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‘Art is me, and wildlife guiding is my soul’

Christopher Munyaradzi Khwakhwa, a 41-year-old artist from Hoedspruit, found a love for drawing at a young age.

He grew up in Harare in Zimbabwe and found a new home in Hoedspruit when he moved to South Africa in 2008. “As a kid, I just loved drawing and grew up drawing for fun. When I moved to
South Africa, I found work in the hospitality industry and fell in love with nature and wildlife,” says Christopher.

“In 2014, I started my journey as a safari field guide and I received my qualification as a guide in 2017,” he explains. He says that being in the bush almost every day inspired him to start drawing again. “I taught myself with the assistance of YouTube tutorials, and I draw a lot of the wildlife that we see on safari. “I started doing wildlife charcoal drawings in 2018.

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“Some of my mentors are Larry Norton, Liberty Shuro, Wilfred Chisango, and Facebook wildlife artists all over the country. They inspire me to want to keep drawing,” adds Christopher. Christopher says that drawing comes to him naturally, especially since it was his chidhood passion. He says his challenge is to find a proper place to sell his art; he has a lot of success selling his art on Facebook and is a regular seller at the Hoedspruit Farmer’s Market where he sells most of his art.

“As a safari guide, I draw and create art whenever I have free time. I can say art is me, and wildlife guiding is my soul,” concludes Christopher.

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Emelda Tintswalo Shipalana

Tintswalo Shipalana, a journalist for the Letaba Herald, has been in the media industry for over a decade. She started her journey in radio, but ended up in print which is her first love. She joined the Herald newspaper as a cadet in 2016, where she graduated with a journalism qualification from the Caxton Training Academy. She also has a qualification in Feature Writing from the University of Cape Town and a Media Management qualification from Wits University. She is completing her BA Communication Science degree with UNISA. She sleeps well at night knowing she is a voice to the voiceless and her work contributes to promoting local talent, businesses and service delivery. Her love for her community keeps her working hard every day.

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