Vessel for Serving Beer

Arts of Africa

1940/1950

Northern Nguni, probably Zulu
South Africa
Eastern and Southern Africa

The Zulu consider sorghum beer (utshwala) to be the food of ancestors. Because ancestors are drawn to quiet, dark spaces, vessels for serving beer are blackened to signify their ancestral association and to create an environment that is more accessible to ancestors. Serving beer to family and guests is a meaningful gesture of hospitality and spiritual connection that is enhanced by the use of beautiful containers. A variety of textured patterns ornament beer vessels and stand in strong contrast to their highly burnished surfaces.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Arts of Africa

Culture: Northern Nguni
Title: Vessel for Serving Beer
Place: South Africa (Object made in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1940–1950
Medium: Blackened terracotta
Dimensions: 22.5 × 27.9 cm (8 7/8 × 11 in.)
Credit Line: African and Amerindian Art Purchase Fund
Reference Number: 1994.316

“Visual Biographies,” Tribal Arts 17 (Spring 1998), p. 28 (ill.)
William J. Dewey, The World Moves, We Follow: Celebrating African Art, exh. cat. (Knoxville, Tenn.: Frank H. McClung Museum, University of Tennessee, 2003), p. 34, pl. 33.

The Art Institute of Chicago, Women’s Work: African Terracotta Vessels, July 26-Sep. 14, 1997.
Chicago, Ill., The Columbia College Art Gallery, Columbia College, African Body Arts: Visual Biographies, Feb. 16-April 11, 1998, no cat.
Knoxville, Tenn., Frank H. McClung Museum, The World Moves, We Follow: Celebrating African Art, Jan. 10–May 18, 2003.

Third World Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa, by 1994; sold to Douglas Dawson Gallery, Chicago, Ill., 1994; sold to the Art Institute, 1994.

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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