Gifted by Professor Elleke Boehmer, 15 December 2025.
Artist statement:
My work is inspired by the untold stories of black Zimbabweans whose bodies carried the weight of forced labour under colonial rule. This sculpture speaks to the legacy of exploitation and resilience passed down through generations.
The three bent figures represent black workers under the Rhodesian colonial system – men who toiled in the mines, fields and railways, women who toiled in the fields and domestic spaces, carrying the wealth of the nation on their backs while remaining poor. Their posture of submission shows the daily exhaustion of those who built the colonial economy, but were denied its rewards. The stone I use – springstone from the same earth they laboured on – is a voice for those who could not speak.
The human bodies symbolize how the system reduced black workers to mere tools – exploited for survival, moving in one direction, without freedom or rest. Yet in their unity, there is strength. Even in the hardest conditions, black bodies refused to break. The fish shape of the labourers’ heads is a reference to the powerful “njuzu” (mermaids or water spirits) in the Shona Mwari religion. Some njuzu are a force for good and fertility; others can be destructive. Through this work I want to remind people that our heritage is not just in what was taken from us, but in how we survived. The hands that built the mines can also build freedom.
Decolonisation begins when we reclaim our stories – shaping our own futures with the same stones that once weighed us down.
The sculpture formed part of the 2025 Rhodes Must Fall Shona Stone sculpture exhibition, a call to decolonise our minds, arts and our communities. May these stories stand as monuments to our struggle, strength and self-reliance.
This sculpture was one of four winning sculptures, all by Zimbabwean sculptors, resulting from a competition run by the Oxford Zimbabwe Arts Partnership with the Chitungwiza Arts Centre outside Harare and funded by Oriel College in 2025. The sculptures formed part of an exhibition which discussed the colonial campaign led by Cecil John Rhodes in southern Africa including Zimbabwe, charted the history of the Rhodes Must Fall campaign in South Africa and in Oxford, and shone a light on the tradition of Zimbabwean stone sculpture.