22 May 2014

In the past a woman’s place was in the kitchen. Women were relegated to the position of house-hold care-takers, caring for babies, cooking for their husbands and cleaning the yard.

Over the years, that perception started fading and women started playing a more meaningful role in society, taking up leading positions in politics and finance. At household level, women also started earning salaries and making financial contributions to the family coffers.

In a small village called Mabele, a group of women are pioneering the concept of self-reliance and have come together to assert themselves as independent women who are able to feed their families.

The 20 hard working women, some of them single mothers, came together in 2007 to form a basket weaving cooperative called Vuche Vuche. Every morning they set out for their allocated business plot in the village to spend the day designing baskets, earrings, necklaces and clay pots.

Their leader, Maggie Zambo revealed that village elders came up with the idea because after finishing their household chores, they always took leisure in making handycrafts.

The elderly women then came together and were later allocated a plot at the main kgotla, where they met and shared their talents.

“They then built a small hut where they came together to do most of their weaving and crafting. They made wall decorations, flat baskets, money baskets, wedding ceremony baskets and clay pots,” she said.

Zambo said they approached the Local Enterprise Authority (LEA) office to seek assistance and advice on how they can register a business and source funding.

“We have since managed to register the company and source funding of P100 000 from the Department of Gender Affairs through their women economic empowerment programme,” she said.

For her part the secretary, Precious Magopelo said they used the funds to install power, fence their plot, build a new office structure and purchase raw materials.

She also revealed that in 2012 they won a P3 000 prize in a basket weaving competition in Francistown, which they used to install a water system in their office.

One of the weavers at Vuche Vuche, Betty Muletwa said they get a lot of support from Linyanti Bush Camp, which allowed them to sell their finished artefacts at their curio shop.

She also cited the Botswana Tourism Organisation (BTO) as another supporter who regularly invites them to sell their products at gatherings and events.

The women of Vuche Vuche use branches of palm trees (mokolwane) that are not fully grown to make their baskets. One of the elderly members, Ketshepile Bopegilwe said they cut the branches and then immerse them in water to soften them and make them easier to bend and twist into different shapes.

“We also use rusty cans and motsentsela to give the leaves colour. It’s important to use a variety of colours so that the baskets are a marvel to look at,” she said.

However, Vuche Vuche, like any new company, still faces a number of challenges like lack of machinery to make clay pots. She said they need machinery because sometimes they have to produce a lot of pots to satisfy bulk orders.

She said they also need a vehicle that delivers goods to customers. The women also lamented the youth’s unwillingness to learn their parents’ craft.

“Basket weaving is part of our tradition but the youth are not willing to learn so that they take up after we have left,” she said. Ends