Marks of Identity: Potters of the Folona (Mali) and Their "Mothers"

30 | african arts SPRING 2007

A potter of the Folona region in southern Mali marks

the wet clay of her pots with a unique sign, a mark that

is passed down from mother to daughter along with

favorite tools of the trade and the technical knowledge

to employ them (figs. 1–2).1 Once dry, the pots are fi red

in huge communal fi rings of as many as 800 pieces at a

time. Th e women say they have no trouble distinguishing their

pots from those of other women in the village, even without

these signatures. Marking the pots is simply something they have

always done. It is a mark of their artistry and, I would argue, of

their identity and heritage as well.

Th e past always leaves a mark. Over time these marks compete

with one another in the historical consciousness of people. Some

become obscured beneath layers of events as traumatic as war-

fare and slavery; as life-altering as birth, marriage, and death; or

as mundane as working in the fi elds, tanning hides, or making

pottery. Th e challenge of reconstructing the history of creative

expression is especially great in parts of

West Africa where artists are minorities

whose histories are subsumed within

the larger concerns of the dominant

population—they may have a diff erent

language, different religion, different

marriage patterns, and different cus-

toms. Th is becomes even more diffi cult

when the artists are women, whose own

identities and histories may become hid-

den beneath those of their husbands.

My focus is a group of women potters

from the Folona region of southeastern

Mali whom I fi rst encountered on a col-

laborative documentation and collec-

tion project with the National Museum

of Mali in 1991.2 Th e dominant ethnic

population in the region is Senufo, with

language and cultural ties to other Sen-

ufo peoples to the south and east. Th e

potters of this area identify themselves

as Dyula,3 and they provide virtually all

of the pottery for both Senufo and Dyula

households in the region. Th ey speak a

dialect of the Mande language shared

Marks of IdentityPotters of the Folona (Mali) and Their “Mothers”

Barbara E. Frank

All photos and drawings by the author unless noted

2 Folona potter Aramatou Kouyaté’s signature is a circle drawn into the rouletted surface with a fi nger and then crossed by a line made with sev-eral pieces of straw held together. Doguèlèdou-gou, Mali, 1991.

1 Folona potter Aramatou Kouyaté com-pleting the rims of two large water storage jars. Doguèlèdougou, Mali, 1991.

SPRING 2007 african arts | 31

by the Bamana and Maninka potters with whom I worked in the

Mande heartland (Frank 1994, 1998).4 It is not at all unusual to

fi nd artisan groups in West Africa who have moved out of their

ethnic homelands in search of new clientele and came to settle as

minorities among neighboring peoples in need of their expertise.

In fact, there is evidence of Mande blacksmiths and leatherwork-

ers doing just that across a whole stretch of West Africa—Sen-

egal, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Côte d’Ivoire, and Burkina

Faso (see Roy 1985). For example, several of the artisan groups

among the Senufo of northern Côte d’Ivoire, including two pot-

ter groups, have Mande traditions of origin even though they are

fully established within Senufo society (Person 1968:57; Tamari

1991:243, 246–9; Glaze 1981:5, 37; see also Spindel 1989:68).5 At

fi rst glance, one might assume that the Folona potters simply

accompanied their husbands along the route and continued to

practice the craft their mothers had taught them.

Indeed, when we asked the potters and their husbands about

their origins, we were told repeatedly that their ancestors had left

“Kaaba” (Kangaba), in the Mande heartland, many generations

before and had come fi rst to Sikasso, and then south to settle in

the villages where they now live. I think the path that led these

men and women to the Folona is much more complicated and

not necessarily a shared path. Although the ancestry of the pot-

ter’s husbands might well be traced to the Mande heartland, my

research suggests that the origins of the potters themselves and

of their artistry lie elsewhere. My evidence comes from several

diff erent domains: analyses of the styles and types of ceramic

objects they make, comparisons of what may be called the styles

of technology6 used in pottery production, and careful study of

the identities of artists. In each of these domains—objects, tech-

nology, and identity —the Folona potters have more in common

with their non-Mande neighbors to the southwest, south, and

east, than they do with their Bamana and Maninka counterparts

to the north in Kangaba and elsewhere. I believe that the story of

these women is one that must be set against a larger story about

the movements of peoples, the transformation of social identity

through marriage, and ultimately the continuity of cultural heri-

tage through artistry.

COMPARING REPERTOIRES

As is typical of this part of West Africa, the Folona potters have

a repertoire of forms that vary somewhat with the age, ability, and

status of the potter, as well as with market demand. Most of these

potters produce large jars for cooling and storing water (jidaga

and jifi nye), smaller pots for cooking (daga, tôdaga), and small

bowls for preparing sauce and other foods (nadaga), or for stor-

ing karite butter (tuludaga; figs. 3–4). Some of these common

pot types can acquire ritual signifi cance through usage once pur-

chased. Cooking pots when used for preparing spiritually charged

herbal medicines then become known as furadaga (lit. ‘leaf pot’).

Th e small basins used to serve food (biele) are indistinguishable in

form from those used for ablutions prior to prayer (selidaga). Th e

general purpose wash basins made by some potters are known by

the generic term faga, but when sold they might just as easily be

used to mark a non-Muslim grave as to wash clothes.7

In some instances, ordinary pots may acquire highly personal

associations for their owners that are not immediately apparent

from their form or function, and that add to their meaning and

value. For example, during an inventory of the pots in the house-

hold of an elderly Senufo matriarch, several large storage vessels

in the compound were identifi ed as ones once used to store mil-

let beer (dolodaga; fig. 5). When we asked how old they were,

the owner was able to provide an approximate age (forty years in

1991) because they were acquired at the time of her son’s initia-

tion rites, a connection apparently as important to the mother as

to the son.

Some potters also make vessels with specialized functions eas-

ily recognized by their shape, such as the small pierced pots used

as incense burners (wusulanbele), the multiple-cupped griddles

3 These pottery forms represent most of the types made in the Folona region, although some are made only by the most skilled of potters (such as the gargou-lette), or only by elder potters, often widows (especially the bamadaga).

4 An assortment of pots made by Folona potter the late Kadidia Kouyaté. They are spread out in the compound on the morning of the fi ring to get the added benefi t of the sun’s warmth. Sissingué, Mali, 1991.


(ngomifaga) for cooking millet cakes, and narrow-mouthed pots

(sheminfaga, shedaga) with holes suffi ciently large to allow the

watering of chickens and other fowl, but small enough to prevent

larger animals from depleting the supply (figs. 6–7).

