The Women Behind Gahaya Links: 5 Master Weavers Who Rebuilt Rwanda's Basketry
Field Notes · Agaseke · Rwanda
The Women Behind Gahaya Links: 5 Master Weavers Who Rebuilt Rwanda's Basketry
Sisters Joy Ndungutse and Janet Nkubana founded Gahaya Links after Rwanda's 1994 Genocide with 27 women weavers. Today, more than 5,000 women weave across 52 cooperatives in all 30 districts. These are the women behind the baskets.
Gahaya Links weavers with finished agaseke baskets. Photo courtesy Gahaya Links.
Gahaya Links is the Rwandan women's cooperative behind the country's most recognized agaseke peace baskets. It was founded in the aftermath of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide by two sisters, Joy Ndungutse and Janet Nkubana, who started with 27 women. Today the network includes more than 5,000 women weavers in 52 cooperatives across all 30 districts of Rwanda, reaching over 40,000 families. This article names the five master weavers Gahaya publicly recognizes as the heart of that work, alongside the founders and the sisters' US partner Sarah Mutesi Ban. RFB Woven Art buys agaseke baskets directly from Gahaya Links, which is why the women, and their stories, matter to every basket that reaches our collection.
Who founded Gahaya Links?
Joy Ndungutse and Janet Nkubana are sisters. Both were born in Rwanda's Eastern Province, and both spent their childhoods in a Ugandan refugee camp. Their mother and oldest sister were weavers, and that tradition became the seed of everything that followed.
After fifteen years working internationally, Joy returned to Rwanda in the wake of the 1994 Genocide and founded Gahaya Links with her sister. Janet had already escaped poverty in the Ugandan refugee camp through a church scholarship, and was motivated to empower the women most affected by the Genocide, many of them widows and survivors. The two started with just 27 weavers.
Joy today serves as Vice-chair of New Faces New Voices Rwanda, a founding member of the Alliance for Artisan Enterprise, and an advisor to Girl Hub Rwanda. Janet sits on the board of the World Craft Council and is an active member of the Chamber of Women Entrepreneurs.
Joy Ndungutse and Janet Nkubana, founders. Photo courtesy Gahaya Links.
How large is Gahaya Links today?
In just over two decades, Gahaya Links has grown from 27 women to more than 5,000 women weavers across 52 cooperatives in all 30 districts of Rwanda. The company estimates the network reaches over 40,000 families when you count the households supported by each weaver's income.
Membership is deliberately inclusive. Cooperative members range in age from 18 to 65, and include women from the Batwa community, LGBTQ individuals, people living with HIV, and people with disabilities. Gahaya Links is built on fair trade principles, paying fair and competitive wages and then, in the company's own words, going beyond wages to provide basic life services that improve quality of life for rural women.
Who are the master weavers of Gahaya Links?
Gahaya Links publicly recognizes a handful of master weavers as the heart of its network. Five of them, in their own cooperatives' words:
Mukamuhoza Mamerita
President of Kiyombe Cooperative, 130 womenMukamuhoza Mamerita leads a weaving cooperative in Kiyombe, in Rwanda's Eastern Province, with 130 women weavers. Before joining Gahaya Links in 2003 she was a subsistence farmer with no income source.
Under her leadership, her cooperative has built 25 iron-sheet-roofed houses. Women in the group can now afford food, clothing, their children's tuition, and health insurance.
Mukakamanzi Theresa
President of Kopabanya CooperativeTheresa dropped out of school and married at 19. Her first basket sales bought her a piece of Kitenge for her very first dress.
She became a Master Weaver trained by Gahaya Links, and at just 30 years old was elected President of the Kopabanya cooperative. She has since purchased a cow, opened a savings account, and pays health insurance for her family. Her husband moved home to support her weaving business.
Nyiransabimana Eliane
Gahaya Links weaver since 2006Eliane is 37, married with four children. Her husband and one of her children are HIV positive. After a two-week Gahaya Links basket-training class, she ranked among the best weavers in her cooperative.
The weekly income she has earned since 2006 allowed her family to resume ARV treatment with improved nutrition. She has since trained her husband to weave at home, purchased a decent house, and put her children in school.
Muhimpundu Fatina
ABAKUNDUMURIMO CooperativeFatina is married with three children and weaves through the ABAKUNDUMURIMO Cooperative. She dropped out before secondary school despite passing her exams, because of a blind mother and a jobless father.
Today she weaves baskets while her husband tends their children and raises rabbits, goats, and chickens. The family maintains a kitchen garden. Her weaving is the household's steady income.
Ephigenia Mukantabana
Master Weaver and Cooperative President, South ProvinceEphigenia is a survivor of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. She lost 65 members of her family.
She became a Master Weaver and was elected president of her cooperative, a cooperative that includes relatives of her family's killers. Her story of reconciliation through craft has been featured on CNN and in the documentary films Rwanda Rising and Rwanda Renaissance.
