Senegal’s Baskets Are Hot Abroad — Women Weavers Ask: Where’s the Money?

Senegal’s Woven Baskets: A Tradition Facing Modern Challenges

Under the shade of a mango tree in her sandy courtyard in northwest Senegal, Khady Sene carefully threads reeds to begin a new basket. She is one of nearly a dozen women in Mborine village who spend many afternoons weaving in a style passed down from mother to daughter for generations. The resulting baskets — made from coiled reeds bound with colourful plastic strips — have become fashionable far beyond Senegal, appearing in boutiques and online stores in the United States, Europe and beyond.

A Living Craft, Split Margins

Although these baskets command high prices overseas, much of the profit rarely reaches the artisans. A large laundry-style basket might sell locally for around 13,000 CFA francs (about $23) after passing through intermediaries, while similar baskets exported to foreign markets can fetch well over $150. Meanwhile, many so-called Senegalese-style baskets stocked in Western box stores are manufactured in Vietnam, undercutting authentic producers at scale.

"I've been doing this work since I was born," Sene said from her courtyard, as farm animals bleated beyond her compound's cinderblock walls. "Those who come to the market buy them at ridiculously low prices that don't even allow us to cover our costs."

Local Sales, Global Knockoffs

The craft is concentrated in a cluster of Wolof villages in the country's northwest. Women produce everything from shallow winnowing trays (layu) to large laundry-style hampers, selling them at roadside stalls and markets around Dakar. Middlemen, low domestic prices and competition from mass-produced imitations limit earnings for the weavers, even as global demand rises.

Entrepreneurial Solutions: Imadi

In 2017, Gambian-Senegalese architect Fatima Jobe discovered wholesalers in Vietnam exporting 'Senegalese-style' baskets and was motivated to act. She founded Imadi, a Dakar-based shop and cooperative that now works with more than 260 women across 15 villages. Jobe designs many pieces herself, enforces a ban on child labour, delivers raw materials to villages, collects finished goods, and channels profits back into village schools. She currently takes no salary, aiming eventually to make Imadi her main livelihood.

Imadi has placed products in international retailers — one basket model was sold by US retailer Anthropologie and even appeared on the TV series Selling Sunset — but Jobe notes that Senegal still lacks the industrial infrastructure and institutional support to compete with large exporters in Vietnam.

Daily Realities: Vendors, Weavers And Migration

At a stall on a dusty road outside Ndiakhate Ndiassane, vendor Fatim Ndoye sells baskets to tourists and says earnings are slim: some weekdays yield only about 3,000 CFA francs (roughly $5) in sales. In Thiembe village, 49-year-old widow Adama Fall coordinates for Imadi and weaves the largest baskets, making about three per week to support her family. Many young people in these areas have left Senegal in recent years seeking better opportunities; some have attempted risky Atlantic crossings in pirogue canoes, with uncertain outcomes.

What Needs To Change

• Stronger market linkages so artisans capture a fairer share of export value.
• Investment in production infrastructure and export logistics to help small producers scale ethically.
• Support for organisations like Imadi that prioritise fair pay, child-labour bans and community reinvestment.

The story of Senegal's baskets connects craft, culture and commerce: the products are beloved abroad, but many of the women who carry that tradition risk poverty unless markets and policies shift to value their labour more equitably.

Reporting: AFP. Translated and edited for clarity.