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My generation grew up in an
environment where we had sour relationships with students coming to school from
villages like Ketchene locality, where weavers, blacksmiths and potters
mainly lived. Those pent up feelings luckily turned into firm and tight
friendships in later years, courtesy to education and scout hood. We still
remain friends to this day. But those days were really tough, if you want the
truth and straight talk.
All sorts of myth and
stories related to evil eyes, werewolves and sorcery were fabricated and told.
We were told that some men who engaged in pottery or iron work were able to
transform themselves into wild animals like wolves, or hyenas. Of course, these
were simply idle talk emanating from ignorance and superstition.
The Ketchene
community was, and still is, a society of hard working people engaged in all
sorts of traditional vocations, including weaving and pottery. Perhaps owing to
the external pressure of wrong impressions of them, they evolved into a
self-relying community that has less to do with the rest of the city dwellers.
Butcheries sell meat at fair prices, grain markets provide the best teff
and cereals, and other products are abundantly available within this locality.
In fact, celebrities like the famous vocalist, Tilahun Gesses, used to visit the
area to enjoy “Shole,” or white tella, a local drink brewed mainly
from white barley. The delicacy is usually drunk from clay containers or bowels
that are made there.
Although we have not yet
reached the stage of paying macabre tributes for traditional pottery, there is
no denying the fact that their popularity has become a matter of langsyne, the
culprits being on the one hand ceramics and other industrial stones, and on the
other the withering away of potters worth their names. I will not be
exaggerating if I say that the old industry has become a subject better left to
museum curators, or souvenir article traders for the tourists, who are the main
customers in this trade.
It always bothers me why
the present day education curriculum does not seem to include pottery as a
subject, even just simply for academic excitement, if not for its economic
benefits. There are international organizations that give training and skill to
potters, like making wheels and drums. They also train the members on how to
efficiently use kilns and burning devises.
If my memory serves me
right, in the early 60’s, there was only one Ethiopian elite, Mammo, who made a
name for himself by specializing in pottery. He had pursued the subject more for
its aesthetic and artistic values than for its functional values. He had his
show room on the outskirts of the metropolis on the Addis-Lekempt Road. Flower
vases of varying sizes, plates, toys, water jars, pots, special plates for
minced meat, or commonly known as kitfo, coffee pots, water cooling
containers, ovens and cups were some of the things he made from clay soil.
Despite his beautiful work, it was mainly the foreigners who admired his serious
craft.
Elsewhere in the world, the
pottery technology has been given due attention and the products are being
marketed at souvenir shops. Last Tuesday, I paid a visit to the Ketchene Women
Potters Association establishment located at the former Kebele 14,
Ketchene area, within the Gullele District.
The association was first
established 18 years ago on the demise of the defunct government. Some 79 women
started it in an old warehouse. The number of the members has now declined to
only 30.
Why did the membership
decline? Could it be that the global economic downturn has stretched its ugly
fingers towards the potters association?
These serious thoughts
flashed in my mind. If there are less and less tourists coming to this country,
obviously sales of souvenirs would decline. It is logical then that if there is
not much revenue earned from the business, the laying off of excess labour is
bound to follow.
An interview I had with the
head of the association, Tigist Beshawork, and the assistant, Tizita Nigatu, was
an interesting one. I must say that both of them looked interview-fatigued, but
did not mind another one with an old codger like me, whom they might have
considered a layman of the craft, which I am. The head of the association told
me that the problem begins with the supply of raw material, or the clay soil.
The special clay soil comes
from bore holes dug deep at the Mariam River site at the bottom of the Entoto
Mountain, bordering Kuskwam School. The supply has decreased and has become more
risky as the bore holes are dug deeper and deeper, according to the head of the
association. Time and again, people have died from cave-ins. Having managed to
get the clay soil, the first step is to spread it on the ground to dry it.
Believe it or not, it is then soaked in water for one week. It is then dried for
another week, combined with some refined sand, and then is mixed thoroughly. The
dough is then rolled in a plastic cover and put away to settle for two or three
days, before it is moulded into the desired designs.
Different shapes are
brushed with a little oil and then burnt; the skilled potters have many
adhesives for better qualities and colours. However, the association lacks a
showroom in the hub of the city. The workshop could have deployed more people
had it not been for the lack of ample space to install their kilns and burning
spots. At times, the association lacks saw dust, or fuel to burn the pottery. |
