African Ceramics

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African Ceramics

• Historical Examples
• Contemporary Approaches

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Nok Art
In 1943, tin mining in the vicinity of the
village of Nok near the Jos Plateau region of
Nigeria brought to light a terracotta head,
evidence of the oldest known figurative sculpture
south of the Sahara. Although stylistically
related heads, figures, animals, and pottery
shards have been found in a number of Nigerian
sites since that time, such works are identified
by the name of the small village where the first
terracotta head was discovered. Artifacts
continue to be unearthed without documentation of
the context in which they were buried, a lack of
extensive archaeological study that has severely
limited our understanding of Nok terracottas.
One of the earliest African centers of
ironworking and terracotta figure production, the
Nok culture remains an enigma. Many Nok pieces
have been illegally exhumed and expropriated.
Nok terra cottas are now on the list of
threatened world heritage objects.
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Most Nok sculpture is hollow and coil-built like
pottery
The slip (the mixture of clay and water used to
give pottery surfaces an even texture) of many
Nok terracottas has eroded, leaving a grainy,
pocked exterior that does not reflect their
original smooth appearance. Most of the Nok
sculpture found consists of what appear to be
portrait heads and bodies fragmented by damage
and age.
Nok Head from Jemaa, Nigeria 5th century
B.C.E.terracotta9 13/16 in. high
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Although every Nok sculptures is unique, certain
stylistic traits are found throughout the body of
known work. Triangular eyes and perforated
pupils, noses, mouths, and ears combine to depict
men and women with bold, abstracted features.
Typically the head is the area of most
importance. The body and legs are shaped like
columns. Perhaps the most striking aspects of Nok
sculptures are the elaborately detailed
hairstyles and jewelry that adorn many of the
figures.
Seated Dignitary, c. 250 B.C. Nok People, Africa,
Eastern Nigeria, Nok PlateauFired Clay H. 36 1/4
x W. 10 7/8 x D.14 in.
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Genuflecting Figure
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Ife Art Ife is the sacred city of the Yoruba
people
An important urban center in contemporary
southwestern Nigeria, Ife's origins can be traced
back to around 350 B.C., when it began as a
cluster of some thirteen hamlets. Ife holds
particular significance to the Yoruba, a
traditionally urban people who represent one of
the largest ethnic groups in Nigeria and on the
African continent.
According to the Yoruba worldview, Ife is the
place of origin of all humankind and is therefore
of particular religious and political importance.
Here the deities Odudua and Obatala, under
instruction from the creator Olodumare, began the
creation of the world. Obatala has become
associated primarily with the creation of the
first humans with clay, while Odudua's legacy as
the first divine king of the Yoruba is political.
Yoruba monarchs still trace their lineage back to
the founding of Ife, and it remains the seat of
Yoruba sacred kingship. The Oni (King) of Ife,
himself considered to be descended from the god
Odudua, determines the legitimacy of all other
Yoruba kings by assessing their right to wear
royal beaded crowns.
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Title Head of a king (oni), from Ife,
Nigeria Date Yoruba culture, c. 12th-15th
century
Medium Bronze Size height 11 7/16" (29cm)
A tradition of naturalistic figure sculpture
began in Ife about 1050 CE. And flourished for
four centuries. These figures were
contemporaneous with the Middle Ages in a Europe.
While Europe abandoned naturalistic style in
favor of an abstract, symbolic style, a
naturalistic style flourished in Africa. The
portraits appear in clay and bronze. .
We do not know whether these heads are idealized
or realistic individual portraits.
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Leo Frobenius

• The sculptures of the Ife were exposed to the
  world in 1910 by the German ethnographer Leo
  Frobenius. They were so naturalistic that
  Frobenius concluded that they could not have been
  made by Africans, but rather by some unknown
  civilization. He believed that a great
  civilization existed in the heart of Africa, and
  that it gradually disappeared. Later,
  archeologists, however, attributed the artifacts
  found by Frobenius as belonging to the Yoruba
  culture.

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The naturalism of Ife sculpture continued to
lead many 20th Century Europeans to question
whether it was from African because it went
against all of their assertions to the
primitive aspect of African art. They suggested
in was made by those from the Lost City of
Atlantis, or that it had to have been influenced
by ancient Greece or Renaissance Europe.
Shrine Head Ife people YorubaTerracotta H. 12
in., W. 5 3/4 in.
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The locals knew better

• The contemporary Oni court recognized symbols of
  kingships on these early sculptures so
  archaeologists believe they are representations
  of rulers.
• Some sculptures have lines depicting
  scarification patterns. One dynasty of kings
  adopted this practice while another did not, so
  Ife heads can come with lines or without. Holes
  on scalp may indicated the original attachment of
  a crown or beaded veil . Some figures have holes
  for a beard attachment.

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A Ritualized Court Art

• Ife art was a court art it represented royal
  figures and their attendants.
• These heads may have been attached to wooden
  bodies in the kings funeral or perhaps brought
  out in other ceremonial processions. Based on
  what we know of Ife culture, this king when he
  was alive may have only showed his face to his
  court. In larger public gatherings, he may have
  appeared with his face covered in beads so his
  person would not be desecrated outside the
  sanctity of court.

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Figure of OniEarly 14th-15th century AD

• This is the only full figure bronze surviving
  from ancient Ife. It is 47 cm tall. The king
  wears a crown. He holds a medicinal rams horn
  in his left hand and a staff in his right hand.
  He has a ceremonial collar, beads and toe rings.

