In search of fruitful opportunities, Obedience Manara left his beloved home country with his brother. The two have erected big handcrafted copper structures of African fauna and flora for sale on the Parys Road opposite the N1 off-ramp.
It’s no small thing to contemplate, the idea of this 32-year-old Zimbabwean sacrificing the familiar comforts of home to handcraft and protect statues of stallions, kudus, lions, sunflowers, fish eagles and many more to all the way down here on the side of the road.
Although he is in the Western Cape, elder brother Sheba is in Johannesburg, where they launched their joint artistic endeavour in South Africa during 2014.
“My brother and I decided I would come to the Western Cape as our profits had declined after some years in Gauteng. I would travel back there monthly to join him and create more structures for sale to be transported here.
“From the moment I set foot in Paarl in December the people have really been supporting me, for which I’m so grateful.”
Manara told Paarl Post he regarded its coverage of him and his work photographed as being “an achievement of a lifetime”, insisting on a change of clothes so his family business can be represented proudly.
“We started making these structures back home as we were taught by our fathers. We were based on the Main Road where thousands of tourists would travel and support our businesses. But then came the politics and our economy was destroyed.”
Manara’s skills are inherited from the elders of his community in Masvingo, where artistic carbon copies of majestic animals were initially crafted from wood.
“When I came to South Africa I was making them with wood in Pomona, Kempton Park – well, until I saw the number of trees I was cutting down. I then decided to team-up with my brother, who knows welding, and started using recycled 200 F steel drums.”
He explained that, to achieve the statues’ shapes, the two would heat and flatten the steel drums, outline cuts with chalk, before cutting the shape out with a chisel and hammer. Sheba, the welding talent, then pieced his brother’s designs together.
This, Manara pointed out, is a creative craft passed down from generation to generation.
“My father himself is a master crafter. We inherited the talent from him in which he did sculptures with wood. My parents are still up in Zim. I am a married father of two, aged 7 and 3.”
He returns home at least three times a year. “My wife sometimes visits me, but she is based in Zimwhere she takes care of the poultry project we started.”
So it is no mean thing this sacrifice the Manara brothers have made to provide for their loved ones back home in a country that is now bankrupt both politically and economically.
Their handiwork, in its shiny splendour, cannot be overlooked.
Their products range in price from R50 to R300 for small crafts and about R6 000 for bigger structures.
Manara, who cuts a unique figure among these gems in Paarl can be reached on 067 218 4925.
