Griot Potters of the Folona reconstructs the past of a particular group of West African women potters using evidence found in their artistry and techniques. The potters of the Folona region of southeastern Mali serve a diverse clientele and firing thousands of pots weekly during the height of the dry season. Although they identify themselves as Mande, the unique styles and types of objects the Folona women make, and more importantly, the way they form and fire them, are fundamentally different from Mande potters to the north and west. Through a brilliant comparative analysis of pottery production methods across the region, especially how the pots are formed and the way the techniques are taught by mothers to daughters, Barbara Frank concludes that the mothers of the potters of the Folona very likely came from the south and east, marrying Mande griots (West African leatherworkers who are better known as storytellers or musicians), as they made their way south in search of clientele as early as the 14th or 15th century CE. While the women may have nominally given up their mothers' identities through marriage, over the generations the potters preserved their maternal heritage through their technological style, passing this knowledge on to their daughters, and thus transforming the very nature of what it means to be a Mande griot. This is a story of resilience and the continuity of cultural heritage in the hands of women.
Barbara E. Frank is Associate Professor in the Department of Art at Stony Brook University. She is editor of Status and Identity in West Africa: Nyamakalaw of Mande, and author of Mande Potters and Leatherworkers. Art and Heritage in West Africa.
Acknowledgments Note on Orthography 1. Marks of Identity 2. Identity Matters 3. Mapping Identities 4. Technology Matters 5. Mapping Technological Styles 6. Objects Matter 7. Mapping Pots Conclusion Bibliography Index
Griot Potters of the Folona excels in its detailed and nuanced engagement with women's histories as gleaned through their embodied and skilled potting practice at the same time as reminds us how models of casted crafting and histories narrated through the frame of majority ethnic groups elide the histories of minority artisan communities and the women who are central to creating and maintaining their vibrant cultural heritage. - Ann B. Stahl (International Journal of African Historical Studies) This exceptional book is the culmination of 40 years of Frank's extensive field research, 30 of which she spent in the Folona region of southeastern Mali, West Africa.... This is an invaluable addition to the literature on craftswomen, pottery making, and gender in West Africa. Highly recommended - C. A. Ventura, Tennessee Technological University (Choice) Griot Potters of The Folona offers an intimate and vibrant tribute to women and artisanal communities with whom the author has shared so much of her time. - A. Delvoye, University of Geneva (African Archaeological Review)
