Vessel for Serving Beer (Ukhamba)

Arts of Africa

Mid–20th century

Zulu
KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Eastern and Southern Africa

Zulu potters use a variety of patterns to ornament beer vessels, the textures of which stand in strong contrast to the pots’ highly burnished surfaces. Patterns often run in chains around the shoulders of a pot or take the form of large shapes placed in a pleasingly off-balance manner. The technique of applying raised welts—called amasumpa or “warts”—to fill in patterns is among the oldest forms of Zulu pottery decoration. Here amasumpa are used to define a chain of triangles. On the large serving vessel on the adjacent platform, larger welts are used to render a doublehooked motif.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Arts of Africa

Culture: Northern Nguni
Title: Vessel for Serving Beer (Ukhamba)
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.: Made 1925–1975
Medium: Blackened terracotta
Dimensions: 27.3 × 26.7 cm (10 3/4 × 10 1/2 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Keith Achepohl
Reference Number: 2005.260

Kathleen Bickford Berzock, For Hearth and Altar: African Ceramics from the Keith Achepohl Collection (The Art Institute and Yale University Press, 2005), pp. 189-190.

Art Institute of Chicago, For Hearth and Altar: African Ceramics from the Keith Achepohl Collection, Dec. 3, 2005–Feb. 20, 2006, cat. 123.

Keith Achepohl, Iowa City, Iowa, probably 1984; given to the Art Institute, 2005.

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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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