mabanda
Mabanda was born surrounded by handicrafts. Since young, Mabanda has seen his father crafting all kinds of wood, from sandalo to pau pedra or chifuta. It was natural for Mabanda to start crafting his own creations. Beginnings were difficult, with the Maputo streets and flea market being the only places to sell his creations. Then came ATA, Aid to Artisans. The ATA representative did not have any difficulty to spot Mabanda amongst his peers. At that time, Mabanda already had his own
way to sculpt his busts (pictured on this page). After some training on quality consistency, Mabanda soon became one of the most talented artisans amongst the ATA artisans. It was natural to place some investment on him, and this is how Mabanda got finance from ATA to build his own workshop and buy a machine that would allow him to do the exquisite look of the Xacuhoma bottles. Since ATA left Mozambique, Mabanda has continued to work with some shops around the Globe but says
that access to market has gotten very difficult.
Mabanda lives in Albasini, 5 km from Maputo and is a father of five. He has been living on his art crafts since 2003.
View full mabanda's profile
filimone
Filimone started crafting very early. At 11, he already preferred to spend time with his uncles, crafting his favorite word the mafureira. His father did not like filimone’s passion for crafts, as this was somewhat keeping his son away from school. He also felt like crafts would bring nothing to his son, no future. But filimone kept on crafting and crafting again.
When ATA – Aid to Artisans opened a representation in Mozambique, the NGO soon noticed filimone skills and ATA’s designers helped filimone create. Funny enough though, these crafts would not sell as well as filimone’s own creations. ATA gave filimone the opportunity to represent Mozambique’s know how in New York Deco Fairs. Filimone also participated in an exchange program in El Salvador and Honduras where he met other ATA artisans. Filimone now regularly goes to Johannesburg or Zimbabwe to propose his craft.
Father of two, filimone manages to live from the creation of his hands. He also teaches the kids on his neighborhood the basics of crafting this light and white wood, the mafureira.
boaventura
Boaventura is one of the very few Mozambican artisans that lives from his art. His inspiration comes mainly from
the animals that surround him. His birds are quite famous in Maputo, well, they are actually so famous that some street vendors
have copied his designs and sell them to the tourists that visit Maputo.
Boaventura worked with ATA – Aid to artisans since the beginning. His craft sell so well that ATA decided to help him
and financed his acquisitions of a drying machine. This in-house built machine allows boaventura to dry the mafureira roots
that he uses much faster than if they were left on the sun. The machine is eco friendly as it does not use anything but
the sun energy.
+ coming up, nino, païto, langa and george's profiles.
