Waja

1May, Okafor .N. and 2Eyisi, Afamefuna .P.
1 – Department of Fine and Applied Arts, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
[email protected]
2 – Department of Archaeology and Tourism, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
[email protected]

Abstract
Traditional pottery making has become one of the major ways through which
Africans have established themselves in world history and development over time.
Pottery making provided man with utilitarian items which served as evidence of
past human activities wherever found. However, in every society, art is dynamic.
Pottery as an art has also revealed this dynamism in several ways and in different
cultures. In Gui traditional pottery, remarkable changes have taken place across
different phases of pottery making. In most cases, these changes are results of
modernization. In the Nigerian traditional society, today, potters have, as much as
possible, continuously sought ways to keep their pottery traditions alive. Although
they incorporate new ideas to their creative endeavours to enable their craft
survive, they continuously work in distinct styles, techniques and idioms that place
their pottery wares and practices in the mainstream of traditional art. Through
ethnographic method of data collection, this paper presents the materials and tools
used in Gui pottery. Subsequently, it analyses distinct changes that have taken place
in their use of these materials and tools as well as their pottery usage. This research,
therefore, studies the effects of modernisation on the pottery traditions of Gui. It
discovered that hybridization of materials and techniques is the key strategy
through which most of these potters have survived.
Keywords: Syncretism, traditional, pottery, pottery techniques, Gui, pottery tools,