COILED LINES:
Rwandan Basketry, Memory, and the Agaseke

A close study of two Rwandan baskets in the Textile Resource Center, moving from family memory to technique, motif, and cultural history.

By Adilah Muhammad

From Sweetgrass to Rwanda: A Personal Beginning

My interest in Tutsi and Rwandan basketry stems from an earlier interest in basket making, especially after I came across the work of sweetgrass basket artist Corey Alston. Through discovering his art, I began to study sweetgrass baskets in relation to the Gullah Geechee community in Charleston, South Carolina. In my own journey to learn more about cultural practices within the African Diaspora, I spent a week in April 2022 visiting Charleston and meeting members of the Gullah Geechee community. I wanted to understand how African traditions that predate slavery were preserved, transformed, and carried forward here in the United States.

When I entered the micro/MACRO Textiles class and my eyes landed on two baskets in the Textile Resource Center, I did not yet know that they were from Rwanda. Before I knew their origin, their visual appearance felt familiar. That sense of familiarity fed my curiosity and became the beginning of this research.

Corey Alston with sweetgrass baskets. Image credit: TheGullahCulture.com.

Family Memory and the Basket at Home

My first relationship with baskets comes from my mother, who loved having picnic baskets for our family outings. She collected them, along with other kinds of baskets that she displayed throughout our home. She was always planning ways for our family to have beautiful outings in the park. Over time, those baskets came to symbolize our moments together as a family, but in some ways they also became an entry point into heritage.

For my mother, baskets were not only decorative objects when they were not being used. They were also a form of communication and connection to our identity as African Americans. She took pride in displaying them throughout the house beside African art. As I began exploring my own relationship with basketry, I decided to do the same through two baskets found in the Textile Resource Center.

Object Study

The objects of my study are two baskets donated by Fiber and Material Studies Professor Jerry Bleem. According to their Textile Resource Center labels, one is titled Rwandan Coiled Basket (25.21) and the other is titled Rwandan Millet Basket (25.08). The accompanying descriptions identify the materials as sisal and other grasses. Because the second object is a lidded basket form associated with the agaseke, I refer to it in this post as an agaseke-type basket or Agaseke Peace Basket, while still keeping the object’s listed TRC title in mind.

The Rwandan Coiled Basket is primarily tan in color and features purple fibers arranged into a floral pattern. Some dye has bled onto portions of the surface, though the object overall remains in excellent condition.

Rwandan Coiled Basket (25.21). Photo by Adilah Muhammad, Textile Resource Center.

The Rwandan Millet Basket (25.08), discussed here as an agaseke-type basket, is a two-part lidded basket. Its base has a rounded structure, while the lid gradually narrows into a pointed top. The basket is primarily tan and decorated with a brown motif that wraps around its surface. The object remains in good condition with only minimal fraying.

Rwandan Millet Basket (25.08), described here as an agaseke-type lidded basket. Photo by Adilah Muhammad, Textile Resource Center.

Following the Line: Technique and Motif

The more closely I looked, the more these baskets asked me to follow the line of the thread. Their surfaces are not only patterned; they are built through repeated movements. Both baskets were created using a coiling technique known as uruhindu. This method begins with a central knot, around which fibers are arranged in a spiral formation and secured with strips of grass or fiber threaded successively through openings along the edge of the coil. The technique strengthens the structure of the object and creates a tight form suitable for storing contents such as grain.

Diagram 1. Uruhindu coiling, showing how a sewing or wrapping fiber secures each new coil to the previous row. Diagram by micro/MACRO Textiles editorial team, after close observation of the basketry techniques discussed in the entry.

Diagram 2. Wrapped coiling motif, showing how a darker or dyed fiber can encase the structural core to form a visible design. Diagram by micro/MACRO Textiles editorial team, after close observation of the basketry techniques discussed in the entry.

The Agaseke Peace Basket is constructed through the same larger logic of coiling, but its surface design behaves differently. Its motif appears to be embroidered through floating stitches inserted into the weft of the basket. This decorative patterning is visible on the exterior surface of the object, while the interior remains more structurally focused.

Close view of the agaseke-type basket, showing the relationship between structural coils and surface stitching. Photo by Adilah Muhammad, Textile Resource Center.

Diagram 3. Floating surface stitch, showing how a decorative thread can travel across the exterior surface before re-entering the structure. Diagram by micro/MACRO Textiles editorial team, after close observation of the basketry techniques discussed in the entry.

