Past articles written for SAARTJIE

They say 'anybody can make pots': The transmission of potting knowledge in two Zulu-speaking communities

Dieter Reusch (anthropologist)

Indigenous Knowledge Systems has been the catch phrase of the nineties; it is seen as the mantra for all developmental work. Its adherents are very sympathetic to the need to involve communities in development planning and on developing strategies for '...empowering local communities to incorporate their own belief systems into their self-determined development'. It is not only that development projects should be sensitive to communities’ perceived needs but that the usage of local botanical, environmental and pharmaceutical knowledge should not be exploited without appropriate compensation nor the copy-righting of it by multi-national companies. Organizations exist which help local communities to protect their knowledge against exploitation and help set up programs to develop and maintain the transmission of traditional knowledge within communities. On the other hand, it is also advocated that indigenous knowledge '...should be integrated in the work of scientists as a complementary contribution to all efforts of science and technology in its search for solutions and strategies to combat poverty and to generate sustainability in development'. One of the major criticism IKS adherents have with so-called conventional developmental work is that it is a top down implementation of projects. This criticism in reverse can be levelled at its own proponents, namely the problem of translating indigenous knowledge from a localized context to a 'global' resource to be used in the planning of development projects. This paper looks at how indigenous potting knowledge is transferred from generation to generation in KwaMabaso and Ntembeni.

KwaMabaso is situated within the Msinga magisterial district. They have rich deposits of good quality clay, which might be a reason for the existence of a large number of women making pottery in comparison with the numbers from neighbouring chiefdoms. Active potters would make pots to sell every week. The women living in the Sompofu ward tend to sell their ware at the Tuesday pot market in Pomeroy, situated in the neighbouring Majozi chiefdom. Far fewer women from the Majozi chiefdom make pottery than from KwaMabaso. The potters living in the other three wards of KwaMabaso tend to sell their ware in Tugela Ferry on any day of the week that suits them, but especially during pension payout days.

Ntembeni is situated within the Mtonjaneni district, with Melmoth as the main commercial and administrative town. The women of Ntembeni also have a rich tradition of making pottery, but only in certain areas. This might again have to do with the availability of good quality deposits of clay being near at hand. The potters make far more pots than are needed for their own household usage; they make to sell. Their main outlets are the two road side stalls at Ndundulu on the road between Eshowe and Melmoth, as well as the monthly pension payout days at Melmoth or at stores in their vicinity which act as payout points. They do not sell directly to the public at the roadside stalls but through the stall holders who are not necessarily potters.

Married women are the potters. This statement in itself is not remarkable, as it is often the case in other African societies that it is married women who are potters. Spindel (1989:71) makes the observation that among the Kpeenbele Senufo the technical knowledge is only transmitted to women after marriage because it might give an unmarried woman independence from generational authority. Amongst the Mabaso and Ntembeni people there is no such fear of independent behaviour for the young. In fact, when asking women whether their daughters could be taught, and also produce pottery, the answers were always in the affirmative. Yet all the potters we met were married women. No unmarried daughters were being taught the techniques of potting. Although, older unmarried women who are beyond desirable marriageability have been taught, but only as older women. The reason often given by our Mabaso informants for this tendency is that young unmarried girls attend school and are not interested in making pottery, which in itself is not surprising, seeing that they have to, besides school hours, spend a lot of time doing household chores. An informant from Ntembeni, kaMpanze (madala) mentioned that she had helped her mother grinding the clay and watched her mother making pots, but was never taught to build a pot as a young girl. Davison and Hosford (1978: 294), who worked amongst the Venda, also found that young daughters do not necessarily learn from their mothers.

When questioning Mabaso women as to who taught them, we always received one of three answers: either her husband's mother or the wife of a brother of her husband or the elder wife of her husband. For instance, we were told by a potter that she was instructed by her mother-in-law to learn how to make pottery because the household 'needed pots for the ancestors'. It was also quite revealing that the married daughters of one of our informants, who herself was a potter, never learnt the art of potting from their mother. Her two married daughters, who live in KwaMabaso, both learnt the art from their husbands' mothers and the other two, who live in the Majozi chiefdom, never learnt it. But she taught the wives of her two sons. What these findings have in common is that the potter who transmits her knowledge and the woman who is being taught, all live in the same household.

