The Economic Impact of Lango Pottery: Sustaining Communities Through Craft

Abstract

Lango pottery serves as a vital and dynamic economic engine in modern Northern Ugandan communities, far from being a static artifact of the past. The craft creates sustainable, women-centric livelihoods that strengthen household resilience and promote local economic networks by fusing Indigenous technical knowledge with flexible market strategies. At the same time, the processes of obtaining, making, and using clay in rituals—documented as bearers of cosmological beliefs and clan identity—act as an active, embodied archive. The commodification of cultural heritage in local and tourist markets provides the economic justification for intergenerational knowledge transfer, while the authenticity derived from its deep cultural roots enhances its market.
This paper investigated the strategies put in place by the traditional potters and also identified the marketing principles adopted to guarantee competitiveness and sustainability. The relationships between the potters’ age, educational level, years of experience, their perception of and their involvement in pottery business was also determined. Three methods were used that is, pre-tested structured interview schedule, observation, and focus group discussions were implemented to gather data from 50 traditional potters that were randomly selected in two major traditional pottery centers. Descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentages were used to analyze the data. Pearson Correlation analysis was also applied to explain the relationships between the variables tested. The study revealed that traditional pottery is a women-centric in the two centers. Potters implemented marketing concept strategy to gain competitive advantage. Majority of potters showed that foreign substitutes, bad roads, and transportation, to mention a few, were some of the encounters related to their involvement in pottery production. The study concluded that traditional pottery continues to be a major source of employment to rural women hence community sustenance. It also concluded that marketing and its principles, more than any other business functions, is critical to the success of every organization.