Nicholas Mukomberanwa. (film/video).

NICHOLAS MUKOMBERANWA Produced by Carola and Torben Rasmussen

Mango Productions, Aabenraa. Denmark, 2000. Color video, 29 min. $25.

These are the only videos to date which provide exclusive documentary reviews of the art and life of individual contemporary Zimbabwean stone sculptors. Together they offer vital material on two key figures in the history of that genre, Nicholas Mukomberanwa and Joram Mariga. The Danish-produced videos exemplify two very different modes of representation, in the first case providing a down-to-earth engagement with the artist, and in the second case a more wide-ranging and mystical approach. As a set, Nicholas Mukomberanwa and Talking with Stones: Joram Mariga serve particularly well to convey the type of historical complexities which underlie the phenomenon of Shona sculpture.

Nicholas Mukomberanwa begins with the artist reflecting on greed in Zimbabwe, thus providing a rare example of social critique in this art form. After a sustained discussion and presentation of a range of his works and his techniques, the video becomes of particular historical value when Mukomberanwa reminisces about his early training at Serima mission, an experience which has left its indelible marks on his art. Revisiting the mission, he relates how he was originally inspired by Father Groeber (C.R.), who designed the church and conceived and oversaw its rich integration of sculptures and murals executed by the students. Fittingly the remarkable chapel is crowned by the molded cement figures of angels blowing trumpets on the belfry, one of which is the work of Mukomberanwa. As Serima's best-known student, he recounts: "This is where the seed was grown. I owe this place all my success." The video presents, if all too briefly, a rare visual treat of this remarkable church (see Plangger 1974). It succeeds particularly well in locating the nontraditional origins of modern Shona sculpture before moving on to establish how Mukomberanwa increasingly came to use sculpture as a vehicle for expressing his Shona identity.

Revisiting early and late works, particularly those reflecting shifts in subject matter, Mukomberanwa gives us a charming scene of the artist recalling his elation upon the sale of his first work to the Rhodes National Gallery (now the National Gallery of Zimbabwe). He relates how it was the first director, Frank McEwen, who stimulated him to move away from Christian themes to the expression of Shona cultural beliefs. Visibly excited, he recalls the sense of cultural liberation this shift involved.

At this point the critical strengths of the video become pronounced. Mukomberanwa sharply criticizes the romanticization and manipulation of meaning in the market, noting for example how it is common for dealers to change titles of sculptures in order to make them more saleable. Having expressed his wariness of patrons' exotified motivations in buying his art and of dealers' machinations regarding authenticity, he goes on to criticize the host of artists who copy his work and ideas. Mukomberanwa concludes that the situation "is not healthy anymore." Having himself managed to achieve financial security, he is no longer interested in selling his work, preferring to sculpt simply for the creative joy of it and to live a simple life uncomplicated by the trappings and pursuit of wealth. This critique is neither bitter nor polemical, but philosophical.

The video communicates Mukomberanwa's strong attachment to traditional Shona beliefs rather than to Christianity as well as to his sense of identity as an artist. He describes each work as an extension of his soul and his culture. Indeed, his discussions of the sculpting process reveal a profound overall sense of the spirituality of inspiration and a romance with the stone. They reaffirm the type of discourse typically associated with Shona sculpture as one of finding and communing with "soul in stone," but it does so without the overly dramatized mystification of the phenomenon that is usually encountered in the marketing and exhibition of this type of work.

The other video, on Joram Mariga, is compelling for the very different cultural and historical information conveyed. Despite its arguably hagiographic and romantic nature, Talking with Stones: Joram Mariga presents some excellent material. It uses the stunning landscape at Vukutu to propose a visually interesting argument for the influence of the study of nature on the sculptor's forms. The most interesting and perhaps important data of all, however, lie in the information provided about the artisanal history of Mariga's family, and thus the loose connection between Shona sculpture and traditional Shona material culture. The artist's brother makes mbiras, the musical instrument intimately associated with possession ceremonies; his grandfather carved head rests; and his mother was a potter and his source of inspiration. Mariga draws on the power of this inheritance and tells us that to be a good carver one needs this kind of spiritual blessing and connection. It is these particular connections to Shona material culture that make his an interesting but most unusual case.

This second video is memorable on at least two accounts. First, it reframes the history of Zimbabwean stone sculpture, situating Joram Mariga rather than Frank McEwen as the father of Shona sculpture. Although Mariga was an important figure in the dissemination of McEwen's principles, being the uncle of the late John and Bernard Takawira as well as of Crispen Chakanyoka, who spread the gospel of Shona sculpture to the Tengenenge community, he was not the first of the Shona sculptors (McEwen makes this point in Talking Stones, an earlier and indispensable if similarly uneven film produced by Granada Television). Second, and more significant, the video raises the problem of local indifference to Shona sculpture and thus ultimately the local cultural relevance of this work. It is also worth commenting that contrary to the usual blanket excoriation of the generally negative attitude of local Europeans toward McEwen and Shona sculpture in the 1960s and 1970s, the "tradition" would in all likelihood not have been able to survive had it not been for the limited but devoted patronage by the more liberal and cosmopolitan patrons that did exist (see Zilberg 2001b).

