experience
In the verdant grounds of the Akarabo Nursery, a short walk from Kwitonda, you’ll find a peaceful pottery studio, shelves lined with cups, vases, and teapots – some made by guests, most made by its resident ceramicists. A setting ripe for slow and mindful exploration. A space for sharing skills and returning to the simple satisfaction that can be found in making something by hand. Our pottery workshops in Singita Volcanoes National Park are more than a place for learning and witnessing craft. Through them, we turn clay into something meaningful, heritage into art, and skill into mementoes. There’s a symbiosis between learning and doing, the passing down of tradition, and the elemental experience of transforming earth into something else, equally useful and beautiful. Observation – intrinsic & inherited: Theophile Cyizere, Kwitonda’s resident potter, learned about working with clay by watching his father, who has been a professional potter since childhood, and joined him in his studio in Kigali in 2019. He marvelled from a young age at how a simple lump of clay would become something beautiful under his father’s coaxing and talented hands. “He is the one who gave me these skills, although I think my passion for pottery was always hidden in me because it came so naturally,” he says. Transmutation – from earth to art: The synergy between human and material, heart and mind, past and present. This transforms clay from raw potential into meaning – channelling earth into a discernible object. More than merely a pastime or creative outlet, it’s an act
of creation. Theophile remembers that without any machinery or technology, his father would use his hands to make works of art. Alchemy between hands and clay, turning it into something more. “While working, he would go somewhere quiet. And then he would come out holding beautiful pieces.” Meditation – busy hands, still mind: It may seem like a contradictory statement, but moving hands quiet the mind. A waking meditation, and inner reflection through outward motion. When a repeated and rhythmic gesture, single-minded attention, and a peaceful place conspire to bring stillness to the mind, intuitive movement guides the hands, and focus comes to a pinpoint. Mental quiet follows. Theo explains that when you work on the wheel, you have to concentrate on the job at hand. “I believe this helps open up your mind.” Intention – objects hold memory: Creating or choosing a piece and taking one home that has ties to a place imbues it with meaning. A meal shared, a memory made, the spirit of a special location and period in time. A talisman rather than simply a physical object. Embedded in it are generations of skill passed down, the energy and care with which it was crafted and the emotions that washed over you while in this place, at this time. Theo observes that many guests love to take an item home – a comfortable-to-hold coffee cup, an oil burner, something to symbolise moments of reflection and pause. A relic of another world, not so far from their own. A reminder of a journey they once took – and can take again.
Previous spread The experience of hand moulding clay is not only tactile, but meditative and creative. Left Theophile Cyizere, a skilled potter at Singita Volcanoes National Park, learned his craft from his father, and shares it now with visitors.
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