As you enter the Hasayra market in Nabeul province, almost immediately you will find stacks of mats and straw bags and baskets distinctive to the area. This is because the market is known for gathering all the local artisans and handcrafts people in one place.
As you enter the Hasayra market in Nabeul province, almost immediately you will find stacks of mats and straw bags and baskets distinctive to the area. This is because the market is known for gathering all the local artisans and handcrafts people in one place.
In one of the small shops, full of exquisite, traditional handmade straw products, is Haj Mohammed el-Hami, one of the oldest craftsmen working with straw in the area. He squats, working on one of his straw mats. Speaking without interrupting the work at hand, el-Hami tells his story.
“I inherited this craft from my father and my grandfather and I learned the work from the great masters,” he explains. “Even though the industry is now threatened with extinction.”
He pauses to choose a suitable color of straw for the piece he is working on. With swift and harmonious movements, he adds, laughing a little, “my mother used to force me to go to our neighbor’s shop to learn this trade because I was a very naughty child. This would avoid me causing problems with the other neighborhood boys!”
Learning trade was ‘like torture’
At first, el-Hami says, being shut up in the small shop learning how to make things out of straw was like torture. But then slowly it became his favorite place and he would go there willingly after school.
It took years for him to learn the trade properly he explains, but he also realized there was not enough money in the business to support his family. So he started working at schools in Nabeul instead. But he would always return to his original trade after hours.
“Today artisans here are unable to even cover their expenses due to rising prices,” el-Hami says. Additionally young people just don’t want to learn these kinds of trades any more. Required to focus on the job for long hours in order to perfect the craft, they see it as hard manual labour.
Most important though is the decline in demand for these kinds of straw products. They used to be popular but now nobody wants them, el-Hami says. They prefer modern products. The decline in the number of tourists, mostly due to recent extremist attacks, have also had a big impact on the business.
Many straw artisans have already quit
“Our goods are now only sold on certain occasions and holidays,” el-Hami continues. “Most modern housewives would no longer consider buying a straw mat – they will say that it just doesn’t suit more modern homes. And these products are now only used in bathrooms and mosques, some of which are still supporting traditional industry.”
The future of his industry worries him a lot. “I am afraid that soon we will find even the mosques without straw mats,” he says, concerned. “And I am afraid that artisans working in straw will no longer exist; so many have already quit the business.”
