Inacio Mbanze


“I am Makonde, I was born a carver following in my family tradition.”

It was in Vilankulo that I first encountered Inacio in 1991. He was carving an exceptionally large log of Pau Preto, (Dalbergia Melanoxylon - African blackwood), for the Russians, who were drilling for gas in the Pande area. The end product was a “Shetani“ or spirit sculpture, not something that the Russians were looking for. They wanted “airport art” as gifts for their families. Net result, they sold me the carving, which I still have. It has been in my garden for the last thirty years. I also inherited a poverty-stricken artist, who had just lost his job, board, and lodging with the Russians.

How do you turn your back on a 5 foot 2 inch, dignified gentleman with a perpetual smile?   Simple, you don’t.

That was the beginning of our unique symbiotic relationship. He kept me in statues, which I never managed to sell but always admired, and I kept him in food and drink. He worked when he felt like it, and he had free rein to carve whatever he wanted. I paid him on completion of every carving and invariably he would then go on a walk-about, the length of which depended on how quickly he spent his money.

His talent was extraordinary. It was raw, brutal, expressive. His work was steeped in tradition. Definitely not for the tourist market. A fundamental energy emanated out of every piece he carved whether it was an “Ujumaa, the tree of life,” a “shetani,” or the amazing works that Inacio created in his later years.

I would like to quote an article from the Hamburg Mawingu Collection, regarding Inacio’s work;

”Other types of your collection - I would call them ”the ornamental ones” are really very special. They are not known as standard Makonde art pieces. It seems possible that one or more unknown Makonde carvers had the idea of a new stage of “abstract” carvings, but that description must not be necessarily true. Another possibility of the interpretation; the carvings show pattern / motives of the Makonde face and body tattooing“.

Peter-Andreas Kamphaus
HMC- Hamburg Mawingu Collection

To discover the art of the Makonde is to dispute the claims that there are no inherited artistic traditions in East Africa. Makonde artists and their art will stand in comparison with any better-known works from the Congo or West Africa. One such artist was  “Inacio Mbanze”.

Inacio Mbanze, a true Makonde, was born in a remote village, south of the Rio Ravuma, in the Province of Cabo del Gado, Mozambique in the early 1950s. In his own words, “I am Makonde, I was born a carver following in my family tradition.”

During the liberation struggle in the seventies, he moved south, first to Beira, and then in the late eighties, onto Vilankulo, hoping to find a client base from the fledgling tourist industry.

Also in the collection is a unique piece. Carved out of a Leadwood trunk over 3 meters in length, is a scene from a battle between the Makonde and their traditional enemy, the Makuwa, as described to Inacio by his father. “In war, no man has a face.” I have never seen anything like it.

He was a true artist, free of all constraints, and I was, for the greatest part of his creative life, his only client. This relationship sadly ended when he became ill and decided to visit his family close to the Rio Ravuma. Tragically, he never made it. I heard through the bush telegraph that he died near Beira.

The year was 2009.