Vessel for Serving Beer (Ukhamba)

Among the Zulu, pottery is a specialized art form that is practiced by skilled women who make wares for family use and for sale. While many of the same forms of pottery—including the round-bodied and lipless beer-serving vessel—can be found across Zululand, there are distinctive regional styles of decoration. Potters in the Hlabisa region use a comb to inscribe thin, closely spaced lines into the wet clay. On this pot these form a textured panel of delicate ridges around the body that is intersected by a smooth zigzag band at the shoulders.