Kenyan Weavers | Rugs & Runners

Bernard Nyerere Kimuli (or 'Buffulo' as he is famously known as in his village) weaves all our rugs and runners at The Basket Room. We call him ‘The Last Loom Weaver,’ because there are now extraordinarily few weavers in Kenya with the skills that Bernard has mastered. We feel so lucky that we are able to work with him, to support him to continue teaching and developing this rare and precious craft. 

Bernard was taught to weave on a hand loom as part of a UN-funded project. Over twenty years later, he still uses his hand loom to weave rugs and runners for The Basket Room. In this time, he has been able to use the money earned from weaving to educate his four children. Weaving provides a steady income when farming cannot. When severe weather conditions mean crops are destroyed and livestock suffers, Bernard can always go back to his workshop to weave.

Meet Bernard Nyerere Kimuli: one of the last loom weavers in Kenya. Bernard produces every single rug and mat sold by The Basket Room himself, and this four-minute film introduces Bernard and the story of his rare craft in more detail.

Images evoke a day-in-the-life of Bernard: arriving by bicycle at his rural workshop, setting up his machines, preparing sisal fibres, heading outdoors to hoe his fields, and returning to his workshop to train his young apprentices – a complex process that takes months. Being a time-consuming as well as physically and technically very demanding craft, Bernard struggles to recruit and retain new trainees to the hand loom.

Bernard explains in interview pieces interspersed throughout the film that weaving rugs and mats has enabled him to send his four children to school. That this a source of income that fits in conveniently with farming work - his main occupation and brings work to his wider community, since he employs other people to prepare and dye the sisal fibres for him.

Weavers like Bernard are few and far between, and his mats and runners are pieces of an extremely rare and precious craft.