Notes

Rondorobi Solomon is a Yei woman who was born in 1940 in the area north of what is now Etsha 13. Solomon knows how to make open and closed baskets, trays and manki-style baskets, all with palm fibre. She said, ‘The palm is very far away, and my sister’s son used to go by mokoro (dug-out canoe) to collect the palm for me but he is not around anymore. I used to make lots of baskets, but now I am ill and can’t do that anymore. My friends used to say I was the most successful basketmaker in Etsha 13.’

This basket is a rare find; as far as we know this is one of only two baskets still existing by Solomon. The basket design is the 'Knees of the Tortoise'. The coiling technique used is furcate or split stitching; the forked effect is created from deliberately splitting stitches in the previous row. The red-brown colour is obtained when the palm fibre is boiled together with the tree bark of the Berchemia discolor.

- Dr Elizabeth Terry

Provenance

Dr Elizabeth Terry Collection.