Main photo from Bwindi Handmade Crafts.
At Karakorum, we care about making the world a better place for everyone, so we only stock ethically sourced homewares and gifts in our online shop.
These items are handcrafted by artisans in Africa, Asia and South America, and we do everything we can to improve working conditions and make sure the people we work with are paid a fair wage.
The Batwa craftswomen in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda are an important part of Karakorum, and with the help of Bwindi Handmade Crafts (an enterprise committed to promoting and empowering the people they work with) we can stock their traditional crafts and support their livelihood.
And by sharing the stories of our artisans like these, we aim to promote sustainability and fair trade practices and invite you to be a part of this journey too, by making more conscious and impactful decisions when buying items to decorate your home.
We’d love to share with you more about Bwindi Handmade Crafts and the Batwa women, and why it’s important for us to work together.
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is a protected area located in southwest Uganda, one of the poorest nations in the world. Bwindi means impenetrable or place of darkness.
It’s home to exotic plants and endangered species, including the mountain gorilla, and for thousands of years, indigenous people called the Batwa lived here – they were also known as keepers of the forest.
In the 1990s, Bwindi became a National Park and is now part of the World Heritage List.
Whilst this is great for the conservation of the exceptional biodiversity found in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, unfortunately, it also means that the Batwa people – who had lived sustainably from the forest’s resources for many generations – were forced to leave.
Many people from this community now live in poverty at the border of the national park, facing homelessness and discrimination. Denied an education, they have to do menial work for minimal income. Some families even had to make the heartbreaking decision to give up their children to orphanages, as they were not able to feed them.
Despite making enormous progress in recent years, poverty remains deep-rooted in Uganda’s rural areas, which are home to 84% of Ugandans.
Bwindi Handmade Crafts is an enterprise committed to promoting and empowering the people they work with, in order to give them a secure and sustainable source of additional income.
The founders spent 2 years working for a small non-profit organisation in Uganda. While working on sustainability projects, they made a deep connection with the country, the life and the people that lived there.
They continue to develop and promote these connections by opening up opportunities for their partners to sell their crafts.
So you can see why Bwindi Handmade Crafts is such an important initiative, and why we are so passionate about working with them.
Our artisans in the Bwindi communities
The artisans we work with are part of the communities surrounding Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, and have been weaving baskets for generations as part of their cultural heritage.
They use these baskets for many things, including of course storage but also for preparing meals. They use the lidded baskets to proof a millet flour bread, before baking it over an open fire.
Bwindi Handmade Crafts work closely with two groups of around 20 ladies in each group, who meet once a week to weave and catch up on local news. They create beautiful grass-woven items, including our popular woven trays, storage baskets, coasters and placemats.
Bwindi Handmade Crafts’ inspiration comes from the strength and determination of the women that they work with.
One of these craftswomen is Topista, a lovely 74-year-old grandmother. The average Ugandan woman spends 9 hours a day on household tasks, so it typically takes her about 4 days to weave a basket between other household tasks, such as cooking and looking after her grandchildren.
The extra income she earns from weaving and selling her traditional baskets has helped cover medical bills for her and her family, and she has even employed extra help so that she can focus more of her time on weaving.
Each purchase really does have an economic and social impact on the people of Bwindi, by creating jobs, generating income, empowering women, and preserving cultural heritage, making life easier for the local families.
Traditional Batwa basketry
The baskets are hand-woven by women using two different types of dried grass – a thicker, stronger grass for the structure and thinner, more pliable grass for weaving it together and creating the beautiful patterns that you see.
These intricate patterns are shaded in earthy tones, inspired by the landscapes and plants of their Bwindi homeland.
The Batwa women have a vast traditional knowledge of local herbs, leaves, roots and berries, and only these natural ingredients go into the dyes that colour their beautiful products.
The smaller lidded baskets are known as wishing baskets to the Batwa women. They believe your wishes will come true if you make a wish upon an object and place it inside the basket.
All of this incredible knowledge and special skills have been passed down from mother to daughter for generations, and we want to do everything we can to preserve this tradition.
We hope you’ve enjoyed learning about the talented Batwa craftswomen of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, and can see the importance of supporting the enterprises who ensure that people get a fair wage.
If you’d like to learn more about the artisans and enterprises we partner with, you can find loads of insightful articles on our blog, such as Dreaming of Kenya: the home of our artisans and handcrafted goods, Artisan Spotlight: Women of the Cloud Forest and San Juan de Oriente’s ceramics, and Meet Kasinde Crafts.
