CHOKWE BASKETS: Cultural Continuity in Exile

American Visions, Dec, 1998 by Sonia Silva

When the basketmaker wakes up, she starts looking for her basket. She strikes the ground with a pole of mukenge and curses the one who stole her basket. This is how the divination basket is received from the basketmaker. She has to curse the diviner for the basket to work.

September 12, 1996

Today, I met an Mbunda woman named Pezo, who is the only basketmaker in Chavuma who still makes divination baskets. We found her lying on a mat next to her mud-brick house, chewing a twig, and showing no intention of welcoming us. Sachiteta Ndonji, her Luvale husband, offered us stools, and guided us to the shade of a tree in the village yard. Kevin, my research assistant, introduced me briefly and explained my interest in divination baskets. Ndonji confirmed that his wife is the only maker of divination baskets in the area, and explained that these baskets are generally woven by Mbunda and Luchazi women, who are related culturally to the Luvale, Chokwe and Lunda. He proceeded to list all of the names of diviners whose baskets were made by Pezo, as if to validate her authority. Her last basket was ordered in 1995 by a man who had returned to Angola without raising the money for the final payment. Ndonji called to Pezo to bring this basket from the house. She forced her aged and thin body out of the shade and returned holding a dirty basket in one hand. She greeted us with a broad smile that showed the twig between her teeth. Now she seemed less impolite than nonchalant, and a little shy.

Soon after this visit to Pezo, a diviner named Sakutemba called my attention to his divining basket. He complained that it was so worn and shapeless that the pieces kept falling out during the shaking up. Guessing his thoughts, I proposed that we order a new one from Pezo, and assured him that I would myself cover the payments and expenses associated with its transformation into a divination basket.

September 27, 1996

Sakutemba arrived at Ndonji's in the late morning. He introduced himself to Pezo and Ndonji as a diviner whose divination basket needed replacement. Pezo nodded and walked away. Ndonji, who was busy making an ax handle, responded that he had never heard of Sakutemba, but he was glad to know that the Kalwiji area in Chavuma had its own diviner. He was also pleased to hear that Sakutemba needed a new divination basket. He himself would go digging out mukenge root the next day, and he would ensure that his wife worked hard on the basket.

Sakutemba expressed his gratitude and reminded Ndonji that the ceremony transferring the divination pieces from the old basket to the new basket, a ceremony known as chilika chakuzukula ngombo, should take place before the rainy season began. He would therefore return the following week to check on Pezo's progress and discuss such details as final payment and how to collect the basket from her verandah. He gave 500 kwachas to Ndonji, who put it in his shirt pocket. Finally, as Sakutemba shook Ndonji's hand in farewell, Sakutemba commented that a good basketmaker such as Pezo knows exactly when to finish the base and start weaving the sides; he was certain that his own divination basket would be the right size, not large like a winnowing basket.