Description
The floodplain of the Mutamba River in Inhambane Province, Mozambique is home to a rich deposit of high quality clay which has been used for up to 1,000 years by the local community to produce traditional handmade pottery products and clay bricks for construction. The clay is so fundamental to local livelihoods that women artisans who represent the vast majority of skilled potters, have a saying in Gitonga, the local language spoken only in Inhambane.
The women artisans depend on their craft to provide meager earnings that complement subsistence livelihoods. Decorative and utilitarian products like cups and pots are often sold below market cost to compete with cheaper, mass produced plastic and metal alternatives. “It is the price charged by a hungry person,” commented one of the artisans about the low price of products. This millennia-old craft is now at serious risk of disappearing because master potters are unable to ear a sustainable and dignified income. The vast majority of master potters are older women and the younger generation has largely abandoned the craft as it is unable to provide viable economic opportunity.
In 2016, A Mozambican Social Enterprise called As Raízes began working with the Mutamba community to preserve and revitalize the traditional pottery industry by introducing processes to improve the quality of the products, increase their value and by creating new market opportunities for them. In 2018, a brand was created to commercialize refined pottery products made in Mutamba. The name is Libumba – clay in Gitonga. The brand does not compete with or replicate existing products, rather if refines and transforms products to create new opportunities. A range of products has been developed which utilize traditional forms and shapes, which are then glazed and fired in an electric kiln producing a beautiful transformed object suitable for food and other uses.