Some of the Folona potters also make architectural ceram-

ics, including the long thin cylinders (taran) that will serve as

rain spouts to carry the water away from the walls of fl at roofed

mud adobe houses, and fi nials (tiolo) designed to support an

ostrich egg and to protect the adobe pinnacles on Sudanese-style

mosques (figs. 8, 10). Th ese latter are sometimes incorporated

as decorative elements on the Middle-Eastern style cement brick

mosques fast replacing the crumbling adobe ones.

Some kinds of pots are made only by a few potters, often

only on commission, either due to the technical diffi culty of the

forms, or because of continued observance of long held taboos.

Pierced pots for steaming grains or smoking nuts or fi sh (nyin-

tin, basidaga) are more diffi cult to make, and could only be made

by elder women, women past menopause, or women who were

widows, because of the danger to the potter’s reproductive health

wrought by the action of piercing the clay body to make the

holes (fig. 11). Another type of pot that is made only by elder

potters is a small, lidded vessel (bamadaga, jodaga, kurukuruda)

covered with nodules and used to store sacred protective medi-

cines.8 The spikes serve as a warning

to all that this is a vessel that must not

be touched. Such vessels might be seen

tucked in the corner of a private bath-

ing area or nestled in a tree trunk on the

edge of a compound.

A comparison of the repertoires of

the Folona potters to those of other pot-

ter groups in this part of West Africa

reveals the extent to which some pottery

types are found among nearly all ethnic

groups, while others have more lim-

ited, and thus more revealing patterns

of distribution. Like the Folona potters,

Bamana and Maninka potters routinely

make water jars (jidagaw and jifi nyew), cooking pots (dagaw),

sauce pots (nadagaw), wash-basins (fagaw), and incense burners

(wusulanbelew), while some more experienced Mande potters

make steamers (nyintin), gargoulettes and chicken watering pots

(sheminfaga; fig. 12; Frank 1994, 1998). Th e vocabulary of terms

the Folona potters use for these diff erent types of pots are identi-

cal to those used by Bamana and Maninka potters giving a false

impression of a shared tradition. All of these pot types are found

5 Three large pots (dolodaga) in the Senufo family compound of Touk-outio Bengaly. They were purchased for brewing beer some forty years before, at the time of her son’s initiation. They are now used to store grain and other household goods. Sissingué, Mali, 1991.

6 A selection of pots made by Folona potter Awa Kouyaté including a water jar (jidaga), ritual pot (bamadaga), small cooking pot (nadaga),chicken watering pot (shemindaga), and two incense burners (wusulan-bele). Sissingué, Mali, 1992.

7 Folona potter Kadidia Kouyaté joining together the cups of a pancake griddle. Sissingué, Mali, 1992.

8 Folona potter Kadidia Kouyaté scraping the excess clay from the sides of a rainspout (taran). Sissingué, Mali, 1992.

9 Folona potter Kadidia Kouyaté (now deceased), wife of Kadari Kouyaté. Sissingué, Mali, 1991.


among an even wider array of pottery vessels made by Somono

and Fula potters of the Inland Niger Delta region for a diverse

clientele, and are identifi ed there by an assortment of Mande,

Fulfulde, Sonrai, Arabic and French terms.9

Th ere are several types of pots routinely made by Bamana

and Maninka potters that are either rare or nonexistent in the

Folona potters’ repertoires. To my knowledge, the Folona potters

do not make the cooking pot known as negedaga (or barama),

a skeuomorph of the metal cooking pots found among Bamana

and Maninka potters. It is also rare to see the bowl-shaped

braziers with three prongs extending into the interior that are

known among Bamana and Maninka potters as singon.10 Th ese

braziers are a staple of potters throughout the Mande heartland

(Frank 1998; Raimbault 1980:445–6; see also Kawada 1990), they

are also documented among Soninke potters (Boyer 1953:105),

among Bamana and Somono potters of the Inland Niger Delta,

and among Dogon potters (Gallay et al. 1998).11

On the other hand, there are other types of pots made by

the Folona potters that are generally not made by Bamana and

Maninka potters. For example, the multiple-cupped griddles

(ngomifaga) made by Folona potters are rarely found among

Bamana and Maninka potters, and are diff erent in form than

those made by Somono and Fula potters in the Inland Niger

Delta region (cf. Gallay et al. 1998, plate 30). Th e distribution of

these griddles extends from the Folona region, west to Bougouni,

and south to Senufo communities in northern Côte d’Ivoire, and

across northern Ghana and southern Burkina Faso.12

Similarly, the nodule-covered medicine pot the Folona women

called “bamadaga” is another type of vessel unknown in the

Mande heartland.13 Th e closest stylistic parallels are found east

among potters in southwestern Burkina Faso and to the south

among the Central Senufo, where potters make ones virtually

identical in the shape of the underlying vessel as well as the con-

fi guration of the lid.14 Similar noduled vessels are also docu-

mented among the Baule and Akan of central Côte d’Ivoire and

Ghana, among the Lobi, Builsa, Dagari and other Gur-speaking

groups of northern Ghana, into northern Togo, and as far west

as Cameroon (fig. 13).15

Th us when one focuses just on the distribution of more spe-

cialized pottery forms, rather than that of the water jars and

cooking pots made by most potters, the repertoires of the Folona

10 A pair of mosque fi nials made by Awa Kouyaté as part of a group commissioned for a nearby mosque. Sissingué, Mali, 1991.

11 Folona potter Fatoumata Kouyaté piercing the holes of a steamer (nyintin). Sissingué, Mali, 1992.

12 These pottery forms represent the range of those made by Bamana and Maninka potters in the Mande heartland.


13 A Lobi shrine in the town of Birifor, Burkina Faso. In the foreground is one of several offering vessels. Pierced vessels can also be seen on the shrine. PHOTO BY HUIB BLOM (WWW.DOGON-LOBI.COM), 1988.

14 Folona potter Fatoumata Kouyaté helps another potter with the diffi cult part of the process of adding coils to the sides of a large water jar. Sissingue, Mali, 1992.

15 Pots made by Folona potter Fatoumata Kouyaté laid out in the sun on the morning of the fi ring. Sissingué, Mali, 1992.

18 Folona potter Aramatou Kouyaté rolling a braided fi ber roulette over an already tex-tured surface. Doguèlèdougou, Mali, 1991.

16 Folona potter Fatoumata Kouyaté using a dentellated calabash wheel to impress designs on the belly of a water jar. Sissingué, Mali, 1992.

17 The tool kit of Folona potter Fatoumata Kouyaté, including various seed pods for shaping, a metal, bracelet-like tool for scraping excess clay, a metal pin for piercing the holes of a nyintin, and a string of baobab seeds for burnishing and polishing. Sissingué, Mali, 1991.


women seem to have more in common with those of other pot-

ters to the south and east, than they do those of Mande potters to

the north and west in their reputed homeland. One could simply

argue that types of objects oft en fl ow across time, space, and eth-

nic boundaries as items of trade or as goods acquired by people

on the move. It would not be surprising for the Folona potters to

respond to the market demands of their clientele. Diff erences in

object types alone are not enough to support my presumption of

a non-Mande origin for the Folona pottery tradition.

