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Sophia’s Mantle Blue Cloth
| ~~Lesotho Africa Panel - |
Sometimes it takes an entire community to weave a panel. Many people were instrumental in weaving the Lesotho panel. Americans Clark and Peggy Tibbits agreed to be Thread Ambassadors by carrying both warp and weft thread with them to Lesotho, Africa. Having served in Lesotho, in the Peace Corps during the 1960’s, the Tibbits recently were asked, by the Clinton Foundation, to return to make recommendations for extending HIV/AIDS drug therapy into the country's remote mountain regions.
While in Lesotho, the Tibbits passed on the threads for Sophia’s Mantle to Peace Corps Volunteer Shin-Shin Ho who works with the Lesotho Women Mohair Exporter's Association (LWMEA). LWMEA is made up of six weaving groups* that formed in the year 2000 in the small southern African country of Lesotho. During that time most of the diamond and gold mines in South Africa closed. These mines were the largest employers of the male population in Lesotho. As a result women began to form businesses selling their traditional handicrafts as a means to support their families.
Mohair from the goats of Lesotho is abundant and women took advantage of that fact to form mohair-weaving businesses. The weaving businesses realized that if they united and worked together their potential for success would increase, and thus LWMEA was formed. Their mission is to help fight poverty through the economic empowerment of women.
Shin-Shin said that the weavers of LWMEA were most enthusiastic to participate in The Thread Project. She wrote, “It's giving the weavers a chance to think and work outside the box of their typical straight-forward, predetermined structured patterns. They have seen that experimentation can also be beautiful.” Three bands of natural, unspun mohair were woven into the panel as a Lesotho signature.
After finishing the panel, weavers and others gathered for a celebration. Later, in Maseru, the capitol of Lesotho, everyone gathered again for the Moshoeshoe (Founder of Nation) Day and the 45th anniversary of the Peace Corps, with the US Ambassador and Lesotho Director of Trade in attendance; there, the weavers and Shin-Shin Ho presented the finished panel to the Tibbits to bring back to the US. This panel, like so many others, has been woven with much goodwill and carries, within its warp and weft, the story of woven threads, and the web of people who made it happen.
*Lesotho Women Mohair Exporters Association (LWMEA)
PO Box 0167
Maseru West 105
LesothoElelloang Basali Weavers
PO Box 449
Teyateyaneng 200
Lesotho
Studio: (+266) 22.501.520
Email: elelloang@ilesotho.com | Helang Basali Craft
PO Box 30
Teyateyaneng 200
Lesotho
Mobile: (+266) 58.902.261 | Hatooa Mose Mosali
PO Box 603
Teyateyaneng 200
Lesotho
Studio: (+266) 22.500.772 | Leribe Craft Center
PO Box 43
Leribe 300
Lesotho
Studio: (+266) 22.400.323
Fax: (+266) 22.400.028
Email: leribecraft@leo.co.ls | Maseru Tapestries & Mats
PO Box 964
Maseru 100
Lesotho
Studio: (+266) 22.311.773
Mobile: (+266) 58.720.670
mahase@leo.co.ls (this is a shared
email account so specify who it’s for) | Seithati Weavers
PO Box 0167
Maseru West 105
Lesotho
Studio: (+266) 22.313.975 |
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