The Abuja Pottery Centre founded in 1951

One of the most successful colonial legacies in Northern Nigeria was the Abuja Pottery located in the former Abuja town, now renamed Suleja. It was conceived as a result of the need for a home-grown industry to supply the middle-class Nigerian demand for glazed tableware suitable for European-style meals and drinks. Mr. Michael Cardew an English Studio potter, was given the task of choosing a site for a pottery centre for Northern Nigeria. 

After touring all parts of the North, he wrote in his report submitted to the Department of Commerce and Industries Kaduna in April 1951 that “We decided ABUJA after all, in spite of not being on the railway, good and central for the Northern Nigeria, wonderful local pots, a nice town where trainees can live. Abuja was the place for inspiration and that would make for good pots.”

Following the report, Mr. Cardew was sent to Abuja, by the Nigerian Colonial Government in 1951 as a Senior Pottery Officer and started with a small team of local workmen to build a new Pottery Training Centre. It was a sort of intermediate technology project, a rural industry using the wheel, glazes and high-firing in the European studio pottery tradition, rather than changing the traditional pottery. 

According to the “Chronicle of Abuja”, first published in 1952, and revised in 1962 there were several reasons for choosing Abuja. Among them were the excellence of the traditional pottery made in the emirate, the availability of good clays, and good local sources for the raw materials needed for the glazes. Also, the location of the town at the centre of the whole region, and where learners from many different parts can find a congenial temporary home. 

In Abuja Emirate, the traditional pot making was highly developed and advanced even before the advent of colonialism. Such that while Mr. Cardew was introducing wheels and kilns to the centre, he also learnt about traditional firing methods and ornamentation from the locals. The materials for glazing in the Abuja pottery were sourced from within the emirate. They included Abuchi grey clay, the nearly-white clay from Dangara and the white powdery rock from Bwari. 

The traditional pottery was made chiefly by the Gwari women at Kwali, Ushafa, Kwaka, Idin Kasa, Maitama, Abuchi and other places. The chief kinds they made were pots for carrying water, large jars with wide mouth for storing water in the house, pitchers or jugs with narrow necks for corn beer, casseroles and cooking pots with lids.

All native pottery can be used for boiling water or cooking over an open flame. That was their great advantage over European cooking pots, which had to be protected by an oven. 

With the establishment of the centre, the training provided was based on the old idea of apprenticeship, that a skilled trade or industry can best be learnt where the work is being produced for daily needs and for sale to the public. It was not like an ordinary school, but more like a large workshop for production.

The glazed tableware products included; tea pots of all sizes for early morning tea, big feasts and parties; coffee pots, large and small; jugs of all sizes; tea cups and saucers; tall cups and mugs for European beer; tumbler-shaped cups called ‘beakers’; plates of various sizes, and soup plates; big plates, dishes and bowls for rice or meat or salads; cooking pots with covers and many more.    

The Abuja Pottery Training Centre’s star potter was a woman, Ladi Kwali, whose basic skill and genius were fully developed without formal education before she joined in 1954. For the large pots which Ladi Kwali made in the traditional style of the Gwarin Yamma, a special method was used. There was biscuit firing and painting with a mixture of kaolin and feldspar and dipping in a special glaze. These big pots had been much admired in England and other countries; and in fact, were set without fear beside the best pottery of any country. 

Ladi Kwali’s fame blossomed in the world of pottery beyond the shores of the land with her work being exhibited in Europe in 1958, 1959 and 1962, and her pottery was also displayed during Nigeria’s independence celebrations in 1960. She attended the world exhibition on pottery in Italy in 1981 coined CONEX ‘81 where she was rated one of the best potters in the world.

By the time she died in 1983, Dr Ladi Kwali was not only Nigeria’s best-known potter but also one of the best in the world. The famous Abuja Pottery Training Centre in Suleja, where she made history was renamed as ‘The Ladi Kwali Pottery Centre’.