The economic sanctions against the ‘white’ Rhodesians forced him en his staff to find a different source of income. This became sculpturing. Tengenenge lies beneath the northern Mvurwi under the ‘African Dyke’, an aria that is rich of minerals and streamer stone, a soft gray-green soapstone, ideal for making sculptures.
In the middle of the eighties, after the independence of the new Zimbabwe, came the break-trough, also on the international market. Currently more than 300 sculptors work in Tengenenge.
The Shona sculpture is unique in Africa with regards to originality and variety. Big names started or are still active in Tengenenge: Bernard Matemera (died in 2002), Sanwell Chirume (Matemera was his uncle), Takawira and Josiah Manzi. The worldwide success also has a dark side: more and more artist start copying from Shona sculpture and kitsch grows. And another bad side: the sculptors still gets a small amount of the high prices that galleries at the Fifth Avenue in New York ask and get for a Shona sculpture.
For more information about Tengenenge:
http://www.tengenenge-tomblomefield.comThese photo's were made by Ernst Schade from Lisboa.
www.ernstschade.com
