Sylvester Mubayi

Sylvester Mubayi was born in 1942 in the Chihota Reserve near Marondera, sixth of nine children. He left school at sixteen, worked as a tobacco grader and then at the Chibuku Breweries in Harare, before joining the Tengenenge Sculpture Community in April 1967 as one of its earliest members.

When Frank McEwen founded the Vukutu sculpture farm near Nyanga, Mubayi was the first carver to work there. McEwen, who brought Zimbabwean sculpture to the world's attention, called him the greatest sculptor of all time, and on his death left six of Mubayi's pieces to the British Museum.

His work drew consistently on Shona spiritual belief: spirit birds, protective ancestors, the relationship between the living and those who came before. In 1991 The Guardian named him among the top ten sculptors in the world. He died in December 2022.