1934.8.132.8

Collection type

Object

Description

Roughly spherical ball of dark gray graphite, used for blackening the surface of a pottery vessel during manufacture [RTS 2/11/2004].

Long description

Irregularly spherical ball of graphite, with an opaque dark gray surface (Pantone cool gray 11C), highly polished or burnished over the surface, except for a small, flattened oval patch on the base where the material is matt and lighter gray with metallic flecks running through it (Pantone 401C). There are numerous small flattened areas across the upper parts where the surface has worn down, suggesting that this polish is probably a by-product of using the ball to rub colour onto the surface of a finished pot, prior to firing. It is complete and intact, with a weight of 134.9 grams, and is 55.5 mm long, 52.6 mm wide and 51.5 mm high [RTS 2/11/2004].

Geographical reference

South Sudan

Africa > Eastern Africa > South Sudan

Western Equatoria Li Rangu

Cultural groups

Zande

Person

Maker Mbitim

Field collector Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton

Field collector Hannah Powell-Cotton

PRM source Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton

Date / Period

Date made: Before 1933

Date collected

?28th April 1933

Acquisition information

Donated: 1934

Materials and processes

Material Mineral, Process Modelled, Process Burnished

Dimensions

Height 51.5 mm, Width 52.6 mm, Length 55.5 mm, Weight 134.9 g

Object numbers

Accession number: 1934.8.132.8 Other numbers: 1042

Research and responses

For a brief discussion of the works in the PRM’s collection associated with the Zande potter Mbitim (1930.86.42, 1930.86.43, 1930.86.44, 1931.66.2, 1931.66.3, 1934.8.132.7, 1934.8.132.8, 1934.8.133, 1934.8.134 [illustrated], 1934.8.135 [illustrated], 1950.12.117, 1950.12.118, 1996.53.1), as well as the tools associated with him (1934.8.132.1, 1934.8.132.2, 1934.8.132.3 [illustrated], 1934.8.132.4 [illustrated], 1934.8.132.5 [illustrated], 1934.8.132.6 [illustrated], 1934.8.132.7 [illustrated], 1934.8.132.8), see ‘An Artist of Exceptional Skill: The Zande Potter Mbitim’, by Rachael Sparks, in The Friends of the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, Newsletter, no. 55 (March 2006), p. 10.

For further information about Mbitim and discussion of his work in museum collections (including the PRM), see ‘The Potter of Li Rangu’, by Inbal Livne, in Pieces of a Nation: South Sudanese Heritage and Museum Collections, edited by Zoe Cormack and Cherry Leonardi (Leiden: Sidestone Press, 2021), pp. 135–141, 202–203.

The coordinates that Powell-Cotton gives for Lirango suggests that this is the same as the modern town of Li Rangu, which lies immediately north of Yambio.

This object had been part of the tool kit of Mbitim, chief potter of Li Rangu, and was obtained by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife Hannah at Li Rangu on 28th April 1933 during a shooting expedition to the region. At the time they visited, Li Rangu was a centre of foreign contact for the district (N. Barley, 1994, Smashing Pots, p. 144), something that is illustrated by the type of product Mbitim was producing. Powell-Cotton filmed Mbitim at work; a commentary on that film describes him as follows: "'Mbitim', was an artist of exceptional skill and originality. His pots, jars and dishes were of varied and beautiful form, many decorated with Zande heads and figures, each one distinct, true to type and with its own definite personality. He worked swiftly with his fingers, and a split wood spatula; the only other tools were an achatina shell for the nostrils, and a fragment of gourd. The clay was very light in colour. This man's services are now pledged to the Sleeping Sickness Station at Lirangu, where he is encouraged to make book-ends and other objects of European design, but his work still remains individual" (Mrs Powell Cotton, "Village Handicrafts in the Sudan", Man 34 (112), pp 90-91). They collected several potter's tools and samples of unfired clay from Mbitim, now in the museum collection (see 1934.8.132.1-.7), as well as a selection of his products. For vessels in the Pitt Rivers Museum that may have been produced by Mbitim, see book-ends 1934.8.135 and 1996.53.1, anthropomorphic jars 1934.8.134, 1950.12.117-118 and bowls 1930.86.43-44, and 1931.66.2-3. Other examples of Mbitim's work may be found in the Cleveland Museum of Art (1996.301-302) and the British Museum (1934.3-8.27 and 1931.3-21.48).

Zande pottery is frequently mixed with small flecks of mica, as seen in the traces on the edge of this tool; this which naturally occurs in beds throughout the region, known as hilidiwe, meaning 'slough of the moon' (P.M. Larken, 1926, "An Account of the Zande", Sudan Notes and Records IX no. 1, p. 4). Schweinfurth noted the presence of mica in both Bongo and Zande pottery, which he suggested made their wares very brittle. He believed this mix to be naturally occurring and that potters did not know how to remove it from their fabrics: "... [Zande potters] have no idea of the method of giving their clay a proper consistency by washing out the particles of mica and by adding a small quantity of sand" (G. Schweinfurth, 1873, In the Heart of Africa Volume I, p. 292; Volume II, p. 25). This mica may well have been left in the clay deliberately, as it gives the vessels an attractive sparkle, and does not seem to have impaired the plasticity of the material, as the detailed modelling of Mbitim demonstrates.

Larken discusses Zande customs regarding the collection and working of clay. Clay is usually found on the banks of a stream, and prepared by pounding it in a mortar before shaping it by hand. Tools are limited to pieces of gourd or a rounded pebble for smoothing; decoration is applied by something simple, such as a short stick bound with cord. He describes two kinds of vessels that are made, one with a low collar around the mouth, and another with a bow-shaped neck (see 1931.66.2-3). The smaller pots are said to be used for cooking meat, the larger ones for water or making bakinde; other pots are for brewing beer, while long-necked varieties are used for washing the face and hands - this last type may have a head adorning the neck. Each type has its own Zande name. Decoration often covers the whole surface. Larken goes on to describe the firing and finishing: "When dry, pots are turned upside down and baked in the open, only certain kinds of wood being suitable for the fire. While still red-hot, they are splashed with water in which bark of the ndili tree has been soaked, in order to blacken them. A black polish is sometimes given to the smooth surfaces, by means of graphite grains, which are mixed with water and a little powdered ironstone, painted on the clay and gently but continually rubbed into it with a polishing-pebble before the pot is fired". The resulting vessel is not very strong, and only slightly porous, if at all; broad leaves may be used for a lid, if required (P.M. Larken, 1927, "Impressions of the Azande", Sudan Notes and Records X, pp 129-131). According to Evans-Pritchard, all Zande potters were male (Evans-Pritchard 1971, The Azande, p. 95).

Plumbago is another word for graphite, and it is also known as 'black lead' [www.oed.com; L.Ph 'DCF 2004-2006 What's Upstairs?' 20/10/2004] - although this is a technical misnomer, based on its visual similarity to lead, as the material is a carbon based mineral, and not metallic [RTS 2/11/2004].

Associated publications

Pieces of a Nation: South Sudanese Heritage and Museum Collections, Editor: Zoe Cormack; Editor: Cherry Leonardi, 2021

Search terms: Tool, Pottery, Technique, Specimen, Potter's Tool