05 Jul 2015

She ventured into basket weaving as a way to kill old age boredom and pass time. She had no idea her hobby will turn into a business.

At the age of 93, Ms Tshekiso Ntuda is still going strong and holds unto basket weaving with great enthusiasm. She said although she has grown old, sitting home with nothing to do was not her option.

Looking at her working around any size and pattern of a basket, piercing her long needle through, combining few lashes of grass and some tinny strings of palm tree branches (mokolwane), one can easily figure out that Ms Ntuda is fond of her work.

Ms Ntuda narrated that her journey into basket weaving started way back during her early childhood days.

“Back then when we were growing up, basket weaving was one of the traditional practices that every girl was expected to partake and execute,” she said.

A mother of five said because of the growing demands of the family, she never took the practice any further for she had to look for a job so as to provide for her family.

And later on after she retired from work, she felt the need to do something so as to keep busy and kill the boredom around her; as such she considered basket weaving. Ms Ntuda said she decided to do basket weaving because she still recalls the basic steps of the practice.

She also said basket weaving does not need any complicated material to perform. She explained that she uses grass and branches of palm trees (mokolwane) that are not fully grown. She cuts them into tinny strings and immense them into water so as to soften them and make them easier to bend and twist into different shapes.

The active granny also explained that to add colour to her products, she uses empty colourful plastic sacks that are used to package oranges and cabbage, adding that he pulls few strings and sews them in to make a desired pattern.

Ms Ntuda said when she started weaving she had no business idea in mind; hers was just to pass time. With time a lot of people showed interest in her products and they started to place orders. Then she eventually decided to sell them with prices ranging from 50 to 100 pula depending on the design and pattern of the item.

Although she is capable to come up with different design such as earrings, necklaces and other ornamental items, Ms Ntuda said she decided to design baskets only because they sell fast.

Ms Ntuda was quick to point out that though her five children are taking good care of her, she is also proud that with the profits she makes, she is also able to attend to her other needs.

Her advice to other older people is that they should revisit their old age traditional practices noting that such practices have opportunities that need to be tapped into.

“We are aware that modern practices have almost swept away most of the traditional practices that we grew up doing, hence the need for older people to revisit the old practices,” she said.

Ms Ntuda also encouraged youth to be willing to learn such crafts noting that basket weaving is part of the tradition that can help them preserve culture and enable them to make ends meet as well.  ENDS