The Tortoise & The Leopard:
Make-Believe Office x Odabashian
This piece is from a limited edition project between Make-Believe Office and Odabashian, a fourth generation rug maker based in Mexico City and Miami that was founded in 1921, one of the oldest rug makers in the Americas.
The project features a design approach that celebrates the history, iconography and storytelling of the Ukara Cloth, traditional to Efik, Ibibio, Igbo, Uguakima and Ebe people in southeast Nigeria and southwestern Cameroon.
The Tortoise & The Leopard is an Igbo allegory from Chinua Achebe's Anthills of the Savannah: Cornered at last by a leopard that has long hunted it, a tortoise makes a request in its final moment — then uses it not to pray, but to scratch furiously at the ground, flinging dirt in every direction. When the leopard demands an explanation, the tortoise answers simply: it wants anyone who passes later to see the disturbed earth and know that two beings struggled here — a man met his match here. Facing death, the tortoise chooses not fear but dignity, ensuring the memory of its resistance outlives it.
Year: 2026
Partner: Odabashian
Dimensions: 30in W x 96in L
Materials: Agra Farsi Baff (Persian Knot) in 100% New Zealand, hand-spun wool.
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