The shell called Ladi Kwali Centre

Set up in 1950, the Ladi Kwali Pottery Centre located in Suleja, is a shadow of what it used to be. There is almost no indication of what its founders intended it to be. The center was created under the then Northern Regional Government by Michael Cardew, a British studio potter, with the mandate of […]

Set up in 1950, the Ladi Kwali Pottery Centre located in Suleja, is a shadow of what it used to be. There is almost no indication of what its founders intended it to be.

The center was created under the then Northern Regional Government by Michael Cardew, a British studio potter, with the mandate of identifying a suitable location in which a centre for pottery training of locals could be set up. After touring Northern Nigeria in a bid to fulfill this mandate, Cardew settled for the creativity of the pottery styles amongst the women of the then Abuja and decided that the Centre be established amongst them and named it Abuja Training Pottery Centre. According to him, Abuja was selected as it was central for Northern Nigeria plus its wonderful local pots: a nice town where trainees can live. He referred to the town as the place for inspiration suitable for the making of good pots.

Although the training was meant to expose potters to modern trends of pot making, Cardew greatly admired Ladi Kwali’s styles and techniques that he wooed her into joining his team. Resisting the new trends initially, she later on became a master behind the pottery wheel and acquired skills being a ceramist.

With Kwali’s hard work and mastery displayed by her and team mates, their artistic combination of traditional methods with the new techniques, in no time began to gain international recognition. Its founder sought avenues abroad to expose their works through exhibitions.

Despite the difficulties suffered by the colonial masters to discover and groom talents as well as make them international figures of reckon, it is unfortunate that today, all that is left of the dedication, diligence and efforts of these masters are empty display shelves now home to cobwebs; ovens now homes to goats; roofless buildings, cracking walls and abandoned machines that cost much to acquire.

Paying a visit to the Centre cannot be more boring because there is nothing to excite any tourist about the place. Although some Nigerian and foreign students pay visits to the Centre for research work, there is hardly any item of substance to be relied on. Not even a brochure or handbook to give the slightest information regarding the history or operations of the Centre. All information received is oral as narrated by the Senior Pottery Officer, Ishaya Saidu who spoke to our reporter.

According to Saidu, “Attention has not been paid to the Centre and no form of maintenance is being carried out.” He disclosed that at the moment, there are only eight potters; five females and three males. “Once in a while, we have students who come for industrial training and youth service and also students who come for research like one who was here a few weeks ago from Australia who was writing her project on traditional African ceramics,” he informed. He added that attempts have been made towards producing a brochure but no approval has been received in that regard.

With the beehive of restructuring and rebranding going on in the Federal Capital Territory and its environs, the Ladi Kwali Pottery Centre located opposite the Government Secondary School, Kantoma, Suleja, site of the first Suleija bomb explosion, does not seem to feel any of the impact in its outlook or content.

Despite  works which have come out of this site adorning shelves of museums and other historic sites the world over, the only remembrance of any such affiliation to that era is a piece that seats lonely on a pile of stones cemented in what seems like the caricature of  a fountain. Other works are either said to have been sold off or carted away for personal use.

A situation as this for many like Ephraim Yusuf raises the question, “What does it take for those who should be custodians of our national heritage to protect and preserve these relics? Is it ignorance or mere non chalance because they do not appreciate the fact that this is the major and probably only way we can tell generations unborn what their history is?”