Vessel (Water Vessel)

Place CreatedMozambique, Africa

CultureMakonde

Date20th Century

MediumCeramic

Credit LineAnonymous gift

Dimensions18 x 21 1/2 in. (45.7 x 54.6 cm)

Object number2004.016.057

Label TextThe Makonde plateau in Mozambique is very dry and women once devoted a large amount of time to collecting water from rivers and wells. The designs on the surface of Makonde vessels evoke women's facial markings and when carried on the head they become an extension of the woman's body.

Until the last few decades, Makonde women had their faces and backs scarred. This scarring, called cicatrization was made as part of age and initiation rites and to enhance woman's beauty. Cicatrization marks are made by cutting the skin and applying an irritant to the wound to darken and raise the mark. The term for this in the Makonde language is the same term used to describe the process of incising clay vessels because a similar technique was used: skin was pierced with a sharp knife and patterns on clay vessels were made by punctuating the surface.

The clay used to make these vessels contains a high concentration of gritty mica, which gives them shimmering surfaces. When the pots are semi-hard, they are burnished with a pebble and decorated with impressed dots and patterns. A mixture of water and kaolin is poured over the vessels when they are till warm from firing, the kaolin pools in the indented patterns and highlights the fine decoration.
Exhibition HistorySpirited Vessels: Creation and Ritual in African Ceramics, Michael C. Carlos Museum, February 7 - April 11, 2004
MCCM Permanent Collection Installation, November 19, 2007 - March 11, 2013
MCCM Permanent Collection Installation, August 6, 2016 - June 30, 2025
MCCM Permanent Collection Galleries, July 7, 2025 - August 3, 2025
MCCM Permanent Collection Installation, September 13, 2025 - June 9, 2026
Published ReferencesMichael C. Carlos Museum: Highlights of the Collections (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2011), 112.
Yaari Felber-Seligman, Fashioning Inland Communities: Trade and Popular Culture in Central East Africa (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2025), 37, Figure 4.

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