LADI KWALI: The Most Famous Potter In Nigeria.

The legendary Ladi Kwali, a woman popularly known for her unique art
of pottery, has no doubt left a legacy that can turnaround the lives
of many, particularly women, in her locality, Kwali in present day
Kwali Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja if
properly harnessed.

PAUSE AT THIS MOMENT.
Please, do you have N20 note with you? check your pocket. Turn it over
and take a look at the back. Yes, the woman you are looking at is
Ladi. Ladi Kwali, Nigeria's most famous potter (or ceramist in modern
parlance). Dr. Hajia HADIZA LADI DOSEI KWALI, MBE, D.Litt (ABU) is the
only woman to grace any Nigerian note.

Dr Ladi Kwali was Nigeria's best known potter. She left a rich legacy
of her work and a school of 'students' who picked up from where she
left at the Abuja Pottery Training Centre. She grew up in a family in
which the women folk made pots for a living.

She was born in the village of Kwali in the Gwari region of Northern
Nigeria, where pottery was a common occupation among women. She
learned to make pottery as a child using the traditional method of
coiling. She made large pots for use as water jars and cooking pots
from coils of clay, beaten from the inside with a flat wooden paddle.
They were decorated with incised geometric and stylised figurative
patterns. Following the traditional African method, they were fired in
a bonfire of dry vegetation

Her pots were noted for their beauty of form and decoration. Several
were acquired by the Emir of Abuja, in whose home they were seen by
Michael Cardewin 1950. In 1954, she joined Cardew's pottery training
centre in Abuja, its only woman potter, where she learned to throw
pots on the wheel. She made dishes, bowls and beakers with sgraffito
decoration but also continued to produce pots using her traditional
hand building and decorating techniques. Most of these were glazed and
fired in a high-temperature kiln and therefore represent an
interesting hybrid of traditional African with western studio pottery

Through Kwali's contact with Cardew, she and her work became known in
Europe, Britain and America. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, her
work was shown to great acclaim in London at the Berkeley Galleries.
She became Nigeria's best-known potter, was awarded a doctorate and
was made MBE in 1963. The Abuja Pottery was renamed the Ladi Kwali
Pottery and a major street in Abuja is called Ladi Kwali Road.

The legacy of Dr Ladi Kwali, a woman of talent who brought the world's
attention to pottery-making, is fast fading away and with it the dream
of several generations, Weekly Trust reports.

A visit to the hometown of Nigeria's most popular potter reveals the
gradually fading away of a once rich and proud legacy left behind by
Dr. Kwali evident in the absence of potters in the village and the
falling apart of a pottery cottage industry that was once bustling
with activities.

Socializer Widget By Talk Of Tourism

SOCIALIZE IT →

Tweet

→

SHARE IT →