About

Storage Vessel

Mozambique, Makonde

20th Century

Ceramic

Anonymous gift. 2004.16.57

Clay pots are frequently used for storing food and water because the material keeps the contents cool. Makonde women commission these hand-built ceramic vessels and keep them for their entire lives; then they are used to mark their graves. Each pot is embellished with individualized incised patterns and designs, often corresponding to the tattoos and keloids that cover their bodies. Indeed the Makonde word for incising designs on pottery, nkova, also refers to tattooing, once a widespread practice. The decorated pot carried on a woman’s head thus becomes a visual extension of her body. This idea is further reinforced by the visual similarities between the designs of the vessel on display and the hairline of the Makonde Lipiko helmet mask displayed nearby.

Once the pot has dried, the potter applies a coat of slip, a slurry of clay and water, before burnishing the pot to make it shiny. The design is then incised on the surface and fired. Once cooled, the surface is covered in a kaolin wash, which wears away from the surface over time, leaving behind a whitened pattern.