Weaving materials: fibres and the agaseke tradition

1Crossing lines to make a surface

Look around your home and you will find something woven: a sleeping mat, a basket for beans, a school bag, the cotton of your uniform. Weaving is the craft of making a surface by crossing two sets of threads or strips over and under each other. It is one of the oldest crafts in the world, and in Rwanda it is also an art form. The agaseke, the small basket with a tall pointed lid, is given at weddings and to honoured guests, and a traditional basket is one of the symbols at the centre of Rwanda's national emblem. In this unit you will choose materials, build your own loom, weave with even tension and finish a piece that is ready to hang on a wall.

2Key vocabulary

• Fibre: a long, thin, bendable strand from a plant, an animal or a factory. You can use a fibre as it is, split it into strips, or twist (spin) it into yarn.
• Warp: the threads stretched tightly on the loom before you begin. They run up and down and carry all the strain, so they must be strong.
• Weft: the thread or strip you weave across the warp, over and under. It carries most of the colour and texture.
• Loom: any frame that holds the warp tight while you weave: a notched piece of card, four sticks tied into a rectangle, or a large wooden machine.
• Coiling: the basketry method used for the agaseke. A bundle of grass is wound round and round in a spiral, and each new round is wrapped and stitched to the round below it with a thin strip.

3Fibres you can find locally

Rwanda protects many of its wetlands, such as the Rugezi marsh. Buy papyrus in the market or collect it only where you have permission.

4A warp must be strong; a weft can be beautiful

The warp is pulled tight for the whole time you weave, and every row of weft is pressed hard against it. A warp that stretches or snaps ruins the work, so choose a strong, smooth, even fibre such as cotton string or sisal twine. The weft is not under strain, so you can choose it for colour and texture: banana strips, wool, papyrus, fabric strips, even feathers or seeds pushed in between the rows.

Worked example: planning materials for a wall hanging

Mutesi plans a wall hanging 15 cm wide and 20 cm long, with 16 warp threads. She has cotton string, dry banana stems and an offcut of red kitenge.

1. Warp: cotton string, because it is strong and smooth and does not stretch.
2. Length of each warp: the length of the weaving plus about 10 cm for tying off, so 20 + 10 = 30 cm.
3. Total warp string: 16 × 30 cm = 480 cm, which is 4.8 m. She cuts 5 m to be safe.
4. Weft: soaked banana strips for a natural, textured background, and strips of red kitenge 1.5 cm wide for three bright stripes.

5Make it: prepare banana fibre

1. Collect the dry, papery outer layers from a banana stem that has already been cut down after harvest. Never damage a growing plant.
2. Peel each layer into long strips about 1 cm wide. Throw away mouldy or brittle pieces.
3. Soak the strips in a basin of water for about 15 minutes. Dry fibre cracks when you bend it; damp fibre bends without breaking.
4. Split thick strips with your thumbnail or a large needle so that they are all about the same width.
5. Keep the strips wrapped in a damp cloth while you weave, and sort them into pale, middle and dark tones.

6The agaseke: weaving by coiling

An agaseke is not made on a loom. The weaver holds a thin bundle of grass as the core, wraps it tightly with a strip of sisal or another fibre, and stitches each new round to the round beneath it with a needle, working in a spiral outwards from the centre of the base and then up the sides. Patterns such as triangles, zigzags and stripes appear when the weaver changes the colour of the wrapping strip at exactly the right stitch. Traditionally the colours came from plant dyes; today many weavers also use bought dyes. After the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, weaving cooperatives brought women together to earn a living and rebuild trust, and the agaseke became known abroad as a “peace basket”.

7Look closely

In this agaseke, follow the black lines: each one climbs round the white body in small steps, like a staircase. Every step is a place where the weaver changed from white to black wrapping and back again. Now look at the lid: you can count the rounds of the coil as they spiral up to the point.

The second photo shows coiling in progress on a flat basket. On the right you can see the loose bundle of grass that forms the core; on the left, the finished rounds, tightly wrapped in yellow, white, blue and purple. Each coloured block begins and ends where the weaver changed the wrapping strip.

Practice