Soapstone carvers live a hard life crafting 'white gold'

It is 6am on a Tuesday at the Nyabigeri Art Centre in Tabaka, Kisii county. Mary Achando, 55, sits atop a mound of sand, spreads her feeble legs apart and starts to gingerly scrub off the rough edges of a giraffe carving she has done.

More other unfinished carvings lie in wait on the huge bowl beside her. This tells of another long day ahead for the mother of six.

Achando says she has to divide her time between attending to prospective clients, doing the scrubbing, washing the carvings and babysitting an endlessly crying granddaughter.

“It is never easy and it tests your patience, and the pay here will depend on how many sales we make for the day,” she says, grabbing another piece, this time a crucifix, from the lot.

Veteran sculptor Elkana Ongesa likens the soapstone craft in the region to baking bread out of stone.

“God gave us a stone and we have been baking it bit by bit into bread, and we must keep keeping on,” he told the Star at his Small Arts Centre.

And with the extensive deposits of the unique stone, Ongesa says, it may take millions of years to exhaust the resource.

HAND-TO-MOUTH EXISTENCE

Commonly referred to as the Kisii soapstone, the rock is largely metamorphic and consists primarily of talc.

It is a naturally soft, dense, heat-resistant rock with a high specific heat capacity, which makes it easy for artists to mould a wide variety of sculptures.

Despite the rich deposits of the special stone, which can make various precious artefacts, many carvers still live on less than a dollar a day.

It's a dog's life, as many languish in the rungs of the county's poor, amid resources whose products adorn palaces around the world.

With the poverty index at a new high, children keep dropping out of school to help their parents in the mines.

Carver Omari Onsombi was working on a Prophet Sakawa sculpture when the Star found him at his mine outside Tabaka township.

"I have nothing to show for the last 40 years I have been in the trade," he said.

“Nobody seems to remember us. We are a forgotten lot, nobody cares about us. We have been left to rot here over this what our grandfathers passed onto us as heritage," he said.

GOVERNMENT PROMISES

Onsombi said they have seen a series of delegations since the 1970s, many of them coming in big cars to pontificate on how they are going to help them. They never deliver.

Next saunters in a government mandarin, and the story remains the same.

"We no longer need them. If you see them, tell them not to bother us any longer,"  Onsombi said with a disdainful look in his eyes.

He laughed at government plans to improve the livelihoods of those engaged in the industry by setting up cottage industries, seeing them as another empty promise. 

However, Mining PS John Omenge, who has made several visits to the region, says mapping of the mining sites has already begun, ahead of the setting up of small industries to help in value addition.

Omenge promised a break from the past by turning promises to action. “We want those still doing carving to form groups in readiness to get help from the government,” he told the Star.

The PS said a geological study to determine the extent of soapstone deposits in the region will be undertaken soon. A tentative survey, however, shows the region has deposits that can be mined for more than 200 years.

The carvers, however, took the PS's announcement with a pinch of salt. Ongesa said unless they see any action, it is just "hogwash".

He says he has heard such promises since 1965. “It has been like that for long. As for me, I anticipate nothing good soon, take that one to the bank,” he said.

 The renowned sculptor cited an empty structure set up at Tabaka township in 1966 by the government, which was to be used by the artists. Today, he says, it lies desolate as ‘living testimony' of the plight residents have been grappling with.

Ongesa said the artists' problems are compounded by the large taxes they pay for their carvings. He asked the government to consider slicing taxes on art as one way of encouraging more people to come on board.

He also cited the huge cost of acquiring tools to help in the carvings hinders full exploitation of the resource. Tools required to finish a sizeable carving can cost more than Sh 300,000, he lamented.

Small-time carvers use poor implements to ply their trade, which compromises their output, he said.

MIDDLEMEN MILK PROFITS

Ongesa has carved his name by producing colossal statues, some of them gracing major agencies across the world.

His monolithic 'Bird of Peace' carving, for instance, is perched at the lawns of the Unesco headquarters in Paris.

The large elephant carving in front of the Nairobi National Museum was also done by him. It was supposed to be the centrepiece of Kenya’s stand at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in the US in 2014, but it never left the country because of mismanagement by government authorities.

As many as 4,000 households across South Mugirango currently depend on soapstones for their income, according to former area MP Manson Nyamweya.

Kisii Governor James Ongwae appealed to investors to visit the region and set up value-addition plants to help end residents' pain.

He said middlemen continue to pose challenges for the carvers, who often lack funds to scout for better markets for their products.

“We would want that value addition done here for the miners to benefit. This will help stem the tide of the middlemen, who are fleecing our people," the governor said.

The governor’s appeal, however, appeared to run counter to what he said in 2015 — that he had gotten an investor from South Africa to set up a processing plant.

Tabaka MCA Daniel Apepo says a mere 30 per cent of soapstone carvings are exported annually from the region. The business should be scaled up, he urged.