Materials, Color, and Basket Making

The basket-making process begins with gathering fibers such as raffia, bamboo, banana fiber, papyrus, sisal, and various grasses. These materials are processed into finer fibers suitable for weaving. Afterwards, the fibers may be treated with color, often using natural pigments derived from charcoal, bark, flowers, and mud. In the section “La Vannerie des Femmes” from The Ethnic Home, the author notes that banana sap, soot, charcoal, and mud were traditionally used to create black, brown, and grey designs in basketry. Ocher, redwood bark, and flowers were commonly used for red pigments. Synthetic dyes are also used in contemporary basket production, but natural dyes remain important within the history of the practice.

Basket maker at work. Image credit: Contemporary African Art.

For readers who want to see this process in motion, the Macy’s Rwanda Path to Peace basket-making videos are useful demonstrations of how coiled baskets are begun and built row by row.

Origin and Cultural Context

One of the questions that emerged during this research concerned the cultural identity of the people behind these baskets, as well as the proper naming and contextualization of the objects themselves. Because the Textile Resource Center serves as an important source of knowledge for students and visitors, I believe it is worthwhile to contribute this missing contextual information for future researchers.

Although these baskets were acquired by Fiber and Material Studies Professor Jerry Bleem during visits to Uganda, the Textile Resource Center identifies them as Rwandan baskets. Through my research, I learned that many traditions associated with baskets such as the agaseke are closely connected to Rwandan cultural history and, more specifically, to Tutsi royal and courtly contexts.

Rwanda lies in the Great Lakes region of Central and East Africa, bordering Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, and Burundi. The country is known for its mountainous terrain, volcanoes, hills, and lakes despite being landlocked. Its capital city is Kigali.

Map of Rwanda. Map credit: WorldAtlas.

According to The Ethnic Home, the national seal of Rwanda includes the agaseke basket alongside the words “Unity,” “Work,” and “Patriotism,” reflecting the government’s emphasis on cultural preservation and national identity. What I learned through this research is that while the basket has become a national symbol of peace and reconciliation, its contemporary symbolism differs from some of its earlier social and ceremonial meanings.

Rwanda became an independent nation from Belgium in 1962, after decades of Belgian colonial rule. Prior to Belgian occupation, Rwanda had also been colonized by Germany. Under colonial control, many cultural practices and meanings were disrupted or lost, including knowledge surrounding the symbolic meanings of some basket motifs and designs. In response, cultural preservation efforts in Rwanda have worked to recover and reconstruct aspects of precolonial history through museums, monuments, and restored architectural sites in places such as Nyanza and Huye, formerly known as Butare.

Reconstructed spaces at the King’s Palace Museum in Nyanza show the importance of woven materials in architectural, domestic, and ceremonial settings.

Historically, Tutsi royal and courtly culture was associated with cattle keeping, political authority, and warrior traditions. Basket weaving held important social and ceremonial value within this context and was connected to royalty, abundance, wealth, and status. Basket weaving was also a gendered practice, though not in the limited ways basketry is often understood today. According to The Ethnic Home, men created utilitarian woven forms such as fences, homes, shields, bee traps, granaries, and animal traps, while women of nobility produced more delicate objects including wedding vessels, bowls, wall panels, floor mats, and screens. These distinctions demonstrate how basketry functioned not only as decoration, but also as an essential part of architecture, labor, ceremony, and daily life.

Basket Designs and Motifs

Although many symbolic meanings associated with basket motifs have been lost over time, some have been documented through museum research and collaboration with Rwandan historians. According to Associate Curator Yaëlle Biro, The Metropolitan Museum of Art worked with Belgian missionary Marcel Pauwels to identify and interpret several basket motifs. Pauwels collaborated with Tutsi historian Abbé Alexis Kagame to record the names and meanings of patterns collected by the museum.

Through this research, I identified the TRC agaseke-type basket as visually close to an ishobe motif. When comparing my photographs from the Textile Resource Center with examples documented by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, both objects display intersecting linear forms combined with repeated zigzag patterns. This comparison demonstrates how museum archives and historical documentation can help recover cultural knowledge that may otherwise be overlooked or lost.

Motif comparison between the TRC lidded basket and an ishobe example documented by The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Ethnic Home also provides a useful visual archive of motif variations found on agaseke baskets. This resource was especially helpful for identifying recurring patterns and understanding how motifs differed according to function, symbolism, and social context.

Types of Baskets, Weaves, and Uses

Although this project primarily focuses on the Agaseke Peace Basket and the Rwandan Coiled Basket, I also wanted to understand the broader range of woven forms that appeared throughout my research. The reconstructed spaces within the King’s Palace Museum visually demonstrate how woven objects were integrated into domestic and ceremonial life. This section explores several basket and mat types connected to Rwandan weaving traditions.

