Beer Vessels
Zulu speaking Africans use many types of pottery to prepare, transport, store and serve Zulu sorghum beer or utshwala. Utshwala is both a nutritious drink and an alcoholic beverage consumed daily and at joyous occasions honouring ancestral spirits, amadlosi.
Beer is taken for granted when there is a ceremonial slaughter for a feast. However, when an animal is ritually killed in connection with sadness, there is no beer. Whatever the cause for the ceremony, the senior man of the homestead gives the final word to women of his domestic circle to brew beer. Women who are menstruating, breast feeding, or pregnant typically cannot prepare utshwala.
The pottery commonly associated with the drinking of utshwala, is made by the women who learned their craft from other women specializing in ceramics and firing. Women collect clay from alluvial sources with the help of children and perhaps a donkey that can carry heavy loads.
Potters prefer storing the clay near the central byre (cattle enclosure) of a homestead. They mix different kinds of clay according to the type of vessel that is to be constructed. Small drinking pots such as izinkamba (ukhamba singular) require finer clay than a large container, imbiza, in which beer is fermented and brewed.
Ceramic Motifs in the clay
The basic foundation of a vessel is made from coils of clay. After this initial construction, the potter begins smoothing and tapering the walls. In the case of drinking and serving vessels, designs are always added onto the wet clay surface. There are several methods used to decorate a vessel, based on either removing clay from the pot surface by incising into the leather hard clay, or by adding further clay to raise the surface in relief.
The placement of these motifs is intrinsic to the grip of the vessel by the consumer when it is full of beer. Furthermore the motifs should be read from the top as the vessel is usually stored upright on the floor or is customarily seen from the top as it is passed around to the other celebrants.
With incised designs different tools are used to make various patterns. Relief motifs are made by raising the surface of the pot with pellets or strips of clay, the pellets being grouped closely together to create a markedly tactile geometric pattern.
This type of design is usually called amasumpa. There are many different ways of making amasumpa and there are historical associations between the use of this motif and the monarch. The drying vessel is smoothed and then when dry it is rubbed on the undecorated surface with a smooth stone lubricated with a little water, compacting the surface clay particles to create a fine burnished sheen, ukugudla.
Khonzeni Magwaza and kulumeleni Magwaza - at a firing in mPabalane with Kranskop in Background
Baking and Drying, Flaming and Blackening
The clay vessels are left in the sun to dry completely before being fired; the arid winter months are considered the ideal conditions for the incendiary process because the ground is dry.
Flammable materials such as cow dung, grass, wood, and dried aloe leaves fuel the first ‘biscuit firing’ in a shallow pit situated below the potter’s homestead. Each vessel to be fired has a burning ember placed inside it to complete the drying process.
The pots are then positioned in various layers and covered with the fuel before ignition. The firing temperature reaches approximately 900 degrees centigrade. The intense heat changes the composition of the clay, making the fired vessel water resistant.
Only the drinking and serving vessels are given a second carbonised firing to make them black. This process does not strengthen the vessels; the second firing is a customary ritual to honour the ancestors, amadlosi.
Zulu traditionalists say that the amadlosi are enticed to beer ceremonies by the presence of black vessels. The amadlosi prefer dark cool places; the shiny black ukhamba with incised designs, for example, can serve as a welcoming beacon for the ancestors called to protect the living.
Brewing and Serving Zulu Beer
Beer is typically brewed in the drum-like imbiza vessel, an undecorated massive pot smeared after firing with desiccated cow dung to show respect, ukuhlonipha, to paternal ancestors. Cattle products typically mediate relations between the spiritual world and living members of a homestead. This smearing of dung, known as the ubulongwe covering, is also said to shield the homestead from lightening.
Penni Gumbi in Pongola performing ukufusa or Second blackening firing
An imbiza is stored in a sacred place called the umsamo, an area at the back of the main hut, indlunkhulu, marked out by a small raised wall in a semicircular configuration. The umsamo is where the ancestors commune with the abapilayo, or living relatives.
Should beer be brewed, an offering of this beverage in a small ukhamba shaped vessel, umancishana, will be left overnight in the umsamo for the ancestors to bless. When a member of the household dies, a candle is lit and placed in the umsamo to inform the ancestors of the event.
Serving Vessels
The large serving vessel, iphangela, is used to transport beer from the big imbiza to the drinking assembly. The beer is strained through a woven sieve made of strips from the ilala palm fronds. It is sieved from the imbiza into the iphangela and then into sundry ukhamba with the use of a dried gourd.
This is the biggest of the serving vessels and its capacity makes it useful for serving a large gathering of people. It is enormously heavy when full, so in order that the beverage may be delivered to the celebrants it is carried outside slung between two pieces of cloth the ends of which are firmly held by two strong women, thus evenly supporting the vessel and its contents.
The beer is then scooped from this vessel into a drinking vessel with the use of a dried gourd and presented to the first drinker by a woman on her bended knees. She will taste the beer, thus assuring the head of the household that she has brewed properly, and then hand him the ukhamba to drink and pass on to others at the gathering.
Historical Photograph of an Umsamo in mPabalane,
which was subsequently washed a way in a flood
Customs and Traditions
Men and women usually drink in separate groups. If men are being offered beer the ukhamba is usually covered by an imbenge, a woven fibre or grass plate that protects the brew from dust and insects. It is considered disrespectful for a man to stand or wear a hat when drinking beer. He should customarily sit on his haunches or if he is older he should sit on a stool or a chair.
Custom dictates that the drinking and serving vessels are always kept on the floor or at ground level and never stored on tables. This is to ensure that the amadlosi also known as the abaphansi have constant access to the vessels.
L-R : An Unblackened Ukhamba , Clay Grinding Stones and Mat - Used by Magwaza family
Finally, beer in black clay pots is consumed when communing with the amadlosi. The communal drinking of beer encourages amadlosi to engage in commensalisms and good neighborliness.
A reveler cradling a blackened decorated ukhamba will feel solace knowing the beverage he sips and the vessel he touches are imbued with spiritual respect for the ancestors. A ‘hot’ or unblackened vessel would never be used for ceremonial occasions: it is devoid of the protective symbolism that customary beer drinking and pottery embody.
The author is grateful to the National Research Foundation (NRF) in South Africa for providing funds for this research