National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Chapungu and Shona Sculpture

No art movement in modern southern Africa has achieved greater international recognition than Zimbabwean stone sculpture. Centred in and around Harare since the late 1950s, generations of carvers have worked exclusively by hand with chisels, punches, files and wet sandpaper to transform raw blocks of serpentine, springstone, opal stone and lepidolite into expressive human and spirit forms.

The National Gallery of Zimbabwe and Harare Gardens

Begin on Julius Nyerere Way at the southern edge of Harare Gardens, the city's largest central park shaded by jacarandas and palms. Opened in 1957 and directed in its formative years by Frank McEwen, the National Gallery of Zimbabwe was the catalyst that brought early Shona sculptors to museum audiences in Paris, London and New York. Its airy modernist halls, split-level walkways and inner sculpture courtyard display rotating exhibitions of contemporary Zimbabwean painting, photography and textile art alongside historic stone carvings, Batonka carved doors, headrests and ceremonial objects. Before leaving the downtown core, walk fifteen minutes south-west toward the Civic Centre to visit the Museum of Human Sciences (Queen Victoria Museum), which houses archaeological displays on the Iron Age stone cities of Zimbabwe and traditional Shona village life.

Chapungu Sculpture Park and Doon Estate in Msasa

Eight kilometres east of central Harare in the suburb of Msasa, Chapungu Sculpture Park (founded by Roy Guthrie in 1970 inside the leafy grounds of Doon Estate) is an essential stop for anyone interested in African art. Set across fifteen acres of lawn and indigenous msasa trees, the open-air park displays hundreds of monumental stone works by first-generation pioneers such as Joram Mariga, Thomas Mukarobgwa, Nicholas Mukomberanwa, Henry Munyaradzi, Bernard Matemera and Sylvester Mubayi, as well as bold pieces by second- and third-generation artists including Dominic Benhura and Agnes Nyanhongo. Even better, you can walk past the outdoor residency workshops where sculptors chip, rasp, heat and polish raw stone with beeswax, and relax afterwards at the estate's craft shops and garden café.

Understanding the stones and buying authentic work

Zimbabwe sits atop the Great Dyke, a 550-kilometre geological seam rich in dense metamorphic rocks. Soft green or brown steatite (soapstone) is mostly used for small curio carvings at roadside stalls, whereas serious gallery sculpture is carved from much harder stones: jet-black springstone from Tengenenge (so dense the chisel rings when struck), translucent green cobalt and opal serpentine from Chiweshe, and lilac lepidolite. Both Chapungu and reputable suburban galleries can crate and freight heavy pieces overseas, while smaller works fit in luggage from Avondale. Compare nearby neighbourhoods in where to stay in Harare.