The Shona of Zimbabwe

In my other blog Not Your Momma's Workshop I link to do it your self sites that crafters all around the world can use to help them with their projects. The site is still new and very much a work in progress. Being crafty myself I am very interested in pushing my artistic boundaries . While I was looking into African art I became Facebook  friends with a guy in Zimbabwe who is a sculptor. While looking into it I found a problem I am having in my own trade as a stone mason. I wrote this as a result.

As a professional Stone Mason I have seen the writing on the wall, the tradesmen of old are being pushed aside by the booming commercialism of cheaper materials and unartistic “masons” more worried about how much money they can make then the art form it once was. This lowering of prices and quality is sold as beautiful masterpieces to an unknowing market who wants the coveted feeling of having stone on or around their homes yet are wooed by the cheap price tags and speedster installment. The masters of old can no longer compete, and retire, fading away into history. There is a tribe of people in Africa that are suffering this same fate, the natural stone sculpting tribe of the Shona in Zimbabwe.

 The Shona of Zimbabwe weren’t always the professional sculptors they are now. In the 70’s the Tobacco commerce became endangered and the local farmers needed to change quickly to a new market. Since deposits of carvable stone ribbons thru Zimbabwe (then called Rhodesia) they set to work carving. As a result they created a sculpting craze that took the world by storm. The artists had a fresh look and feel to their sculptures that wasn’t seen in contemporary art before. Drawing their influence and inspiration from their traditions and way of life, including their belief in the spirits, their sculptures have a refreshing vibe that is sought after all around the world.

Sculpting became a skill that seemed to boarder natural born talent for the Shona, inspiring the name “Zimbabwe” given to the new republic after its independence in 1980; Zimbabwe literally means “house of stone.” The schools and workshops that sprung up taught the traditional way of sculpting by allowing the student to work alongside the master, but was encouraged to sculpt what he/she felt rather than traditional learning, giving the fledgling artist full freedom of expression in style and subject.

Over the years the much sought after works of art coming from the Shona has seen a disturbing trend to commercialize the Shona art by the younger generations that are moving into the workshops and galleries. Sculpting using mechanized tools such as drills and grinders to quickly and effortlessly sculpt the pieces have inched into the market place, which is not bad by itself as an art form, but these pieces are being sold as Shona sculptures,  taking away from the artist of true Shona art which is completely carved by hand tools sweat and blood. This mechanized sculpting in Zimbabwe leads to copied pieces which are mass produced by skilled sculptors who lack the vision and discipline of the true artist, flooding the market with “genuine African art” that is quickly bought by tourists, collectors and investors crossed the world at lower prices, cheapening the work of the true artist.

The answer lies in antiquity, like stone masonry, sculpting spans across time. As the buildings of old stand as a testimony to the strength of the empires who built them, the sculptors of old continue to give us the spirits of these long past ancestors. The artistry and mastery out lasts the civilizations and shares the thoughts and feeling of those who commission the work, they find a way to live forever in the hearts of man, while the trinkets and mass produces baubles fade away into dust. This happens because we see the true worth of the master’s hand and safe guard it for generations. Together as we embrace the time honored tradition of hand crafted and carved art, the sculptors of the Shona can continue to bless the world with their beautiful artistic spirit.