Pottery as Lifeline and Legacy

Thembi Nala: Zulu Potters, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa

For Thembi, pottery making is both a legacy and a lifeline. Her mother, Nesta Nala, was one of the first potters to popularize Zulu pottery and her pots are in museums and prestigious private collections worldwide. Nesta taught each of her five daughters to be potters. But, sadly, the two eldest girls died.

Thembi, now the oldest, has inherited her mother’s ability and ambitions. She’s also inherited the care of her older sisters’ children, and has a child of her own. Despite creating pots of almost unearthly grace, she and the other traditional potters of the KwaZulu region struggle to make a living.

Cukani Zulu Cultural Museum, which is sponsoring Thembi to come to the Market, hopes to promote her work and open markets for other potters and crafters. Thembi, despite overwhelming obstacles, also studies law at the University of Zululand

The Art:

Zulu pots are created from clay dug from local riverbanks, dried, mixed, and hand ground. The pots themselves are built slowly, not by throwing on a wheel, but by coiling lengths of the clay and laying one coil atop the next. Each pot is decorated in patterns using an astonishing array of local tools, from knives and stones to corncobs and even umbrella spokes.

The variety of tools and effects speaks to the creative latitude possible even within the traditional Zulu patterns. After the pots are scored, they’re fired in open pits burning aloe leaves. Traditionally, the pots, beautiful as they are, were used casually for drinking, storage and cooking or for offering beer to the gods.