STYLES OF TECHNOLOGY

It is when we turn to examine the styles of technology that we

fi nd more compelling evidence that the origins of the Folona

pottery tradition are to be found somewhere other than the

Mande heartland. Most signifi cantly, the way the Folona pot-

ters make pottery is fundamentally diff erent from the forming

technologies employed by other Mande potters. Th e Folona pot-

ters model their pots by a “direct pull” technique.16 Th ey begin

with a cylinder of clay placed on a broken pottery sherd and set

between their legs on a wooden plank. First with the heel of the

hand and then with the tips of the fi ngers they pound out the

center and then quickly and fl uidly shift to pulling up and shap-

ing the sides. For smaller vessels the original lump of clay pro-

vides enough material to form the body of the vessel, though

additional coils may be added to form the rim. For larger vessels,

large coils are added to gradually bring the sides of the vessel

up to the desired height before the shape is refi ned and a rim

added (fig. 14). Th e Folona potters complete the upper portions

of the vessels, including impressed and rouletted designs, before

removing the pot from the sherd. Th ey then scrape excess clay

from the bottoms with a metal bracelet-like tool,17 and smooth

and consolidate the surface with knife scrapers, corn cobs, and

stones. Th e foot and any impressed decorations are added to the

bottom of the vessel.

In general, pots made by the Folona women tend to have a

greater range of embellishments to their surfaces than most

Bamana and Maninka pots. Th e upper surfaces of water jars and

rims of cooking pots oft en are burnished smooth, painted with

red slip, and polished to a high sheen (fig. 15). It is not uncom-

mon for the Folona potters to roulette the lower surfaces and

then take a red ochre stone and draw another design across the

already patterned surface. Th eir tool kits include at least three

or four woven fi ber roulettes, several carved wooden roulettes,

oft en a dentellated calabash wheel, as well as an assortment of

found objects that make interesting marks when impressed into

the surface of the wet clay (figs. 16–18). Although they use a

corncob for scraping and consolidating the clay, they tend not to

use it for decorative eff ect.

It is at this moment that the Folona potters add a distinctive

mark or signature to most of their pots (figs. 19–20). It might be

nothing more than a single line drawn with the fi nger across the

textured surface of the lower part of the pot, or a series of dots

indented below the rim. Other signatures are more complicated:

a circle drawn with the fi nger, crossed by a line drawn with a bun-

dle of palm fi bers; two small arcs followed by two small parallel

lines; three parallel lines, one thick, two thin, crossed at the bot-

tom by a thin line. Th ese marks are handed down from mother

to daughter, more rarely from mother-in-law to daughter-in-law.

In the event a woman marries into a community where someone

already established has a similar mark, then the newcomer may

create a signature of her own.

In contrast, Bamana and Maninka potters use a convex mold

technique for the initial stages of forming a pot (see Frank 1994,

1998).18 Th ey complete the bottoms of the vessels fi rst, includ-

ing adding feet, and allow them to get leather hard. Th ey then

remove the vessel from the mold and add coils to build the

sides and necks or rims. Only then will minimal decorations

be added, such as a line of twisted string roulette pattern or a

raised ridge around the middle. Variations on the convex mold

technique are used by other Mande potters, such as the Soninke

and some Somono potters of the Inland Niger Delta region, by

potters of Mande origin among the Mossi, and by some Fula,

Dogon, Mossi, and Bwa potters to the north and east in Mali and

Burkina Faso (Roy 1975, 2000, 2003; see also Gallay et al. 1996,

1998; LaViolette 1995, 2000). It is also the method used by two

distinct Senufo potter groups, the Kpeenbele and the Tyedun-

bele, both of whom may have origins in the Mande world (Spin-

del 1988, 1989). Th us, in the method they use to form their pots,

in the extent and variety of textured surfaces, and in the use of

individual potter signatures, the Folona potters are to be distin-

guished from their counterparts in the Mande heartland.

19 Two pots made by Folona potter Fatoumata Kouyaté are ready to be fi red. The one on the right bears her signature of three impressed dots just above the red line. Sissingué, Mali, 1991.

20 Pots ready for fi ring bear the signature of the late Nansarata Kouyaté. Sissingué, Mali, 1991.


A forming technique identical to that used by the Folona pot-

ters (fig. 21) has been documented among the closely related

griot potters of the Sikasso region and eastern Burkina Faso (fig.

22),19 and among Bobo potters and some Dogon potters in the

Inland Niger Delta region to the northeast (Gallay et. al. 1996,

1998). Otherwise, this technique is far more common across a

broad stretch southwest, south and east of the Folona. Nafanra

potters among the Senufo of northern Côte d’Ivoire use a tech-

nique virtually identical to that of the Folona potters, includ-

ing the seating of the potter astride a wooden plank on which

the sherd is placed (fig. 23). A similar technique is used in Côte

d’Ivoire by Mangoro potters of the Katiola and Dabakala regions,

by Baule potters of Tano Sakossou and Wassou (fig. 28), by pot-

ters in the region of Kong, by some potters in Liberia and Sierra

Leone, and by a broad spectrum of potter groups in northern

Ghana.20

Th e fi ring process of the Folona potters is most remarkable for

the timing, scale, and communal nature of the undertaking. Th e

women work for two to three weeks to produce a suffi cient num-

ber of pots to make a fi ring worthwhile.21 Young women and chil-

dren are enlisted to help transport hundreds of pots to the fi ring

ground where one or more large circular beds of thin branches

are laid. While these are communal firings, each woman is

responsible for gathering her own wood and straw, and for plac-

ing her pots on her own pie slice-shaped section of the pile. It is

not uncommon for disputes to arise that must be mediated by the

senior potter so that the whole process may move forward.22

It takes several hours to carefully stack the vessels (fig. 24).

Long, thin rainspouts are placed upright in the center, ringed by

large water storage jars. Smaller pots are stacked on top of these

and around the edges. Even smaller pots and lids are placed

within larger jars. Old cracked pots and broken pieces of pot-

tery are used to support and in some cases shield the pots from

the wind. Chunks of banco (adobe mud) are used to support the

pots, and are later ground and used to temper the wet clay. Th e

entire pile is then ringed with more branches and covered with

straw and thatch.

Th e most senior potter lights the fi re, igniting it away from the

wind to get the most even burning of the pile. As the fl ames rise

the women stand back from the intense heat. Th ey watch closely

and for the next hour or so, as openings appear in the burning

fuel, the women fi ll them by tossing on armloads of straw (fig.

