From the Hands of Rwanda
Gitarama is a cottage luxury brand that imports handmade purses and other artisans goods from Rwanda.
Founded by two sisters from Alabama, Jenny and Anne McCain, Gitarama purses celebrate the natural beauty and creative workmanship of native Rwandan weavers. Each purse is handmade in Rwanda from local materials and takes approximately 3 days to complete.
Your purchase of a Gitarama purse enables these weavers to support their families in a sustainable way. Each weaver is paid a generously fair wage and Gitarama returns its profits to the broader Rwandan community through financial contributions to Food for the Hungry International-Rwanda.
Founded by two sisters from Alabama, Gitamara celebrates the natural beauty and creative workmanship of native Rwandan artisans. As a full-time Regional Manager with Food for the Hungry, an international relief and development agency, Anne visits some of the most economically challenged countries in the world. Through her trips, Anne has met craftsmen in Peru, Ethiopia, and the Dominican Republic, just to name a few, but it was the purse she saw on her July 2008 trip to Rwanda that truly grabbed Anne’s attention.
Each purse is individually crafted by a group of local artisans and takes approximately 3 days to complete. The weavers often gather in local clearings or, when available, in a local building so they may visit and share with each other as work together on the purses and other projects.
Click below to learn about the individuals who make the purses.
Get a Gitarama Purse!!
Gitarama purses are available at a number of fine boutiques. In Birmingham, Alabama, Gitarama purses may be found at Etc. in Mountain Brook Village, and Gus Mayer in Brookwood Mall.
Thank you for your interest! We know you’ll love your new “bag”.
Each purse reflects a design original to the artisans’ home.
Gitarama purses are available in six distinct designs, pictured above. From left to right, they are the Primi, Narcisse, Vestine, Tuji, Celeste, and Mukinda.
Each purse is hand-made by a local Rwandan designer using local techniques and materials. The handbags are available in six different patterns, each based on a design native to the communities where the artisans live.  The purse designs are named for the local artisans.
Made from banana leaves…
If you have ever been to Rwanda, you have eaten bananas many ways – fried, mashed, sauteed– even made into delicious banana beer. Banana trees are everywhere in Rwanda. Gitarama purses, made from banana leaves, are a perfect product for Rwandans to export. By purchasing one of our purses, you will provide a local artisan with a way to make a living that is based on the abundant, renewable supply of a local plant.
Each purse is individually crafted by a group of local weavers and takes approximately 3 days to complete. Several times a week, the artisans gather in groups to visit while they are weaving, often in the shade of banana trees. The more skilled weavers train those new to the group.
Before the artisans may begin weaving, banana leaves must be harvested, soaked in water, then dried, sorted, thinned, and sliced. The banana leaves are divided by color so that sections of light and dark banana leaves may be woven together to create the unique patterns on the purses. Other materials such as the forest grasses that are used to edge the purses must also be gathered, cut and sorted before the weaving may start.
Once the sections of the purses made of woven banana leaves are completed, the weavers cut them according to the purse patterns and sew corresponding pieces of fabric to the interior. The intricate banana leaf edging seen on the purses is created separately, often by a different weaver, and then is stitched onto the front and back panels of the purse. The handle is trimmed with the braid and the purse’s edges are finished with rolled forest grasses.
Now the purse is ready to be assembled. The panels are each individually sewn together using rice sack edging wrapped over a core of forest grasses. Once the purse is fully assembled, the last step is for the exterior to be glazed and dried.
Rwanda
Land of a thousand hills
The name "Gitarama" is in honor of the Rwandan region where many of the artisans making the purses live.
Rwanda is a tiny, landlocked country, right in the heart of Africa. Known as "The Land of A Thousand Hills", Rwanda’s hilly terraine offers precious little farmland - which is sadly ironic given that farming is a primary industry in Rwanda. There is a tradition in Rwanda of dividing family farmland into separate plots for each of a family's children as they mature into adulthood. Obviously, this means that an impoverished family's small plot of land is divided into smaller and smaller portions, generation after generation. A major challenge is finding a source of income that is not based on growing crops.
Banana trees are everywhere in Rwanda - weavers do not have to own farmland to have access to banana trees. If you have ever been to Rwanda, you know how plentiful bananas trees are. During your visit you no doubt ate bananas many ways - fried, mashed, sautéed. You may even have tried delicious banana beer. Gitarama purses are a perfect product for Rwandans to export because they are made of readily available banana leaves. By purchasing a Gitarama purse, you will provide a local artisan with a way to make a living that is based on the abundant, renewable supply of a local plant.
Click on the map to go to Rwanda’s official website
