How old is African Pottery?

Many of the oldest relics relating to man as a species have been found in Africa, including the oldest pottery ever unearthed.

A shard of clay pottery that was found in central Mali dates to an unfathomable 9,400 BC, which means that the piece of pottery would be 11,400 years old! This implies that the art of pottery is at least 11,400 years old; it also means that man was capable of making clay pottery at this time.

The Form & Function of African Pottery

Ancient pottery has been found all over Africa. The pottery was both for functional and ritual purposes. In addition to being used to carry water, cook and store food, pottery was also used for various rituals.

The aforementioned Mali is the native homeland of the Bantu tribe, a tribe known to have been marketing pottery up and down the Niger River as far back as 250 AD. Not only was Bantu pottery for everyday use and ritual use, they made large upright pots in which they sealed their dead.

While traditionally pottery making was a woman’s job, there are some areas where men played an important role in pottery making. In Nigeria, whereas the women are exclusively involved in making functional pottery, the men make pottery for ritual purposes.

Not only do the uses vary but also the way in which women make their pottery is quite different from the method employed by men. Women generally utilize a coil technique where men use slabs of clay or molds to produce pottery. Pottery created by men commonly is decorated with human or animal figures where women mainly decorate with designs and not figures.

Cultural Diversity in African Pottery

African pottery cannot be described in general terms. Africa is a very large, multi-cultural continent; each culture with its own religion, language, politics and traditions. The art, including pottery, of each culture is unique. While the design of a piece of pottery may be similar in some cultures, one culture will make use of it in ritual while another may use it to fetch water.

Modern African pottery is readily available to everyone thanks to the Internet. Online you will find spectacular pottery from North African countries such as Morocco and Egypt all the way to Cape Horn and South Africa.  Pottery from each of these countries varies widely.

Moroccan pottery is exotic in appearance with intricate design and outstanding colors, whereas pottery from Kenya reflects the countries rich heritage of wildlife. Kenyan pottery often takes the form of an animal or bears the image of an animal on the pottery. Zimbabwean pottery is pure celebration; every item wonderfully decorated with animal life, village life and scenes of everyday life.

African pottery is simply amazing. When you realize that much of the pottery is made today the same way it was centuries ago, it is humbling. For anyone who has an interest in pottery, African pottery is sure to catch your eye and keep your heart.

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Animals are of great importance to African cultures. Certain highly symbolic animals are seen repeatedly in African art. Lions, camels, leopards and elephants each represent important characteristics that the tribal people associate with figurines.

• Lion figurines: The lion is representative of strength, royalty, authority, courage, conquest, wisdom and protection. The lioness symbolizes femininity, the moon and protective motherhood.

• Camel figurines: While the world sees the camel as lazy and bad tempered, Africans see the camel as admirable for its sobriety. For African Christians, the camel is symbolic of temperance when it kneels to receive its burden. The African Christians see the camel as kneeling before God in obedience and humility.

• Leopard figurines: Leopards are symbolic of aggression, courage, ferocity and the Great Watcher.

• Elephant figurines: Elephants are seen as a sign of good luck, especially when the trunk is pointed upwards. They also represent royalty, power and status (symbolic of the past when royalty rode elephants to tower over their people). Other qualities represented by elephants are dignity, patience, longevity, wisdom and happiness

Africa was one of the first continents to be populated by “modern man”. Ancient Africans created figures representing events and beliefs important to them. One of the oldest African figurines unearthed is that of “Mother of All Living” or “Mother”.

This African figure reflects what was important to the people of the time; she is what we could consider to be obese with stocky legs, a large midsection and pendulous breasts. The figure has no face as it was meant to represent all women and the short curly hair characteristic of Africans. This was the template for African figure design for thousands of years; stylized to represent something important to the carver.

Figurines from the Ashanti Tribe

Some of the most desirable modern ebony African figurines come from the West African Ashanti tribe. Ashanti artisans create magnificent figurines of people going about their everyday chores and of highly revered elephants.

The Ashanti people have a long history of brilliant craftsmanship. Throughout history they have been renowned for their iron work and wood work. According to experts, their figurines rival any found in Europe or the Americas. The Ashanti tribe is an agricultural based matriarchal culture. Their figurines reflect a peaceful lifestyle.

Figurines from the Masai Tribe

East African Masai tribal people are normally tall, elegant people and their figurines seem to revel in their physical beauty. The Masai are a great warrior, male dominant culture so it is common to see warrior figurines carrying the well known Masai spear.

Working with wood and sometimes stone resin, the artists create wonderful figurines that celebrate simple everyday life and important events such as the birth of a child. Masai figurines are well known for the wonderful colors used to make the figures look lifelike. The other identifying characteristic of Masai figurines is the plaited hair worn by the human images. The Masai are the only Africans to wear plaited hair.

With around 800 distinct ethnic groups in Africa, it is impossible to discuss the figurines created by craftsmen of all the tribes. Much of the art produced by African artisans is traditional in that it relates to beliefs held by the tribe that date from the dawn of history.

A fine example of this sort of African figurine is the availability of variations of the “Mother” figure. Modern African figurine work is very likely to reflect the way the people live their life today- mother’s carrying their children, women carrying water jugs on their head, men in their finest tribal regalia and children playing in the dirt. Art is a reflection of life and African figurines are no exception to that rule.

African figurines reflect a joy for life and a serenity rarely seen in art from other parts of the world. In recent years there has been a huge international effort to assist African artists by creating markets for their art online. The Internet has given the world a glimpse into everyday African life by making African figurines readily available to anyone.

I’ve been busy exploring some good artists online – I’m going to start linking to some of my more favourite ones soon. I’m still being a lazy ass (ok, and to be fair, it’s also tough to find really great artists tackling the kind of things we’re looking for online). Please be patient, your call will be answered, you are number 5 421 in the queue.

Until next time…

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