Discover Martinique : Basketry from aroman and cachibou

A legacy of the Kalinagos

If when speaking of basketry, in Martinique we are often used to think of bakoua, and therefore of the basketry obtained from the dried leaves of the tree that bears the same name, it should be noted that this basketry is however very recent. It dates from the introduction of the plant named bakoua in Martinique in the early nineteenth century. The Martiniquais have indeed inherited another know-how, much older, that of the Kalinagos people, the first inhabitants of the island who have transmitted the art of rope making as well as that of basketry, one of their many traditions

According to the European chroniclers, we know that in 1658, in his work entitled Histoire naturelle et morale des îles Antilles published in Rotterdam, Charles de Rochefort underlines with the Caribbean words the art of basketry in his Second book, in chapter XVII entitled " Des occupations et des divertissements des Caraïbes ". Rochefort who did not always have the knowledge, or the precision, nor the real name of the local plants notes that the Caribs make "baskets of rushes and grasses of various colors". He improperly calls "rush" (a plant he knows in his native land with which similar objects can be made) but it is the aroman and cachibou of the tropical plants with which these things are made. The author cites the making of small tables "that the natives called "Matoutou". This word of Kalina origin has remained in the Creole language to designate a dish cooked with crabs: matoutou. He also speaks of "sieves called "Hibichets", a word which in Creole is called lébiché and always designates a sieve, as well as Catolis "which are hoods", a word which has not survived

In the following century, in the first volume of the New Voyage to the Isles of America that he published in The Hague in 1724, Father Labat also devoted a chapter to the customs of the Amerindians. Jean-Baptiste Labat, more commonly known as Father Labat was born in Paris in 1663 where he died in 1738. He was ordained a priest in Paris in 1685 and was a missionary of the Dominican brotherhood (the Order of Preachers). He was a botanist, explorer, ethnographer, military man, landowner, engineer and writer. In 1693, he was retained as a volunteer and left as a missionary with the authorization of the leaders of the Dominican order in the West Indies. He landed on the island on January 29, 1694. He joined his fathers in the parish of Macouba in the north of Martinique, a town renowned at the time for the very good quality of both its tobacco and coffee, Macouba, where he worked for two years developing the parish and constructing many buildings. In 1696, he traveled to Guadeloupe and the island of Dominica, just north of Martinique, and was appointed Procurator Syndic of the American islands upon his return to Martinique.

Father Labat entitled a chapter of his work "Des Sauvages appelés Caraïbes, de leurs vêtements, armes, vaisseaux et coutumes". He talks about the same themes as Monsieur de Rochefort. He describes in detail the different objects made in basketry by the "savages". He explains that the "matoutou is a large square box without a lid, a kind of table in which one can put water without fearing that it will run out, so much the sides are worked, tight". He gives the name of the material which according to him is made of "reeds or tails of lataniers, painted of several colors". He does not give any details on the techniques used.

He speaks about the hammock in which "one sleeps with the expenses one needs neither cover, nor pillows", without speaking about the technique of realization of the object

The basketry practiced in our regions is a craft inherited from the Caribbean Indians, the Kalinagos first inhabitants of the island. They made many everyday objects out of basketry, based on plant fibers. They used it mainly to create objects of daily use, baskets, hats, mats and other containers with the cachibou and the aroman two tropical plants. They transmitted their rudiments to the servile population and in particular to the maroons with whom they were more easily in contact and also "shared" the same enemy: the colonist. The tradition was perpetuated by the maroons and then from father to mother to daughter and is still practiced today, especially in Morne des Esses, a neighborhood of Sainte-Marie.

The aroman (Maranta arouma) or arouman (Ischnosiphon arouma

) is a plant that is quite widespread in the West Indies, particularly in Martinique, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Grenada and Saint Vincent. The aroman produces species of arrows which let see rare unpretentious inflorescences which seem to have been deposited on the stem of the plant. It is a plant used in the manufacture of basketry.

The Cachibou (Calathea lutea

), of the Marantaceae family, is a plant that can reach 1.5 to 2 m. Its rather broad leaves seem to have been hoisted on stilts to go to meet the sun. It carries flowers of yellow color engulfed in a sheath all crimson and quite right. It blooms from June to August. The cachibou is found in the Greater and Lesser Antilles region, in Central and South America.

The aroman and the cachibou are both from the same family of Marantaceae. They are two tropical herbaceous plants that can be found in the island, very often along the edges of paths with wet soil or rivers. With the dried straw of their stems, worked together, we make "Caribbean baskets" vernacular name of small suitcases. Nowadays we dress the objects, carafes or bottles, we make hats, earrings, a whole range of small handbags. A whole set of objects more and more different and modern is made of fiber of cachibou and aroman. These plants are used to make the vast majority of the basketry made at Morne des Esses

Preparation of the raw material and realization

Preparation of the aroman. Pick the aroman stems, once the plants have bloomed. Take the arrows. Divide each stem collected in 4 with the help of a bamboo "qua" (a kind of homemade instrument with which we are going to square them). Put them to dry flat in the sun for 15 days, until they take a reddish-brown color. The aroman in drying in the sun, becomes naturally red.

Turn them into wide and thin strips. Leave them to macerate for 3 to 4 days to obtain even darker shades, even black, by soaking the fibers in the mud collected near the rivers. Split the stems in 2 or 4 lengthwise. Once the raw material is prepared, lay out strips of 3 different colors to weave: brown aroman, black aroman and pearly white cachibou. Recalibrate the strips if you wish. The material is ready

Preparation of the cachibou. Take a small penknife, skin the cachibou in 2, 3 or 4 strips. Boil the obtained strips one hour from the boiling. Dry in the sun for 3 days to obtain a pearly white color. To untie then in strips and to refine them as for the aroman.

The braiding. The stems must be of good quality, solid and flexible. As always the craftsman will create patterns by combining and intertwining strands of aroman and cachibou. Basket makers use wooden molds, most often custom made, to create their objects, they also work directly on curved shapes (carafes, bottles, lampshades). Depending on the craftsman, the piece is often unique. However, the motifs have evolved into new, more modern forms and more and more basketry is taking on other, less traditional creations. Caribbean basketry jewelry (bracelets, earrings, bags, etc...), are made. Caribbean basketry is accessible to almost everyone. And so the object takes shape under the expert fingers that give it life

However, apart from the leisure clubs most often attended by seniors, or some associations that would like to preserve this part of the heritage, there is no vocational training as such with a serious focus on learning how to weave and prepare the straw.

Objects made of Caribbean straw have less and less the same use, they are used much more to decorate, to offer, than to serve as utilitarian object as formerly. They are replaced by modern utensils which puts the function in danger. In order not to disappear like many others before it, the Caribbean basketry, which is part of our heritage, must absolutely adapt to the modern world. It is essential to know it, to master its know-how to make it last among the young generations who will have in return to perpetuate it.