Ilorin pottery: A traditional craft on the brink
Over the years in the city of Ilorin, pot making has been reckoned with as an iconic symbol of the town. The ceramist craft, which has been around for decades has been the hallmark of a core element of the city’s identity and a crown jewel of its cultural exports.
However, the story of the Ilorin heathen pot has endured a torrid time and still struggling to survive from the passing hands of time and modernity.
North Central Trust correspondent who visited Dada community, Okelele in Ilorin East Local Government, headquarters of the craft in Kwara State, reports that the trade is still being carried out by women in the community.
Many of them were seen busy moulding different shapes and designs in the age-long craft.
The leader of the women, Alhaja Raliat Saka, who is in her 70s said they faced a lot of challenges and survival struggles of the craft due to modernization.
According to her, she is the 6th generation of potters that have worked in the ‘factory’ over the years.
She said the skill was strictly passed down from generation to generation as a family business that only involved and is inherited by people of the same ancestry. “It is seen as a gift and worthy legacy from our progenitors,” she said.
Findings by North Central Trust revealed that no outsider is allowed to learn or practice the craft and the community is determined to stick to this old way.
Explaining further on this, Alhaja Raliat disclosed that the trade is also strictly for the females of their lineage adding that “Our mother that passed down the craft did not teach any male not even her own sons, talk less of an outsider”.
She, however, lamented that: “We (people of Ilorin) that own it don’t value it. It is people from other places that cherish our craft the more. We enjoy more patronage from people from states like Osun, Oyo, Ondo and the rest, even from Benin City, Onitsha, Warri, they all come here to patronise us, not considering the long distance.
``But it is quite disturbing our altitude regarding the craft as dirty or unhygienic. During the rainy season, we usually run at loss, because rainfall usually ruins the pots that have just been removed from the kiln. Also, excessive rainfall usually doesn’t allow the pots to enjoy enough sun drying”.
She solicited for government’s support to promote their work by helping them to modernise it with provision of modern molding machines that will improve their products.
According to her, lack of capital is a major challenge to them in the business and called on the government to create a platform for soft loans for them to save their ailing business which contributes a lot to the social and political development of the state.