African Tribes

Chewa Tribe

The Chewa, also known as the Cewa or Chichewa is an African Tribe that has existed since the beginning of the first millennium, A.D. They are located in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe , with the bulk of the population in Malawi. The language spoken is called Chinyanja or Banti, one of the languages of Malawi.

Kore-Kore Tribe

Kore-Kore lives in the Mount Dawn area in Mashonaland Central. They´re known for their hunting and strength. The Kore-Kore tribe migrated from Mozambique.

Shona Tibe

Most of the art associated with Shona people is either personal or utilitarian. Although they produce no figurative sculpture, they do have a rich tradition of metalworking and woodcarving.

It is believed that the ancestors of modern day Shona built Great Zimbabwe and hundreds of stone walled sites with in Zimbabwe.

Shona people believe in two types of spirits. Shave spirits and Vadzimu. The Shave spirits are associated with population living outside of Shona territory and may be connected to neighbouring people, Europeans or even animals. The Vadzimu represent all that is ideal and moral about Shona way of life and usually associated with recent ancestors or with more remote culture heroes whose exact geneology has been forgotten. They serve to protect society, but may withdraw this protection if Shona moral ideals are not respected.

Ayawo Tribe

Members of the Ayawo (Yao) group of people found in Malawi and Tanzania were among those who migrated to Southern Rhodesia in the l950s to find work on tobacco farms in the Guruve District and Northern Rhodesia to work on the line of rail. The Awayo (Yao) constituted some of the first sculptors at Tengenenge. A Western Bantu group, like their cultural counterparts the Chewa, ritualised spiritual practice among te Awayo (Yao) was characterized by masked dances, in their case the Nyago and the Ben.While the Awayo (Yao) dances were not practiced at Tengenenge, Awayo sculptors used imagery of the Awayo masks and dancers in their sculptures. The Awayo (Yao) sculptors at Tengenenge were in the minority compared to the Chewa, but close enough culturally to the Chewa to appreciate the meaning of the Chewa masked dance the Gule Wamkulu and provide an appreciative and understanding audience for the dancers.

Indeed Joshua Manzi at Tengenenge today is of Awayo (Yao) descent and his sculptures make reference to the Gule Wamkulu rather than the Nyago and the Ben. His son Moveti Manzi also uses in his monumental sculptures images of Yao masks to good effect. Joshua Manzi though speaking Shona and married to Janet a local Kore-kore from the Guruve District remains faithful to his Awayo origins in both his life and his sculptures which are often narratives of Yao folk lore dealing with women, crocodiles and birds. Amali Mailola eighty six years old is Awayo and his sculptures deal with his memories of Lake Malawi its animals and birds crocodiles and fish.Like many Awayos (Yaos) Amali Mailola reads the Koran and obeys its teachings.

Among the folkloric aspects of Awayo belief is a belief in a creature called the Mfit. The mfiti comes into Yao folklore myths and stories. Today at Tengenenge Ali Chitalo an old Awayo (Yao)sculptor uses the actions of the mfiti as narrative and motif for his work.The mfiti it is said can ride on the back of a hyena through the night enter the room of a man, cut off his head and play football with it in the morning. Ali Chitalo´s sculptures exaggerate facial features, figures have a ghoulish appearance and often two figures tangle together in one stone as if in combat or conflict. In Malawi such traditional cultural practices as masked dances are not extant and the Nyago and Ben as does the Gule Wamkulu remains a cultural feature of Malawian life.

The Founder Director of the Tengenenge Sculpture Community organsed some time ago an exhibition of work by Malawian sculptors at Tengenenge including members and descendants of member of the Aywao tribe at the Museum in Blantyre, Malawi´s capital. The Awayo sculptors and their descendants at Tengenenge are an aspect of the multi cultural and culturally diverse community of artists at Tengenenge.

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