The Woman on Nigerian Twenty Naira Note is Ladi Kwali (Photos)

NigeriaTrends.com, HISTORY — The woman on the Nigerian Twenty Naira Note (₦20) is Ladi Kwali, Nigeria’s best known potter who was awarded a Doctorate and was made MBE in 1963 for the level of detail and skill she utilized while making her pots.

Ladi Kwali - World Famous Potter

Ladi Kwali – World Famous Potter

Dr. Hadiza Ladi Kwali was born in 1925 in the village of Kwali in the Gwari region of Northern Nigeria, where pottery was a common occupation among women.

She learned to make pottery as a child using the traditional method of coiling. She made large pots for use as water jars and cooking pots from coils of clay, beaten from the inside with a flat wooden paddle.

Ladi’s pots were decorated with incised geometric and stylised figurative patterns. Following the traditional African method, they were fired in a bonfire of dry vegetation.

Her pots were noted for their beauty of form and decoration. Several were acquired by the Emir of Abuja, Alhaji Suleiman Barau, in whose home they were seen by Michael Cardew in 1950.

Ladi Kwali and Michael Cardew

Ladi Kwali and Michael Cardew

In 1954, she joined Cardew’s pottery training centre in Abuja, its only woman potter, where she learned to throw pots on the wheel. She made dishes, bowls and beakers but also continued to produce pots using her traditional hand building and decorating techniques.

Most of these were glazed and fired in a high-temperature kiln and therefore represent an interesting hybrid of traditional African with western studio pottery.

Through Kwali’s contact with Cardew, she and her work became known in Europe, Britain and America.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Ladi’s work was shown to great acclaim in London at the Berkeley Galleries. She became Nigeria’s best-known potter, was awarded a doctorate and was made MBE in 1962.

Ladi Kwali - Nigerian Potter

Dr. Hadiza Ladi Kwali – Nigerian Potter

The Abuja Pottery was renamed the Ladi Kwali Pottery and a major street in Abuja is called Ladi Kwali Road. Her picture appears at the back of the Nigerian 20 Naira bill, a legacy she left behind for future generations.

In conclusion, Dr. Hadiza Ladi Kwali is a woman of great artistic acumen and unprecedented creativity in the modern history of pottery in Nigeria who left behind the legacy of blended craft of traditional African and Western pottery, which is celebrated within and beyond the shores of Nigeria as one of the finest and obviously famous works of art ever to have come from sub-Saharan Africa.

Dr. Kwali died in Minna on 12th August, 1984 at the age of 59. She was married but had no child as at the time of her death. Many of her students of pottery took over and continued the art of pottery at the Abuja Pottery Training Center after her demise.

Woman In Twenty Naira Note - Ladi Kwali

Woman in Twenty Naira Note – Ladi Kwali

She remains the only Nigerian woman whose picture is printed on the Naira note – a photo showing Dr. Ladi Kwali seated as she engaged in the delicate craft of pottery is displayed at the back of the N20 note (Naira Ashirin).

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