Batswana to benefit from World's greatest sculptor

MONKAGEDI GAOTLHOBOGWE
Staff Writer | Friday April 30, 2010 00:00

A dozen cars, including a Mazda 3, a BMW convertible, trucks and vans, are visible in the spacious compound with a house looking more like a palace than a home of an ordinary artist. Looking at his lifestyle Harare sculptor Dominic Benhura may be forgiven if he ever boasts that he is the greatest African artist alive. His home is decorated with green grass, like a golf course, giant sculptors, swimming pool, and makes of cars many people anywhere in the world can only dream of.

The slender and humble looking artist has his sculptures to thank for his two homes, one of which he has converted into an  art centre where numerous Zimbabweans and Malawians meet to learn sculpture-making skills to earn a living. In fact Benhura says in the last few years he has produced 10 artists who went on to buy their own houses in Harare and live like kings, like him. If ever one doubted the potential of the arts to make one live his dream life, Benhura is the perfect example that with the arts, even BMW dreams and kingly homes are achievable.

He has brushed aside the sliding Zimbabwean economy and its political turmoil and continues to reap huge benefits in the midst of the chaos. Not that Benhura may have been benefiting from the meltdown. This is the only job he has ever known At the age of 12 he sold his felt sculptor after four years of apprenticeship to a relative. And he went on to complete A-levels, sponsored by his own art works.

This perfect example of success in the arts will soon be in Botswana, thanks to the collaboration that is being spearheaded from Harare by Botswana ambassador, Gladys Kokorwe. The artist, who has made sculptors even for Nelson Mandela, says he has been approached by the Harare-based Botswana ambassador to come to Botswana and establish a centre where Batswana can learn about sculpture making,  a rare thing to find in Botswana.

For Zimbabweans however stone carving is a culture that can be traced back to at least the 1200s. Their signature bird, known commonly as the Zimbabwe bird, was actually found as a sculpture in the Great Zimbabwe Ruins as well as inside the shrines found in the ancient kingdom by archaeologists, perhaps emphasising that the culture of stone carving comes a long way with Zimbabweans.

 The director of National Arts Council of Zimbabwe, Elvas Mari confirmed  in a separate interview that Kokorwe is facilitating a programme, which will see Zimbabwe's finest sculptor exchanging knowledge with Batswana.

'She is very active, in fact since she has been here, Zimbabwe has entered into many agreements with Botswana in the arts especially in Zimbabwe's speciality in sculptures. Zimbabwe is the best in stone carving, and it would benefit  your artists,' said an upbeat Mari.

Indeed across Harare, numerous gardens are decorated with sculptures of all kinds. They are called sculpture gardens, as they stand tall like plants, as if to declare Harare a sculptures town.

For Benhura exchanging sculpture knowledge is something that is most appealing. He has not only opened his other house and its yard for apprentice sculptors but he has also founded and funded another resource centre, 150km outside Harare, where people in the rural area of Tengenege gather to learn the skills and earn a living from the art.

Benhura says while the elite, the embassies, and private companies in Harare do buy his sculptors, the real market for his works is in Europe and the United States of America (US). He says he has agents all over the world who receive the sculptures and market them or sell them in their galleries. He says he does the same with the works of his apprentices, although there are times when potential buyers come in to buy or make orders.

In Zimbabwe however Benhura and his team are blessed as the land is rich with granite that comes in all colours that enable the sculptors to carve objects of their dreams. However, as he ponders the trip to Botswana, Benhura proclaims that it does not matter what type of stones are found in a particular locality; in fact he claims that just any rock would do!

Benhura says in 1991, he was in Botswana, at the invitation of Thapong Centre for the Arts, for an exchange programme, which also involved several African artists. That was his first visit to Botswana, and he was an apprentice at the time.

'We were in Mahalapye, I remember; there weren't many rocks around to work with, so I went to the forest to fetch wood, and used it instead of the rocks to do my artwork; it went on to be voted the best piece; and was used on the book cover for the workshop,' he said. Benhura says although he has had exchange programmes with artists from Europe and America, he has not had one with African artists.

'Networking is a bit of a problem amongst us Africans, but I would love to have more exchange programmes with African countries, hopefully the Botswana one will be the first of many,' says Benhura.