Simon Dastani
Biography

Simon Dastani — born Dastan Simon Nyedi — grew up in Miteda village on the southern Mueda Plateau in northern Mozambique, at the heart of Makonde carving country. In 1957 he crossed the Ruvuma River into Tanzania, working first on the sisal plantations around Mbopo before turning to carving and joining the community of Makonde sculptors then reshaping the craft in Dar es Salaam.

He apprenticed under two of the movement's founding figures, Samaki Likankoa — originator of the abstract shetani spirit-figure genre — and Abunuas Anangangola, and went on to develop his own distinctive treatment of the shetani form, counted among the carvers who pushed the genre's template into a deeper exploration of human themes. The work nearly cost him his sight: a sharp chip of dry blackwood pierced one eye while he was carving with an adze, leaving him with only partial vision in it for the rest of his career.

Dastani worked out of Dar es Salaam's Nyumba ya Sanaa gallery, visited art schools in Germany, and saw his sculpture exhibited internationally in Germany and Japan; pieces of his are now held in the Syracuse University Art Museum's permanent collection. He continued carving until his death in Mbagala, Dar es Salaam, in 2005, one of the last of the movement's founding generation.

source: Makonde Modern research report (eaman.org); Syracuse University Art Museum

[read more about the Modern Makonde Sculpture Movement here]