IDNO

N.19148.ROS

Description

A Bahera? potter seated on the ground wearing a necklace of beads?. To the left, a few pots can be seen. Behind the potter, a Bahera? man wearing a long dark robe and a European-style hat and coat stands. The background consists of a number of plantain? trees.

Physical Condition: Film is a yellow colour.

Place

E Africa; Uganda; Ankole

Cultural Affliation

?Bahera

Named Person

Photographer

?Roscoe, John R.

Collector / Expedition

Roscoe, John R. [Mackie Ethnological Expedition, Uganda, 1919 - 1920]

Date

1919 - 1920

Collection Name

Roscoe Collection

Source

Format

Film Negative Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

This negative was kept in an envelope marked C30/97/ by the cataloguer. The envelope was kept in box marked C30/ by the cataloguer.
Previously stored on Shelf 4, in group of 4 wooden boxes numbered 180.

Context: "Among the Bahera, who are the servants of the Bahuma in Ankole, and are used in all agricultural and building operations, there are artisans who comprise three distinct trades, the smiths and ironworkers in general, the carpenters and the potters. Upon these people the pastoral clans depend for various weapons -tools, household furniture, milk vessels, and water-pots. The ironworkers I will not deal with here, for the smiths are not so skillful as those of the Bunyoro and there are few smelters, the smiths obtaining their metal from Bunyoro and other countries.” (Roscoe, J., 1922. The Soul of Central Africa: An Account of the Mackie Ethnological Expedition. (London: Cassell and Co.). pp. 73 - 74). [ED 12/9/2007]

Context: "Here, as in many parts of Africa, the women are the chief potters, though the art is not strictly confined to them, and there are men here and there who give their time to it. This may be accounted for by the fact that, with the exception of the king and a few chiefs, it is the lower class for whom the vessels are required, and they cannot afford to purchase them from professional potters, but make for their household what pots they require. The king and a few chiefs have their own men to make milk vessels for them, and in the work they produce there is a much higher standard of style and workmanship than in the pots of the humbler class. There can be little doubt that the types of pots, and indeed the art of making them, have filtered into Ankole from the Banyoro, who are much superior in all the arts. All pottery is made by hand, and no attempt has been made to use any kind of wheel for the cylindrical pots. Still, the shapes are wonderfully true and the curves of some of the milk pots are beautifully formed. As the clay is seldom well worked or prepared and the pots are never thoroughly burned, the vessels are brittle, and, unless frequently re-dried in the sun or over a fire, they are liable to break when lifted or carried. The tools used are of a very primitive character. A piece of gourd forms a rest for the base of the pot while the sides are being built up, and another small piece is used as a trowel to smooth both inside and outside. The worker builds up the walls and smoothes them with the gourd trowel until the whole is complete. Such pots are kept some days in a hut, and when fairly hard are exposed to the sun until quite dry. They are then heaped together covered with grass and reed, which are set on fire, and kept there until they are supposed to be quite hard. The water- and cooking pots of the peasants are never polished, though they have a rude decoration in a sort of herring-bone style on them. Milk-pots for the king and chiefs are made thinner, and when dry are rubbed with smooth stone and burned and then polished. This is done by holding them in the thick smoke of burning plantain leaves and fibre, and polishing them with a rag of bark-cloth while they are still hot and have the oily smoke on them. The potter can thus obtain a fine black polish, which he burns on, and which will last the life-time of the pot.” (Roscoe, J., 1922. pp. 74 - 75.) [ED 12/9/2007]

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Elisabeth Deane 12/9/2007]