25). Th e main fi re is then left to smolder until dawn.

While the vast majority of pots made by the Folona potters are

allowed to remain the red ochre color of the fi red clay, some of

the Folona potters produce cooking pots to be blackened with

a vegetal bath hot from the fi re.23 While the main fi re is being

tended, several of the women turn their attention to smaller fi res

where these pots have been piled in a similar fashion and allowed

to cook for a half an hour or so. Th e women take up scythes for

cutting grass and hook pots hot from the fi re (fig. 26). Th ey are

smothered with rice or millet chaff , peanut shells or sawdust, and

either splashed with or doused in basins of a prepared solution

of water and the seed pods of nere (Parkia biglobosa) that seals

their surfaces and turns them a mottled shiny black.

By contrast, most of the Bamana and Maninka fi rings I wit-

nessed were individual enterprises, with one or two women fi ring

what they had produced over the course of a single week since the

previous market day (see Frank 1994, 1998). As a result, the scale

was considerably less dramatic than the fi rings we documented

in the Folona.24 Th e principal fuel used was wood, rather than

straw. Blackening the pots was routinely done in a manner simi-

lar to that described above, using acacia seedpods or tree bark

for the vegetal bath. Small water jars and incense burners were

not given this reduction treatment, but remained the red color of

the fi red clay. Th ese fi rings moved at a much faster pace, with the

fi rst pots hooked from the fi re within a half an hour. Th e whole

process—from lighting the fi re to pulling the last piece from the

fi ring ground—was oft en over in less than an hour or two.

Not all Mande fi rings are such small individual undertakings.

For example, the scale and communal nature of the Folona fi rings

is very similar to the large-scale operations in the Bamana village

of Kalabougou (see Goldner, this issue, as well as Raimbault 1980

and Stelzig 1993). Like the Folona potters, these women, work-

21 Folona potter Fatoumata Kouyaté beginning a pot by pounding the heel of her hand into a cylinder of clay. She will shift very quickly to hollowing out the center with the tips of her fi ngers and then begin drawing up the sides. Sissingué, Mali, 1992.

22 A griot potter beginning a pot using the direct pull method in the town of Loulouni, just south of Sikasso, Mali, 2006. PHOTO BY MAMADOU

SAMAKÉ.

23 A Nafanra potter beginning a vessel using the same direct pull method used by the Folona potters. Dagbarkaha, Côte d’Ivoire, 2000.


ing together in family groups, fi re hundreds of vessels at a time.

Small branches, grass, thatch, and straw are the principle fuels

used. However, the Kalabougou potters complete the process,

including blackening the pots, in less than an hour, rather than

leave the fi re until dawn. Comparable large-scale communal fi r-

ings have been documented among Somono and Fulani potters

of the Inland Niger Delta Region, among the closely related griot

potters in Burkina Faso, and among Senufo and Mangoro pot-

ters in Côte d’Ivoire.25

Thus, while adherence to tradition-specific ways of doing

things does play an important role in guiding how potters fi re

their wares, the distribution of diff erent fi ring technologies also

depends on the number of women fi ring, the number of vessels

being fi red, as well as on locally available resources. To put it

another way, the fi ring process can be modifi ed and augmented

as needed, just as the forms of vessels that potters produce can

change as a result of market demands. Th e women with whom I

worked have shown themselves willing and certainly capable of

responding to opportunities, creating new forms, and adapting

to circumstances in some aspects of their artistry. However, they

are much less likely to experiment with the most fundamental

part of the process such as how a pot is begun (see Kawada 1988,

1990 and Gosselain 1998, 1999, 2000).

Th erefore, comparing the styles of technology, especially those

of the initial forming of vessels, produces a distribution pattern

similar to the mapping of object types across the region. In the

way they make pots, the Folona potters have more in common

with their non-Mande counterparts east into Burkina Faso, and

south into Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Côte d’Ivoire, than with

those of potters in the Mande heartland. When one adds a third

frame of reference, that of exploring the identity of these women

against patterns of craft specialization and identity in the region,

some intriguing possibilities for the origins of the Folona women

and their artistry emerge.

MAPPING IDENTITIES

Although they speak a Mande language and identify them-

selves as part of the larger Mande cultural complex, other aspects

of the identity of the Folona potters sets them apart from their

Mande counterparts. Most signifi cantly, they are not the wives

of blacksmiths (numuw), as is expected within the ideology and

practice of most other Mande peoples.26 Th eir husbands are gri-

ots (jeli, dyeli) whose sense of identity today is tied as much to

the artistry of their potter wives as to their more distant heritage

as oral artists and leatherworkers. Th e women say that their hus-

bands are “jeli bobo” or “mute griots” who have left behind the

practice of oral artistry and now engage in farming, trade, and

assist in selling their wives’ wares.

At the beginning of this article, I indicated that the Folona

potters identify themselves as Dyula. In an earlier publication

(Frank 1993), I refl ected on how these women may have come to

be Dyula griot potters. Taking my cue from the women and men

interviewed, I focused my research especially on the turbulent

period in the last part of the nineteenth century. Th roughout

southern Mali, southwestern Burkina Faso, and northern Côte

d’Ivoire, people were uprooted, many were killed, and entire

villages abandoned as a result of the slave-raiding activities of

the powerful state of Kenedougou and the advancing army of

Samory Touré (see Rondeau 1980:297–99 , M. Diabaté 1987:54 –

5). Survivors were “invited” or forced to take up residence

behind the massive walls of Sikasso (Kenedougou’s capital)

where they could be protected and/or their labor conscripted.

When the French siege of Sikasso ended in 1898 with the defeat

of Babemba Traoré, the French asked everyone to return “home”.

24 Folona pots are carefully stacked on a large bed of branches for fi ring, the larger ones in the center and smaller ones placed on their sides, closing the openings of the larger pots. Rough chunks of banco help stabilize the pots and are later ground for temper. Doguèlèdougou, Mali, 1991.

25 After the fi re has been lit, the Folona potters look for openings in the burning straw. They take armfuls of fresh straw and toss it onto the pile. Sissingué, Mali, 1991.

26 While the main fi re smolders, the Folona potters of Doguèlèdougou turn their attention to one or more small fi res of pots to be blackened. They take sticks and scythes and hook the pots from the fi re red hot, smother them with rice or millet chaff, and douse them in a vegetal bath of seed pots and water. Doguèlèdougou, Mali, 1991.


