Commercialising Indigenous Pottery Industry to Support Economic Empowerment among Indigenous Akamba Women
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Date
2024
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The Technical University of Kenya
Abstract
Commercialising is introducing products or services to the market for profit making. Pottery was
an indigenous industry that supported pre-colonial societies’ social, cultural, and economic activities.
For some reasons, such as colonisation, pottery industries waned in most indigenous societies. The
Akamba community, a subset of Bantu communities, practised pottery as one of their economic
activities in the pre-colonial period. Today, the community has a significant number of women who
engage in unpaid domestic labour and live in abject poverty. The study was conducted to identify
the economic potential of the indigenous pottery industry and identify strategies to commercialise
the industry and convert it into an economic hub for indigenous Akamba women. The study was
a survey that used non-probability sampling techniques to select the sample. Questionnaires were
used to gather data that was analysed descriptively with the help of the Statistical Package for
the Social Sciences (SPSS). A regression analysis was conducted to test the study hypothesis. The
findings of the study indicated that the pottery industry has economic potential in Ukambani,
and thus, commercialising the industry would lead to the economic empowerment of the indigenous
Akamba women. If the findings above are actualised, society will achieve SDG No. 5, which seeks
to empower women economically and give them financial independence. This paper contributes to
the literature because limited information exists on how to commercialise indigenous industries. The
paper is relevant to policymaker’s keen on implementing SDGs supporting financial empowerment
for indigenous women.
Keywords: Traditional pottery manufacturing, economic mobility, financial independence, native
women
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SOCIAL SCIENCES::Statistics, computer and systems science::Informatics, computer and systems science::Informatics