Ladi Kwali bio: artworks, husband, family, 20 Naira note.
Ladi Kwali is a woman who has carved her name into the sands of time as one of Nigeria’s greatest potters. Ladi Kwali, a woman from a long family of potters, has etched her name in gold as possibly the best female potter Nigeria has ever known, as well as one of the female heroines who helped shape Nigeria.
Ladi Kwali: Profile summary
Full name: Dr Hadiza Ladi Kwali
Date of birth: 1925
Date of death: 12 August 1984 (aged 58–59)
Sibling: Mallam Mekaniki Kyebese
Occupation: Artist, Ceramist, Potter and was also a lecturer
Ladi Kwali: Birth and Early Life
Ladi Kwali was born in 1925 in a small village called Kwali, a village predominated by the Gbagyi tribe (Gwari) in current-day Abuja, which has widened and massively expanded. Though mostly identified as Gwari by locals of the surrounding region, Ladi was Gbagyi by tribe, the tradition that influenced her deeply in her arts. Ladi took the name of her village, which is how she became known as the Ladi Kwali.
In Ladi’s village, one of the popular occupations of women was pottery, and she was born to a long line family of potters. Her aunt taught her this art when she was only a child, using a traditional procedure known as the Gwarin Yamma coiling and pinching method. In quite a short time, Ladi Kwali began making different pots, such as the large pots used as water jars and cooking pots, bowls, and others.
Ladi Kwali: Education
Ladi Kwali isn’t known to have received any form of formal education whilst she was growing up, but she was so good at her pottery that her brother said; “even in the early years of pottery making, Ladi Kwali excelled in the crafts, and her wares were often sold even before they were taken to the markets”.
It was during this time that Michael Cardew, a man appointed by the British colonial government as pottery officer to the Department of Commerce and Industry in 1951, first saw Ladi’s work in the Emir of Abuja’s house, Alhaji Suleiman Barau; he was so impressed that he made plans to mee her.
Mr Cardew established a pottery training centre in Abuja (now Suleja) in April of 1952. In 1954, Ladi joined the centre as the first female potter of the institution, where she learned the art of wheel throwing, glazing, kiln firing, production of saggars, and the use of slip. Within a short period of time, Ladi Kwali took up the position of instructor.
She was good at making designs with sgraffito decoration, which made bowls. This involved dipping vessels in red or white slip and using a quill from porcupines to scratch the decoration through the slip to the underlying body. At the start of her professional career, her cultural background and immediate environment influenced her art, making her create pottery pieces with Gbagyi connotations and displayed with personal idioms.
There was an obvious display of symmetrical finishing in her works that is said to have highlighted a form of mathematical undertone. With the instructor role, by the time Mr Michael Cardew left the training centre, four new females enrolled in the centre to learn pottery.
Despite being known to have no form of formal education before joining the training centre, Ladi Kwali was appointed to be a resource person of the Abuja Pottery Training Centre; Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State; and has demonstrated her skills and prowess in some institutions in Europe and America.
Ladi Kwali: Achievements, Awards, Career and Legacy
Ladi Kwali has achieved so much during her life and, as a result, has received several awards. Amongst the many awards she received are; In 1977, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria awarded her an honorary doctorate degree. In 1980, the Nigerian Government received the highest national honour for academic achievement, the Nigerian National Order of Merit Award (NNOM). Ladi was awarded the national honour of the Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON) in 1981.
Ladi Kwali’s designs, including pots and others, have been featured in international exhibitions of Abuja pottery in 1958, 1959, and 1962, which the founder of the Abuja pottery training Center Mr Michael Cardew, organized. In 1961, she did a live demonstration at the Royal College, Farnham, and Wenford Bridge in Great Britain. In 1972, she toured America with Cardew.
Ladi Kwali has toured multiple countries in the West. Her works, such as Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, USA, Victoria and Albert Museum, and Aberystwyth University Ceramics Gallery, United Kingdom, can be seen worldwide.
Her work has equally shown great acclaim in London during Nigeria’s independence celebration in October 1960, and early in the ’50s, Ladi’s works were in an exhibition at the Berkeley Galleries, London.
In 1963, she was awarded Member of the Order of the British Empire, MBE. That same year, at the 10th International Exhibition for Ceramic Art at the Smithsonian Institute, Washington, she received a Silver Award for Excellence.
The same year she received an honorary PhD from Ahmadu Bello University was the same year her picture was printed on the back of the Nigerian N20 Naira bill.
She has a major street named after her in Abuja and Niger state, in recognition of her services; the road is called Ladi Kwali Road.
One of the biggest convention centres in Abuja, located in the five-star hotel Sheraton holds acclaim for the Ladi Kwali Convention Center. In the early 1980s, the Abuja Pottery Training Centre was renamed The Ladi Kwali Pottery Centre.
Ladi Kwali: Death
Ladi Kwali died in Minna, Niger state, on 12th August 1984 from natural causes. She was buried there.
Ladi Kwali: Facts
1. She was the first female potter at the Abuja Pottery Training Centre
2. Kwali was awarded an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in 1963
3. She was an apprentice to her aunt
4. Her artwork was exhibited at the Nigeria Independence day 1960
5. Her picture appears at the back of the Nigerian N20 Naira bill
She also received the national honour of the Officer of the Order of the Niger(OON) in 1981
7. The Cardew Pottery in Abuja was renamed the Ladi Kwali Pottery, and a major street is called Ladi Kwali Road in Abuja
8. Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria awarded her with an honorary doctorate
9. Her art was shown to great acclaim in London at the Berkeley Galleries
10. The Emir of Abuja acquired several arts of hers
11. Ladi was given the Silver Award of Excellence at the Tenth international Exhibition of Ceramics Arts, Washington D.C
12. A Sculpture of Ladi is been placed at the Federal Secretariat, Abuja.
13. She could not read or write but lectured her work at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria
14. Her Artworks are well known is Britain, Europe and America
15. In 1980, the Nigerian Government invested in Kwali the insignia of the Nigerian National Order of Merit Award (NNOM), the highest national honour for academic achievement.