Among the potters of Ntembeni the answer received to the above question was that their maternal mothers taught them, but only once they had been married. Once the bride had moved to the homestead of her father-in-law in which her husband lived, in other words virilocal residence, the mother of the wife would teach her daughter in the homestead of her son-in-law. She would stay there for the duration of teaching her daughter how to make pots. There is a prohibition on teaching an unmarried girl at her homestead of orientation. The people of Ntembeni link the act of pot-making with fertility. It is thought that if the daughter was taught at her natal home before being married, it would make her infertile. Problems associated with the ability to procreate children are not seen as originating with males, but always with females. Berglund (1976: 115 and 177) states that both sets of ancestors work within the woman's womb, but it is her ancestors who are not fulfilling their duty if she does not conceive. A woman's patrilineal ancestors are present in her womb, 'bringing the blood' during intercourse, while the male's enter the female. It is in the womb where the two sets of ancestors 'mould' a child. The ability to make pottery could prevent successful conception in a wife if she learnt the art beforehand. There is the expectation that the moulding of a pot to be possibly used in communion with her husband's ancestors and the moulding of a child should take place in the homestead of her family of procreation. The linkage between the possibility of making pots and the possibility of procreation is further reflected in the metaphorical association of a smoky fire strengthening a new born baby (making it accessible for the outside world) and a smoky fire blackening a pot (making it accessible for the ancestors - see part 2).

The mothers therefore accompany their daughters during the initial stages of settling in with a group of strangers. This accompaniment raises also the possibility of easing the initial stressful period somewhat for the new bride. There is thus a tendency amongst both the Mabaso and the Ntembeni that most of the potters learnt the manufacturing process once they had married and settled virilocally.

The mother of the husband amongst the Mabaso seems to be the one who transmits the knowledge necessary in the making of pottery or the first wife who has already learnt the craft transmits it to the second married wife or to her husband's brother's newly married wife. As residence is virilocal after marriage, the knowledge that is transmitted is the 'property' of or is controlled by the potters' husband's agnatic cluster. The knowledge however, is in the hands of affinal women. It also makes good 'sense' in terms of Mabaso ideology that the technique, the making and using of pottery become 'lineage' property because these vessels are ultimately used for communion purposes with the ancestors of the husband's agnatic cluster or for the protection of the homestead and its inhabitants.

Amongst the Ntembeni the mother of the wife transmits the necessary knowledge. Therefore, the knowledge is transmitted from mother to daughter but not as seen, in the homestead and family of origin but in the homestead and family of procreation. The knowledge is nevertheless not entirely in the hands of the agnatic cluster to which the daughter belongs. The transferal of knowledge is therefore horizontal from outside the domestic group as a representative of the agnatic cluster to within it. Amongst the Mabaso the transferal is in effect vertical through the line of male descent, but via the mothers and wives of males as sons and husbands. So knowledge that is in the hands of women in terms of ability seems to be controlled by male affine in terms of where and when it can be practised.

All married women in KwaMabaso and KwaNtembeni would be able to make pottery, contrary to the situation in West Africa where the production of pottery is restricted to women of a specialised caste, which is set aside from ordinary people (David et al. 1988: 367; Barley 1984: 95). At this stage in my research in KwaMabaso it would seem as if the women engaged in pottery are usually from households in or near their zenith in the developmental cycle of the domestic group. For instance, maKhumalo, with whom we had established a special relationship, started making pots when she married and moved into the homestead of her husband. She learnt the making of izinkamba from her husband's mother, kaMlinga, who in turn had learnt it from her husband's mother. Although the actors of the domestic group have changed when kaMlinga moved in, the personnel has stayed relatively constant. During kaMlinga's time as a young wife her husband's brother was also residing in the homestead. When he moved out to establish his own homestead, the whole homestead moved spatially further up the hillside and was occupied by herself, her mother-in-law, her eldest son and maKhumalo and a younger unmarried son, who has in the meantime married and lives in the homestead. His elder brother (maKhumalo's husband) died a couple of years ago and he now heads the household, which means that it has again reached its zenith.

The situation in Ntembeni is similar. The women making pottery live or are making pottery in households which are either at the zenith of the developmental cycle of the household or in a phase of demise, but which are viewed as the senior homestead of the agnatic cluster. The senior homestead may hold the household only of a junior brother; the other brothers might have established independent homesteads in the vicinity after the death of their father. Yet, the wives of the elder brothers make their pots in the senior homestead of the agnatic cluster. These wives would meet usually in the kitchen of the mother if still alive and make their pots there or in the kitchen of the young wife of the junior brother of their husbands'.

