. Among the Senufo specifically, women hand-weave unbleached cotton while men apply decorative motifs — the hornbill, panther, and turtle among established symbols — with wooden spatulas and natural paints, patterns drawn directly from Senufo religious cosmology. The finished cloths function as cultural symbols central to weddings, celebrations, and funerals across all seven communities.
Risk level: Vulnerable · Inscribed 2023 (18.COM) on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity as 'Traditional skills of loincloth weaving in Côte d'Ivoire' (file 01949)
The hand-building of decorative and functional terracotta pottery by Mangoro women of Katiola, in the Bandama Valley region of north-central Côte d'Ivoire, producing vases, jars, and jewelry boxes.
The multi-stage fermentation and steaming of cassava into attiéké, Côte d'Ivoire's national dish, produced by the lagoon peoples of the country's south — principally Grand-Lahou, Dabou, Jacqueville, and Abidjan — and traditionally made by…
The hand-painting of hand-spun, strip-woven cotton cloth with fermented mud-based and natural vegetal pigment by Senufo artists of Korhogo, northern Côte d'Ivoire, producing textiles in earthy neutral tones of brown, black, and cream…
The lost-wax casting of brass and bronze goldweights, bracelets, and ceremonial masks by Baule metalworkers of central Côte d'Ivoire, an Akan people whose casting tradition shares core lost-wax technique with neighboring Ghanaian Akan…
The carving of entertainment masks by the Baule people, roughly 400,000 strong in central Côte d'Ivoire, whose rich carving tradition produces two recognized categories: Goli, a sequential four-mask dance series adopted from the…
The braiding of local wheat straw into cuelchas (long plaited strands, giving the craft its practitioner name, colchandera) and their sewing into the chupalla, Chile's national huaso hat, in Ninhue and neighboring communes of the Itata…
The extraction of rush stems from the wet swamps of Chile's austral fjords and their weaving into baskets and storage containers, practiced by the Kawésqar and Yagán peoples — canoe-nomad communities historically living among the channels…
The shearing, spinning, and backstrap- or four-stake-loom weaving of llama and alpaca fiber into aguayos (large blankets), ponchos, wakas (woven sashes), and a rich further named repertoire — axo, lijllia, fajas, incuñas, panamantas,…
The weaving of piaçava (Attalea funifera, a palm species endemic to Bahia's coastal Atlantic Forest) into baskets, trays, and sousplats, and the carving of the same palm's seed (coco de piaçava) into 'vegetable ivory' jewelry, practiced by…
Maedeup is the Korean art of decorative knotting — producing intricate three-dimensional knot forms from silk cord for use in norigae pendants (CRAFT-0274), Hanbok accessories, ceremonial wrapping, and objects of daily beauty.
The southern Thai woven mat and basket tradition centered in Phatthalung and Nakhon Si Thammarat provinces uses the krajud rush (Lepironia articulata — a wetland sedge) to produce sleeping mats, prayer mats, baskets, and bags of…