When I was young, my step grandmother traded in pottery. She and her fellow pottery sellers go from Mbaise to as far as Ọkpọsi to buy, and sell at Nkwọ Mbaise and Orie Mbaise.
One day, I went to Nkwo Mbaise with my mother and we stopped over at my step grandmother’s corner at Ọgbọ Ite section of the market. I noticed that not a single man was selling pottery, all the traders in that section were women.
When I came home I asked my father why it was only women trading in pottery and related goods. He told me that pottery requires a certain level of “Nka” as in intricate skills that require lots of patience and women naturally have that.
In 1983, my school organised an excursion to Afikpo. We visited Unwana beach and the Ezeogo’s Palace. We were taken around the vast compound of Dr. Akanu Ibiam. As luck would have it, the revered stateman was home and he welcomed us warmly.
We visited other communities where they have large pottery kilns at the back of their compounds and I noticed that pottery making in Afikpo was mostly a female-dominated profession. Similar to its trading I noticed earlier at Nkwo Mbaise.
We visited one of the elders of the community and during question and answer, I asked the question. I was in Form 1 and if you see how the senior boys glared at me….imagine this “nwa mbashi ITK….”
I still remember the elder saying that pottery is a deeply rooted generational craft passed down from mothers to daughters, often linked to spiritual and domestic roles.
He mentioned that pottery-making is inherited, with skills passed down through female lineages, often confined to specific families within the community.
While at UNN, majority of my friends were in Fine and Applied Arts so I spent free time at their studio. I asked one of the lecturers the female connection with pottery.
I think he mentioned that it has to do with the divine roles of elderly women who are traditionally responsible for creating pots used in rituals, sacrifices, linking them closely to the spiritual life of the community.
Traditionally, Afikpo pottery included specialized red pots used by women for patrilineal shrine houses (Obu). Oral tradition credits the early Egu settlers with introducing this skilled artistry in pottery and decorations.
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If you belong to my generation and you had the privilege of growing up in the rural communities, you would agree with me that all pots of clay belonged to our grandmothers and mothers.
Same way women hold the expertise to create functional clay wares, marketing skills to sell them, and the trademark of ownership at homes.
I would need my friends from Afikpo with cultural roots to enlighten me on how women have historically been the producers, firing pots on communal, often female-only, grounds behind their compounds. And how this has remained a significant aspect of female cultural heritage and economic independence.
Afikpo pottery traditions are deeply rooted, with archaeological findings at the Ezi-Ukwu rock shelter suggesting pottery production in the area dates back to around 2935 B.C. that’s roughly 5,000 years ago.
This Neolithic-era pottery indicates a very old and durable tradition, with stylistic influences extending to areas like Ishiagu and Igbo-Ukwu. Archaeological excavations by Prof. D.D. Hartle in 1966 identified these ancient pottery findings, establishing the site’s significance from the Neolithic age.
Five millennia of delicate skills transfer from grandmothers to mothers and down to daughters.
Kelechi Deca
