Brushfire Potters of Mali
Through Obakki’s new endeavour to finding unique craft in all parts of the world, we ended up in the Niger river off of Segou in Mali. This remote region was accessible only by boat - and one gentleman’s job solely was to make sure the boat didn’t have water leaking through the multiple holes in the hull. At one point we even got out and pushed the boat through shallow waters.
Eventually we ended up in this village where these ladies were actively collecting brush and pots they made from nearby clay and made an enormous fire. This happens every single weekend. The raging heat of this large “kiln” cures the pots, then they’re dosed in water to cool down. These pots end up on a boat and shipped to Segou, then to Bamako at local markets.Since tourism died down in 2012 due to terrorism near Timbuktu, this village has looked for alternative methods to sell their product.
This all happened at a very peculiar time - it was the last major trip to Africa in January 2020, just before the pandemic really erupted in Europe.