Thamaga

Thamaga Pottery was set up in the 1970s as a training and production workshop and has run since as a community enterprise, employing local potters who throw, glaze and fire on the premises. The work is functional stoneware in earth colours with hand-painted decoration, sold from the shop at the workshop, and visitors can watch the process from throwing through to the kilns. The village around it is a large ordinary settlement on the road towards Kanye.

Background

Thamaga is a large village in the Kweneng District and ranks third in the district, after Molepolole and Mogoditshane, in size and population. The 2011 census counted 19,547 people, and the 2022 figure is 25,297. Large rock outcrops dominate the village, the biggest being Thamaga Hill. Most residents belong to the Bakgatla-ba-ga-Mmanaana, whose totem is the vervet monkey, or kgabo. They settled here in the mid-1930s from Moshupa, 17 km to the southwest, and many wards in the two villages share names. Radiocarbon dates trace people in the area back at least 5000 years, and researchers from the University of Botswana and the University of California-Berkeley study its archaeology.

Source: Wikipedia, "Thamaga"

What you'll find

• The throwing room - potters working on wheels, open to watch.
• The kilns - the firing operation at the back of the workshop.
• The decoration - hand-painted patterns applied before glazing.
• The shop - finished stoneware sold directly from the workshop.

When to go

April to September is the most comfortable. Weekday mornings are when production is running and worth timing for. The workshop closes at weekends and on public holidays.

What to expect

Production levels vary and the workshop is sometimes quiet with little to watch. There is nothing else in the village for visitors. Weekend arrivals find it closed.

Nearby

Molepolole is north, and Gaborone is northeast.

Key facts