Gwai River Ceramics: he who improvises wins - ceramics of Zimbabwe

American Visions, Oct-Nov, 1993 by Lisa Kondor

Few people would dream of embarking on a ceramics venture in a remote region of Zimbabwe, making use of its only resources: an abundance of fine clay and a growing population. Nevertheless, six years ago a husband-and-wife team of hoteliers, Harold and Sylvia Broomberg, did just that. Why? Because something had to be done to offer employment to rural folks who otherwise would have added to environmental stress and urban drift. The enterprise flourishes today, but success was not achieved overnight or easily. The story of Gwai River Ceramics is a perfect example of triumph of the human spirit over daunting obstacles and of the extraordinary good will of the Gwai community.

Gwai is a large patchwork area of cattle and game ranches, safari hunting concessions, and forestry reserves in the Matebeleland North province of Zimbabwe. It is flanked by the Hwange National Park to the northwest and by communal lands. Some of the 500 local people who make up the community have never traveled far enough to see a sizable town.

Gwai's pulse is the small Gwaai River Hotel, where old-fashioned, down-to-earth hospitality still exists. The 40 years during which the Broombergs have run it have been far from dull. The Congo upheaval of the 1960s sent streams of Belgian refugees to their door; the seven-year-long war for Zimbabwe's independence during the 1970s was disastrous for business, which did not improve during the following seven years of provincial dissident activity - all vicissitudes that weld a community together.

The hotel stands on a 5,000-acre farm. Within the bowels of this earth lie deposits of the finest clays in the country, which for decades have been shoveled into bags during the dry season and distributed to the country's major potters. Why not use this natural resource, the Broombergs asked themselves, to develop an on-site ceramics enterprise?

They began by forming a partnership with Gerrit Myberg, a self-taught master potter who at the time was a chemistry lecturer at nearby Bulawayo Technical College. In the early months, Gerrit spent his free weekends testing clays and dabbling in ochers at Gwai. Once fully committed, he and his wife, Jean, joined the Broombergs full time, and Gerrit assumed the roles of builder, mechanic, teacher, guide, supervisor and administrator.

Obstacles arose almost immediately. The lack of foreign exchange, for example, meant a shortage of basic equipment. But spurred by the motto, "He who improvises wins," Gerrit dealt with the obstacles one by one.

Improvisation, as it turned out, featured in every area of development. For instance, machinery found in scrapyards formed the basis of the mechanical works at the pottery. "All you need is a bit of technology going into a place like this, and it transforms it," Gerrit says.

Derelict washing machines became raku kilns, occupying a place where stray chickens had roamed, and the pottery company started production in January 1987. Most of the jewelry produced is raku-fired. "We started right from scratch here," Gerrit explains. "Firstly, we made the bricks for [additional] kilns, then the kilns, and then we started making pottery." There are now electric, wood-fired and fast-firing kilns. They may not all hum and purr, but they work.

Fuel for the kilns was available in the form of scrap from nearby sawmills, though it was impossible to find a vehicle to transport it. Neighbors - many of them commercial farmers - came to the rescue and lent their trucks until a tank-like ex-army vehicle was bought and modified into a heavy-duty, all-purpose beast.

While many potters in Zimbabwe still import glazes, Gerrit makes his own, the only imported ingredient being borax. This process alone saves some Z$30,000 (US $4,500) in foreign exchange every year. Glaze consistency improves constantly. It has now become a salable commodity, marketed locally as well as in neighboring countries. Processed sand from the Kamativi River is used in place of feldspar for glazes and clay bodies, while chromite deposits from Selukwe are the basis of green oxides for stains.

Within months, the company's dedicated, eager-to-learn team of employees had absorbed a high degree of skill in producing hand-thrown ceramics. Their creativity began to show in an unmistakable freshness that now characterizes the distinctive Gwai ceramics. Africanized Victorian cream jugs incorporate village motifs. Skillfully executed sculptures of warthogs, owls in the form of poolside ornaments, and stylized hombills show the potters' familiarity with wildlife. Glazed ceramic ducks and guinea fowl have enjoyed a long period of popularity.

In addition to household pottery, insulating refractory bricks came on stream. Maintaining the same high quality as imported bricks, they became the company's main money earner, sought by Zimbabweans to build their homes. Floor and patio tiles were at first made by hand, before a hydraulic press was installed to boost production. Patio tiles, which were recently used to refurbish the famous Leopard Rock Hotel in the Vumba, are in demand countrywide.