Rafiki Adventure Tours Uganda

Clay: A cultural resource

Irene Amito wraps the clay into coil to make a pot. She and her sister resorted to pottery after their father refused to pay their school fees saying girl child education was a waste of resources. PHOTO BY SAM LAWINO 

In Summary

Not yet out: Although pottery is a beautiful, functional art and craft, it is quickly becoming forgotten and yet it is still a lucrative ceramics. Those who still carry out the practice justify the craft’s resilience.inShare

To an ordinary person, clay is just dirt but to an artist, it is a raw material for many artistic works, including pots.

In ancient history, our ancestors made so many art crafts from clay, the most popular one being a vessel that later came to be known as a pot.

The pot was used for carrying and storing water and cooking food, among other uses.
Acholi people used pots as a cultural identity during marriage, dances and customary rites.
This culture was, however, temporarily interfered with by the LRA war but the people have begun to revive the prestigious custom.

Irene Amito, 17, often sat next to her mother Florence Angee, 38, whenever she was doing pottery in their village in Idobo in Omoro County, Gulu District. This perhaps explains where and how she learnt the art of pottery.
At just 6 years, Amito made her first cooking pot.
Although pottery was used mostly during cultural events in the Acholi history, the reasons for the practice nowadays are intertwined with other factors, the most prominent being the economic factor.

“Economic hardships force us to make pots, much as it is an enjoyable work of art that we expect to make us good women in the society,” says Amito.
Amito’s sister, Sarah Agenorwot, 16, dropped out of school in primary five when their father refused to pay for their education because he believes educating a girl child is a waste of time. Their mother has thus had to fend for the family with the help of the girls.

Every morning, Agenorwot and her sister wake up early and head to the clay site in Layibi Aywer village, Gulu Municipality to collect the clay soil. They make two pots per day on average.
At Layibi Aywer, Agenorwot has joined 15 other potters and formed a group known as Tye pa Rwot pottery group which makes pots of all sizes.

The group sells a 40-litre pot at Shs13,000 while a 20-litre pot goes for Shs8,000. A cooking pot can be got for Shs2,000.
Pottery as an art demands skills and creativity for a desirable outcome. Besides, even the communities in the neighbourhood despise the potters’ work as worthless.

“They call us dirty girls, but we ignore them,” Amito says.
Joyce Laker, the proprietor of TARK Centre Gallery in Gulu, says though pot making is an identity of the Acholi ethnic community, she urges the government to seriously take up and adopt the innovation into our education syllabus.

“Artefacts and ceramic works are clear sources of income to the government yet less attention is given to the art as a subject that can be done at school,” says Laker
Laker adds that pottery is one of the ways through which the Acholi as a tribe is revamping its broken traditions. “Once a girl’s neck was described as that of ‘Agulu abino’ (long neck-pot), she was considered a gem.”

In her TARK center gallery in Gulu, Ms Laker says the work of clay regalia such as saucers, cups, bowls and jars offered fame to the family during ceremonies and guest visitation.
She says once a visitor was served food using clay products, they felt well treated.By Rafiki Adventures