Some apparently did return to their prior villages while others

went to new and diff erent places. I speculated that it may have

been in that mix of peoples that non-Mande women may have

become the wives of Mande griots, forced by circumstances to

lose their family identities even as they preserved elements of

their maternal heritage by continuing to make pottery the way

they had been taught by their mothers. I suggested that they may

have “become” Dyula through marriage to men who had their

own complicated past, one that laid claim to a distant and glori-

ous heritage as griots for kings in the Mande world.27

I now believe the story of the Folona potters “becoming” Dyula

begins well before the late nineteenth century, and that whatever

may have happened during those tumultuous times has only fur-

ther complicated the histories of these men and women. Given

the patterns of connection suggested by my mapping of object

types and technological styles, I have more recently turned my

attention to looking for communities of Mande-speaking leath-

erworkers and griots associated with pottery production east

and south of the Folona. What I have found is that the associa-

tion of griots, and specifi cally of Dyula-speaking griot-leather-

workers with potters, is more widespread than I had previously

realized. Th e Folona potters claim to have come to the region by

way of Sikasso, and indeed, pottery production in Sikasso today

is dominated by griot-potters who produce a repertoire of forms

comparable to that of the Folona potters.28 Th ey make these pots

using the same direct pull technique, they mark their pots with

signatures, and they fi re communally. Th ey have very similar tra-

ditions of migration from a distant “Mande” past to the Sikasso

region, and some have marriage ties with the Folona potters.

Closely related communities of griot-potters also exist

throughout the southwestern corner of Burkina Faso. Like their

relatives in the Sikasso and Folona regions, they produce the

same range of pottery types using the same forming techniques,

including the fi ring of great numbers of vessels at a time. Th ey

too use signatures, even in contexts where just one or two potters

are fi ring their wares.29 And they have oral traditions of move-

ment and resettlement aft er the fall of Sikasso similar to those of

the Folona and Sikasso potters.30

Th e presence of Mande griot-leatherworkers has been docu-

mented across northern Côte d’Ivoire and into northern Ghana,

from the Dan-speaking peoples in the west (Zemp 1964), among

the central Senufo (see Launay 1995), to the region of Kong in the

east (Green 1987).31 Such broad dispersal would have provided

plenty of opportunities for minority migrant Mande men to

acquire local wives. Indeed there is also evidence of male Mande

griots and/or leatherworkers connected with female pottery pro-

duction. Perhaps the most compelling data for such an associ-

ation is found among the group of renowned potters known as

Mangoro centered in the town of Katiola in central Côte d’Ivoire.

Th ere are confl icting stories of the origins of these women and

their husbands, but they are consistent in claiming descent from a

common ancestor known as Serahoule (Koné) who was expelled

from the Mande heartland and came to the region in exile. Ami-

nata Traoré (1985) identifi es Mangoro men as leatherworkers who

became farmers aft er settling in the region, and Mangoro women

as potters who hold dearly the belief that they are continuing the

heritage of their female ancestors from “Kaaba.” Ouattara-Tiona

(1999:40) identifi es the Mangoro as a second infl ux of Mande

migrants to the region (aft er the Muslim-Dyula traders), and as a

“caste” of weavers, hunters, and farmers whose wives are potters.32

I began this article with a reference to the distinctive marks the

Folona potters put on their pots. Such signatures are extremely

rare in West Africa.33 Individual marks are apparently not used

even in those contexts where one might expect to fi nd them—

where potters fi re huge numbers of pots communally, such as in

Kalabougou or in the Inland Niger Delta region of Mali.34 How-

ever, they are used consistently by griot-potters in the Folona, in

the Sikasso region, and in southwestern Burkina Faso. Th is is the

case even when the fi rings are small, incorporating the work of

just one or two women, when there is clearly no need for signa-

tures in order to diff erentiate the pots of one potter from another.

Th ere is no evidence of such marks being used by Senufo pot-

ters, nor have I found references to them among any other potter

groups in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, or Burkina Faso, with one excep-

tion: in describing the fi nal phase of the fi ring process among the

Mangoro potters of Dabakala, one source notes that each potter

is easily able to retrieve her own pieces from the fi re to give them

the vegetal bath treatment because of the personal marks she has

placed upon her pots.35

So, who were the “mothers” of the women potters of the

Folona? Th e Folona potters most certainly share the past with the

griot-potters of the Sikasso region, and of western Burkina Faso.

It also seems possible that the Mangoro potters are their distant

cousins, given the confl uence of distinctive signatures, technol-

ogies, and identities. I suggest that somewhere in their history,

the “mothers” of these potters became the wives of griots who

practiced the craft of leatherworking in the absence of demands

for their skills as oral artists. Th e women continued to work

with clay using the knowledge passed down to them from their

own mothers, and they were very successful. To be sure, history

has taken their lives and those of their descendants in diff erent

directions, presented diff erent challenges, and provided diff erent

opportunities. However, I would suggest that by continuing to

thrive as potters of acclaim, these women have redefi ned what it

means to be griot, Dyula, or Mangoro in their own local context.

My research demonstrates the need to combine a broad regional

approach with in-depth, location-specifi c studies of minority art-

ist groups from their own perspective, rather than from the van-

tage point of the dominant or host populations. While we may

never be able to fully reconstruct a comprehensive picture of

Africa’s artistic past, I suggest that the traditional focus of art his-

tory on objects, combined with the study of technological styles

and with the study of aspects of identity such as gender and craft

specialization, can signifi cantly contribute to our eff orts to better

understand the history of African cultural traditions generally,

and especially the history of women as artists. •Barbara E. Frank is associate professor of art history at Stony Brook Uni-

versity. Her primary research has been in Mali, West Africa, where she

has worked with ceramic and textile artists, leatherworkers, and black-

smiths on artistry, technology, and social identity. Her major publications

include Mande Potters and Leatherworkers. Art and Heritage in West

Africa (Smithsonian, 1998, 2001) and an edited volume Status and Iden-

tity in West Africa: Nyamakalaw of Mande (Indiana, 1995). bfrank@

notes.cc.sunysb.edu


Notes

Many people have contributed to my research

over the years, including colleagues, friends, and family

here in the United States and in Mali. I especially wish to

thank Marla Berns, Anita Glaze, Adria LaViolette, Chris-

topher Roy, the late Roy Sieber, William Siegmann, Carol

Spindel, and Jerry Vogel for sharing knowledge from

their own fi eld experience. Kathleen Bickford Berzock,

Christine Kreamer, and Catherine Bernard each made

substantive recommendations on earlier draft s of this

article helping me to articulate my thoughts and clarify

my argument.

1 Folona is an earlier name for the region encom-

passing the town of Kadiolo and its environs and now

part of the administrative cercle of Kadiolo.

