African cooking pots are more than just utensils; they are vessels of culture, history, and community. For centuries, these pots have been central to food preparation, reflecting the ingenuity and resourcefulness of African people. From the simplest clay pots to the more elaborate designs, each type tells a story of tradition, adaptation, and innovation.
Potjiekos, a traditional South African stew cooked in a three-legged pot.
Traditional Yorùbá Cookware: A Glimpse into Nigerian Culinary Heritage
In Nigeria, the Yorùbás have a rich culinary tradition that relies heavily on local cookware. For an immersive experience in the culinary heritage of Nigeria, local cuisines are best savoured when cooked with local cookware like Ìkòkò irin, Àdògán, Ìjábè, Odó àti Ọmọ odó. These tools are essential for preparing authentic dishes that capture the essence of Nigerian flavors.
The Local Kitchen Setup
A typical local kitchen in Nigeria consists of local pots (called Ìkòkò irin in Yorùbá language), firewood (Igi ìdáná) and pot stands (Àdògán). These elements create the ideal environment for traditional cooking.
A typical local kitchen setup in Nigeria.
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The Enduring Appeal of Traditional Pots
Centuries have gone by and more cooking techniques have emerged, but many home-grown Nigerians still prefer to consume local cuisines made in traditional pots. Purist fans of local pot cooking say the difference is in the taste from the smoke emitted by the firewood beneath the pot and straight into it while cooking.
Recycled Materials and Local Markets
Local people in different parts of Nigeria specialize in manufacturing big cooking pots from waste aluminium. Àdògán are very often recycled tyre wheels, while firewood goes through the process of logging on plantations, and are traded at the local farmers' market.
The Cauldron and the Stick: Preparing Àmàlà
Nigerians boast of many significant practices and distinctive values in eating habits, preparation techniques and consumption mores of using local cookware to prepare cuisines. Àmàlà, which occupies a prime spot on the menus of local kitchens in the southwest, is best prepared in a cauldron and beat (or stirred) with a traditional wooden baton called omorọgùn.
Amala being prepared in a local pot.
The Significance of Ọmorọgùn
Ọmorọgùn comes in different shapes and sizes. For easier stirring, some prefer to use the baton that is slimmer, like a stocky spatula, while others prefer to use the baton that looks like a big stick and is comparable to a thick rod. With the rod, it is easier to stir and smoothen the thick paste of Àmàlà.
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The Allure of "Party Jollof Rice"
"Party jollof rice" is unarguably the most commonly desired rice in Nigeria because of its unique taste. It is believed by many to be the ideal kind of jollof rice because of the way it is prepared: in outdoor kitchens, using a large cauldron, and cooked over firewood. The heat and smoke that emanate from the firewood and charcoal during the cooking process means that many Nigerians only get to eat this recipe at parties where meals are cooked for large crowds. Hence, the name "party jollof rice".Jollof rice cooked in a local pot.
The Essential Frying Pan: Agbada
Frying pans are an essential component of cookware since many dishes require frying. The pans are called "agbada" in Yoruba and are made up of thick metal which absorbs and conducts well enough to heat up the oil poured into it. There is a famous proverb that says "tí agbada ò bá gbóná, àgbàdo ò lè ta" which means "if the frying pan is not hot, the corns cannot pop."
Other Outdoor Kitchen Instruments
Aside pots and pans, other instruments such as mortars and pestles, sieves and even cooking brooms are used in outdoor kitchens to bring out the unique taste of food.
Mortar and Pestle: Odó àti Ọmọ Odó
Mortar and pestle are known as "odó àti omọ odó" in Yorùbá language. They are manufactured by local wood carvers and sold at local and regional markets, including roadsides within communities. They are primarily used for the preparation of pounded yam but can also be used in the processing and grinding of pepper, millet, maize and other grains.
A traditional mortar and pestle.
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It takes a lot of physical energy to prepare pounded yam in a mortar and pestle. The way the pestle crushes and then smoothens the yam is different, enabling the release of more flavour. The process of pounding yam also keeps the end product fresh for a longer duration than when it is prepared in a food processor.
Cooking Broom for Èwédú
Èwédú soup (made from Jute Mallow leaves) is often prepared by the Yorùbás and is known for its greenish slimy appearance when cooked. It is best prepared with a cooking broom. The cooking broom, a small bunch of broomsticks (known as Ìjábè by the Yorùbás), is used to mash the ewedu until it dissolves in the liquid and forms a light slimy soup. With the broom, it is easier to feel the viscosity of the ewedu and determine when it is just right to be dished out.
