Background
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Vision of enterprise The enterprise African Sun imports high quality living accessories from Zimbabwe.
The products are imported directly from the country, in other words we have personal contact with the local artists and suppliers.Several times a year we travel to Zimbabwe to maintain and extend our contacts. African Sun's vision of enterprise is based on three values directly related to the kind of import from a socially and economically broken country: quality, reliability and involvement. Reliability We want to be a reliable business partner to both our customers in the Netherlands, as well as to our suppliers in Zimbabwe. In practice, this means that our customers can count on continuity in our high quality standard. The suppliers in Zimbabwe can count on regular visits to Zimbabwe. When they can deliver high quality products for a reasonable price, sale is essentially guaranteed.
Involvement African Sun feels connected with the fate of the people from Zimbabwe. This country finds herself in a socially and economically deep crisis... The civilised world turns away from Zimbabwe on seeing the face of its dictator. Behind the facade, African Sun sees a generation looking for identity, doubting between docile behaviour or choosing for inner strength. It is the goal of African Sun to support those people from Zimbabwe, who want to build up a future for themselves and their country.
Quality The different articles are manufactured from natural materials and are handmade according to the Zimbabwean culture. African Sun can guarantee a high quality by means of carefull handling of the products in the Netherlands, all by skilled hands. Like in the Netherlands, the handling of the articles in Zimbabwe is very labour intensive. However, this guarantees the very high quality and low dropout rate. African Sun is continually looking for young skillfull artists and workmen in Zimbabwe. African Sun can not be typified by a specific article, it is continually looking for excellent products.
Shona Art The 'Shona' name is a collective term for different ethnical groups of the population in Zimbabwe who speak related languages. The Zimbabwean sculpture (also called 'Shona Art') has developed its own styles during the last decades, without reference to western styles of art. Most of the sculpture designs stem from the own culture. The artists have enormous technical know-how and knowledge concerning the different kinds of stone. At the same time, they respect the stone as living instead of soulless matter. They work intuitively, without measuring or drawing. Feelings from the soul and themselves are reflected in their art. The result is a powerful human piece of art, depicting experiences that are at the basis of humanity, regardless of the cultural background. Serpentine is the stone being used, which exists in different colour combinations and ranges of hardness. Serpentine can be found relatively on the surface of the soil in Zimbabwe: on a depth of 1 or 2 meters. Rocks suitable for sculpting can therefore be acquired easily.
Before starting sculpting, the artists carefully look what design or forms they see in the specific stone. Only then they start to work on the stone with hammers, chisels (photo 1), rasps, files (photo 2). In the end the sculpture will be polished (photo 3) and it will be covered with a wax coat while heated. This coat maintains the colour of the piece of art and will make it shine (photo 4). The handwork and diversity in colours make every sculpture unique.
Metalbirds
Our collection contains a large amount of metalbirds. They are made by hand by the people of Zimbabwe from oil drums and other metal scrap. Isolated metal parts are being welded to eachother (photo on the right). Metal birds are being treated with a brown coat to make them less vulnerable to wet weather conditions. Artists are being stimulated to create new spiecies of metalbirds. Textile Goods We also import textile goods from Zimbabwe. The materials are handpainted by means of the potato-stamp technique or silk-screen printing. The materials are of an excellent quality and received a treatment to be less vulnerable for dirt.
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