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Ceramic Heads were found along with bronze heads.
Contrast the two materials.

• Crowned Head of a
• Queen, 12th-15th c. CE, ceramic, 23.2 cm.
• The city of Ife takes its name from terra cotta
  paved walkways. Ile-Ife means the place of
  paving.
• This head has lost royal insignia at the bottom
  of the crown. This head came from the royal
  sanctuary of Ita Yemoo . It had commorative
  value and was used in ceremonies honoring cults
  of the ancestors.

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Sub-Saharan Coiling
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Coiled pots such as the one below were and are
used for storage, beer making and rituals.
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Nesta Nala and the Zulu Village Pottery
Tradition. Women passing on techniques through
family lineages.
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(1940-2005) Nesta Nala is today recognized as the
finest exponent of her craft - which she learned
from her mother Siphiwe, who in turn inherited
this skill from her mother. Nala passed it on
to her daughters. Crafting a pot is an arduous
process that begins with digging brown and red
clay from two separate sites far apart. Fine
grinding and delicate mixing are done with
traditional implements. Not using a wheel, Nala
put vertically rolled coils of clay onto a flat
base to build up the vessel. Decorating involves
removing a V-shaped bit of hard clay, filling it
with soft clay which is then decorated in the
Umasumpa style. After burnishing with river
stones, the firing is done with dry grass and
aloe leaves in a shallow pit. The reddish brown
is then smoked over and blackened. Final
finishing involves animal fat and polishing.
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In addition to her daughters, Nesta Nala also
taught her coiling skills to members of the
Magwaza family. Their traditional Zulu pottery
is also prized today
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Clive Sithole, a South African potter working
with traditional forms and techniques, but an
urban man schooled at university.
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Contemporary Ceramics in Africa and African
Inspired Ceramics ElsewhereIssues of Diaspora,
Patronage, Colonialism, War and Identity
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19th century import pot from the Belgian
Congo.Hybridization, Trade, Colonialism
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Europeans and European-AfricansFirst Story
Michael Cardew

• IN 1950 the English studio potter Michael
  Cardew was recruited by the Nigerian colonial
  Government as Pottery Officer. Looked at from a
  contemporary vantage point, for the colonial
  government to improve the pottery techniques
  of Nigeria was odd, considering that Nigerian
  pots, made according to the traditional method
  practiced for centuries, were magnificent.
  However Michael Cardew was one of the best
  publicist ever for West Africas traditional
  potters even as he worked to create a new network
  of rural Potteries using techniques foreign to
  the region.

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Ladi KwaliShe was a traditional Nigerian potter
who used handbuilt coils. Her work had already
gained recognition when Cardew invited her to
join his pottery. she learned to throw pots on
the wheel. She continued to make hand built pots
but hese were glazed and fired in a
high-temperature kiln and represent a hybrid of
traditional African and western studio pottery.
Through her contact with Cardew, she and her work
became well known. She became Nigerias
best-known pottter and the Abuja pottery was
renamed Ladi Kwali Pottery.
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Ladi Kwali
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Fee Halsted Berning and Ardmore Ceramics in South
Africa.Berning was born in Zimbabwe, learned
ceramics in South Africa, married and converted a
farm into the first of several pottery workshops
devoted to painted pottery. Many of the workers
have become recognized artists and the pots sell
for high prices at auction houses.
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While the pottery has provided jobs, a dependable
income and even name recognition, it also shows
inequalities in South African life. The
potterys artists have little formal education
and Bernings role is that of director and
stylist. The artist/workers experiment within her
style. Sculpture and a dish by Bernings first
pupil Bonnie Ntshalintshali
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Two African Artists educated abroad. Issues of
cultural migration and hybridization Magdalen
Odundo and Helga Gamboa
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Helen Gamboa Angola/United KingdomIn my work
I draw inspiration from African artifacts and
their role in society, and I explore the history
of my country, Angola, as well as my own personal
history and cultural identity. I am especially
concerned with the fragility of women and
children in my society. Trained in England,
inspired by tradition.Uses post-modern
juxtaposition and appropriation to describe
polyvalent and fractured post-colonial identity.
Sources Portuguese blue and white ware, decals
of contemporary and historic images, traditional
coiled pottery shapes and designs.
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Magdalene Odundo Kenyan, ceramics education in
Great Britain, Nigeria and the American Southwest.

• You can work from the African tradition and also
  view it from a distance. That was my culture
  shock I thought I had left behind something that
  was mine, whereas I had actually gained something
  new.

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Magdalene Odundo

• Influences Michael Cardew, Hans Coper (English),
  Maria Martinez and Pueblo potters, Nigerian and
  Kenyan potters, basket makers.

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Two late career African-American Potters,
Involvement in Africa and African
InfluenceWinnie Owens Hart and David MacDonald.
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Winnie Owens HartBorn Washington DC, teaches at
Howard University. Learned from craftswomen in
Ghana and helped to establish ceramic programs in
that and other countries. Her work is influenced
by ceramic traditions of Ghana and Nigeria .
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David MacDonaldDuring the late 1970s and early
1980s, MacDonald's work received most of its
creative inspiration from his investigation of
his African heritage. Looking at a variety of
design sources in the vast creative tradition of
the African continent, MacDonald draws much of
his inspiration from the myriad examples of
surface decoration that manifests itself in the
many ethnic groups of sub-Saharan Africa (such as
pottery decoration, textiles, body decoration,
and architectural decoration).
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David MacDonald