The Local Sieve
Locally fabricated sieves used in outdoor kitchens can almost be as wide as pots. They are used for fine-grained or powdery food ingredients such as flour. The most common type of flour for amala is the yam flour, which is also known as "amala isu". Uneven particle sizes are sieved out of the flour, which is known as "elubo" in Yoruba language, before processing into Amala.
Yam flour being prepared for Amala.
The Art of African Pottery: More Than Just a Craft
African pottery pieces are conversations across time. Generations of knowledge-about clay, fire, and what a community needed-all in a seemingly simple pot. No two pieces are the same, and that’s the magic of it. Styles shift as you move across the continent.
Making a pot starts with the mining and preparation of clay, then blending it with water until it reaches a malleable state. Temper or matter like ground sand, pebbles or old pottery, chopped dried grass and dung or crushed chaff from winnowing grains and rice is kneaded in to the clay to decrease the shrinkage that occurs during the drying and firing processes.
Pots are generally coiled around a flattened base and then molded and smoothed into shape. Sometimes an actual mold of pottery, wood or a calabash is used. Once the desired form is achieved they are left to be sundried before being wood fired for the first time for at least 4 hours at a low temperature. base surround a thick layer of fuel on to which the pots are placed. is strewn between the pots.
Decoration of vessels happens once the pot has completely dried. The potter can choose between adding extra shapes (like human or animal figures and geometric or abstract forms) to the surface or incising motifs like zigzags or cross hatchings with a sharp blade or combs. Handles or lids can be molded and attached to adorn the pots or textural patterns can be impressed with roulette.
7 African Pottery Designs That Belong in the Spotlight
- Zulu Beer Pot - South Africa: Known as ukhamba, this pot was designed for sharing sorghum beer during rituals or community gatherings. Its rounded shape, delicate walls, and lack of foot make it perfect for communal use. The small bumps covering the surface aren’t decoration-they help you hold it.
- Bamana Water Jar - Mali: Bamana women have kept pottery traditions alive for centuries. Their pots, used for cooking or carrying water, often feature symbolic carvings across the surface.
- Igbo Terracotta Jar - Nigeria: Women in southeastern Nigeria made these for ceremony. They coil by hand. Raised floral motifs and incised lines cover the surface-showing exactly how detailed hand-built pottery can be. Igbo design thinks deeply.
- Songye Water Pot, Democratic Republic of Congo: A tall neck rises above a round base. Vase-like proportions that reveal generations of refinement.
- Lobi Brewing Pot - Burkina Faso: The Lobi made various ceramic styles and this brewing pot is one of them. It starts with a lump of clay at the base, then walls build upward with careful coils. Spikes on the surface were used to discourage children from touching it. Finally, handles on each side mean it was designed to sit over heat, to be held and moved.
- Nupe Filter Pot - Nigeria: In Nigeria’s Niger state, the Nupe people had a long tradition of creating beautiful African pottery pieces. This design is genius. Two chambers, one on top of the other, separated by a narrow neck. Liquids poured in the top filter slowly to the bottom. The Nupe people didn’t just create pottery-they engineered it.
- Ladi Kwali Pottery - Nigeria: Ladi Kwali brought Nigerian pottery to the world in the mid-1900s. She took traditional techniques and evolved them-mixing ancient methods with modern glazing and fine carving. Her pots feature animals and plants, connecting nature to craft.
Ladi Kwali brought Nigerian pottery to the world in the mid-1900s. She took traditional techniques and evolved them-mixing ancient methods with modern glazing and fine carving. Her pots feature animals and plants, connecting nature to craft. She was so celebrated that Nigeria put her on their currency. These pots deserve to be seen.
Pottery by Ladi Kwali.
Potting in the Banda Area: A Scientific Craft
Today imported metal and plastic vessels dominate kitchen equipment in Banda. But in centuries past people used locally made pottery to meet their daily needs. Of all the skilled crafts long practiced in the Banda area, only potting continues as an active craft in the early decades of the 21st century.
Potters are practicing scientists. They must know about the properties of clay and how those differ depending on a clay's source. They must understand how raw materials interact--for example, how adding other materials (called temper) to clay affects the firing process and the finished product. They must also understand the properties of fuels used to fire pots and how the intensity of heat, the flow of oxygen and duration of a firing can affect the finished product.
Potters not only need to know about the materials and processes involved in making a pot. They also need to know how a pot’s shape relates to its uses or functions. As examples, a pot used to cook yams needs to be larger than one used to prepare soup.
As a first step in making pots, potters assemble their raw materials and tools. Potting clay must be dug (mined) and carried to the potter’s workplace, which is typically by her home. Potters are skilled at identifying places on the landscape where useable potting clay can be found. They know that clays (fine-grained soil sediments) with the right properties are often found near rivers and other water bodies.
