Ritual Container (Ku'chan)

The artist who built this ritual pot achieved a striking balance between the round inflated body, the sharp punctuation of the truncated arms, and the elongated neck that narrows to an abbreviated head. Such containers, known as ku’chan, are used by the Jen (also called the Janjo), who live west of the Gongola River in the Benue River floodplain, though they may not be made by the Jen. In the 1970s and 1980s Marla Berns noted that Kwa potters were making ritual vessels for Jen patrons, and Karl-Ferdinand Schädler has suggested that similar ones are made by the Bata, who are culturally related to the Jen. Berns has described the Jen use of ku’chan: the pots are placed in the forked branch or at the foot of a tree, which is the marker for a shrine where prayers are made and sacrifices offered. Below the tree lie the collective graves of men who were important community leaders. During annual prayers millet beer is poured into the vessels and ground sprouted corn is splashed over them, attracting the spirits that bring protection and success to hunters and, in the past, to warriors.