Cleveland Museum of Art

Palm Wine Vessel (kuh mendu)

Date

1900s

Medium

Terracotta

Culture

Probably Babessi or Bamessing, Cameroon, Cameroon Grassfields-style pottery, unknown female ceramicist

Department

African Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Made by a female potter nearly a century ago, this palm wine vessel represents past and present cultural practices in the Cameroon Grassfields (northwest and western Cameroon). Women in the pottery-producing centers of Babessi and Bamessing hand-built these vessels. Their process alludes to pregnancy, labor, and delivery. Passing knowledge from mother to daughter since at least the 1700s, making pottery is a female economic, social, and artistic contribution. Yet many motifs refer to royal or male power, such as the lizards on this vessel. Elegant palm wine vessels like this were appropriate for ritual and hospitality in Cameroon Grassfields royal courts. Serving and sharing palm wine in decorated vessels like this is part of a larger food culture in the Cameroon Grassfields kingdoms that centers on ritual, hospitality, status, and diplomacy.

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