Title: Annals of the South African Museum = Annale van die Suid-Afrikaanse Museum
Identifier: annalsofsouthaf751978sout (find matches)
Year: 1898 (1890s)
Authors: South African Museum
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: Cape Town : The Museum
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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LOBEDU POTTERY 313
Text Appearing After Image:
Fig. 25. Pots in use; left to right modzheha, nklw, thukhwana, lebetfa; Modjadji's village, 1975. 'Lesabelo' (Fig. 26) A wide-mouthed bowl used as a wash-basin. It is always decorated with a broad, incised band of hatching round the rim. White chalk is rubbed into the incisions, and the bowl is burnished with graphite inside and outside. It was customary for a wife to bring her husband a lesabelo of warm water for washing in the morning. In the 1930s Krige recorded that these bowls were rare and had been replaced almost entirely by enamel basins. For ritual purposes, however, the traditional bowl is said still to be used, for example, a person who is possessed by spirits must use a lesabelo for washing. In 1976 a potter at Modjadji's village made an example on request as none had been seen in use. It differed in shape from the 1930s specimens in that it was not as large and the incised decoration was not coloured with white chalk.

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