This large embroidery shows women engaged in traditional Rwandan domestic activities. In the background are traditional Rwandan huts made of dried mud and grass. The woman sitting in front of the huts prepares buttermilk, known as amachundal, using the traditional gourds, inkongoro, as storage vessels.
Moving clockwise around the piece, a woman in yellow sits and weaves a basket. Next, a kneeling woman in an orange skirt weaves a mat while behind her a woman carries fire wood.
Continuing clockwise, a woman carries water in a vessel on her head. In the center left, a hen pecks the grain with her chicks next to a woman pounding dried meal into flour. Seated on a mat to their right is a woman grinding dried sorghum into flour using the traditional grinding stones.
In the foreground at the right, two women prepare to store a mixture of dried beans in a woven grass silo. The woman on the far left prepares food using traditional kitchen utensils, including the three-stone hearth, known as the amashyiga, with pot and the traditional stool, the intebe.
This embroidery is a commissioned piece on loan from the Museum of African Art of the SMA Fathers in Tenafly, NJ.