There are many pronouncements that the reason for the similarity in style of the pottery of Zulu-speakers is that the women had already obtained the knowledge when they settled virilocally. Firstly, this does not hold for the Mabaso because the tendency there is that pottery-making knowledge is transmitted by women who obtained this knowledge from their mothers-in-law. Secondly, is not true for the potters of Ntembeni, as they learnt the art only after marriage. In other words, they say that because of exogamy and virilocal residence, women from different localities are the bearers of knowledge, when in fact it applies to women of the same locality. For instance, Hall and Mack (1983: 190-192) found in the archaeological record in Zululand that the pottery style was similar in the chiefdoms KwaKhumalo and KwaButhelezi. According to them the reason for this is that exogamy was practised in these chiefdoms and that women '...moved freely between chiefdoms as marriages were arranged across borders. The women took with them traditional concepts of pottery design, with the result that similar ceramic assemblages are found over a broad region' (Hall and Mack 1983: 192). Although they do not state it, it is implied that women must have learnt the manufacturing process from their mothers and that because of exogamy many marriages were arranged across chiefdom boundaries. But a chiefdom's people are and were not made up of only one clan. They do not state it as it is obvious that that is the case, especially if one takes into consideration that a chief did encourage the settlement of people with other clan-names into his chiefdom from other clans besides the one to which he belonged. There is no reason to dispute their conclusions that the pottery style was similar. Presently the pottery made by Zulu-speakers shows similar features, which would make them recognizable as 'Zulu pots'. But their statement is not an isolated one. It is often verbally attested, as for instance in a conference held under the auspices of the South African Association of Art Historians where a delegate stated that the 'reason' for the 'similarity' of pottery style amongst the Zulu was because of the practice of marrying out of the clan-name which a woman carries. This practise has spatial implications because they can 'move' between territories of a political nature, while husbands are generally spatially bound to their homestead of origin. Therefore, the argument goes, one has a dispersal of a similar pottery style over the whole region where Zulu-speakers live, in contrast to woodcarving styles which are regionally specific. But my contention is that this is not the 'reason' for the similarity.

There are regional variations in form and some decorations, but all serving vessels made by Zulu-speakers are blackened, which is a characteristic of their pottery. Although the transmission of technological knowledge is not transmitted through mother to daughters, accounting for the widespread occurrence of a similar style, it has to do with the cultural values in transmitting the ancestral expectation of their blackened vessels. Without exception it was stated that beer (utshwala) has to be served in blackened vessels. This accounts for the similarity in style for a pot to be recognized as 'Zulu', but it does not account for the differences in shape and decoration between different regions. In other words, a pot from KwaMabaso is easily differentiated from one made in Ntembeni. The activities of pot-making are out of necessity centred around clay deposits and I surmise that this might hold the key to the fact that the similar shapes and decorations used in the making of pots are regionally specific.

Finally, a quick word on the process of transmitting potting knowledge. The technical ability is conveyed through observation. Initially the learner would be shown how to select the correct clay type, in other words, which clay type is suitable for which types of pots. I have come across a woman who had no knowledge of pot-making, but who was paid to collect clay from one of the clay pits. About a third was rejected as not being suitable for pot-making. The learner will observe how to attain the correct plasticity from the potter who will test it for its suitability. They will both start making a vessel, usually a small umancishana, with the learner following the instructions by observation. As they proceed, the potter will correct any mistakes by taking over and demonstrating the correct technique to the pupil. Once the main potter has a big enough batch of pots to warrant a firing, the learner will assist her with the preparation and stacking of the pyre. Thereby she learns how much fuel is needed for a number of vessels and for how long the firing should last. It takes about a month of continuous making for a woman to become proficient in making pottery.

The way in which knowledge is thus transmitted, one can say, limits the possibility of creative expression. The more information there is to be conveyed, the more difficult it is to communicate it; the clearer the message, the smaller the amount of information received (Eco 1989: 55). By learning through copying, 'order' is introduced into the possible creative ability of a person. In this way women potters will always follow the same pattern and style of making and at the same time it limits the possibility of originality. So the potter learns a great deal about how to make a pot but not how to break out of those constrains and build pots other than 'the Zulu pot'.

It should be noted that indigenous knowledge systems remain a metanarrative of how local communities can progress and develop, and how the incorporation of such communities into the global community can be established as equals to others. The two micro narratives of transmission of knowledge which are presented above are not going to stand in the way of any implementation of a craft project. Surely the possibility of economic independence for women and men who would take up potting will not prevent unmarried women from doing so, as they say anybody can make pots.

REFERENCES

• Barley,N 1984 Placing the West African potter. In Picton,J (ed) Earthenware in Asia and Africa. Percival David Foundation Colloquies on Art and Archaeology in Asia No12. London: SOAS.
• Berglund,A-I 1976 Zulu Thought-Patterns and Symbolism. London:Hurst in association with David Philip, Cape Town.
• David,N; Sterner,J and Gavua,K 1988 Why pots are decorated. Current Anthropology 29:3, 365-389.
• Davison,P and J Hosford 1978 Lobedu pottery. Annals of the South African Museum 75:8, 291-335.
• Eco,U 1989 The Open Work. No Place: Hutchinson Radius.
• Hall,M and Mack,K 1983 The outline of an eighteenth-century economic system in south-east Africa. Annals of the South African Museum 91:2, 163-194.
• Spindel,C 1989 Kpeenbele Senufo potters. African Arts 22:2, 66-73.

Something about the Author:
Dieter Reusch has a Masters Degree in anthropology. He is currently working for the KwaZulu-Natal Museum Services in South Africa.