Arts maestro a living treasure for his village

The multi-talented artist, Lucky Ntimani, continues to produce more amazing work and has been transferring his artistic skills to the youth around Mbokota village.

He is an artist who possesses the ability to hew any given piece of wood into an article resembling reality, or what he has seen in his dreams.

Apart from possessing the ability to play with ease any traditional musical instrument familiar in Southern Africa, he also creates musical instruments of his own, using a small table, steel plate and a piece of wire. “This is one music instrument which I invented – and my regular guests from Germany, London, Australia, Netherlands and France love it,” he said. “When I play it, they get intrigued. It fills them with wonder and awe to see that one can use discarded material to produce an amazing music instrument.”

He has also started facilitating arts workshops and skills-transfer programmes for the local youths who all flood his yard after school. For that purpose, he had built an all-side open shelter which he uses for a classroom.

“My children are quite amazing; they grasp the basics so fast and challenge themselves to produce the best of sounds or sculptures,” he said. “We also have a big marimba troupe. I made the marimba instrument myself and gave it a unique tuning.”

Ntimani is hailed as one of the finest sculptors to ever come out of the village, which is known to boast several internationally acclaimed sculptors. He maintains that he was born an artist. “I started noticing that I was an artist at the age of 14, when I told cultural stories to my peers and composed songs of my own,” repeating what he said in an interview with Limpopo Mirror some five years ago.

“I breathe life into my art,” he said and, as if to prove his point, his yard is decorated with statuettes and other creations of different sizes and shapes.

Those interest in Ntimani's art and his other artistic activities can phone him on 063 720 3114.

Entertainment - Date: 25 March 2018

Tshifhiwa Mukwevho

Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho was born in 1984 in Madombidzha village, not far from Louis Trichardt in the Limpopo Province. After submitting articles for roughly a year for Limpopo Mirror's youth supplement, Makoya, he started writing for the main newspaper. He is a prolific writer who published his first book, titled A Traumatic Revenge in 2011. It focusses on life on the street and how to survive amidst poverty. His second book titled The Violent Gestures of Life was published in 2014.

Email: [email protected]