A mat is some thing very interesting to use especially in Africa.
It’s used for sitting on visitors and children at home. Therefore a mat is one of the very important items an African in particular a “muganda” one of the tribes in Uganda, should have in his /her home.
I would like to take you through the ways in which it’s made
First of all we harvest palm leaves from the palm trees
These trees are found mostly near lakes and swamps and they are mainly characterized by their many long leaves
After harvesting the leaves we then dry them indirectly under a shade to avoid them from drying quickly and breaking.
This process takes a bout two weeks to reach the required amount of moisture in the leaves
Drying is followed by colouring process which takes a period of 2-5 days for the dyes to colour the leaves permanently.
A big bowl is got and water is added into it.
Then colouring dyes are added to it depending on the concentration required to produce a certain intensity of colour on the palm leaves
The dried leaves are soaked into the bowl and then the mixture is boiled for one hour and left to cool
After cooling, the leaves are removed from the bowl and hanged on a wire to dry completely.
After the colouring process, the weaving of the mat starts.
Its done by twisting of different leaves in a skillful way around each other carefully until a mat is produced
Them we start weaving
