Baskets are hot, money's not

SQUEEZED: WEAVERS' WORK PULLS HUGE AMOUNTS ABROAD BUT THEY GET LITTLE OF IT

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PAID A PITTANCE. Women weave Senegalese baskets in Mborine. While they rarely leave this corner of Senegal, their creations travel in wider circles, becoming trendy in places like the US and France.

(AFP)

Under the shade of a large mango tree in her sandy courtyard in a village in northwest Senegal, Khady Sene rhythmically threads together reeds, the beginning of a new basket.

She and nearly a dozen other women have gathered as they do many afternoons to weave in a style passed down from mother to daughter for generations.

While the women of Mborine village rarely leave this corner of Senegal, their popular creations travel in much wider circles, having become trendy in places like the United States or France.

Flip over the tag on a Senegalese-style basket in a Western box store, however, and it very well might have been made in Vietnam, a large exporter of knockoffs.

Meanwhile, the price for authentic handmade Senegalese baskets can be astronomical abroad, with little of the markup going to the weavers.