Brewing beer has a long tradition among the Zulus, South Africa’s largest ethnic group. The beverage was traditionally prepared by women at home in ornate ceramic vessels specially made for this purpose. This book aims to introduce the vessels’ extensive palette of styles in all its beauty and to save them from disappearing into obscurity.

While there are certainly many studies on African ceramics, profound works that survey the individual regions are for the most part absent. In this respect it is surprising, for earthenware vessels were an integral feature of daily life and impart an insight into many aspects of local culture and social change.

The colourful history of the Zulus since the early nineteenth century, including the violent racial segregation in recent years, accompanied a golden age of traditional arts and crafts, which offered identity and provided a link to ancestry. In the Zulu-speaking region there is a wealth of forms and decorative elements that is unprecedented in South African ceramics. The book presents this multiformity in large-format illustrations, classifi es the beer vessels in a scholarly way and examines the history and geographical dissemination. The infl uence of colonial politics and of the subsequent apartheid laws on style and prevalence of the popular beer vessels are also documented in the current publication.

Zulu Beer Vessels comprehensively analyses and presents these vessels – today almost disappeared

from Zulu life – for the fi rst time. An important contribution to the research on South African ceramics and a unique document of the traditional Zulu beer vessels.