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Vtg African Zulu Basket Ukhamba Zig Zag Design Handwoven South African Folk Art:
$186.80
Extremely attractive traditional handwoven South African Zulu with its original lid basket this is known as an ukhamba basket. This featuring a distinctive geometric zigzag pattern. In the Zulu traditional basket design. Typically tightly woven from indigenous ilala palm fibers and colored using natural vegetable or earth dyes from the KwaZulu-Natal region. Historically crafted as traditional beer vessels with fitted lids to keep contents clean, they are now widely prized as decorative folk art and organic modern home decor. The basket to me is shaped like a big chocolate kiss! This basket is just gorgeous nothing chipped bent broken and sits up straight. Found at an Exclusive Estate Sale in Mesa, Arizona.
Fun fact:
Zulu basket weaving was traditionally was a male craft. Fathers taught sons how to weave the large baskets to use for carrying beer and grain. Colonial pressures however forced men into distant mines and farms, leading Zulu women to take over and sustain the palm weaving heritage. Traditional ukhamba beer baskets were woven so tightly from processed Ilala palm fronds that they could actually hold liquids without leaking.
