How FCT indigenous women survive on pottery
Designing press tools is not available to the women, instead they make do with bakain, a small piece made from bamboo stick. It is used to design the pots or vases to the desired patterns.
In addition, a zigzag shape could be done on a piece of wood called kpala. It would now be impressed on the surface of the moist pots to create a uniform pattern. With no hard and fast rules to follow, the women said they are at liberty to design the pots to their tastes.
After sieving the clay, moulding and designing to make a beautiful pot or vases, then comes another tedious part of the job, heating to harden the pots.
“It takes about 10 to 15 minutes to toughen on the fire. Sometimes, when we place a pot on the fire, it breaks. That is how we know that it did not mix properly at the initial stage so we start a new one all over again. To avoid breakage, the pot must be properly mixed and molded,” Ladi explains.
While Safiya buys firewood to fire the pots and vases, others resort to chaff of guinea corn or grasses to save cost.
“I have so many customers. People come from places as far as Lagos, Port Harcourt to buy the pots and vases. Some buy in bulk to resell while some buy for their personal use,” Safiya said obviously ignorant that many of her buyers make fortune from it. She sells a big flower vase for N2,500 which when taken to the city and repainted, costs far much higher.
“The profit is not much,” she said.
On many occasions, the women lose a substantial part of their profits to the re-sellers in major cities, who sell at exorbitant prices.
The sweat of these women has sweetened the purses of many traders. In transit to the markets, some of the pots break, causing the women to incur losses in wasted effort, no thanks to deplorable roads.
Despite these challenges and the need for formal education, Justinah Jonah, having started pottery at the age of eight wants her daughter to go the same trade. The 30-year-old woman said the lucrativeness of the business enhanced her decision, which she said would be beneficial to her daughter though some women in the community prefer their children acquiring formal education to pottery.