Zubo Trusts‘s Donor Ncube sheds some light on what it really is that makes an ilala basket a “quality product”. We are talking about is the kind of knowledge that is passed on for generations from mothers to daughters. Yet each generation may also be adding new experiences, slightly different practices of “the same” and their own very peculiar perspective on the traditional Tonga craft…! 
Zubo Trust as an organisation assists rural weavers groups in Binga District in marketing their products; Zubo distributes and collects orders and ensures for information flow and capacity building across interested weavers groups in the six wards that Zubo is operating in.
Donor herself grew up in Simatelele Ward and learnt weaving ilala crafts from her mother. As she tells us in the archived interview, the earnings from crafts sale allowed her widowed mother to send Donor to secondary school; thus the young girl was eager learning the arts of weaving herself and stand on her own feet. The entire interview with Donor is archived here:
https://archive.org/details/Donor_Ncube_Zubo_ilala-crafts
Donor Ncube is looking after the ilala crafts project at Zubo Trust; and working as admin and financial assistance officer. https://www.zubowomen.org/ 

Music by Crystal DJ Kwe Favel from “Radio Remixes Voices of Binga” 
https://soundcloud.com/wax-warriors-record-label

Zubo Radio

Donor Ncube on the secrets of Tonga basket weaving

ZUBO Trust brings Women together for self-empowerment. Zubo is a Women’s Organization based in Binga working among the rural women of the Zambezi valley in Zimbabwe since 2009. Zubo has become widely recognized for its successful work empowering the rural women in income-generating projects, which utilize the natural resources of the remote area such as Fish, Kapenta, Ilala, Baobab or Moringa. In 2012 Zubo made national headlines by launching the first Women Fishery Project on the Kariba Lake.

Donor Ncube on the secrets of Tonga basket weaving

RADIO ZUBO