Josiah Manzi was a founding member of the Tengenenge Art Community in Guruve and a pioneer of the Zimbabwean contemporary stone sculpture movement that begun in the 1960s. Mfiti Woman and Snake (1990) was until recently located in the Harare Gardens, a central park that partly encircles the National Gallery of Zimbabwe. Mfiti means sorcerer in Chichewa, a language spoken in Malawi. In this work, Manzi depicts a seated woman cradling a two-legged serpent. Curiously, the snake and the woman both exhibit a fusion of zoomorphic and anthropomorphic features. Recurring motifs in Manzi’s work included cone-shaped heads, elongated necks, and beings that are part human and part totemic animals, such as the rhinoceros and bird. Manzi’s process involved listening to stone, removing the initial outer layer, and perceiving how it ought to be shaped. Much of his practice was drawn from African cosmologies and folklore. His visual pedagogy was informed by traditional Yao Malawian spirituality, for he was a chigure – a secret society masquerader who would often make wooden masks with his father.
This is the first time the work of Josiah Manzi is presented at Biennale Arte.
—Tandazani Dhlakama
