Resilience in the Face of Change

In some rural communities, the practice of making clay pots has survived to this day, attesting to the importance traditionalists ascribe to continuity in the face of far-reaching change. 

©Roger de la Harpe

This resilience can be ascribed to several different factors, among them the on-going importance of rituals associated with the use of indigenous ceramics and the growth of external markets for work by skilled potters.

George Angas Engraving of women making pottery in the mid-19th century during the artist’s trip to Natal and the Zulu kingdom.

In most African communities, pots used for cooking tend to have rounded bases that allow for a better distribution of heat when placed between stones on open hearths or directly in the embers.

While this practice is still followed in some parts of South Africa, such as Limpopo Province, elsewhere the production of cooking pots like these was abandoned after the widespread adoption of three-legged iron pots, first introduced by European traders in the early 19th century.

©Roger de la Harpe
Beer-making enclosure, present-day KwaZulu-Natal.

Following the adoption by most rural communities of imported iron pots for boiling water and cooking food, clay pots continued to be used for other purposes, notably to serve and store liquids, including beer.

Very large beer-brewing pots (izimbiza) like those in this image, are coiled in stages to allow different sections to dry out gradually to prevent the pots from cracking when fired.

Because serving and storage pots need to stand on level surfaces, they normally have a flat base. Other indigenous utensils still commonly made include the woven grass sieves used to strain grains in the production of home-brewed beer.

By Professor Sandra Klopper