Sejnane

The women of Sejnane make pottery without a wheel: clay is dug locally, mixed with crushed old pottery, shaped by hand into figures, animals and vessels, dried, painted with geometric designs in red ochre and a black pigment from lentisk, and fired in an open pit fuelled with dung and wood. The forms and patterns are passed from mother to daughter, by methods said to go back some three thousand years, and UNESCO inscribed the skills in 2018. Sejnane is a small town in the Bizerte governorate, with some 4,700 people at the 2004 census.

Highlights

• The hand-building - pottery shaped without a wheel from locally dug clay.
• The ochre patterns - geometric decoration in red ochre and lentisk black.
• The open-pit firing - vessels fired in the ground with dung and wood.
• The figures - the animal and human forms particular to Sejnane.

When to go

April to October is the most comfortable; the northern hills are wet in winter. Firing happens in dry weather. Workshop visits should be arranged in advance.

Good to know

Visits need arranging rather than dropping in, and the workshops are homes. Firings happen when conditions allow and cannot be scheduled for visitors.

Nearby

Ain Draham is west, and Bizerte is east.