BY DR TONY MONDA
Any account of modern-day African art cannot be given without taking into cognisance the way the majority of indigenous people think, feel, see and believe their world is, was, and can be. Especially in Zimbabwe, a former colony of Britain until it gained its Independence on 18th April, 1980.
The successful flourishing of Zimbabwe’s stone sculpture, beginning in1956, its world-wide popularity and its visual evocation of African culture makes it hard to believe that the tradition of this art form is less not quite seventy years old.
For many decades, the accepted viewpoint was that African art was not produced by trained professionals artists but by anonymous individuals who lacked formal training and had (and still have) no particular status as artists within their communities. Zimbabwean sculptors, with a few exceptions, received their training informally through various
workshops and artistic community training. Many served their apprenticeship with experienced First-Generation artists from whom they honed psychomotor skills and traditional knowledge. This informal training produced a rich and unique genre of contemporary art. It’s very contemporary roots and its universal validation has been appreciably espoused as an authentic Zimbabwean visual expression.
There is a growing recognition of the developmental role that art plays in the socio-cultural and economic transformation of societies.
The development of art , namely: literature, dance, theatre, film, music, the visual arts and other art forms are valuable socio-economic and cultural assets adjunct to the existing socio-economic developmental policies in Zimbabwe.
Since independence in 1980, Zimbabwean visual arts have earned immense global publicity. The creative resilience of indigenous Zimbabwean artists has survived and regenerated itself over the past several decades and continues to make an impact the world over.
The sculptors themselves have an innate talent for sculpting and an aptitude for imaging. Zimbabwean art venerates the exchange of human and artistic values and morals, made feasible by the co-existence of a wide diversity of approaches and forms of expression. Collectively the sculpture asserts the universal human experience through the shared language of art accessible to most global civilisations, despite its geographical, ethnic and cultural specificity to Zimbabwe.
The main non-colonial European protagonist of Modern Zimbabwean Stone Art, Frank Jack McEwen (1906–1994), who was well informed on the processes of African indigenous creativity, recognised the latent potential in the people by looking at the history that they had once created; that of Great Zimbabwe’s stone masonry and stone carvings, etc., and encouraged the first group of sculptors to produce their intuitive work.
In 1973 McEwen was eventually deported by the Rhodesian authorities for his dealings with the indigene.
Prior to1980, art education was separatist in nature and defined by race and sex. Visual art in Rhodesia was taught to white children who were not academically inclined. Africans on the other hand were taught industrial craft work.
This was in accordance with the general educational ordinances under which white children were being groomed for management positions and African children for servitude and semi-skilled technical posts. The art education offered was Euro-centrically based and of little relevance to the majority of indigenous students.
Education in the arts and creative business cultivates conditions and individuals that can express imagination and bring intangible ideas and concepts to economic reality. However, our local education systems still lacks tangible support for “innovation” as a core component of their curricula.
Teaching creativity in schools needs to extend beyond visual artistry and craft as it manifests itself in empathy not only to culture but to economics, business and overall human development. Isolated creative fundamentals such as cognition, foresight, insight, inventiveness, resourcefulness, perceptibility and vision can be employed in all spheres of the nation’s development.
Once largely neglected as a sector of the economy, or labelled as an elitist pursuit, art and the creative industries are recognised more and more for their ability to create development opportunities and generate income. Art serves as a civic, economic and spiritual barometer of a nation, and as such, is central to debates around sustainable development.
In recent decades, African art historians who have studied African artists have discredited the western assumptions that African art was not produced by trained professionals but by anonymous individuals who lacked formal training.
In many African societies art is produced by individuals who have undergone rigorous training and who have status and respect as artists within their communities. This is certainly the case with Zimbabwe’s contemporary stone sculptors, most of whom have undergone apprenticeships that lasted up to four years and who derive their living solely from art.
Given, the economic emphasis worldwide has shifted to a drive for sustainable growth; we will see more and more organisations, businesses and communities assigning greater value to human creativity.
As such, Zimbabwe needs to embrace the Creative Age, especially in these post-COVID-19 times of sluggish world economic growth and fiscal uncertainties.
Economic prosperity would rely on an inclusive national formula which espouses cultural creativity, entrepreneurial creativity, civic creativity and artistic creativity.
Art development, scholarship and patronage should be a major component of Zimbabwe’s overall socio-economic development and education curriculum. As a nation, we need to create support structures and logistical systems to elevate our creative workforce.
The potential of the creative economy in Zimbabwe has not been harnessed to its full developmental potential. The creative industries should be alive, dynamic, and vibrant – waiting to be engaged. Our respective ministries, institutions and other cultural entities need to take heed of the importance of the arts and to engage meaningfully with the practitioners in these fields.
Greater attention needs to be attached towards rigorous scholarship and understanding of the various indigenous concepts, theories, approaches, technique and content that constitutes indigenous contemporary art of Zimbabwe.
The act of creativity itself is at the heart of progress and development and is one of the most important pillars for sustainable productivity. Ultimately, it is creativity that inspires new socio-economic endeavours in the ever-evolving exploration of human development.
The priceless heritage our sculptors have bequeathed to this nation and the world needs to be accorded its rightful space in World Art History.
Dr. Tony Monda holds a PhD. in Art Theory and Philosophy and a DBA in Post-Colonial Heritage Studies. E-mail: tonym.MONDA@gmail.com
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