Childhood Life of Mimie

Childhood Life of Mimie

My name is Mirriam Kapirah but I prefer people calling me Mimie. When I was 7 years of age I lived in my home town in Katoto, Mzuzu city in the northern region of Malawi. I remember when I and my friend used to make dolls out of clay soil, we would usually do this during weekends. I and my group of friends would go to the stream at 8:00 in the morning to get the clay. We would then make the dolls and dry them in the sun when it got hotter around 12:00. We would play with the clay dolls once they were dry.

My mother did not like me playing with clay because it would make my clothes dirty and the clay would be hard to wash off because the clay would sometimes dry on the clothes. My mother found it difficult to wash my dirty clothes because of this. Therefore my mother decided to buy me a plastic doll however I never played with it because I was used to making my own dolls and playing with them. Also… I loved being dirty.

I was really happy on the last Tuesday’s arts skill session with the children when I made the clay dolls with the children at the Ndola drop in centre because it brought back the memories of me making clay dolls when I was a child. The children were really excited and had a lot of fun making things such as clay snakes, clay dolls, clay dinosaurs, the ICS logo, clay hats, clay cameras, clay houses, clay shoes, clay hands, clay families and other creative things just like how me and my friends used to make things out of clay back in Mzuzu.

So how does someone make a clay doll? Well… I will tell you right now.

Ok let us start off with where you can find the ingredients. You and your friends (if you have any) should find a source of clay. You can find wet clay around rivers and streams and clay in this form can be extracted with just your hands. You can find dry clay on hills and on the ground however you will need to dig using tools such as a hoe or a shovel, a tough stick is fine if you are low on cash. Other sharp objects can be used however it would be advised not to give your child or use something too dangerous like a machete.

If you extract dry clay you will need to apply some water to make it wet so you can forge it. It is impossible to make something out of dry clay, Salome said its madness. So don’t do it. Basically the dry clay is brittle and hard therefore one cannot forge something out of dry clay. Also the great thing about clay is if you are not happy with what you have made you can just smash it up into pieces, apply some water and start over again. Can never get bored with clay AKA Malawian play dough. Endless, cheap and dirty fun!