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Earthenware



It is a clay pottery-making skill practiced within the Bakgatla ba Kgafela community in Botswana's southeast.

Clay pots play an integral role in Botswana’s history and were used in everyday life.

Earthenware comprises "most building bricks, nearly all European pottery up to the seventeenth century, It is usually fired below 1,200 degrees Celsius (2,190 degrees Fahrenheit) and is glazed or unglazed. The basic earthenware is terracotta. It absorbs liquids like water easily.

Traditionally, in Botswana, pottery-making was up to the women to collect clay soil, weathered sandstone, iron oxide, cow dung, water, wood, and grass to create pots into various shapes and sizes of styles and forms according to the traditions and beliefs of their region.

After collecting the soil, the master potter will meditate until she is guided to the ideal spot. After gathering the weathered sandstone and clay soil, the materials are pounded in a mortar and pestle, sieved, and the powders resulting from sieving and mixing are mixed with water to make the clay body. In slab-built pots, shapes are fashioned by hand starting at the base and culminating at the rim of the pot, and they are smoothed with a wooden paddle before firing in a pit kiln.

The most sought-after clays are kaolin-based, which produce red and brown colors. Once the form of the pot has been set, the women decorate the pots with patterns and pictures using natural oxides. They make pots to store beer, ferment sorghum meals, fetch water, cook, perform traditional healing rituals, and worship ancestral spirits.

The earthenware techniques are passed down through observation and practice from mothers to daughters and granddaughters. In the meantime, the number of master potters is declining, prices for finished goods are declining, and mass-produced containers are becoming more common. As a result, the pottery is in danger of losing its practice.

People are rarely used traditional pots as receptacles in Botswana, and only a small number of women in rural areas still produce traditional pottery, they’re mainly for sale. While the tradition is in decline, however, it is showing signs of recovery as the tourism market grows.

As of today, pots are mostly found easily in the south and east of the country, where the best clay soils are to be found. Modern ceramics are produced now in some small cottage industries. Visitors and customers may come to commercial pottery centers in Thamaga, Molepolole, Kanye, and Gaborone. They can purchase incredible clay pots or even learn how to make pottery in these areas.

References

(https://ich.unesco.org/en/USL/earthenware-pottery-making-skills-in-botswanas-kgatleng-district-00753) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pottery#Africa) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthenware) (https://www.botswana.co.za/Cultural_Issues-travel/botswana-country-guide-art-for-all.html) (https://www.botswanatourism.co.bw/arts-crafts) (http://www.news.cn/english/africa/2021-12/06/c_1310355188.htm)


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