Makina (the ilala palm plant used for weaving); the finished basket type is characterized by a square woven base and wide round rim
The hand-weaving of ilala palm fiber into distinctively formed baskets -- a square woven base opening into a wide round rim -- by Tonga women of Zambia's Southern Province, near the Zambezi River. The ilala palm, though it grows freely in the region, is also deliberately planted and cultivated by Tonga women specifically for basket-weaving material. Traditionally used for carrying and storing maize and sorghum harvested from the fields, alongside fishing traps, beer strainers, flour sieves, sleeping and eating mats, and general tableware, some baskets are decorated with symbolic geometric designs rendered in traditional dyes made from different colored soils, roots, barks, and leaves. Weaving a basket approximately 35 centimeters in diameter takes about two weeks of dedicated work. Women organize themselves into informal, self-governed collaborative groupings known as craft clubs specifically to weave baskets together, sustaining both the cultural practice and a genuine, if modest, income-generating opportunity in a region where the rural poverty rate is documented at 76 percent, disproportionately affecting women's access to resources, education, healthcare, and other income-generating activities. A dedicated peer-reviewed academic study (International Journal of Cultural Property, Cambridge University Press) has specifically examined the intersection of gender, traditional cultural expression, collaborative innovation, and intellectual property protection within this specific craft tradition, directly engaging with the global challenge of adapting intellectual-property frameworks -- historically biased toward individual, commercially oriented creative works -- to properly recognize and value collectively produced, women-led indigenous craft traditions. The Choma Museum and Crafts Centre, Southern Province, actively documents Tonga material culture and operates dedicated crafts projects stimulating local basketry, beadwork, and carving production specifically to preserve traditional skills and provide alternative income to the region's people.
Risk level: Endangered · Not independently inscribed
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