with any fluffy, fibrous stringing material you cannot pull it through small holes with a needle because it would have to go through doubled.
however you can stiffen the end with glue, then cut the stiff bit into a slender tapering point. after that it can usually be gently pulled through and finally the point can be cut off.
why must it be on raffia?

About why raffia would be a material of choice....it’s used in the African trade because its free, growing along the river beds in Ghana, or so I was told. So while it’s practical for market, it breaks. Literally. Last month I was moving a box of beads to storage... saw a strand on top that I changed my mind about, picked it up to toss over my head, intending to just wear it till I got home. At that moment the raffia broke and there I was picking up beads strewn about the parking lot around me...

I'm not certain to understand your demand . you want to know how to go through a tiny bead with a string of raffia ? often , the end ( or beginning ) of the string is very much smaller and harder than the middle
and it's just like a needle . and you can pass several very thin strings of raffia , one after one , in a bead's hole . I use it frequently in the garden and for many other activities

I am afraid I did not explain myself very well. Sorry about that. Right now I am stringing tiny beads which originally sat very tight on a raffia string. Some I can't even pull off without cutting the raffia, that is how tight they were strung. So I wonder how they ever ended up on that raffia string. Quite some beads coming from Africa are strung on these raffia strands, even the smallest of beads, and I would love to know how they managed to get those beads on those thick strings.

It is a similar situation with microbeads from Afghanistan, Pakistan, strung on rather thick cotton thread. Once you get them off that string, no way to get them back on, even with all the tricks of the trade mentioned here.

I am just curious.

peut être avec du raffia humide - maybe with wet raffia

I thought about that too, but you would think it swells the fiber even more? I'll have to experiment.

In Africa, when raffia is used for stringing beads it is often wetted, this allows the fibers to compress and go through perforations easily.

When the lines dry out they swell and fill the perforations.

This is why it is common to see a strand of African beads, note the tightness—and people wonder how they got the beads onto the lines.

Jamey

That I utterly failed to complete satisfactorily.

The attached image is a necklace very similar to a broken one I was asked to restring. I could not manage the raffia at all and wound up using nylon with a redesign involving end beads and wrapping.

It took a long time and failed to live up to the simple elegance of this piece.

I was glad to see this thread - but remain in awe of whomever put this lovely thing together.

Seeing that made my day thank you!!