TANZANIAN ARTIST SHINES AT KUONA TRUST

Safina Said Kimbokota just had an Open Day at Kuona Trust where the Tanzanian sculptor shared the artwork that she’d created during the three weeks that she’d been an Artist-in-Residence at the Trust.

Safina at Kuona Trust, Nairobi shortly before she returned to Tanzania. photo & story by Margaretta

The time had flown by and Ms. Kimbokota only managed to construct one large mixed media scrap metal sculpture. But that’s no wonder, given she not only chose to weave and weld scrap metal wire into a three-dimensional form which she then welded into a circular light steel frame.

Safina finishes soldering her sculpture at Kuona. Photo by Antony Wachira

After that, she stitched and wove together scraps of kitenge fabric so as to dress up and transform the lifeless metal piece into an elegant Black Beauty which I would have named ‘African Venus’ if it had been up to me. For just as her Beauty didn’t have a face, only a shapely torso, something like the classical Greek sculpture that was given the title of the goddess Venus who was from Milo.

Safina's Black Beauty or my title is African Venus. Photo by Wachira

Fortunately, during her Open Day, the University of Dar es Salaam lecturer in fine art was also able to share a broader sampling of her art, including both paintings and more sculptures, some of which had been part of the group exhibition that just closed at Tanzania’s Alliance Francaise.

‘Choices: Women Art Creators Exhibition’ had been part of the International Women’s Day celebrations which, like a similar showcase in Nairobi, exclusively featured women’s creations. Safina was one of eight women artists, and one of the three female sculptors in the AF show.

Safina at work at Kuona. Photo by Wachira

Admitting that she personally prefers sculpting to painting, Safina’s training in creative expression started from home where her mother was a tailor who taught her younger daughter how to stitch and sew. Then in primary school, she learned how to weave and sculpt in clay, skills that she continues to use even now after years of attending art schools, both in Bagamoyo and next door in Uganda.

It had been a struggle to stay in school, not only because she’d lost her father when she was still very young and her mother’s attempts to run the family business had been thwarted by crooks who took advantage of her mother’s trusting heart. But she also ran up against family resistance to her dream of pursuing a career in the arts.

“Fortunately, my mother stood with me as she understood how much I wanted to follow this path and she knew that I could do it,” said Safina who didn’t have the funds to go to Dar despite having been admitted in 2008.

Safina with her Black Beauty on Kuona Open Day. photo by Wachira

“But as my mother passed on just before the school fees were due, the university policy was to cover the costs for [qualified] orphans,” she added.

It was actually after she’d completed her Bachelor’s in Fine Art degree in 2011 that Safina, while attending a three week metal workshop, discovered how much she loved working in metal, soldering, welding and even weaving metallic wires into textile-like skins.

“The biggest problem I faced after the workshop was not having the [necessary] machines,” she said. But as she was determined to continue on her course, she went to the one suburb of Dar that’s comparable to Nairobi’s own Gikomba.

“I asked the welders there if I could work with their machines when they weren’t using them. They were amused at my request, but they agreed,” she added.

That is how she managed to create two sculptures which she sold at her first major art exhibition. “And that was the money I used to finally buy my own welding machine along with a grinder and overalls,” said Safina who uses those same machines to this day.

But that wasn’t the end of the challenges that she’s faced. “My first sculptures didn’t sell very well, so in order to support myself, I began to make shoes using kitange material.”

How she got the idea to make shoes is unclear, especially as she had to go directly to local cobblers who begrudgingly showed her how to assemble the shoes which she eventually re-designed and sold extensively in both local and international markets.

But when she started receiving huge orders for her kitange shoes from overseas, she realized the work was more than she could handle. Besides, she wanted to get back to her art.

It was during those shoe-making days that Safina decided to go back to Dar for a Masters degree. Again, she had the good fortune to be offered a teaching assistantship in the fine art department.

“I’m both teaching and studying myself,” said Safina who was only able to make it to Kuona during a school break; but she’s already back on track teaching at the university.

But at the same time as she’s teaching, she’ll continue working on the series of sculptures that she started before coming to Kenya which is all about ‘The Ideal Beauty of African Women.’

“I feel it’s important that African women come to appreciate their own natural beauty and not feel compelled to conform to stereotypes that claim beauty can only be white, which we know it is not.”

Being a natural beauty in her own right, Safina’s sculptures should serve as a wake-up call to rouse women to see the beauty in themselves.

See the Beauty within yourself, says Safina to every African woman. Photo by Margaretta