Given the value attached to fertility in general,
and women’s fertility in particular, clay pots also
participate in defining a woman’s identity.
Learning how to make pots is part of the initiation
training that young Bemba women undergo.
Among the Chewa people already mentioned, for
example, when a woman passes away, one of her
pots is broken and buried with her, thus signifying
the end of her life. This is also done when a
Gurunsi woman (from Burkina Faso) dies. Her
pot is broken as an analogy for her now broken
and lifeless body.
Clay pots are also perceived and used as spiritual
vessels. Indeed, they may house the spirit of those
whose body has died. Such is the case with Ifè ter-
racottas, or with Mma ancestral pots. The same
phenomenon is observable in the African diaspora.
Thus, in Haitian Vodu, the govi, which is a jar
made of red clay, allows the deceased to resume
their active involvement in the affairs of their orig-
inal community. In that capacity, the govi is quite
precious to the living because, when called on, the
spirit is able to dispense advice, guidance, warn-
ings, protection, wisdom, and so on to the living
from the govi. Govis are regularly fed—that is, they
receive food offerings and sacrifices from the living.
Finally, one must also mention the frequent use
of white clay during religious ceremonies. White
clay is generously smeared over faces, masks, bod-
ies, and so on because it is widely believed to facil-
itate communication between the living and the
spirits. Among the Saramacca people, in Surinam,
South America, for instance, white clay is known
aspemba doteand is commonly spread over ritu-
alistic and religious items.
Ama MazamaSeealsoAir; Earth; Wind
Further Readings
Barbour, J., & Wandiba, S. (1989).Kenyan Pots and
Potters. Nairobi: Oxford University Press.
Campbell, J. (1969).The Masks of God:Primitive
Mythology. New York: Penguin.
Frank, B. (1998).Mande Potters and Leatherworkers:
Art and Heritage in West Africa. Washington, DC:
Smithsonian Institution Press.
Jacobson-Widding, A., & van Beek, W. (Eds.). (1990).
The Creative Communion.African Folk Models of
Fertility and the Regeneration of Life. Acta
Universitatis Upsaliensis, Uppsala Studies in Cultural
Anthropology. Stockholm, Sweden: Almqvist &
Wiksell International.CLITORECTOMY
The practice of cutting away, altering, or remov-
ing some or part of the genitals in both men and
women is generally referred to as excision or cir-
cumcision (male) or clitorectomy (female). This
was a prehistoric practice found globally and
in all religions, including Christianity, Islam,
Judaism, and within the spiritual traditions of
indigenous peoples. This practice is found on the
continent of Africa as far back as ancient Egypt
(Kemet) as a social, religious, and cultural custom
practiced on females. More recently, opposition to
the clitorectomy has developed. This entry focuses
on the tradition of clitorectomy, its social mean-
ings, and the recent controversy.Traditional Roots
As a powerful cosmological-spiritual force, the
scholar Cheikh Anta Diop demonstrated the link
of the practice to that of ancient Egypt (Kmt) and
the remainder of Africa. African Gods directed the
rite of circumcision. For example, among the
Yoruba in Nigeria, the God most associated with
circumcision is Ogun. In traditional Africa, cli-
torectomy was performed for social as well as spir-
itual reasons; the practice denoted that the female
was making a transformation into womanhood.
The practice was instituted at the onset of puberty,
incorporating two age ranges for the female candi-
dates: 7 to 15 years and 15 to 19 years.
Other spiritual notations reveal that the prac-
tice was related to the duality of males and
females and the need for gender differentiation.
Therefore, clitorectomy functioned to eliminate
the male aspect in females. It reinforced the cos-
mological ideas that acknowledged the dual or
androgynous nature of the Gods. The act was
much more than an operation on the flesh, remov-
ing what are considered the traits of the oppositeClitorectomy 171