Eshowe Museums
Art in Eshowe

Set in the tree-shaded grounds of the historic Fort Nongqayi, Ian Garland Arboretum, KZN Papermakers, the Phoenix Prison Art Gallery, Vukani Zulu Cultural Museum, the Mission Chapel Museum, this fascinating cluster of facilities includes the Zululand Historical Museum (in the fort itself), Adams Outpost Restaurant and Crafts of Africa curio shop.

The building was used as offices, blacksmith workshop and stables, the men being housed outside the fort in traditional grass huts. Through Vukani, men and women have pooled their inherited knowledge of grasses, palm leaves, natural dyes, beadwork, woodcarving and ceramics to produce a range of contemporary items with a traditional theme. The Vukani Museum houses some of the best work collected over the years. When a Zulu wife offers beer to her husband or to guests, she does so in a beautifully shaped black pot, the famous ukhamba. It is used in all beer drinking rituals, particularly to offer beer to the ancestors, and even when broken, the sherds (udengezi) are used to burn imphepho incense to connect to the ancestors. The laborious process to make one of these exquisite vessels starts with a long walk to at least two different rivers to dig clay out of the bank. If the crafter is lucky, she has the use of donkeys to transport the heavy earth back to her home. Once home, the wet clay has to be dried out before it can be pulverised on an ordinary grinding stone. The pot is formed by building up coils of clay and smoothing them down with any found items such as the back of a spoon or a water-worn rock. One has only to look at the work of a beginner to see how difficult it is to maintain form! The hardening pot is put to one side until it has reach leather-hardness, when the design is created using found items once again. Maize cobs, sharpened bicycle or umbrella spokes, combs and anything else that will create an attractive pattern are brought into use. Originally, pots were mostly decorate by attaching little lumps called amasumpa (warts) to stop the pot from slipping but today the most intricate designs are to be found, ranging from leaves, houses and shields to complicated geometric patterns. The pot is allowed to dry further until it is considered ready for firing. The first firing is preferably done with the trunk and leaves of the aloe ferox. The dead trunk is split and used to make a base upon which the leaves are piled. This is set alight and some of the first coals are put into each pot to warm it. The pots are then piled on the fire and more leaves are used to cover them. Traditionally, a Zulu beer pot must be black as it is considered an insult to serve beer in anything but a black pot. This requires a second firing and in this case individual crafters tend to have their own preferences about fuel. In many areas it is regarded as important that the pot is smeared first with cow dung as a way of linking with the ancestors, reminding us of the importance of cattle in the Zulu culture. The fragility of a Zulu pot makes it expensive to transport commercially, so it would only be the serious collector who would be able to include the metre-high imbizo or cooking pot in his collection. Her five daughters have all distinguished themselves as potters, and the other potters of the area have used her work as their benchmark. The museum is also the proud owner of three very beautiful pots made by Ian Garrett in the Zulu tradition.