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Thotho Mkhwanazi, Product Owner
 


Mathotho's Trading

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A SHORT drive from Nelspruit, capital of the province of Mpumalanga, is Matsulu, a sprawling semi-rural settlement that was part of the KaNgwane homeland under the apartheid system.
Located just off the N4 highway that links South Africa’s economic heartland of Gauteng with Mozambique and Swaziland, Matsulu and Kangwane are today integral parts of democratic South Africa but most of the thousands of people who live there still struggle with an on-going burden of poverty.

South of Matsulu is the highway, to the north is the border of the two million-hectare Kruger National Park, the country’s best known and biggest game reserve, one that each year attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists.

Matsulu resident Thotho Mkhwanazi is a young man who is determined to rise above the sea of poverty that surrounds him – by using natural materials and his natural talent.

“When I was in Standard Six at school I went to the Kruger National Park and I saw people taking photographs of all the animals, anything that moved,” explains Thotho of how he came to start his business, Mathotho’sTrading. “I saw that they thought the animals and birds were beautiful and I was inspired to create images of them.”

The 13-year-old Thotho then approached an elderly neighbour who was known for his skill as a wood carver. Under the old man’s tutelage, watching him carve every day after school, Thotho absorbed everything he could about wood, about which pieces to select and how to turn them into works of art. His preferred medium is ironwood, a tree which, as its name suggests, is extremely hard. It’s a dense wood that can be worked into very beautiful objects.

Over the years Thotho has honed his skills to the point that a “Thotho bird” is instantly recognisable as having been made by the sculptor from Daantjie Trust, Matsulu. Collectors who are in the know sometimes make their way to the humble one-room workshop in which Thotho and a single assistant create their birds, giraffes and, sometimes, other animals. His work, though, has an international following, being sold through shops in Canada, France, the United States, Dubai, Germany, Sweden and Italy.

Creating the Thotho birds is a time-consuming process. The carving alone can take three days and then the piece must be painted. That can take another two to three days, allowing each layer of paint to dry thoroughly before applying the next. Exactly how he approaches each new design, says Thotho, is determined by the piece of wood itself. And that means that every piece is unique; there is no attempt to replicate a particular sculpture.

Carving and selling his sculptures, Thotho says, is the only job he he’s ever had – and the only one he’s ever wanted. “I love this work. It’s really peaceful. My materials, the wood and the paints are cheap. Here there’s no stress and it’s always exciting to see a new sculpture emerge out of the wood. I have a good idea, when I start, what the piece is going to look like but you never really know until it’s finished.”

As much as he has been learning the art of wood carving and painting for years, Thotho has, since he opened Mathotho’s Trading formally in 2002, learnt a great deal about customer preferences. “In South Africa people like red, black, green and yellow. In France they prefer red and white and for the United States I use the colours of their flag. It’s just a question of finding out what people want but each piece is my own creation, it’s inspired by who I am and what I see around me, here where I live and work, in Africa.”

It is thanks to organisations such as TEP that the young man from Matsulu has been able to reach customers all over the world – and that he has a worldwide following among astute collectors. He has exhibited in several overseas centres and often travels internationally to promote the business(always taking his running shoes with him – apart from carving the great love of Thotho’s life is running and he has completed dozens of marathons).

“TEP have been a big help to me in a number of ways,” says Thotho.“They have helped me with marketing and, when I get a big order, they help with the costs of transport. I’m really fortunate to have them on my side.”
 
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