2 Th is project was funded in part by the ucla

Fowler Museum of Cultural History and the West

African Museums Program (wamp). All of the pieces

collected went to the National Museum of Mali, along

with photographic documentation and fi eld reports

(see Frank 1993, 2000). Th e project was undertaken

while I was in Mali conducting research on Bamana and

Maninka potters under the auspices of a Fulbright-Hays

Research Fellowship. I returned to the area on my own

for follow-up research in 1992 when I was in Mali on a

Social Science Research Council Grant. My continuing

research on these women has benefi ted from traveling

with Jerry Vogel in Côte d’Ivoire during the summer of

2000 when I was a faculty member on the Drew Uni-

versity summer abroad program and by a Smithsonian

Institution Senior Fellowship at the National Museum

of African Art combined with sabbatical leave from

Stony Brook University during the 2005–2006 academic

year. Th is article also incorporates information from

interviews conducted on my behalf in the spring of

2006 in the region by Mamadou Samaké (one of my

colleagues on the 1991 project) and in Burkina Faso by

Dahaba Ouattara and Susan Gagliardi.

3 Th e term dyula (jula, dioula) is a generic Mande

word for ‘trader’ and indeed it was primarily trade

that brought the ancestors of the present-day Dyula to

southern Mali, southwestern Burkina Faso, northern

Côte d’Ivoire, and northern Ghana (Launay 1982, 1992).

Th roughout this region, Dyula has become recognized

as an ethnic label for peoples who speak a dialect of the

Mande language and profess and proselytize the Muslim

faith. Th e Dyula continue to be recognized for their

commercial activities, even though many have taken

up farming to support their families. Th ey are associ-

ated especially in northern Côte d’Ivoire with the craft s

of weaving and indigo dyeing and, as my research has

indicated, some are also known as having once served

as griots (oral artists, musicians, and spokesmen) and

leatherworkers. In earlier publications I have referred

to these women as Dyula (or Jula). However, since my

contention is that the origins of their pottery technol-

ogy, and by extension the origins of their “mothers,” is

not Mande, and thus not Dyula, I have chosen here to

use the more neutral geographic label of Folona to clar-

ify my argument. I have also chosen to use the phrase

“mothers” in the way that people would oft en use the

phrase “anw faw” (lit. ‘our fathers’) to refer to ancestors

of the distant past.

4 Th e Mande heartland region is that traditionally

understood as the center of the thirteenth–fourteenth

century Mali empire, located in west-central Mali across

the border into eastern Guinea, including the present-

day towns of Kangaba (Mali) and Kankan (Guinea).

5 Not all authors agree with blanket identifi -

cations of Mande origins for diff erent Senufo artist

groups. Glaze (1981:5, 30, 34–40, 227 n. 28) identifi es the

Tyeduno (Tyedunbele, Cedumbele) numu blacksmith-

13 Singular vessels with nodules (and snakes) have

been documented in archaeological contexts in the

Inland Niger Delta region (cf. McIntosh 1989).

14 According to Spindel (1989:71–2), these pots

are made by Kpeenbele potters only on commission

arranged secretly due to fear of accusations of sorcery.

Th e essential form is predetermined, as are the number

of rows of bumps (three), but the client may specify how

many bumps are to be modeled in each row. Newman

(1974) includes a photograph of a woman making one

of these vessels identifi ed only as a potter in Korhogo,

Côte d’Ivoire. See also Förster (1985).

15 An exhibition catalogue with pieces collected in

Silaya, Guinea, shows a lidless pot with nodules similar

to the Folona pots (Kivekäs 1993:56, 61). For information

on Lobi uses of this kind of vessel, see Schneider 1986,

1990 and Meyer 1981. For other images of the shrine at

Birifor as well as other images from Burkina Faso and

Mali, see Huib Blom’s website, www.lobi-dogon.com.

Th e Field Museum in Chicago has one in its collections

identifi ed as a Baule medicine pot (cat no. 210113)

collected in 1957, and the Fowler Museum has one

collected by Marla Berns in Bonakire, Ghana. Other

sources include Builsa (Kroger 2001) and Kabré, Togo

(Vermot-Mangold 1977). I purchased one in the market

at Ketu, Benin in 1995. As noted by Berzock (2005), the

distribution of this type of noduled pot extends well

into Nigeria and Cameroon.

16 See Roy 1975, 2000 and Gosselain 2000 for a

discussion of diff erent forming techniques and their

terminology. Th e term “direct pull” most appropriately

describes the action of pulling the side of the vessel

up aft er the cylinder or lump has been hollowed out.

Th e term “pinch pot” is also used by some authors but,

like “direct pull,” it does not capture that initial action

of pounding the center out of a mass of clay. French

(cf. Gallay et al. 1998) sources more accurately use the

phrase “creusage à la motte” (‘pounding a lump’) to

describe the initial stage of handling the clay on the

palette before the sides are drawn up. Some interesting

comparative research on the signifi cance of bodily posi-

tions and gestures, including those used by potters, has

been done by Kawada (1988, 1990).

17 Iron, braceletlike scrapers similar to the ones

used by the Folona potters are found among related pot-

ters in Sikasso and Burkina Faso, among Senufo potters

in Côte d’Ivoire (Spindel 1988) and in Bonakire (Berns,

this issue).

18 While the convex mold technique is used by

potters of Mande origin throughout the heartland

regions, variations on the direct pull technique have

been documented among a number of southern Mande

speakers, including the Kono (Hardin 1993, 1996:41),

Dan (Fischer and Himmelhaber 1984:162), Bandi (Sieg-

man 1977), Wan and Mono (Biot 1989), and Mangoro

(Biot and Fofana 1991, Comoé Krou 1975). Gosselain

(2000) suggests that, because these variations are much

more common among some southern Mande speak-

ers long isolated from the core Mande region, this

technique might represent an early or “proto”-Mande

way of making pots, replaced in the heartland regions

by an intrusive convex mold technique. I am intrigued

by this possibility even though it does not explain the

unusual confl uence of identity and craft production in

the Folona region (i.e., how the wives of griots rather

than those of blacksmiths could have become potters).

I think it just as likely that the male ancestors of the

peoples now recognized as Southern Mande may have

married local women whose pottery skills refl ect a now-

lost maternal heritage. I think we both agree that much

more documentation of ceramic traditions is needed

throughout the region, from Guinea, Sierra Leone, and

Liberia, across Côte d’Ivoire and into northern Ghana.

potters as being of Mande origin and suggests that the

Kpeene (Kpeenbele) brasscaster-potters may also be of

Mande origin. Spindel (1989:68) is more cautious about

theories of Kpeenbele origins. Th e Kpeenbele with

whom she worked speak Kasara, the dialect of their

Senufo hosts, as a fi rst language and Dyula as a second

language. Th e third group of potters among the central

Senufo—the Nafanra—are described by Spindel (1988:8,

10–16) as somewhat of an anomaly because they are the

wives of farmers, rather than belonging to an endoga-

mous occupational group as do the Kpeenbele and the

Tyedunbele.

