IT'S NEVER LATE TO BENEFIT FROM CHANGE

Many Tanzanian artists based in Dar es Salaam are beginning to rethink of the way they have been parting with their artworks for nominal financial amounts. At a later date they realise all they are left with is some faded photographs to show for their labours. 

 

Peter Kalulu (centre) gives his sons: Raymond (left) and Joakim  some advice on finishing a caving.

 

Peter Kalulu, of the Mbagala Kwa Mamgaya section of this commercial capital, is one such artist. Over his 40 years of producing artistic works, the 64-year-old has made many carvings but has not even one at his home today to show a visitor.

 

No sooner does he finish a piece, does a trader, who has paid for and brought him the log, come to claim it. There is nothing Kalulu can do to stop him either. He had already agreed that the finished product would belong to the one who supplied the wood.

 

At the beginning stages of a piece only Peter Kalulu knows what the final product will be.

 

Buying his own material is out of the question because of the hand to mouth situation he finds himself in. This is why he has to accept whatever he can get from the one who has supplied the log for carving. Ready cash in the hand is difficult to refuse. A sorry situation to be in for sure but it’s a reality all the same. 

 

One thing that would help him develop an independent stance is for him to gain some basic business knowledge. Artists like Kalulu should be encouraged to learn that there are ways to ensure they get the most out of the products of their labour.

 

The home of Peter Kalulu and family in the Mbagala Kwa Mamgaya section of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. (Photos by Desderia Haule)

 

No one would doubt that many of these artists have talent and are able to produce some magnificent works. However, marketing them without incurring a loss, requires another type of skill. When it comes to the business side of things they should also have to sharpen the necessary skills for this task.

 

Take for example the above mentioned situation where Kalulu has been supplying a single foreign trader with carvings through a special arrangement. The carver admitted that this has left him at the disadvantaged end of the deal. Meanwhile, the buyer has prospered from using the art pieces in exhibitions and catalogues or selling the occasional one for cash.

 

Kalulu said, “This trader has been buying my pieces for cents and making dollars from them in exhibitions, book catalogues and direct sales.”

 

Now he vows to change his mode of operation. For this to happen he will first have to find a way around the tricky persons, who have become intertwined in the carving business in the country. He has been putting up with three types of cheating.

 

One is whereby customers are deferred from a particular carver by their fellow artists, who say he or she is dead or lives too far away. This way they can get the business instead. Another is for the traders, who act as middle men, to deter customers from the carver by making similar lying claims. Then he or she can get the deal instead.

 

According to Kalulu buyers should insist they find the artist themselves, from whom they can buy.  That way they would be sure the money goes directly to the one who has done the work.


Peter Kalulu is credited for making some of the tallest carvings in the country. At his elderly age he is still able to produce some art pieces, which are considered by art critics to be unique examples of Tanzanian art.

 

He has produced pieces as tall as 12 feet. As it is in the case of his shorter carvings, he said the length of the actual wood in front of him is what determines the length of the finished product.

 

From just looking at a log of wood he can see what he would make with it. It then remains to make it. The secret is, he said, being able to see the identity of a piece of wood from looking at it in its raw form.

 

The extra tall pieces are the product of this prior vision. He maintains, “Any time I get hold of a piece of log long enough to make a particular piece; I try to do just that.”


Author: Iman Mani
Date: 07.12.2008