We picked up a man named Githambi at a gas station of Mombasa Road and headed toward Machakos, a city about an hour from Nairobi. We were going to see a woodcarving group. Githambi knew the group, but neither Joe nor I knew what to expect. Joe is starting a jewelry and wood carving export business and we were going to see a couple of the groups he was hoping to contract with.
We drove for nearly two hours and ended up in the village of Wamunyu. We drove into a back alley and parked the car and followed Githambi into a small corridor that opened up into a larger corridor that had rooms on either side all of which was piled high with wood carvings. We were in a finishing shop.
The owner, a large woman named Anna, graciously welcomed us. I set to work photographing her inventory and Joe wrote down prices and asked questions about the business. Anna’s husband died and she took over his business. She employs local women to do the finishing who need help to support their families. They are trained and then paid per item finished. There is barely room to turn around in the corridor so many of the women have rented small rooms in the market to do their work since their homes are often far from the town center. The sheer number of carvings in the space was overwhelming. Then in was on to see where the carvings are made just down the road.
While the finishing workshop is well hidden, the carving workshop is a tourist attraction.
The Wamunyu Handicraft Co-op. Society, we discovered is the birthplace of woodcarving in Kenya. Mutisya Munge went to Tanzania and learned the art of woodcarving and then came back to his ancestral home in Machakos and started his own workshop in 1918.
Initially he had worked in a tree house because he didn’t want anyone to see what he was doing and steal his ideas. Later when he could no longer keep his work a secret, Munge began to train other craftsmen. He also started a tree nursery to have a ready supply for his craft. The tree nursery and the workshop still exist today.
A showroom where you can buy carvings and other crafts is also located on the property.
Can't remember the last time I did anything touristy in Kenya. So I jumped at the chance to be photographed with this enormous giraffe.
After dropping off Githambi near where we had picked him earlier in the day, Joe and I stopped for nyama choma (roasted meat) and ugali. It was a fitting end to our Friday adventure.
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