20
“What do you do?”, he asked
“I’m a sculptor”, I replied
“Wow! You must always have loads of work to do!” he exclaimed.
It was a comment born of two very different, individual experiences of what “being a sculptor” meant!
My questioner was a tourist guide in Tanzania and we were just about to venture on that magical of trips – a safari.
In the region where I was travelling, tourism is the biggest sector of the economy, the area boasting some of the most amazing national parks in the world. Lions sleep casually under trees, elephants amble around in enormous family groups and buffalo and wildebeest graze in their thousands. It really is my childhood “African Animals” picture book made real!
Sculpture Tanzanian Style
written by Caroline Wheaton
Most of the sculptures I saw being made were of wood. Blocks of ebony and other lighter woods being turned with skilled hand into elephants and lions, prowling cheetah and lazy hippo, intricate towers featuring not just one but many of the animals seen from the safety of the ubiquitous 4x4. There were some metal creations too and others made using maasai-style wire and bead structures. All using the beauty of the African savannah as their subject matter.
And it is to this wildlife that local sculptors principally turn for inspiration, creating between them hundreds of beautiful sculptures every year to sell to tourists, keen to take home a memory of their trip of a lifetime.