{"id":8749,"date":"2013-08-21T10:40:36","date_gmt":"2013-08-21T10:40:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/disnaija.com\/nigerian-newspapers\/ushafa-where-its-taboo-for-men-to-make-pots\/"},"modified":"2013-08-21T10:40:36","modified_gmt":"2013-08-21T10:40:36","slug":"ushafa-where-its-taboo-for-men-to-make-pots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disnaija.com\/ushafa-where-its-taboo-for-men-to-make-pots\/","title":{"rendered":"Ushafa, where it\u2019s taboo for men to make pots"},"content":{"rendered":"
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P<\/strong>ottery is an old art in the evolution of human society and technology. But in Ushafa, that is exclusively for the women. It is forbidden for men to even think of making pots not minding that pottery is like the trademark of Ushafa, the Bwari Council town of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Under the shade of the trees that dot the space inside the Ushafa Pottery Centre, a woman in her late thirties, Mama Abraham, was busy at her traditional pottery works. Her children were nowhere in sight and she told Abuja Metro<\/strong> that she had been in the business for as long as she could remember because she learnt the art from her mother.<\/p>\n

Ask the dark-skinned woman if she has passed it on to her own children, as that is the only means of continuity of the technology for which Ushafa is known, she said a blunt \u2018no\u2019. Why won\u2019t you let your children know the same thing you make a living from? Or don\u2019t you think it is good enough for them? Abuja Metro<\/strong> inquired.<\/p>\n

The woman straightened up, left her unfinished pot that had passed through the initial firing, looked the reporter in the face and said: \u201cI have only boys. All my children are boys and so, I have nobody to pass the art on to.\u201d Do you mean boys can\u2019t make pots? And she answered again; \u201cit is only women that make pots.<\/p>\n

I have never heard, in fact, it is forbidden that men should make pots. Do you see any man here? You can\u2019t see any because in Ushafa, men don\u2019t make pots. It\u2019s only women that do.\u201d That was the final word.<\/p>\n

Another inquiry confirmed the information. But none could explain why it is forbidden of men to make pots in Ushafa no matter the importance of the trade to the economy and identity of the people.<\/p>\n

Like a way of confirming the stand of the culture of Ushafa that only women must make pottery, Abuja Metro<\/strong> spotted little pretty Sarah, about two years old, pestering her mother, the usual little child\u2019s way. She hugs her mother seeking attention and does her best to distract her from the pot in her hands.<\/p>\n

At another second she jumps off and runs around the space. It seems Sarah was already preparing herself to follow in the Ushafa pottery tradition of taking over from where her mum would leave off. Sarah is already in line of succession in the pottery technology of Ushafa as a woman. Her smiles seemed to confirm that she is like a sure bet to succeed the mother at the pottery centre as she bade Abuja Metro bye after a short exchange.<\/p>\n

Big business<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ushafa pottery is booming business and the centre built for it shows that much. To demonstrate that the people hold the trade with regard, the centre is well furnished for the business. It is a well-built plaza with a modern block that houses the gallery, pottery studio and modern pottery equipment. It is walled round with the interior clean.<\/p>\n

There are two bold signs at the entrance announcing that is the Ushafa Pottery Centre. In the modern building, the operators are not natives; therefore, they are mainly men. Outside the plaza or what you could call the Ushafa modern pottery department, some number of round thatched huts dots the centre. Here is the side for the native potters who are only women. The huts might be useful pottery workhouses when it rains, but on the day of visit, the weather was sunny, and the women were under the trees handling their art.<\/p>\n

Potters\u2019 house<\/strong><\/p>\n

Everyday, the potter women resume at the centre to engage in the trade of doing so much magic with simple, humble and formless pieces of clay. That is what a student of creative arts of the University of Benin who was there for his six months industrial training called the secondary clay.<\/p>\n

In our presence, one of the Ushafa women packed some quantity of clay, rolled her left hand into fist and dug it into the clay to create a grove at the middle. Gently, she started working the clay gradually turning it. It was just a matter of minutes before the clay started changing to a shape that represented the pot she intended to mould.<\/p>\n

By the side of the array of finished pottery was a harvest of clay, the principal raw material waiting for the artful hands to turn it into pieces of valuables.<\/p>\n

Pottery art<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pottery simply means pot-making or the art of creating clay soil into precious wares for all manner of uses depending on what it turns out depending also on the intention of the potter. The potter procures a piece or lump of clay, forms it into shape, inputs some artistic designs on them and sends them to the kiln to fire. At Ushafa as in other traditional pottery works, the moulded fragile pots are exposed to dry a little before they are stacked in a heap and covered with tinder to commence firing.<\/p>\n

