Tengenenge falls on hard times

MashCentral Correspondent
TENGENENGE Arts Village in Guruve, which used to be the epicentre of sculpture during its heyday, is now a pale shadow of its former self due to the devastating effects of the economic sanctions imposed on the country by Western countries.

The village relies heavily on buyers from Western countries.

In an interview at the village in Guruve recently, the administrator, Mr Augustine Mbilinyu, said at its peak, the village used to house more than 500 artists, but the majority have since left in search of greener pastures.

Only 150 artists are still soldiering on at the village.

“Since the Western countries imposed sanctions on the country, life has not been the same for the village,” he said. “We rely on visitors from the West, but they are no longer coming as they used to do in the past. We used to have more than 500 artists here at any given time, but now only 150 artists are left.

“We used to have six to seven customers per week coming to buy our sculptures, but at the moment we only have two to three visitors per month, resulting in massive loss of income. This has forced most of the sculptors to leave en masse to look for alternative employment or relocating to other centres.

“A handful of domestic tourists make their way to the centre and the few that do visit hardly purchase the carved pieces. Art dealers who buy to resell the sculptures are offering a pittance perhaps as a result of the economic challenges, which forces artists to sell at whatever cost.”

Mr Mbilinyu said they were making frantic efforts to market the once vibrant village through social media platforms, but their efforts were being hampered by poor connectivity.

He said since they were not realising a lot of money from the sale of sculptures, the village was in the process of diversifying and rehabilitating the chalets, which used to accommodate buyers during its heyday to modern lodges for tourists.