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Carving Out a Reputation
- Details
- Published on Tuesday, 17 July 2007 23:14
Although hardly celebrated in Kenya, Ong'esa's works are well known outside the country, where they are considered masterpieces.
Four of them grace the headquarters of international companies and organisations. The first of these is gigantic, seven-tonne soapstone piece at Unesco's headquarters in Paris, France. It is called Enyamuchera, an abstract representation of the fiscal shrike as a symbol of peace. Its production began in November 1976, and took two years of arduous work in Kisii to complete.
Ong'esa was commissioned by the government to make the statue to commemorate that year's Unesco conference held in Nairobi, the first outside Europe.
He recalls with pride that the completed sculpture was handed over to Unesco officials in Nairobi on October 10, 1978, by then acting President Daniel arap Moi, "exactly five minutes before he was officially sworn in as (Kenya's second) president".
But his face falls as he narrates how he received "only Sh20,000" of the Sh5 million he believes was paid to the government by Unesco for the work. Upon enquiry, Ogesa, who was then attached to the Ministry of Education as a senior lecturer at Kisii Teachers' College, was told that as a government employee, he did not qualify for anything more.
Even though it was a lot of money at the time, Ong'esa was unhappy with the amount because it was only a small fraction of what was paid for the work, yet he had put in a good two years' work into the project.
But the experience did not discourage him, and he obliged when approached to undertake a similar project in 1982. That time, he led a number of Kenyan artists in developing a soapstone statue for the United Nations headquarters in New York.
The two-tonne structure, which took several months to complete, depicts a Mau Mau freedom fighter. The work was also commissioned by the government, and this time, Ong'esa was properly compensated for his efforts.
Ong'esa's next major assignment came in 1984, when Caltex Oil Company in Dallas, Texas, engaged him to create a carving that would best illustrate the theme "In search of water". Ong'esa fondly talks about the result of his work, a sculpture that stands two metres high.
It is an abstract carving that illustrates a complex scenario in which human beings and wildlife peacefully co-exist, even as they all look for water. It took Ong'esa one year to complete this piece, which features the human being in various postures, as well as a rabbit, an elephant, and a rhinoceros.
For the next 12, years Ong'esa engaged in small-time work, until the Coca-Cola Company head office in Atlanta, Georgia, commissioned him to produce a soapstone sculpture to embellish the World of Coca-Cola Museum. This coincided with the 1996 Olympic games, which were hosted by the city.
With another prestigious but arduous task in his hands, Ong'esa once again came up with a memorable work of art. Standing one-and-a-half-metres tall, the half-ton carving of a Coca-Cola bottle with people (Maasais) dancing around it is "the first exhibit that greets visitors" at the museum.
Even though these four sculptures are Ong'esa's favourites, with Enyamuchera, arguably the biggest soapstone carving in the world, they are only a few of his various works that decorate institutions across the globe. Nearer home, three of his sculptures are in Uganda: one is at Makerere Art Gallery, another at the Bank of Uganda, and the third at the Uganda Museum.
Now 60, Ong'esa, who has carved soapstone for the better part of his life, since childhood, has marshalled a group of fellow craftsmen of all ages and with varying skills to jointly produce and market artefacts with the aim of communicating valuable messages and using the proceeds to support artisan families in need.