The initial firing in the open kiln involves covering the pots with dry items, the tinder, to facilitate burning. After the firing had lasted some hours and the temperature raised to the level the potter intends, it is removed and allowed to cool. The initial firing is to remove the water of plasticity that makes the soft and plastic clay ware take shape.<\/p>\n

After the firing, the pots get decorated with colour motifs depending on the desire of the potter. But before this fire treatment, the fresh pots are embossed and engraved with designs. At Ushafa the women were busy doing that on one pot after the other. At last the wares come out the way the maker desires.<\/p>\n

When the pots return to the kiln for the second firing, the temperature is usually raised to as high as between 1000 and 1200 degrees Celsius depending on what the potter wants to turn out. It is at this point that the real pot is made with the water of chemical combination totally eliminated from the ware.<\/p>\n

The pot turns stiff and can only break but never decomposes or gets reconstituted to the earth even if buried for eternity. That is why potsherds remain valuable historic record trackers in archaeology with dating techniques that determine their ages.<\/p>\n

Primary pottery<\/strong><\/p>\n

While the secondary clay is turned simply into raw materials after some rudimentary treatment, it is a longer process with the primary clay. The secondary or traditional clay undergoes simple cleansing to remove all foreign bodies that could cause gaps and facilitate cracking during firing. In situations where the clay is so plastic, some sand is added as temper to reduce plasticity.<\/p>\n

With the primary clay as raw material, the Uniben IT candidate explained to Abuja Metro that the process differs. If they use the brown clay got from Ushafa, they soak it in a drum of water for about three days during which it sediments and the outcome is a 100 percent fine clay that is removed to dry for some days before use.<\/p>\n

Abubakar Auwal, the pottery undergraduate said the primary clay, a white or cream coloured earth is imported. The supply at the pottery centre is packed in bags. He could not explain where it is imported from but says the use is more advanced and less cumbersome. It is purer and does not need cleaning. The clay is mixed and sent straight to the throwing wheels. But when they have need for the local clay, they take the trouble of cleaning by sedimentation.<\/p>\n

Advanced techniques<\/strong><\/p>\n

They make use of the throwing wheels and other mechanized equipment here at the main block. Auwal\u2019s colleague from a university in the north also there for industrial training, Yakubu Yahaya, picked a piece of clay and rolled it into various shapes on the wheels. As he kicked the wheel to keep turning, the little clay gripped in his hands kept shaping and reshaping as he wished.<\/p>\n

This section has the manual and electric kiln for firing just as it also has manual and electric wheels powered by electricity for the shaping of the pot.<\/p>\n

The centre makes glazed pottery that looks so refined and shiny you find it hard to admit the centre produced it.<\/p>\n

Auwal explained the difference in the pot making processes. For the normal pots, the firing is just in two stages in enclosed chambers powered by charcoal and kept burning by a wheel like the blacksmith\u2019s firing process or in the mechanized kiln.<\/p>\n

He explained that after this stage of firing, if the potter intends to come out with glazed pieces, the products are removed, sprayed or smeared with the glazing substance that comes in powdery and jelly or pasty forms.<\/p>\n

After the glaze coating, the ware is sent back into another kiln where the firing temperature is raised to between 1200 and 1500 degrees Celsius. When the ware leaves this kiln, it is ready with mirror smooth and shiny surface, smooth as marble or tiles. Of course that is the same process through which tiles are produced.<\/p>\n

Large chest<\/strong><\/p>\n

Auwal and Yahaya and their co-potters have a large assortment of pottery for various uses \u2013 flower vases, ornamentals, service dishes, plates, storage pots, cooking pots, religious objects and many more. To appreciate what work that goes on at the Ushafa Pottery Centre, the best option is a visit to this humble but wonderful spot where the skills of people turn clays to magical objects.<\/p>\n

In fact, President Bill Clinton of USA in his days in office visited the centre. On the visitors\u2019 register, Clinton\u2019s name is number one written in red ink in July 2000. He described the products as wonderful works. Hundreds of Nigerians and foreigners have visited the centre in the past 14 years it came into existence to give effect to the old art of the Ushafa women. You should be the next visitor and you would love it.<\/p>\n

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Posted in Nigerian Newspapers. <\/a>A DisNaija.Com<\/a> network.<\/p>\n

Source: The Sun Newspaper<\/p>\n

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