Family or clan pot "abusua kuruwa" ·  Ghana, Akan, Ashanti · ID: 3049456

Description

terracotta with black slip,

“Abusua kuruwa” may occasionally be found on household shrines but are used primarily in a post-burial funerary rite, known as “sora”, when the deceased’s soul is finally ushered into the afterlife.

This rite ends at the “asenie” or “place of the pots”, a clan-owned forest site set aside for this purpose. Earthenware pots are used to serve a ritual meal, prepared on site for the deceased’s spirit.

Shaved hair and clipped fingernails of the living relatives and the deceased are put into the container as an expression of clan solidarity and unity to counter death’s destabilizing effect.

Comparing literature

Nollert, Angelika (Hg.), Afrikanische Keramik aus der Sammlung Franz von Bayern, München 2019, p. 258