- Zulu Beer Vessels in the Twentieth Century: Their History, Classification, and Geographical Distribution by Frank Jolles
This book is a catalogue of Frank Jolles’s collection of Zulu beer vessels supplemented by other Zulu beer vessels found in private and public collections in South Africa and the United States. It gives a detailed account of style developments of Zulu beer vessels from the nineteenth into the twentieth century. As background information, a history of the Kwa-Zulu Natal region in the nineteenth century sets the context for the styles it documents.
The historical record provides data that helps us understand Zulu geographic movement and how these patterns were disrupted by Theophillus Shepstones’s demarcation of space between blacks and whites in the region. This exercise essentially hindered and altered their ability to exercise their chosen way of life. Needless to say, it also impacted the production of material culture.
With this setting in mind, the book categorizes and interrogates the significance of beer vessels within Zulu communities.Beer vessels are categorized into six regions: Phongolo; Nongoma; Hlabisa; Melmoth-Eshowe; Lower Thukela; and Msinga. Each region is given its own chapter and boasts a unique application of existing Zulu decorative motifs on the pot. These regional styles vary from the shape of the pot to the motifs that ornament its outer surface. Jolles also describes varied techniques, such as sticking clay bits to make motifs on the surface (known as amasumpa) or incisions outside the pot that mark these motifs.
Jolles’s study provides enough knowledge of Zulu pottery for a reader to begin identifying the differences of each pot by function and regional origin. This becomes a useful guide to anyone interested in Zulu pottery, as the styles are explained at length. As a person of Hlubi ancestry who grew up speaking isi-Zulu, practicing Zulu customs taken from my mother’s Zulu identity, I also found the book useful for clarifying styles that I had seen but whose origin I did not exactly understand. It was also useful for describing other regional styles about which I was unsure. As such it is a useful tool to anyone who is interested in Zulu pottery and motifs.
The book is beautifully illustrated with high resolution images, making it pleasant for the viewer to engage with the vessels. It is easy to navigate across different styles from different regions, as they are clearly categorized.
The relationship between these pots and other material culture like beadwork (ubuhlalo) and woodcarvings (ugqoko) is also noted but not discussed at length. Still, the book offers clues that can one can follow up on via other sources.
These six identified regional styles share the basic forms of Zulu pots—imbiza, uphiso, ukhamba, and umancishana—and differ in stylization. The basic shape of the Zulu pot is round with a flat base, which distinguishes Zulu pottery from other African pottery; however, regional stylization creates variations of more bag-shaped pots to broad-shouldered forms with a narrow base (characteristic of eMsinga style) to some that have necks at the opening.
This varies according to region and artist. Pot-making is a female vocation due to its association with cooking and the preparation and serving of beer. The diffusion of styles through marriage is interesting, as women introduce new techniques and forms from their home regions into those of their husbands once they marry and move.
Jolles discusses techniques of making the four main forms of Zulu pottery, supported by archaeological evidence to give a stratified evolutionary process to the ways and materials of making pottery over time. These techniques involve the way the clay is fired to burnishing and the materials used at specific times. The size of the pot also informs us about its function:, the larger ones (mainly izimbiza and amaphiso) are used for cooking and storage; the smaller ones (ukhamba and umancishana) are used to serve beer.
The book goes one step further and dedicates an entire chapter to the...
