Tonga baskets have arrived!

We’ve blogged about our Tonga baskets before; they are similar in pattern to Binga baskets from Zimbabwe, but much deeper and more robust.

Since we’ve struggled to source Binga baskets for the past year, we’ve moved more towards the Tonga baskets, though they too are prety hard to come by.

So it’s great to get a fresh batch in, though they are unlikely to be around for long! Full details can be found in our online store.

Here’s what the largest one looks like:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fair Trade Tonga Baskets from Zambia now in the Global Fayre online store

We just added 4 Tonga baskets to our online store.

These baskets have similar tones to the Binga baskets.

This is what the 4 look like:

Small Tonga Basket

Medium Tonga Basket

Large Tonga Basket

Extra Large Tonga Basket

Fair Trade Tonga Baskets from Zambia

We’ve always been partial to Binga Baskets from Zimbabwe, but they are a litle hard to source at the moment, so we’ve just taken delivery of some Tonga Baskets from Zambia as an alternative. They are similar in tone to the Binga Baskets, but much deeper (around 4 or 5 inches) and sturdier, and they have a cool square weave for the base. This image give you an idea, but we’ll post some more later on when we put them in our online store.

Tonga Baskets from Zambia

These baskets literally just arrived, so we’re a little lacking in informational material just now.

Here’s what Wikipedia had to say about them:

It takes approximately 2 weeks to complete a basket that’s about 35 cm in diameter. The baskets are made from the ilala palm (mapokwe in Tonga), which, although growing freely, is also planted by Tonga women for the purpose of basket making.Traditionally the baskets were (and still are) used for carrying maize or sorghum from the fields and then winnowing the grain. Traditional designs includes stripes, a spider web type pattern and a lightning pattern.

We’re getting an ever increasing range of baskets now, mostly from Africa. If you have a basket you are trying to find, or want to know more about, we’d love to hear from you, either on here, or via our main website, www.globalfayre.com