...the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Since then he has exhibited annually, mostly in South Africa, particularly at the African Art Centre in Durban. He has won several awards, including an FNB Vita Craft Now Merit Award in 2000, South Africa's leading craft prize. He is represented in numerous national and international collections, both public and private.

Anthea Martin, director of the African Art Centre, not-for-profit organization dedicated to assisting craft producers, introduced me to Clive Sithole's work while I was researching Zulu ceramics and assembling the exhibition "Vessel," held at Axis Gallery, New York, in 2002. (See www.axisgallery.com/exhibitions/vessel/essay.html. An excellent resource on traditional Zulu ceramics is Ubumba: Aspects of Indigenous Ceramics in KwaZulu-Natal [1998], by Brendan Bell and Ian Calder.) Clive Sithole was included in that exhibition, alongside Nesta Nala, his mentor, and Axis Gallery donated partial proceeds from ceramics sales to the African Art Centre. I spoke by telephone with Clive in August, 2006, for African Arts. My thanks to Anthea Martin and Yvette Dunn at the Centre for their help in transmitting images and written materials.

Q: In the past, Zulu women made pottery for practical and religious uses in the homestead. Clive, you have taken Zulu ceramics in new directions. Though you have a Zulu name, it was unheard-of for Zulu men to be potters. How did you become inspired to be a potter?

A: My father, who was Zulu-speaking, died in a car accident in 1977, when I was seven. My mother remarried and we moved to a remote rural area of Lesotho, a place called Kgorong. This is where I first encountered African ceramic traditions, although that was in a Basotho, rather than a Zulu, environment. My stepfather's mother, Alina Maoetsa, who died last year, was a potter. Since I always...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



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