B is for Baskets...and Butterflies...

is for

Listen to Aziza Brahim, a Saharawi singer and actor, it’s Julud from her 2014 album Soutak.  And then, it’s the Burundi Drummers. Enjoy!

Butterfly mosaics - In 70’s Nigeria, I don’t think anyone paid much attention to CITES agreements and such, and bugs were probably not thought of as worth saving, even the most beautiful ones. Peddlers came to the house with a mind-boggling array of wares – garments, handicrafts, leather goods, basketry, others with dairy products, meat. Some of them were the tribesfolk/artisans selling what they made themselves directly to urban customers, but many were middlemen, collecting a wide range of dissimilar goods and hawking them from house to house. As expats, we were the prime target markets for ‘souvenirs.’ I saw the most wondrous workmanship in snakeskin, ivory, ebony wood, alloy metals, leather… When I think of it now, much of it was ridiculously, almost insultingly, priced, the artisans couldn’t have made a sustainable income.

Butterfly mosaics were one such artform – fascinating, but also a little horrifying to contemplate. A bit like those insect collections pinned out under glass, only with a somewhat disturbing artistry, give me the heebie-jeebies. I remember my mum bought a lot of stuff – mostly leather pouffes and wood carvings, but she obviously felt similar misgivings about the butterfly mosaics and never bought any.

Nigeria has more than 1800 species of butterflies recorded, found in concentrations near the Nigeria-Cameroonian border. But butterfly mosaics are commonly made through sub-Saharan Africa, not just in Nigeria or the Cameroons. The Central African Republic is a major source of these artworks, used by some as therapy against years of strife. The mosaics often depict simple rural motifs and scenes – birds, trees, women going to market with babies strapped onto their backs. They use the colours of the wings with amazing effect. Read more here.

Credit

But controversies remain. There are passionate conservationists and animal rights groups campaigning against the hunting and depletion of these beautiful creatures for supplying art markets. And on the other side of this debate are the proponents who claim the art uses only wings from naturally dead butterflies. The adult insect is short lived after all, and flits around on those wings only for a few weeks/months.  Caught up in the middle are the artists and the artisans trying to keep an age-old traditional artform and themselves going. As with many things Africa, the answers are never easy nor clear cut.

Baskets from Kenya

Baskets - Basket weaving is a traditional craft in large swathes of Africa, undertaken mostly by women to supplement incomes from subsistence farming. Many types of grasses, papyri, palm leaves, banana leaves and root fibres are used as raw material. The items produced are not ‘art’ but everyday products used around homes and markets for storage and carrying. They can be plain, or intricately colourful, with geometric/abstract/floral patterns. 

Egyptian baskets

The techniques used are complex, similar to textile weaving, and include chequered, cross weaving and coil weaving. Tight weaves are used to make watertight containers used for collection and transport of fluids such as milk. Loose weaves are ideal for filters and sieves. Baskets are a popular and eco-friendly alternative to the ubiquitous plastic packaging materials, used in Africa from ancient times till now. 

They also make stunning wall art when hung up.

From the Safaris 

~ Thanks for watching!  ~

Books n stuff

Kwesi Brew (1928-2007) was a Ghanian poet, brought up by a British guardian after his parents died. He was among the first graduates of the University College of Gold Coast. He won a poetry competition while he was an undergraduate and went onto publish several volumes of poetry. His early poems were collected in ‘Shadows of Laughter’ in 1968. He entered the administrative service in Ghana and was a diplomat serving his country in UK, France Germany, USSR and India, before representing Ghana as an ambassador in Mexico, Lebanon and Senegal. Brew was one among the traditions of writer-diplomats the era of decolonialisation and independence produced in West Africa.

A handful of his poems were part of my school syllabus in Literature in the 70’s – this is one of them:

The Mesh

We have come to the crossroads

And I must either leave or come with you.

I lingered over the choice

But in the darkness of my doubts

You lifted the lamp of love

And I saw in your face

The road that I should take.

No inkling if the MC stayed or left, I totally loved that he didn’t make his choice apparent. Hooked early on, as you can see, by ambiguity and loose ends.

Adrian Igonibo Barrett, a.k.a. Igoni Barrett (1979 - ) - This guy wasn’t part of my school syllabus, not because he isn’t brilliant, but because he was just a toddler when I was at school.

Barrett is a young Nigerian author, born in Port Harcourt and an alumnus of Ibadan University. He shot to fame with a short story collection called From Caves of Rotten Teeth in 2005. One of the stories from the collection won the BBC Short Story Prize. His second collection Love is Power, or Something Like That was published in 2013 followed by his debut novel Blackass in 2016. He has been listed among the 100 most influential Nigerians. Read more about his life and writing here. And one of his short stories here. 





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Posted for the A-Z Challenge 2018