The shop opens 1 March 2027
Every basket begins with an open centre.
The first coil a weaver makes leaves a small opening. Everything else grows outward from it. This is the story of what we are building in Ngamiland and the Okavango Delta, ring by ring.
Chapter 1 · The open centre
Admired everywhere. Named nowhere.
Botswana basketry hangs in galleries and lodges around the world. But it is sold without a name of its own, and little of what it earns finds its way home.
That gap is our open centre. Everything we are building starts there: give the craft a recognised identity, and put more of its value back in the hands that make it.
Chapter 2 · Inner ring: the community
Coil by coil, from mokola palm.
The baskets are woven by Bayei and Hambukushu women in Ngamiland, from palm harvested in the wetlands, coloured with natural dyes, in patterns handed down for generations. Most weave together in village cooperatives.
The collective is built around them first. Weavers and cooperatives come before the shop.
Chapter 3 · Middle ring: the weaver’s hand
Every basket has a maker. Now every maker has a name.
Each basket will carry a Mark of Origin: a certificate recording where it was woven, by whom, and under what conditions. Type in its number and check it yourself.
- Place
- The village, cooperative and region it comes from.
- Person
- The name of the woman who wove it. Nothing is anonymous.
- Practice
- Hand-coiled, naturally dyed, inspected before it is certified.
- Woven by
- Mma Kefilwe Mosate
- Cooperative
- Etsha 6 Weavers Group
- Region
- Okavango Delta
- Basket ID
- BBC-24-0391
Online verification opens with the shop, 1 March 2027
Fair and direct
The value comes home.
55%
of a basket’s final value is designed to go to artisan production.
5%
of every sale returns to community and biodiversity funds, for the palm and the wetlands it grows in.
The split will be recorded on every order, and the totals made public.
These are the targets the collective is being designed around, not results. The final split may change before the shop opens, and we will publish it when it does.
Chapter 5 · The complete mark
The last ring is you.
A basket is finished when it reaches someone who values it. On 1 March 2027 the shop opens, and every ring of the collective comes together: weaver, cooperative, buyer and collector.
The shop opens
1 March 2027
000 days to go
This is our planned date. Dates can move; if ours does, we will say so here first.
Email me when it opensWant to be part of it before then?
- Weavers and cooperativesJoin the collective before the shop opens, or ask how listing and payouts will work.Write to us
- Lodges, galleries and interiorsAsk about trade accounts, wholesale pricing and quotes for the opening.Write to us
- Partners, funders and pressTalk to us about the collective, its funds or the story so far.Write to us
Or write to info@botswanabasket.org. We use what you send only to reply; see the privacy notice.