Baganda Milk Jug with Native Repair

The jug cracked. Somebody fixed it. Nobody threw it out.

The Baganda of Uganda made this milk jug in the 20th century, carved from a single piece of wood. It rises from a broad base to a shoulder marked by an incised line, then a short, narrowing neck. In a region where cattle herding mattered so much, wooden milk vessels were carefully made and cared for. Near the base, a small square of aluminum closes the crack, a sign of long and valued use.

The wood has gone a rich, glossy reddish-brown. Twenty inches tall. The patch is the best part of the story.