Living with the Past in Modern Sudanese Village. Traditional Pottery Production in the Ad-Dabba Bend of the Nile

The article presents the results of ethnographic research aimed at recording household economic behaviours within rural communities in the Ad-Dabba Bend of the Nile. The field research conducted in 2015–2019 provided first-hand insight into patterns of the gendered village’s ceramic production. The only currently operating household workshops in the area, located in Jabarūna and Rūmī Bakrī, are both run by women who produce mainly vessels for storing and cooling water and incense burners. Local residents remember many other similar workshops run by both women and men, which operated quite recently. The potteries in Ad-Dabba, representing a bigger and better organised workshop industry, are run by male descendants of immigrants from Nigeria, known in Sudan as Takarna. The pottery making is their only source of income and the range of forms they make is varied.