'Waiting till Mugabe leaves'
2005-01-28 16:32
Sculptor Henry Tembo is struggling to make a living in Harare now. (AFP)
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A dusty road leads to the village of Wedza, where veterans of Zimbabwe's liberation war eke out a meagre living on their farm cooperative, which after a promising start now brings only despair.
Harare - Zimbabwe's traditional stone sculptors, who once earned huge sums from Western tourists, museums and galleries, are now struggling to survive due to their country's isolation.
Traditional Shona works grace the collections of the New York Museum of Modern Art, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and the Rockefeller family.
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's standoff with the United States, Europe and Australia, since controversial presidential polls in 2002, has led to a slump in Western tourists - who constitute the main chunk of buyers.
Mugabe's policy of wooing Asia to offset this drop in tourism has not helped because the visiting Asian market is not prepared to spend the large amounts on the sculptures that the West did.
Many sculptors now moonlight to supplement their income or sell their works at a fraction of the price in a country labouring under a slew of economic woes including hyperinflation and a high unemployment rate.
Renowned local sculptor Kennedy Musekiwa said business had slowed down so much in the last five years that he had resorted to running training workshops in the United States and Europe to supplement his income.
Fellow sculptor Tendai Rukodzi used to run a bustling open-air gallery.
"Some of our old clients have said they would never come here until Mugabe goes and as a result, I go for months without selling even a single item," said Rukodzi.
"I end up selling the sculptures at giveaway prices just to get money to buy food and pay rent. I don't even get paid enough to buy stone to make the next piece."
Cloud with a silver lining
However, Elvas Mari, an official with the Zimbabwe National Arts Council, insisted there was a silver lining.
"This slump in business has also helped in a way to separate genuine artists from imitators. I believe it's the mediocre artists who are feeling the pinch.
Shona stone sculptures were picked up as souvenirs by European travellers as far back as the 13th century, according to historical records.
The exquisite soapstone and granite works, crafted for centuries by the country's majority Shona people, came to the attention of the world in the 1960s when they metamorphosed into a more modern and Cubist art form.
US magazine Newsweek once described it as probably the most important art form to have emerged from Africa in the 20th century.
- AFP