Images(2)

Beer Vessel (ukhamba)

Artist Azolina MaMncube Ngema South African, 1936–2015

Datecirca 1970–1980

MediumBurnished earthenware and candlewax

DimensionsH. 10 1/4 in. (26 cm)
Diam. of rim: 4 1/2 in. (11.4 cm)
Circumference (at widest point): 34 in. (86.4 cm)

ClassificationsCeramics

Credit LineGift of Dr. Elizabeth Perrill

Object number2018.18

On View

On view

Label TextLow-alcohol, sorghum beer was historically a key part of Southern African nutrition and continues to be used as an offering for ancestors and an expression of hospitality during gatherings. Utilitarian earthenware pots are created for brewing and serving beer. Many families maintain a small altar, or umsamo, a space for presenting beer and meat to ancestors. The earthenware pots are drunk from at funerals, weddings, coming-of-age ceremonies, and other transitional life events. A smaller vessel, an ukhamba, is passed from person to person. A larger iphangela may hold beer for a group and is drunk from with a ladle or cup.

These pots feature a range of geometric patterns created by incised, impressed, and raised-bump techniques. Pots from Zulu-speaking regions are traditionally blackened, a quality that ties them conceptually to ancestors, spirits who prefer dark spaces. Today pots destined for markets and not used for spiritual presentations are produced in a range of browns or black.
[A. Maples, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," 2022]ProvenanceThe artist, Ngoma, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, sold to Elizabeth Perrill, Greensboro, NC, 2006; given to NCMA, 2018.Published ReferencesElizabeth Perrill, Ukucwebezela: To Shine—Contemporary Zulu Ceramics (Bloomington: Indiana University Art Museum, 2008), illus. (color), p. 49, no. 37.

Elizabeth Perrill, Zulu Pottery (Western Cape, South Africa: Print Matters, 2012), illus. (color), 51.

Wendy Gers, “Handbook of the Taiwan Ceramics Biennale,” Critical Currents/Contemporary Ceramics (Taipei, Taiwan: Yingge Ceramics Museum, May 2014).
Exhibition HistoryDurban, South Africa, African Art Centre, May 6–June 15, 2007.

Northfield, MN, Carleton College Art Gallery, “World Ceramics: Transforming Women’s Traditions,” September 19–November 2, 2008, cat. p. 35.

Grinnell, IA, Faulconer Gallery, Grinnell College, “Ukucwebezela: To Shine–Contemporary Zulu Ceramics,” November 14–December 19, 2008; Bloomington, IN, Indiana University Art Museum, February 10–May 24, 2009; Greensboro, NC, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Gatewood Gallery, September 14–October 17, 2009.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," October 7, 2022–present. Object Rights Statement

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