The Zulus are renowned for their basketry, artistry and craftsmanship. Many women make beautiful baskets using traditional art forms in order to supplement their incomes. For many this is their only means of support. Women work in their homes, assimilating basket weaving into their normal routines permitting them to raise their children, work in the fields, collect water or do other daily chores. Indigenous raw materials are used in making these hand-woven baskets. It can take up to a month to produce a medium-sized basket with its own unique size, shape and design. Grasses and grasslike plants are readily available natural resources in the Kwazulu-Natal region that the Zulu have incorporated into many domestic artifacts, including floor mats, spoon holders, and various kinds of baskets such as this example from the Museum's collection. The origins of the weaving tradition remain unknown, but European accounts describe the use of grass and related plants by the Zulu as early as the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Baskets historically served as utilitarian containers in everyday Zulu life that were usually decorated with very simple designs or left completely devoid of ornament. Recently, individual weavers who create artifacts for the art market as well as for everyday use have introduced complex designs and color schemes to the tradition of basket weaving.  Traditionally, Zulu baskets were made for the storage of food and beer. The shape and relative large size of this basket indicates it was probably based on isichumo (pl. izichumo) prototypes, which were used as beer containers. The narrow opening and lid minimizes spillage as the tight weave of the basket renders it virtually waterproof.

Izichumo are created using the coil method. This technique utilizes a core composed of hardy grasses, which spirals out from the center of the base. Narrow strips of the leaf blade of the ilala palm serve as binders wrapped around the foundational coil. The stitches are interlocked with the one just below it, and pulled tight to ensure a structurally sound basket. The ilala palms resist rotting when damp and swell when in contact with liquid, making the vessel quite watertight.

Originally the exclusive domain of men, within Zulu culture the responsibility for making baskets shifted to women. In contemporary Zulu society, women weave the utilitarian baskets, while masters such as Beauty Nxgongo and Reuben Ndwandwe challenge and expand the tradition's boundaries and create art for art's sake.