A wedding basket is a woman’s most useful and valuable possession. In everyday life she may choose to use it practically--to winnow grain and to collect and store harvested roots and rice, or to beautify her home by hanging it on a wall.
The beauty and durability of Zambian wedding baskets is no accident. Meticulously harvesting the roots of the Makenge bush is truly an art form of its own, and once roots are found, they are boiled until soft and colored with natural plant dyes. Only the most skilled craftswomen are able to weave these baskets, and each adds one-of-a-kind patterns conveying messages of beauty, marriage and family.
