AFRICAN AUTHENTICS

AFRICAN AUTHENTICS

ABOUT OUR FOUNDER

Rosemary Chimbganda

My name is Rosemary Chimbganda, the founder of African Authentics. I was born to peasant farmers in the rural area of Uzumba in Mhasvi village. The closest town to this area is Mutoko. I completed my primary education at nearby Nyaitenga primary school which is located at Nyadiri Mission. It is at Nyaitenga where the seed of the love of art was sown. It was at Nyaitenga where I was taught how to sew clothes and how to extract sisal fiber from the sisal plant and make table mats and bags out the fiber – skills that are at the core of what I do now. 

I did most of my secondary education at Murehwa secondary school and completed my A level education at Maru A Pula secondary school in Botswana before attending the university of Zimbabwe where I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Economics degree.

Upon graduation, I moved to Boston Massachusetts where I currently reside. I acquired computer skills from the Northeastern University in Boston worked as a software engineer In Boston for many years during which I founded African Authentics as a side hustle. Initially African Authentics was an afrocentric clothing business where I was the chief designer(skills I continued to develop since primary education at Nyaitenga). We supplied boutiques all over America. We then evolved into importing Shona stone sculpture sourcing from various sculpting communities in Zimbabwe such as Tengenenge, Chitungwiza and Patterson in Mbare. 

A few years ago, I created a cooperative in Harare to create high quality beaded wire art, mostly animals which we sell both wholesale and retail. Visit our Beaded wire art for more information.

 I have since made Zimbabwean art and crafts my life focus, an ambassador of sorts.  I continue to explore other hand made art and crafts from Zimbabwe and showcase them to the world. I developed an introductory stone sculpture class which I have taught to middle school students in Malden, a Boston suburb. I also do Shona stone sculpture presentation to schools and colleges and other types of  groups. In my presentations, I show the tools used in Shona stone sculpture, I explain the process from harvesting the stone, the stages involved creating a piece and inform the audience of some public places where Shona art can be found. I always bring samples of Shona art pieces to my presentations.

I happen to belong to the Shona tribe to whom the Shona artform is attributed. I travel to Zimbabwe every two years to interact with the artisans and purchase new pieces. I occasionally get invited to speak about Shona art and sadza batik.