About

Edrissa Saine was born in Brikama, The Gambia. Winning a scholarship to study the Norwegian language in Norway, he soon changed his mind and decided to study ceramics instead. Returning to The Gambia in 1980, he opened his own studio, and later returned to Norway and Indonesia to further his studies. It wasn’t long until both the U.N. and the Gambian government sent him to Guinea Bassau to teach pottery to youths.

While teaching in Guinea Bassau, he met and married Fatoumatta Mendy and they later returned to The Gambia to run their own studio. Edrissa was the first Gambian potter to bring modern pottery techniques to The Gambia and taught many students the skills that he had learned over in Norway, Indonesia and the U.K. Through his teaching and the sharing of his skills, he founded the modern pottery tradition in The Gambia.

Edrissa Saine died in 2016, but the tradition that he founded lives on and Saine Pottery has continued to evolve through the hard work and dedication of his wife Fatoumatta, their children and their grandchildren. Saine Pottery has truly become a family led icon of the cultural history of The Gambia.

Saine Pottery uses a red Earthenware Clay, that the family dig themselves from a riverbank in The Gambia. It’s a natural clay body, that is harvested by spade and pick-axe, after the grasses and topsoil are removed from the area.