On our way out of the wonderful South Luangwa National Park, we passed Tribal Textiles, where they print cotton by hand and turn it into a variety of items which they sell locally and send all over Zambia. We were amazed at the skill and dexterity of some of the painters, who were drawing and colouring free-hand, but even those with a transfer under the cloth were able to draw perfect semi-circles and straight lines!!

 The colour of the paint is mixed entirely by eye, from red, yellow and blue, with small patches of colour on a scrap of paper to be matched. The paint is made of flour and water…(memories of childhood !!)and then the painted cloth is baked in an oven for a short while.

A new line for them is a collection of bags made out of old maize-meal sacks, …very nice they were too. There were also some very nice cards on sale, and on closer inspection we discovered they were taken by a man called Edward Selfe !!! he is the fiancé of the woman who runs Tribal Textiles…I was able to tell her that it is great being a Self !!!!
We are off to Malawi in the next day or two to start another adventure…snorkelling in Lake Malawi, and some walking in the mountains and who knows what else!!?