By Dr Tony Monda

IN the October heat of 1988, our Land Cruiser rolled into the horse-shoe farm of Tengenenge; where I had gone to meet Zimbabwean sculptor Bernard Matemera, accompanied by two French diplomats and other functionaries from the French embassy in Harare.
Bernard Matemera’s monumental animalesque stone personages greeted us as we drove into the farm. He had just returned from a successful tour of Titograd in Yugoslavia (now Bosnia and Herzegovina), where he was invited in 1987, to make a large sculpture at the
Josip Broz Tito Museum in Titograd.
Matemera was an extrovert, though a simple man; thick-set and bearded he wore a leopard skin hat which became his trademark. Slightly bandy-legged, he ambled towards us. Ignoring me he greeted my guests with his dusty hands. Something drew my attention to his hands – they were large with long, thick, gnarled fingers which curved inwards, as if he were holding an invisible hammer – perhaps by force of habit.
I was invisible to him, until I was introduced as the young Publicity Secretary for ZAVACAD – the Zimbabwe Association of Visual Artists, Crafts People and Designers and that I was there to interview him for our records. I became important enough for a dusty handshake.
A family of njiri – wild pigs, appeared squeaking and squalling freely as we toured about admiring the bulbous figures recently completed and polished with motor oil. My companions, sweating in the blistering October sun, dry-lipped and open-mouthed stared in dumbfounded awe at the overwhelming strength and potency of Matemera’s work. His sculptures were undoubtedly original and powerful in their monumentality.
His massive naked stone figures with breasts, buttocks and bulky protuberances, incorporate engorged lips, bulging eyes, horns, gigantic, ample, fleshy bodies. Many of his characteristic tumescent sculptures had or three-toed feet standing in attitudes that often defied gravity. He was a true sculptor in the round.
Matemera found inspiration in his dreams. His subject of focus was that of super-natural, spiritual humanoid beings. In his inflated curves of man and beast, breast, buttock or belly Matemera revealed the relationship between humans, animals and the spirit world. His subjects were derived from animals and people, in particular the VaDoma ethnic group of the Dande valley.
He explained, (Translated from Shona) “I had a dream in 1963 about these three toed and three- fingered people who changed into animals and assisted me to hunt for game. They climbed trees and hunted for honey with their deformed limbs which facilitated climbing trees“ – VaDoma vekuDande. The images he said had never stopped populating his visions.
His work was not linked to any traditional subject matter and the blatant nakedness of his gigantic grotesque figures though naked, had no sexual or immoral erotic implications, often erroneously asserted by Western writers. It was a naturally innocent depiction of his Afro-centric visions and dreams.
Born in Guruve on January 14 1946, Matemera was a Zezuru, the son of a village headman. He had only four years of formal primary schooling. As with most other country boys of his time, he herded cattle, made clay pots and carved wood. As a young student, Matemera excelled in wood carving at school.
He spent his entire professional life residing and working at the Tengenenge Sculpture Community, near Guruve. In 1963 he was employed as a tobacco labourer at Tengenenge and later as a contract tractor driver for many tobacco farmers in farming area of Mvurwi, in Guruve – an area which has extensive deposits of serpentine stone suitable for stone carving.
At Tengenenge he developed his stone sculpting skills; here he stayed on creating his art at throughout the war years for Zimbabwean Independence at a time when many other artists abandoned that way of life, moving into the cities to flee the war.
Given that at that time there were international sanctions against Rhodesia’s white government led by Ian Smith, who had declared Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) in 1965, tobacco sales and tobacco farming were badly affected.
Tengenenge was the incubating ground for most of the initial core group of stone artists.
Matemera was among the first artists to take up sculpting full-time, joining others including Henry Munyaradzi Mudzengerere, Josia Manzi, Fanizani Akuda, Sylvester Mubayi and Lemon Moses, Wazi Maicolo, Ndale Wilo, Josiah Manzi, Saidi Sabiti, and others, who formed part of the First Generation of Zimbabwean sculptors.
Many of the artists had been on the farm since 1967. Bernard Matemera, a founder member of this talented group -became the representative leader of the Tengenenge Art community which is still functional today. Internationally ,Matemera first came to prominence in 1968 at the “New African Art”, exhibition held at the Museum of Modern Art – MOMA, New York, and elsewhere in the United States, to critical public approval.From the 1980s he gained further international appreciation, with his art works included in exhibitions in Austria, Australia, Brazil, Britain, France, Germany, Malaysia, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, The Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, UK, USA, Zimbabwe and elsewhere in the Southern African region. Some of his notable art exhibitions include:
Zimbabwe Sculpture at Foundation Beelden op de Berg Expose, Wageningen, The Netherlands – 1989,
Contemporary, stone Sculpture from Zimbabwe, Millesgarden Museum, Stockholm, Sweden -1990
Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Yorkshire, England – 1990
Art from Africa, London – 1981
Janet Fleisher Gallery, Philadelphia, USA – 1982,
The Kresge Art Museum, Michigan, USA -1985,
The Afrika Museum, Berg en Dal, The Netherlands -1990
the Musee de Jardin, Paris, France -1997
Group Exhibitions, Springstone International Art Gallery, Idlehurst Way, off Ridge Road Avondale – 1996, 1997, 2003 and 2006, under the auspices of Dr. Michelina Andreucci.
The Botanic Garden, in Hamburg, Germany – 1998
The Kew Gardens, United Kingdom, under the auspices of Chapungu Village Gallery – 2000
Matemera’s sculptures are at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, the Chapungu Sculpture Park, and the Museum fur Völkerkunde, Frankfurt. They are also in important private collections which include: Pierre Gallery, the Michelina Andreucci historic collection of Old Master Zimbabwean Stone art, The Frank McEwen collection, Lord De La Warr, Sir Ronald Prain, Dr. J.R. Raeber, and Mr. David Apter, New York, USA.
Throughout his career Bernard Matemera won many awards including the prestigious Award of Honour at the (Lalit Kala Akademi) VI Triennale, New Delhi, India, 1986.Many of Bernard Matemera’s exhibition pieces have toured worldwide. Matemera had two wives, with whom he had eight children. He died in March of 2006, and left a great artistic legacy for the nation.
Art Consultant, Artist and lecturer
Dr. Tony Monda holds a PhD. in Art Theory and Philosophy and a DBA (Doctorate of Business Administration) in Post-Colonial Heritage Studies. He is a writer, art critic, practicing artist and Corporate Image Consultant. For Comments E-mail: tonym.MONDA@gmail.com.