Kongo Pottery: Woman's Art from Zaire

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 <head><title>Kongo Pottery: Woman’s Art from Zaire </title></head>
 <byline>Janet MacGaffey</byline>
 
 The superb work done by some
 African potters has been neglected as
 an art form and, since pottery is fragile
 and hard to transport, few examples of
 their work appear in museums. Potters
 among the Kongo people of Western
 Zaire in Central Africa are women and
 in the region in which I lived during the
 course of anthropological fieldwork.
 they make a matte black ware. Its pro-
 duction continues to flourish in the face
 of competition from factory-made pro-
 ducts, although on a smaller scale than
 in the past, because the potters have
 adapted the form and function of thei
 pots to changing social conditions.
 One of these potters is Mayivangwa
 Thérèse. Watching her making a pot
 one is struck by her absolute absorption
 and obvious satisfaction and enjoyment
 in perfecting its shape and decorating
 it. Sometimes she sings to herself as she
 smoothes a surface or incises a hatched
 band of decoration. Her meticulous
 care in achieving a perfectly shaped pot
 or delicately attached molded ornamen-
 tation is the mark of a perfectionist and
 her works are masterpieces of the pot-
 ter’s art.
 To reach her village, Mbanza Man-
 teke, 1 found a local truck carrying
 passengers and produce. The houses in
 Manteke are strung along the road and
 vary from cement block to adobe brick
 to wattle and daub. Arriving in the vil-
 lage on a hot afternoon I found Mayi-
 vangwa sitting on a mat behind her
 house making pots. She does not do this
 every day since potting is a part-time
 occupation that has to be fitted in with
 all the other things a Kongo woman
 does. Women produce and prepare all
 the food—sowing, cultivating and har-
 vesting the crops—as well as fetching
 water and firewood, and caring for their
 homes and children. When potting,
 Mayivangwa works for most of the day.
 making a number of pots in each of
 several styles, drying and storing them
 until she has a number suitable for
 firing.
 The village of Mbanza Manteke has
 a population of 582. It is the seat o
 local government for the district and
 has a school, dispensary and the offices
 of the mayor and police, but most of the
 villagers are subsistence farmers with
 little monev. The village is isolated
 from town life with its stores and busi-
 nesses, which is why Mayivangwa’s
 pots are still in demand in the village
 despite the influx into Zaire of ename
 ware, cheap crockery and aluminum
 pots and pans.
 Traditionally pots were made for
 purely utilitarian purposes; their decor-
 ation and artistic merit varied accord-
 ing to the talent and creativity of the
 potter. Big conical vessels for cooking
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 were set over an open fire on three
 hearthstones; small bowls were used for
 eating and drinking; small water car-
 riers fit into a long, narrow, plaited
 palm-frond basket carried from the
 spring on a woman’s head; large jars
 two feet high were kept in houses to
 store and cool water.
 A Kongo woman has a budget separ
 ate from her husband’s; once she has
 fed her family she can do what she
 wants with the surplus produce of hei
 fields and keep the proceeds if she sells
 it. Likewise a potter keeps the money
 she earns from selling pots.
 Mayivangwa sells her pots for a
 small sum in the village: in 1965 the
 price was about 25 cents. Sometimes
 she takes some to Kinshasa where thej
 fetch about six dollars in the Ivor
 Market, a big market in the city center
 catering to tourists and the wealthy
 The reason for the higher price in the
 city is a change in the function of these
 pots: from being considered purely util
 itarian objects they are now in demand
 in the city as items of traditional art
 For some time Mayivangwa has been
 making a number of purely ornamenta
 pottery pieces, as well as the traditional
 utilitarian forms, to cater to this new
 art market. Some examples are shown
 here: two elephants, a water pot in the
 form of a chicken and a duck. They re-
 flect the influence of European orna-
 mental china animals that Mayivangwa
 has seen in stores or that have been
 brought home to the village by sailors.
 but she has created her own African-
 ized version, decorated with molded
 snakes and lizards. These creatures
 also appear on her water pots. Their
 significance is that they are considered
 by the Kongo to be mediators betweer
 this world and the other world of the
 dead: in Kongo cosmology water and
 amphibians are believed to mediate be-
 tween the two worlds.
 At the National Fair in Kinshasa in
 1970 some of Mayivangwa’s pitchers
 and ornamental pieces were exhibited.
 She had previously won prizes at sim-
 ilar events. Hers were the only pots
 from Lower Zaire in the exhibit; potters
 of her ability are rare in this area.
 Generally potters pass on their skills
 to a relative. Mayivangwa is teaching
 her sister who lives in Kinshasa. Thes-
 Kongo women are adapting to industri
 alization and urbanization by main-
 taining traditional forms appropriate to
 life today and responding creatively to
 changing needs.
 1 For a detailed description of potmaking and pots
 see my article “Two Kongo Potters,” African Arts, Vol.
 IX, No. 1 (October, 1975).
 Janet MacGaffey is an anthropologist and teacher. Sh.
 lived in Zaire for two and a half years and has a specia
 interest in African art and literature. She lives in Haver-
 ford, Pennsylvania
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