6 For a discussion of the concept of technologi-

cal styles and related cultural behaviors from which I

drew my initial inspiration, see Lechtman 1977. Closely

related to the concept of technological styles is that of

the “chaînes opératoires,” the notion of the signifi cance

of the sequence of certain procedures and gestures in

craft production (cf. Gosselain 1998, 1999, 2000). See

also the work of Bernhard Gardi (1985) for his linking of

craft technology and ethnic identity in a focused study

in the region of Mopti, Mali.

7 See Frank 2000. I visited two of these cemeter-

ies. On each occasion, permission had to be granted

by the non-Muslim proprietors. One was about 5km (3

miles) from the village of Doguélédougou, where there

were about twenty shaft tombs dug into the ground with

a central space and chambers dug off to the sides. Th e

pots were placed upside down above the shaft and the

bottoms were pierced. One of the potters told me the

pots were pierced to make them unusable and thus less

likely to be stolen. I fi nd it more plausible to imagine

that the piercing was done as part of the burial rituals,

but I have no information on such rituals. Th e cemetery

did not appear to be well maintained: Most of the pots

were broken, exposing the shaft s and the remains they

contained. At the second cemetery near the village of

Sissingué, there was what appeared to be a relatively

recent burial, with most of the pot concealed within the

mound of earth over the grave.

8 One source suggested that this type of vessel is

used especially to contain the medicines to treat a child

ill with tetanus.

9 Th ere is a considerable diversity of ceramic

types in the inland Niger Delta region, refl ecting the

cosmopolitan nature of the region. In addition to the

common forms found elsewhere, one fi nds weights for

mosquito nets, ceramic supports or feet for beds, pots

with raised platforms in the center for ritual ablutions

prior to prayer, pot lids, and a variety of architectural

elements. See LaViolette 2000:135, Gallay and Huy-

secom 1989, Gallay et al. 1996, 1998.

10 I documented just two examples of this kind of

brazier in the village of Sissingué, both in the context

of household inventories rather than in the process of

being made. Our informants identifi ed these braziers as

tasumafaga or tasumadaga (lit. ‘fi re bowl’). Th ey were

not familiar with the term singon.

11 I photographed braziers of this type among the

items off ered for sale by Somono potters in Djenné and

by Fula potters in Fatoma (Frank 1998).

12 Spindel (1988:45) identifi es this kind of griddle

among the objects made by Kpeenbele potters. One was

also collected by Marla Berns in Bonakire, Ghana in

1978; they are documented among the Bulsa of northern

Ghana (Kroger 2001), and among the Lobi of Burkina

Faso (Pere 1988). A rectangular version is found in

the repertoire of Nuna potters of Tierkou (Banaon

1990) and among the Gulmanche (Geis-Tronich 1991)

of Burkina Faso. Kawada (1990) illustrates a potter in

Bougouni (Mali) making a griddle of the type made

by Folona potters, but the ethnicity of the potter is not

identifi ed.


19 I was fi rst alerted to the presence of potters in

eastern Burkina Faso working in a manner identical to

the Folona potters by Christopher Roy’s dvd (2003) on

pottery forming and fi ring techniques, which includes

a segment by a griot potter in the village of Pelignan.

Field interviews done in the spring of 2006 in Pelignan,

Kawara, and Oulonkoto by Susan Gagliardi and Dahaba

Ouattara in southeastern Burkina Faso and by Mama-

dou Samaké in the Sikasso region of Mali revealed the

close historical and social ties among these potters and

the potters of the Folona.

20 It is diffi cult to fully assess the parallels between

diff erent techniques from verbal descriptions. Ide-

ally, one would like to be able to compare segments of

video documentation as they would capture both the

speed and subtleties of the gestures involved. William

Siegmann’s (1977:55–6) description of pottery making

techniques among the Bandi of Liberia and those of

Kris Hardin (1993:243–5, 1996:41–2) among the Kono

of Sierra Leone correspond to those used by the Folona

potters in the directness of the initial forming technol-

ogy. For Nafanra potters, see Spindel 1988 and Soppelsa

2000; for Mangoro potters, see Comoe Krou 1975; for

the potters of Kong, see V. Diabaté 1988; for vari-

ous potters of northern Ghana, see Priddy 1974. Most

sources on pottery-forming techniques among the Mo

and other Akan-related groups of Côte d’Ivoire and

Ghana (Crossland 1989; see also Berns, this issue and

Roy 2003) describe a direct pull technique in which the

sides are pulled up from a ring of clay placed directly

on the ground. Roy Sieber (personal communication),

however, observed another forming technique among

the Mo in which the potter forces a depression with her

fi st in the center of a mass of clay before pulling up the

sides.

21 Th e number of pots and the frequency of fi rings

vary from week to week and from season to season. Th e

fi rst fi ring we documented in Doguélédougou was the

most dramatic —two huge piles of 500–600 pieces each,

plus three other smaller piles of pots to be blackened.

Th e potters in Sissingué (a smaller community) stack

just one huge pile with eight to ten of the thirty-fi ve or

so active potters fi ring some 600–800 pieces at a time.

Th ey do not blacken any of their pots.

22 On one occasion the dispute was over whose

wood was to be placed in the very center. On another a

woman who was helping a friend mistakenly placed her

friend’s pot on someone else’s section of the wood bed.

23 Th e potters of Sissingué were familiar with the

techniques of blackening cooking pots hot from the fi re,

but they said they no longer undertook the added bur-

den because the market did not support the extra eff ort.

Both fi rings we saw in 1991 in Doguélédougou consisted

of two large piles, one with three smaller piles of pots to

be blackened and the other with just one supplementary

pile. Th is diff erence between these two main pottery

centers in the Folona is apparently still maintained as

confi rmed in follow-up interviews in the region in 2006

by Mamadou Samaké,

24 Th e largest Bamana/Maninka fi ring I docu-

mented had about seventy-fi ve pieces and represented

the work of four women from one family compound.

Most of the fi rings I saw involved one or two women

and included anywhere from six or eight pieces to as

many as thirty-fi ve or forty.

25 In his video on pottery techniques Christopher

Roy comments on the unusually large scale of the fi r-

ings in the village of Pelignan, Burkina Faso. In a study

of ceramic technologies across Burkina Faso, Kawada

(1975) singled out the griot-potters of Kawara for their

large fi rings. For fi rings among diff erent groups in Mali,

see especially Mayor 1999 and LaViolette 2000; for Sen-

ufo in Côte d’Ivoire, see Spindel 1989; for Mangoro, see

Traore 1985.

Mande griot-leatherworker migrants to the region. See

also Launay 1995.