Who is Gahaya Links' US contact?
Sarah Mutesi Ban represents Gahaya Links in the United States. She studied business marketing at Grambling State University in Louisiana and spent seven years in Corporate America before joining Gahaya Links full-time. She leads the collective's marketing and sales in the US, and lives in Maryland with her husband and two daughters.
Sarah is who I work with at RFB Woven Art. Every Rwandan agaseke basket in our collection is bought directly from Gahaya Links through her, so the wholesale margin that would normally go to intermediaries goes back to the cooperatives instead.
Sarah Mutesi Ban, US representative. Photo courtesy Gahaya Links.
What awards has Gahaya Links received?
Over the past two decades Gahaya Links has been recognized nationally and internationally for its work in women's economic empowerment. The list is long:
- Artisan Hero Award from the Alliance for Artisan Enterprise and The Aspen Institute (2015).
- Employer Award from the Rwanda Ministry of Labor (2009).
- Gold Exporter of the Year from the Rwanda Development Board (2008).
- Legatum Pioneers of Prosperity Award, a US$50,000 prize (2008).
- Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger from The Hunger Project (2008).
- Personal letter of recognition from former US First Lady Laura Bush (2008).
- Best Taxpayer of the Year, Rwanda Revenue Authority (2006).
Weaving baskets gave me confidence because I'm not a beggar anymore.
Christina, Gahaya Links weaverWhere can you buy authentic Gahaya Links baskets?
Every Rwandan agaseke basket at RFB Woven Art is sourced directly from Gahaya Links through Sarah Mutesi Ban. That includes the tall bottle-pair sculptures, the classic conical peace baskets, and the sweetgrass-and-sisal wall pieces. No wholesale chain, no intermediaries. The price you pay goes back to the cooperatives and the women weavers profiled above.
You can shop the current Rwandan collection here, or read more about the agaseke tradition and its post-genocide role on our Rwanda story page.
Every agaseke basket at RFB was made by one of the women in this article's network. Not a factory. Not a wholesaler. One woman, one basket, one household lifted at a time. That is the whole point.
❤️ Jen at RFB Woven Art
Sources. All weaver profiles, founder biographies, cooperative statistics, and awards are drawn from the Gahaya Links About page (gahayalinks.com/about-us). Photographs credited to Gahaya Links are used with attribution. The direct-source sales relationship between RFB Woven Art and Gahaya Links is described from RFB's own experience.
Gahaya Links: Common Questions
Who founded Gahaya Links?
Gahaya Links was founded by sisters Joy Ndungutse and Janet Nkubana in the aftermath of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. Both were born in Rwanda's Eastern Province and spent their childhoods in a Ugandan refugee camp. Joy serves on multiple international artisan-enterprise boards. Janet sits on the board of the World Craft Council. They began with 27 women weavers.
How many women weave for Gahaya Links today?
More than 5,000 women weavers across 52 cooperatives in all 30 districts of Rwanda, reaching over 40,000 families. Cooperative members range in age from 18 to 65 and include women from the Batwa community, LGBTQ individuals, people living with HIV, and people with disabilities.
Does Gahaya Links follow fair trade principles?
Yes. Gahaya Links is built on fair trade principles, paying fair and competitive wages and providing basic life services beyond wages. The company describes itself as a for-profit Rwandan handicraft company built on the principle of women's economic empowerment through fair trade. It does not hold a formal certification; its commitment is to fair trade principles in practice.
Who are the master weavers of Gahaya Links?
Gahaya Links publicly recognizes several master weavers as the heart of the network, including Mukamuhoza Mamerita, president of the 130-woman Kiyombe cooperative; Mukakamanzi Theresa, elected cooperative president at 30; Nyiransabimana Eliane, weaving since 2006; Muhimpundu Fatina of the ABAKUNDUMURIMO cooperative; and Ephigenia Mukantabana, a Genocide survivor whose reconciliation story has been featured on CNN.
Where can I buy authentic Gahaya Links baskets in the US?
RFB Woven Art at woven.art sources every Rwandan agaseke basket directly from Gahaya Links through the company's US representative Sarah Mutesi Ban. That includes the tall bottle-pair sculptures, conical peace baskets, and sweetgrass-and-sisal wall pieces. No wholesalers, no intermediaries.
What awards has Gahaya Links won?
The Artisan Hero Award from the Aspen Institute and Alliance for Artisan Enterprise (2015), the Legatum Pioneers of Prosperity Award (US$50,000, 2008), the Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger (2008), Gold Exporter of the Year from the Rwanda Development Board (2008), a personal letter of recognition from former US First Lady Laura Bush (2008), and Best Taxpayer of the Year from the Rwanda Revenue Authority (2006), among others.