At a Glance: Basket and Mat Forms

Agaseke: stored grains; wedding gift; offering vessel; associated with status, care, prosperity, hospitality, and, today, peace and reconciliation.
Inkagara: stored ceremonial or sacred objects; associated with family wealth, status, and women’s weaving skill.
Insika: food storage and, in screen or panel form, architectural division; associated with family stability and domestic foundation.
Huye: wedding basket connected to ceremonial exchange and domestic identity.
Inkoko: food presentation, gifts, ceremonial offerings, winnowing, and sorting grains; associated with hospitality and generosity.
Umusabi mat: sleeping mat, carpet, covering, or large tray used in domestic space.
Inyegamo mat: mat associated with entry, movement, and the husband’s side of the home, marking domestic boundaries and social roles.

Selected basket, screen, and mat forms discussed in the entry. Image credits: The Ethnic Home and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Conclusion: Basketry as Memory and Cultural Language

Through this research, I began to understand basketry not simply as decorative craft, but as a cultural language connected to memory, gender, labor, ceremony, and identity. What started as a reflection on the baskets my mother kept throughout our home slowly became a deeper investigation into the histories and traditions embedded within Rwandan basket weaving.

The baskets within the Textile Resource Center are more than functional objects or examples of design technique. They carry histories of artistry, preservation, colonial disruption, and everyday life. While some meanings connected to motifs and weaving traditions have been lost over time, research, museum archives, and cultural preservation efforts continue to help recover and document these histories.

Revisiting baskets through this project also changed the way I think about the objects my mother displayed in our home. What once felt simply decorative now feels archival, objects carrying memory, heritage, and connection across generations.

This research also reminded me of reflections by Corey Alston, who has spoken about how parts of the sweetgrass basket tradition have been lost over generations, yet artists continue the practice out of remembrance and the desire to carry the tradition forward anyway. I think these Rwandan baskets hold a similar presence. Even when meanings, motifs, or histories become fragmented through colonialism, migration, or time, the act of weaving itself continues to preserve cultural memory. In this way, basketry becomes more than a functional or decorative practice. It becomes a way of remembering, surviving, and maintaining connection across generations.

Bibliography

Biro, Yaëlle. “Tutsi Basketry.” Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, March 2011. https://www.metmuseum.org/essays/tutsi-basketry.

Cabana Magazine. “The Tall Nyanza Baskets of Rwanda.” Accessed May 9, 2026. https://cabanamagazine.com/blogs/atlas-of-craftsmanship/weaving-the-tall-nyanza-baskets-of-rwanda.

Contemporary African Art. “African Baskets.” Accessed May 9, 2026. https://www.contemporary-african-art.com/african-baskets.html.

Google Arts & Culture. “Agaseke: The Baskets That Brought Peace.” Rwanda Cultural Heritage Academy. Accessed May 26, 2026. https://artsandculture.google.com/story/agaseke-the-baskets-that-brought-peace-rwanda-cultural-heritage-academy/HQWhYjNwebFZHQ?hl=en.

Macy’s. “How to Start a Weaving a Basket: Macy’s Rwanda Path to Peace.” YouTube video, October 6, 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo0IYeyzDwQ.

My Cherry Pie. “Weaving Baskets: The Steps That Go into Making Baskets for Macy’s Rwanda Path to Peace.” YouTube video, October 6, 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUvMN6R8328.

Newman, Thelma R. Contemporary African Arts and Crafts: On-Site Working with Art Forms and Processes. New York: Crown Publishers, 1974.

Nyungwe Forest National Park. “2022 Tours to the King’s Palace in Nyanza.” Accessed May 25, 2026. https://www.nyungweforestnationalpark.org/2022-tours-to-the-kings-palace-in-nyanza/.

South Carolina State Museum. “Museum Commissions Work by Renowned Gullah Artist Corey Alston.” October 29, 2025. https://scmuseum.org/news/museum-commissions-work-renowned-gullah-artist-corey-alston.

The Ethnic Home. “Rwandan Basketry.” Accessed May 9, 2026. https://www.theethnichome.com/rwandan-basketry/.

The Ethnic Home. “Rwandan Basketry 2.” Accessed May 26, 2026. https://www.theethnichome.com/rwandan-basketry-2/.

The Gullah Culture. “The Gullah Culture.” Accessed May 25, 2026. https://thegullahculture.com/.

William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum. “Rwanda Topic Guide.” Accessed May 25, 2026. https://www.clintonlibrary.gov/research/rwanda-topic-guide.

WorldAtlas. “Rwanda Maps & Facts.” Last modified December 14, 2023. https://www.worldatlas.com/maps/rwanda.

Adilah Muhammad

micro/MACRO, Spring 2026 | MFA Fashion, Body, and Garment, 2028

Adilah is a fiber artist and fashion designer born and raised in Chicago. Her practice investigates heritage, memory, and obscured narratives through material repetition. Drawing on a decade of professional experience and seven years in fashion education, she utilizes layered textiles and intricate details to explore the tension between what is revealed and what remains hidden or remembered.

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