Published by the government of Zimbabwe
Celia Winter Irving
31 March 2008
Harare — "There is something about Tengenenge that is beyond art, a positive feeling that has to do with harmony and a belief in the spirits" Tom Blomefield said in his forthcoming book titled Stone Rich in Africa
At Tengenenge, we are all bush people, we live with our rocks and paint our culture", the late Erina Gosta Chewa sculptor and painter at Tengenenge was quoted saying.
Writing a book about oneself means uncovering, recovering and rediscovering one's past. This has been the case for Tom Blomefield Founder and until recently director of the famed Tengenenge Sculpture Community, as he has written from files, folders and memories his book Stone Rich in Africa a book about his life and times and Tengenenge.
Stone Rich in Africa is the story life of a man who has created a direction for the stone sculpture made in Zimbabwe rooted in Africa rather than the international art world.
In the text he tells his life story, frankly and openly with no sense of being a legend. He comments "so much has been said about Tengenenge and now in this book I have my say -- my story in the true sense of the word."
Tom Blomefield is a known storyteller. He has told his stories on the verandah at Tengenenge to diplomats, international art dealers, scholars, filmmakers and art collectors, he has told his stories in the Chewa and Yao languages to the artists at Tengenenge. In the Netherlands and Germany, he has told his stories on podiums and platforms when he has opened exhibitions. The stories he often narrates are hair raising events that occurred when he was still young, his relationships, sometimes complex and mysterious with the mountains of the Great Dyke which provide stone for Tengenenge.
They have dealt with his exploration of African cultures by way of fluency in African languages Chewa and Yao and how the creative manifestations within these cultures gave birth to Tengenenge sculpture.
Now these stories have been made into a book, completed and have the freshness of the spoken word, the immediacy of how stories were told at Tengenenge on the verandah and to the sculptors.
Stone Rich in Africa was edited by Shadreck Chitima (Honours Degree in Creative Art and Design University of Chinhoyi Zimbabwe).
Tom Blomefield comments, "
"Through the book I relive my own life again and Shadreck Chitima in taking me through my life, made me see as important things which today I did not think of as important, to my starting Tengenenge. I have lived in many ways, more ways than most people, all these ways came together so that I could start Tengenenge, encourage people to wrest from stone their knowledge of their traditions, the symbolic truths in myths and legend. I go by instinct and time schedules are unknown to me, I have not much organisational ability but when we meet these two forces instinct and organisational ability came together -- it was like a Chariot setting out on a destination the big white horse wanted to ride in the centre of the road and the little pony wanted to go down side lines and put his nose into nettles and sniff muddy puddles but this made the journey more interesting --- without the big white horse the small white pony would have got nowhere."
Shadreck Chitima comments
"This book about the experiences of Tom Blomefield, some juxtaposed, some chronological, in his own words, explores his mind. Tengenenge through Tom Blomefield has taken the Zimbabwean art world to a higher and more international level, and made it a force to be reckoned with in international art circles. The book is a reminder that Zimbabwe is in Africa -- that the best of its art its stone sculpture at Tengenenge is of truly African origin."
The book is autobiographical, the writer remains throughout the text the main character in the story, a figure who has drawn many into his orbit, whose vision of a new means of making a living for his former tobacco farm workers --- stone sculpture has resulted in the building up of the most culturally and spiritually sound art community in Southern Africa Tengenenge.
Stone Rich in Africa is a narrative of Tom Blomefield's life from birth until today -- his perfectly ordinary and playful upbringing in Durban, with fruit trees and beaches and girls, beltings and ear boxings from school teachers and chances to play in local bands courted by girls "wearing silk dresses of different colours, smelling of eu de cologne, bringing me cigarettes and brandy and ginger ale to drink," and a stint in the navy worn down by seasickness and vomiting blood, to work in the sick bay of the ship as a nurse aid and sowing a navy's finger back on with yarn. Interspersed with the stories of his early days are some rattling good yarns about the history of South Africa, the Jameson Raid, and Rider Haggard his grandfather's guardian's son.
It is a book about a man whose life was dictated by circumstances some national, some local, some cultural and some personal, and some coincidental, which lead to the founding of Tengenenge. Partnering him in the first part of the book is his late wife Mar (to whom the book is dedicated), an English girl he first met at a horse race in Umvukwes who persuaded him to "go halves" on a horse, at home under a car, delivering babies in the bush, and lived with him through flood, drought and famine. It is a book about earth stratching times in Northern Rhodesia, a book about braveness, tenacity and endurance a book of having and having not and having it differently.
He comments in the book "One of the multiplicity of factors which lead to the starting of Tengenenge was that the majority of immigrant and local workers were already artists, the Chewa makers of masks and drums and costumes for the Nyau masquerade, some dancers under a huge construction turning them into an animal known as the Nyau Yolemba, the Yao makers of masks for the Bennie masquerade danced at weddings, some Mbunda makers of the Makishi masks and constructions and the local Korekore makers of mbiras used in the bira. So it was a transferrance rather than a development of skills which lead to the beginning of Tengenenge. And as much as the mask makers took up tools and made sculptures they downed them to work in wood and make masks and drums".
The book has as much information about Chewa, Yao and Korekore culture than many worthy theses and anthropological texts and this makes it easier to read. Culturally speaking, the most interesting part of the book is his understanding of the meaning of the paintings of Tengenenge, their deep rooted cultural symbolism, their narratives lodged in Chewa myths and Yao folk lore, "They were like a Yao garden with sacred pools and palm trees, animals undisturbed by people, always the presence of secret animals and the hidden meaning of the dance and the rhythm coming through".
In his text he comments "The success of Tengenenge is because the activities of the sculpture village did not jeaopardize the beliefs of the local people."These beliefs most meaningfully and naturally expressed through masked dancing and bira processionals remain today part of life at Tengenenge.
But thanks to Tom Blomefield, Tengenenge has developed the Guruve area in a modern way "We provide school fees, uniforms, seeds, fertilizer and all bare necessities of life." The conclusion of the book deals with sculptor Dominic Benhura becoming director of Tengenenge, a young man who appreciates the heritage aspect and historical role of the community in Zimbabwe.
Stone Rich in Africa recognises that many Zimbabweans and their sub regional neighbours have discovered themselves and their self potential through becoming artists -- and transformed their lives.
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