Old wood carvers of Ukambani and fear of a dying craft

Sheltered under a makeshift workshop in Wamunyu township, Machakos County, Mutuku Kitala is momentarily lost in thought as he gouges the underbelly of a rhinoceros he has been carving for two days.



“This will be followed by putting final touches through filing, sanding, incising eye sockets and applying vanish,” he says.



At 70, Mr Kitala is widely celebrated as an emblem of resilience in an industry shattered by a series of global shockwaves. 







It has been months since the world sighed in relief after Covid-19 cases subsided. But the woodcarving community in this Wamunyu area is still gasping for air. The restrictions governments put in place when the pandemic struck pushed hundreds of woodcarvers to quit.



Today, a cloud of uncertainty over the future of the industry hangs over the sleepy region, which is understood to be the home of modern woodcarving in Kenya. 



Currently, 2,217 woodcarvers are registered as members of the Wamunyu Handicrafts Cooperative Society.



“The active members have reduced to around 700 in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. On a normal day, around 30 members work from the cooperative’s workshop. The rest work from home as they perform other activities. Many of those who quit enrolled as boda boda operators, watchmen and peasants after learning that the woodcarving industry can collapse in a day,” said Musau Wambua, the chairman of the society.



The shakeup in the industry has sent authorities and the woodcarving community panicking after it emerged that younger carvers form the bulk of those who quit. This has evoked fears of the industry becoming extinct. The woodcarving community is dominated by old men.



Last generation



A spot check by the Saturday Nation shows that wood carvers in the region are aged 60 on average. “You are looking at the last generation of woodcarvers since the youth don’t find the industry appealing,” said Mr Wambua. 



Although aggressive environmental conservation campaigns have been a thorn in the side of the industry, the Wamunyu woodcarvers blame their woes mainly on the shrinking of the market for their products.



“Woodcarving lost its allure long before terrorism rocked the tourism industry,” said Ngumbi Mbaluka, one of the pioneer traders in woodcarvings.



In his heyday, the peasant from Nyaani village on the fringes of Wamunyu township was among dozens of traders who traversed East and Southern Africa selling assorted woodenware.



In the 1940s up to the early 1960s, the entrepreneurs made a fortune by hawking the woodcarvings made in Wamunyu directly to Europeans who called the modern-day Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia and Zimbabwe home.



The Wamunyu handcraft traders folded up after many African countries attained independence, jeopardising a lucrative industry credited for the growth of the sleepy trading centre located along the Kitui-Machakos road.



Mutisya Munge is believed to be the pioneer of modern woodcarving in the area. He reportedly began carving assorted items around a century ago after serving the British Army in Tanzania during the First World War.



A man uses a machine to apply sandpaper on a wooden sculpture at Wamunyu Township in Machakos County on January 13, 2023./Courtesy



It is said that Mzee Munge, who died in 1927, borrowed the art of wood carving from the Makonde community in Tanzania.



In Kambiti village on the fringes of Wamunyu township where Mzee Munge is buried, one of his grandchildren has embarked on an ambitious project to prop up the ailing industry. Samson Muthwii is convinced that woodcarving is crucial to unlocking the region’s economic potential.



“Today, all the prominent people you can think of around Wamunyu were educated by the proceeds of woodcarving. Unfortunately, the industry is on its deathbed. We have abandoned an industry that has immensely contributed to the development of the region. We are obligated to at least rejuvenate it,” Prof Muthwii said.



Environmental conservation



The environmentalist, who has taught at Kenyatta University and South Eastern Kenya University, was the face of a recent programme sponsored by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation to promote environmental conservation. 



The programme champions the use of exotic trees in woodcarving such as jacaranda to ease pressure on indigenous trees, which are facing depletion due to exploitation.



He has established a plantation of both indigenous and exotic trees suitable for woodcarving around his grandfather’s graveyard. The environmentalist believes the construction of a monument to immortalise Mzee Munge and the setting up of a gallery around his graveyard can go a long way in recovering Wamunyu’s lost glory.



Mr Kitala is among a handful of seasoned woodcarvers of good repute whom Prof Muthwii has enlisted to mentor young people into woodcarving. Taking his cue from pioneer woodcarvers and traders, Mr Kitala remains buoyant by being creative and striking deals with prominent woodware merchants in Tanzania where tourism is vibrant. 



Telling from his portfolio and achievements, which include a bar at Wamunyu and a commercial building in Malindi town, it is hard to tell he joined the craft after dropping out of primary school in 1970.



Once he excelled in sanding, he left Wamunyu for the Akamba Handicrafts Industry in Mombasa where he further honed the trade. When they returned from the Coast in the wake of a slump in the tourism industry, many of the Wamunyu woodcarvers had improved their trade significantly, thanks to their mingling with Asian and Italian middlemen.



Their portfolio has, however, remained static. They specialise in assorted wild animals, especially the Big Five, and Kamba, and Masai men and women draped in traditional attires, knives, forks and bowls.



“It is not enough to carve a colourful giraffe from the most highly sought wood. We need to show the animal in action. That extra element is what adds value to a creation and makes it irresistible,” Mutheke Muindi told the Saturday Nation at his home in Kalengele village, where he has retreated after riding the roller-coaster of a colourful career in woodcarving whose highlight is the founding of the Akamba Handicrafts Industry.



Veteran Wamunyu woodcarvers bet big on the competency-based curriculum to rejuvenate the industry by spurring interest among young people.



Similarly, the Machakos government mulls introducing a woodcarving course in its polytechnics to sustain the industry.



“In addition, in the meanwhile, the Trade department is planning to offer affordable credit to woodcarvers to boost their trade as it embarks on place branding Wamunyu as the home of modern woodcarving in the country the way we have Baringo as the home of honey, Mwea as the home of rice, and Kimberly in South Africa as the home of gold,” County Secretary Lawrence Ngovi told the Saturday Nation in an interview. 



Nation