Local artist makes heads turn with handcrafted pieces
Self-taught sculptor Innocent Manjengenja is turning ordinary materials into striking artworks, building both a creative voice and a means to survive.
For Innocent Manjengenja, the classroom never looked the same as it did for everyone else.
While other learners spoke about becoming doctors, engineers, or chasing numbers on a chalkboard, he was somewhere quieter, sketching, not out of distraction, but out of a love for art.
There was something about putting pencil to paper that made the world make sense for Manjengenja. Lines, shapes, shadows, they spoke to him in a way textbooks never quite could.
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Art gave him something steady. Something he could return to, again and again. He now calls himself a sculptor.
In high school, as subjects competed for attention and futures were being loudly declared, Manjengenja was already showing up for something different. He was learning how to see. Not just to look, but to notice, the curve of a face, the way light settles on an object, the emotion hidden in stillness. Then, slowly, he would bring those observations to life.
What lived in his mind refused to stay there. “From there, I started experimenting with wood and metal. I used materials from the backyard and other recyclable things to make art out of them.”
His hands became the bridge. Through them, ideas took form carefully, patiently. “It takes time. two to three weeks, sometimes even six for a bigger one. It depends on the piece, but it’s a lot of work that I love to do.”
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It is work he keeps returning to because this is also his livelihood.
“It’s not just something I do. It’s how I survive. I came here, to the Fourways Rustic Market, to showcase what I do. It is my first time, and so far it is going well. I love how people gathered around here to admire my work.”
Manjengenja said he lives in Randburg and chose to attend the market because he wanted to reach even more clientele, usually attending the markets in Bryanston. “I’m getting a lot of interest. People are asking questions, taking my contacts. It makes me happy.”
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