Kakinda 1

This particular set of baskets holds special significance for Jim Joel as a researcher. He handpicked these
two from a craft market in Kampala as a memorial of his continuous engagement with Sixte Kakinda about
the banana plant and its origins. Each visit to Sixtes’ studio during the festival expanded Jim Joel’s
knowledge and deepened his understanding of the banana plant as a common element among the
western tribes of Uganda, particularly the Tooro, to which Jim Joel is affiliated, and the Nande tribe from
Eastern Congo, to which Sixte Kakinda belongs. The baskets are made of banana leaf stalks, raffia, and
banana fibers from the banana plant, indigenous to the Buganda kingdom.