Zimbabwe Artists Project

Orpah was born in 1960 in Weya. She went to school through Grade 4, at which time “my step-mother said, ‘I don’t want you to go to school – you are a girl.’” She was married at age fifteen and has six children. Her husband is a driver and she lives with [...]

Born in 1966, Milcah was raised in a family of 6 children.  She was married in 1982 and has 5 children.  Her husband died in 1994, at the age of 32.  She is now the sole support for her children.
Milcah learned to paint at the Weya Community Training Centre in 1988.  She moved to Harare [...]

Mary was born in 1966.  She was seven when her father was killed during Zimbabwe’s Liberation Struggle.  She completed Form 1 (7th grade), having worked all during her schooling to earn income for the family.  She has four sons, born between 1985 and 1995.  She and her family moved from the rural area to Harare [...]

Irene was born in Buhera in 1975, the fourth of nine children.  She completed 10th grade in 1993.  She was married in 1997 and moved to Gurure village in Weya, her husband’s home.  Irene has one son, Tatenda, who was born in 1998.
Irene grows crops and vegetables for her family’s use and began to do [...]

Gallet was born in Weya in 1975. He was doing Form 1 (8th grade) when he left school due to health. He had osteomylitis, and his right leg was amputated when he was 14. He began painting 2 years later. “I wasn’t interested in art, but at that time I heard [...]

Florence was born in Tanda in 1985, the second of five children.  She finished 10th grade but didn’t continue because she wasn’t well.  She worked as a cook at the Miekles Hotel in Harare for 2 years before marrying Tatenda Mapuranga, son of Weya artist Albertina Nyamagoronga, in 2005.  She has one child, Simeon, who [...]

Eugenia was born in 1961 in Mondoro and studied through 7th grade at St. Michael’s Mission. She came to Weya in 1986 to be married, and learned to paint in 1990. “I wanted to get money to buy food.” She chose sadza painting “because it was easy.”
Eugenia’s favorite topics for her art [...]

Dorothy was born in Murewa in 1965, the second-born in a family of 2 girls and 2 boys. She completed primary school but because of illness was unable to attend secondary school. Dorothy came to Weya when she was married in 1984. She and her husband have three children.
Dorothy learned appliqué making [...]