President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Tuesday, June 11, approved the naming of a 3.2 KM Road in Kwali Area Council after Ladi Kwali.
The Guardian reports that Kwali’s face is also on the N20 note.
Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, revealed Kwali’s new honour when he commissioned the road that linked the Kwali bridge in Kwali Area Council of FCT.
Wike told residents of Kwali that Tinubu is always committed to the well-being of Nigerians and will continue to deliver the dividends of democracy.
Kwali was born in 1925 in the village of Kwali in the Gwari region of Northern Nigeria, where pottery was an Indigenous occupation among women.
She learned to make pottery as a child from her aunt using the traditional method of coiling.
She made large pots for use as water jars, cooking pots, bowls, and flasks from coils of clay, beaten from the inside with a flat wooden paddle.
They were decorated with incised geometric and stylized figurative patterns, including scorpions, lizards, crocodiles, chameleons, snakes, birds, and fish.
READ ALSO: Sallah: Ram sellers lament low sales amid high prices
Her pots were noted for their beauty of form and decoration, and she was recognized regionally as a gifted and eminent potter.
Kwali’s pots were featured in international exhibitions of Abuja pottery in 1958, 1959, and 1962, organised by Cardew.
In 1961, Kwali gave demonstrations at the Royal College, Farnham, and Wenford Bridge in Great Britain. She also gave demonstrations in France and Germany over this period.
In 1972, she toured America and her work was shown to great acclaim in London at the Berkeley Galleries.
Kwali was awarded an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in 1963. In 1977, she was awarded an honorary doctoral degree from Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria.
In 1980, the Nigerian Government (from the Cabinet Office of the Federal Republic of Nigeria) invested in her with the insignia of the Nigerian National Order of Merit Award (NNOM) the highest national honour for academic achievement.
She also received the national honour of the Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON) in 1981.
She died on August 12, 1984.
