You have to know how Senegalese baskets are made – it’s an amazing craft. The baskets are all made by hand, using cattail stalks (a local grass) threaded with thin strips of plastic to bind them together. It’s a technique that has been passed down by generations of Wolof women onto the next. Traditionally the women used palm fronds but about 20 years ago moved to strips of plastic purchased from a mat factory in Dakar. The women today are no doubt thankful for the change in materials as apparently the palm fronds were notoriously hard to work with and very hard on the hands.

Basket weaving is typically a woman’s craft and the goods sold in local rural market places. Generally this helps supplement the family income, and the women are proud to work together building baskets, preserving a traditional craft.