32 A study undertaken in the early 1970s (Th oret

et al. 1971) identifi es two distinct groups of potters in

the neighboring region of Dabakala—the Mangoro and

the “Djéli.” Th e latter are identifi ed as griots or leather-

workers whose wives are potters. Th e author(s) report

that the Mangoro potters compete with Djéli potters

in several local markets and that they have ceded the

Dabakala market to their Djéli competition. Th e text

says there are two communities of Djéli (leatherwork-

ers or griots) whose women make pottery; however the

map indicates four—Djélisso, Gbadougou, Nanfale, and

a quartier in Dabakala. Th ree communities of Mangoro

potters are identifi ed on the map—Kawolo Mangorosso,

Kpana, and Djemala Mangorosso. Research for the

project was apparently done in Kawolo. Clearly, more

research needs to be done on both of these groups of

potters in order to understand their relationship to one

another as well as any relationship in the distant past to

the Folona potters.

33 Th e use of potters marks has been documented

among the Soninke (Gallay 1970:25) and among the

Dogon (Gallay 1981:92), but in each case, it was noted

as an exception to the general rule, something done by

only a few individual potters.

34 Janet Goldner (personal comunication, see also

her contribution to this issue) told me that the Kalabou-

gou women fi re with other women of their household

and that there is no need to distinguish individual

pieces one from another.

35 “… chacune des potieres s’approche du foyer

avec une longue perche terminee par un fer recourbe,

et saisit un par un ses propres pots qu’elle reconnait

grace à la marque individuelle qu’elle y a imprimee; …”

(Th oret et al. 1971:7) “…each of the potters approaches

the fi re with a long pole ending with an iron hook, and

seizes one by one her own pots which she recognizes

thanks to the individual mark she has placed on it.”

References cited

Banaon, Kouamé Emmanuel. 1990. Poterie et Société

chez les Nuna de Tierkou. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner.

Berzock, Kathleen Bickford. 2005. For Hearth and Altar:

African Ceramics from the Keith Achepohl Collection.

Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago.

Biot, Bernadine. 1989. “La poterie Wan et Mona dans

la region de Mankono: Une contribution à l’étude de

la céramique ivoirienne.” Annales d’Histoire, Université

d’Abidjan 17:31–52.

Biot, Bernadine, and Lémassou Fofana. 1991. “Con-

tribution à l’histoire des techniques anciennes de

Côte d’Ivoire : le cas de la céramique.” Godo Godo 12

(May):91–126.

Boyer, G. 1953. Un people de l’Ouest Soudanais: Les

Diawara. Mémoires de l’Institut Français d’Afrique

Noire, no. 29. Dakar: Institut Français d’Afrique Noire.

Comoé Krou, Barthélemy. 1975. “La poterie, industrie et

art de la femme en Afrique noire.” In Civilisation de la

Femme dans la Tradition Africaine, pp. 391–420. Paris:

Editions Presence Africaine.

Conrad, David C., and Barbara E. Frank, eds. 1995.

Status and Identity in West Africa: Nyamakalaw of Mali.

Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Crossland, L.B. 1989. Pottery from the Begho-B2 Site,

Ghana. Calgary: University of Calgary Press.

Diabaté, Moulaye. 1987. “Contribution à l’Etude de

l’Histoire du Peuplement allogène du Folona.” Memoire

de fi n d’etudes, Ecole Normale Superieure, Bamako.

26 Th e ideological separation of artists from the

rest of society, maintained through endogamous mar-

riage practices, is most salient in the core Mande region;

see Frank 1994, 1998, Conrad and Frank 1995, and

Tamari 1991. Among southern Mande peoples, by con-

trast, most artists are specialists by choice, rather than

by hereditary right and obligation (William Siegmann,

personal communication.)

27 In my search for clues to the origins of the

Folona potters, I looked fi rst to the Central Senufo

of northern Côte d’Ivoire. As noted above, the most

important group of Senufo potters, the Kpeenbele,

produce a range of objects similar to the repertoire of

the Folona potters. However, their use of a convex mold

has more in common with the forming techniques

used by Bamana and Maninka potters than with the

more direct method of the Folona potters. Th e second

most important group of potters among the Senufo, the

Tyedunbele, also use a convex mold in making pots.

Like the Folona potters and many of their counterparts

elsewhere, the Kpeenbele and the Tyedunbele are mem-

bers of minority artisan groups who maintain a separate

identity from their farmer hosts through endogamous

marriage practices. However, they are not the wives of

griots or leatherworkers, but of metalsmiths—brasscast-

ers and ironworkers respectively—who have their own

confl icting traditions of northern origins. Th ere is a

third group of potters among the Senufo, the Nafanra,

who share a similar forming technology with the Folona

potters, but, they are the wives of farmers and are not an

endogamous group. Spindel (1988:10–16) was unable to

explain how the Nafanra potters came to be the wives of

farmers (or conversely, how the wives of Senufo farmers

came to be potters). She speculated on whether Nafanra

women might have learned from Tyedunbele or Kpeen-

bele potters who sought refuge among the Nafanra

from the warfare and slavery that wreaked havoc in the

region in the late nineteenth century; however, she ran

into the problem of then trying to explain the diff er-

ences in their technologies. She noted the similarity of

the techniques used by the Nafanra women and those

documented among the Baule. See Soppelsa (2000) for

a comparison of Nafanra and Baule techniques.

28 In January and February of 2006, Mamadou

Samaké, one of my colleagues on the initial documen-

tation and collection project, conducted a series of

interviews on my behalf in the Sikasso region, as well

as follow up research in the Folona region. All of the

information included here about the potters of the

Sikasso region comes from his research. His fi ndings in

the Folona region confi rm the persistence of traditions

we documented in 1991 during the collaborative project

and during my research in 1992.

29 Kawada (1975) noted the use of signatures in

large-scale fi rings among the griot-potters in Kawara

(near Sindou) in Burkina Faso. A signature is also vis-

ible on the pots assembled for fi ring in the village of Pel-

ignan in Christopher Roy’s video on pottery techniques

in Burkina Faso. Dahaba Ouattara and Susan Gagliardi

have documented the use of these signatures in several

villages.

30 According to information collected by Bou-

reima Diamitani (1999:65) in the town of Pelignan in

Burkina Faso, the griot-potters there came originally

from an area south of Korhogo in northern Côte

d’Ivoire. He records a familiar story of forcible removal

to Sikasso, followed by emigration to Pelignan where

the women found good sources of clay and were asked

to settle by their Senufo hosts.

31 See Frank 1995 and 1998 for a discussion of the

distribution of Mande griot-leatherworkers and espe-

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erworking group among the Senufo known variously as

Tyeli, Tyelibele, or Celebele, whom I believe were early


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Marks of Identity: Potters of the Folona (Mali) and Their "Mothers"

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