EDWARD NJENGA INTREPID ARTIST AT 99

                                     AT 99 NJENGA IS STILL A BUSY MAN

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted April 1, 2021)

At 99, pioneering Kenyan artist Edward Njenga is a busy man. He’s been slowed down just a wee bit due to a leg problem that ultimately led to a portion of it being removed.

But otherwise, Njenga is easily as robust, sharp, and involved with the art that has occupied his life for many decades as a man half his age.

Granted he has several artisans who help him carry out some of the more arduous aspects of his work. But his biggest helpers are his grandson, Edward Junior who assists with Ngenga’s online communications, and his lovely wife, Hannah.

Claiming that healthy living, nutritious foods, and Mungu are key factors in his longevity, it’s indisputable that the main force keeping him strong is his dedicated wife of 60 years.

It is Hannah who has seen him through his years in detention for being deemed a Mau Mau as well as years when he was studying overseas, both in UK and in Germany. She’s stood with him when they had little up until now when they have retired comfortably in their Gigiri mansion where Njenga has both his gallery and workshop-studio.

Today he is world-renowned as a sculptor whose art has been inspired first and foremost by his mother and grandmother, both of whom were potters working in clay. Growing up, he used to help his mother prepare her clay. At the same time, he learned the material’s infinite possibilities. for not just shaping pots, but also modeling stories about working people whose lives he encountered every day as a social worker in Eastlands for many years.

It’s those people whose lives of struggle, hardship, and endurance have provided the main subjects of his carefully crafted sculptures. Everyone from the mkokoteni handcart driver and street boys digging into dustbins for food to the sick mothers, babies and beggars are all portrayed in his three-dimensional sculptures and social scenes.

It is these humble folks who preoccupied Ngenga’s artistry for decades. What may be even more of a wonder is that the artist had the foresight at the time not to sell the vast majority of his clay figurines despite pressure from collectors over the years.

“I always knew I wanted to hold onto my sculptures so they would remain in the country and so people would know it was I who had made them,” Njenga told DN recently.

Nonetheless, he plans to have an exhibition of his art later this year at the Nairobi National Museum. “I had donated several of my sculptures to the Museum with the understanding I could have an exhibition there whenever I wanted,” he says.

Nonetheless, not all of his art at the Museum will be made of clay. In spite of his being best known as a clay master whose biographer, Lynnette Kariuki even entitled her book on him, ‘Telling it in Clay’, Ngenga’s upcoming exhibition is bound to cause a shift in public perception of the man and his art.

For his latest museum exhibition, he plans to present few if any clay pieces. Instead, his most formidable works will be made from wood, and especially from giant tree roots.

Njenga doesn’t disclose when his graceful root sculptures were made, but he does admit the roots were picked up some years back when road construction was underway and giant trees had to be downed to make room for the roadways.

“I used to find them laying on the side of the road. Then their shapes would inspire me to create based on what I could see in them,” he says.  In one instance, Njenga ‘saw’ a giant dragon; in another a wistful mermaid; and in another, a semi-abstract being.

These are in radical contrast to the ensemble piece of Mau Mau detainees that he agreed to sell to a British bidder who was keen to pay for the installation, including the bullish British colonial ‘overlord’ and several African homeguards.

These got shipped out of Kenya contrary to Njenga’s original plan to keep his best works in the country for his own people to appreciate. But as artists must also put food on the table, Njenga gracefully released his Mau Mau collection, knowing it will be well cared for by the new owner.

In the meantime, Njenga plans to celebrate his centennial birthday during his forthcoming show. We look forward to being there with him.