In perhaps the most engaging and critical part of the video, Aeneas Chigwedere, a Zimbabwean historian, extends the discussion of this issue of a continuing lack of local patronage. He explains:

   Having been colonized, and having been trained to adore Western things and
   to loathe our own things, there are very few of us, we the so-called
   educated Africans, who see any value in what he (Joram Mariga) is doing.
   That is the real problem. The market is in Europe and America. Our art is
   appreciated by the foreigners who tried to destroy it. Our elites do not
   buy things that reflect our own culture. We have been so indoctrinated,
   enculturated, trained to hate our own culture.... We no longer see value in
   it ... it is of no use value. Foreigners buy it, but can they understand
   it?

Chigwedere thus illuminates the fundamental contradiction at hand: not only is there little if any local African patronage, but Shona people at large apparently feel no connection to this new tradition. (3)

Yet, pondering his chosen gravesite at Vukutu, Joram Mariga expresses this wish for the longevity of Shona sculpture and the heroic Shona discourse: "We must leave a story which can teach future generations about our lives." The question, then, is, To whom will this story have relevance? Will it be of more interest to future generations of Europeans, with their romantic visions of tribal Africa, than to Zimbabweans themselves? Chigwedere's comments should leave little doubt as to the answer. In this light, the challenge raised by Nicholas Mukomberanwa and Talking with Stones, beyond that of making more such videos of the younger sculptors, is for future productions to probe this issue of relevance and find out what Zimbabweans from all walks of life today find meaningful in terms of their arts and culture, and why they do. Then we can begin to re-examine the politics of patronage, authenticity, and cultural nationalism at work in Shona sculpture which arguably make it more important to foreigners, to the state, and to African-art historians than to Zimbabweans themselves.

(1.) On Nicholas Mukomberanwa, see Guthrie 1988.

(2.) On the importance of Joram Mariga, Thomas Mukarobgwa, their relations with Frank McEwen, and the genesis of Zimbabwean stone sculpture as a unique synthesis of traditional Shona beliefs and European modernism, as well as for contrasting views on the germinal role of patron-clients, see Kasfir 1999:68-77 and Zilberg 2001:31-47. For further detail on the connections between "Shona" sculpture and European artistic traditions, namely with the School of Paris and the British Arts and Crafts Movement, among others, see Zilberg 1996, 1997. For an excellent account of Shona material culture, religion, and aesthetics, see Dewey 1993.

(3.) For a detailed and contentiously received consideration of the issues raised by Chigwedere, see Zilberg 1993. This seminar paper argues that American country music, notably the songs and persons of Dolly Parton and Don Williams, have a greater relevance to ordinary daily life in Zimbabwe than the much vaunted Shona sculpture. For a somewhat less critical view, see Zilberg 2001a.

Cousins, Jane. 1991. "The Making of Zimbabwean Stone Sculpture," Third Text 1, 3:31-42.

Dewey, William. 1993 "Declarations of Status and Conduits to the Spirits: A Case Study of Shona Headrests," in Sleeping Beauties: The Jerome L. Joss Collection of African Headrests at UCLA, by William Dewey. Los Angeles: UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History.

Guthrie, Roy. 1988. Prominent Sculptors of Zimbabwe: Nicholas Mukomberanwa. Msasa: The Gallery Shona Sculpture.

Guthrie, Roy. 1993. The Forgotten Masters of Tengenenge -- Makina Kameya, Wazi Maikolo, Luigi Purumero and Simon Machile. Exhibition catalogue. Harare: Chapungu Sculpture Park.

jegede, dele. 1990. "African Art Today: A Historical Overview," in Contemporary African Art: Changing Traditions, ed. Grace Stanislaus. New York: The Studio Museum in Harlem.

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Plangger, Albert. 1974. Serima: Towards an African Expression of Christian Belief. Gwelo: Mambo Press.

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Zilberg, Jonathan. 1985. "Zimbabwean Stone Sculpture and Nyau Masquerades." Collected Papers of the 31st Annual African Studies Association, Chicago, Oct. 28-31.

Zilberg, Jonathan. 1993. "Shona Sculpture and Dolly Parton: Inscriptions in the Material World." Paper given at the seminar "Inscriptions in the Material World." The Institute for the Advanced Study and Research in the African Humanities, Northwestern University, Evanston, Oct. 13.

Zilberg, Jonathan. 1994. "Inscriptions and Fantasies in the Invention of Shona Sculpture," Passages: A Chronicle in the Humanities 7:13, 16.

Zilberg, Jonathan. 1995. "Shona Sculpture's Struggle for Authenticity and Value," Museum Anthropology 19, 1:3-24.

Zilberg, Jonathan. 1996. "Zimbabwean Stone Sculpture: The Invention of a Shona Tradition." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Zilberg, Jonathan. 1997. "The Case of Zimbabwean Stone Sculpture: The Western Reception of a Modern African Art Form," in Zimbabwe: Past and Present, vol. 2, ed. Geert Bourgois. Tervuren (Belgium): Royal Museum for Central Africa.

Zilberg, Jonathan. 200la. "Shona Sculpture and Shona Culture: The Water Spirit." Http://cyberworkers.com/Leonardo.

Zilberg, Jonathan. 200lb. "The Radical Within the Museum: Frank McEwen and the Rhodesian Philistines," in Kunst aus Zimbabwe -- Kunst in Zimbabwe, eds. Till Forster, Marina Von Assel. Ein Ausstellungsprojekt. Iwalewa-Haus. Bayreuth: Afrikazentrum der Universitat Bayreuth.

JONATHAN ZILBERG currently teaches a Shona language course through the African Studies Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.