The Potjie: A South African Culinary Icon
When the Dutch landed at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652 they too arrived with their cast-iron cooking pots. As these intrepid explorers ventured into the heartland of Africa, they had no choice but to cook on a fire in the open bush. There were no more kitchen hearths and no way to suspend the pots. In a moment of genius someone, somewhere adapted the pot and gave it a slightly domed lid and three legs - three legs that could stand practically anywhere in lieu of suspending the pot.
When this portable, three-legged, cast-iron pot arrived in South Africa it became known as the potjie - pronounced poy-key - pot or Dutch oven. Any food that was cooked in a potjie was known as potjiekos - pronounced poy-key-kos - and literally translated means ‘pot food’.
Different types of Potjie pots.
As the Dutch continued their expeditions into the interior, the tribal Africans traded animal hides and other commodities for these practical potjie pots. These slowly replaced the clay pots that they used for cooking. Amongst the African tribal cultures these pots became known as putu or porridge pots and were used for cooking everything from maize meal porridge to game meat to fat mopani worms using any fuel source available - even animal dung!
In South Africa, they have a whole family of potjie pots to choose from. They come in a range of sizes from mini (holding 0.35l) to the giant number 25 (holding 70.5l). And to make it worse, you can now choose from a range of three-legged potjies, platkpotkies (basically potjies with their legs cut off) and bake potjies (which look like casserole dishes, but funnily enough are used for baking bread known as pot bread).
In South Africa, a traditional potjie dish is built in layers with the meat and hard vegetables at the bottom and the softer vegetables at the top. The experts say that you must never stir a potjie while cooking! This is because the potjie’s round belly allows the heat to be evenly distributed around the pot ensuring even cooking while its heavy, domed lid prevents any moisture escaping.
The Tagine: A North African Culinary Staple
The tagine, is a North African cooking vessel consisting of a flat rimmed dish and a tall conical lid. The term tagine also refers to the slow-simmered stews cooked in this vessel. Tagines are a staple in Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria, both as a kitchen tool and as a major dish in their cuisines.
The tagine vessel is designed for low-temperature simmering, which allows complex flavours to develop while keeping the ingredients moist and tender. The conical lid, which usually features a small opening at the apex, traps moisture and returns it to the stew. Tagines thus require minimal water-an advantage in the desert of North Africa-and can soften tough cuts of meat.
A Moroccan Tagine.
Stews cooked in a tagine often consist of meat, poultry, or fish with vegetables, nuts, and fruit. Nearly all tagines contain onions, which form deghmira, a thick sauce. Tagines often include both sweet and savory ingredients, and common combinations include chicken with preserved lemons, lamb with apricot and plums, and fish with tomatoes, cilantro, and lime.
Black Influence in the Restaurant Industry and Commercial Kitchens
The influence of Black chefs and culinary professionals extends far beyond home kitchens and traditional food preparation. In the commercial and noncommercial kitchen sectors, Black culinary traditions and innovations have played a pivotal role in shaping the restaurant industry. Black chefs have increasingly taken the culinary world by storm, making significant strides in an industry traditionally dominated by white chefs.
Icons like Edna Lewis, often referred to as the “matriarch of Southern cooking,” introduced the world to the depth and richness of Southern cuisine. Chef Marcus Samuelsson, born in Ethiopia and raised in Sweden, has become a prominent figure in the global restaurant scene. These trailblazing chefs have paved the way for a new generation of Black culinary professionals who are now establishing their own establishments.
In commercial kitchens, Black culinary traditions have also significantly influenced menu development and food operations. The rise of soul food and comfort food in restaurants across the United States has its roots in the Black community’s innovative approach to using limited resources and making flavorful, hearty meals. Black culinary traditions, such as the use of smoking, slow cooking, and braising, have shaped many of the cooking techniques used in professional kitchens today.
In noncommercial kitchens, particularly within schools, hospitals, and corporate settings, Black culinary practices have also made a lasting impact. Many food service providers are now incorporating soul food and African-inspired dishes into institutional menus to bring diversity and flavor to their offerings.
| Pot Type | Region | Materials | Common Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ìkòkò irin | Nigeria (Yorùbá) | Metal | General cooking |
| Potjie | South Africa | Cast Iron | Stewing, baking bread |
| Tagine | North Africa | Earthenware | Slow-cooked stews |
| Ukhamba | South Africa (Zulu) | Ceramic | Sharing sorghum beer |
| Igbo Terracotta Jar | Nigeria (Igbo) | Terracotta | Ceremonial purposes |
