Brighton Sango was born in 1958 in Guruve, Northern Zimbabwe andremained in the beautiful rural surroundings of his home.

He was considered to be an important member of the SecondGeneration, and his work was a source of interesting debate as to thefuture of Zimbabwean sculpture. Many of these sculptors appear tohave broken away from the quickly established, but neverthelessinfluential, 'tradition' set by sculptors such as Sylvester Mubayi,John Takawira, Nicholas Mukomberanwa and Bernard Matemera. They havedone this in several ways: by looking to materials other than stoneto express their ideas ( Tapfuma Gutsa, Dominic Benhura and ArthurFata); or by presenting portraits of life now removed fromtraditional Shona guide lines( Agnes Nyanhongo, Norbert Shamuyariraand Eddie Masaya). Although these artists represent a wide range ofpersonal beliefs there is no doubt that the urgency with which theyspeak of or document such ideals is lessening. Western values andconcepts are fast becoming a source of artistic inspiration, but moreoften the subject matter explored in today's work is based on simplethemes - pictures of daily life. The poignancy and sense of humanitywith which these subjects are portrayed are as valuable an insight asthose of traditional Shona society provided by the first generationsculptors. Brighton Sango represented a further direction: that ofabstraction. He was described in 1987, by F. Mor in his book ShonaSculpture, as follows: " Brighton Sango has set out on his own pathand is today the most interesting and promising of the newgroup."

 

Sango's sculptural career began at Tengenenge. He stayed only afew months before removing himself from the distraction and possibleconfusion created by other sculptors. His work, in the beginning washeavily influenced by the ' figurehead' of the community, BernardMatamera. To see early figurative pieces by Sango, with theirMatamera - like enlarged features and sometimes grotesque faces,makes his later sculpture all the more remarkable. " After myexperience at Tengenege I felt I had to change. My work was being tooinfluenced by others. I now work with the idea that every day is newand that your work must reflect this." The only sculptor to work withpurely abstract imagery, Sango set an important example for youngZimbabwean sculptors. With no artistic education, he made thedecision to prevent outside influence on his work and began,privately , to give voice to his very different ideas - withconviction and pride. Working with often difficult relationships ofpure form and powerful sculptural mass, he portrayed a wide range ofideas - sometimes of figurative origin, as in Woman Kneeling and LionSpirit, but often exploring human emotion and thought in pieces suchas A Prayer For Us All. While he was aware of the often unyieldingproperties of stone, Sango was capable of presenting imagery (flatplans and changes of direction) with an ease usually associated withcontemporary steel sculpture.

In a review of the exhibition Zimbabwe Stone Sculpture: The SecondGeneration, held in England in 1994, Sango's work was highlighted bythe art critic Lionel Philips. ".....Sango, who is the onlyZimbabwean whose work is mainly abstract, appears as a follower of1930's cubism but he has had, in fact, no exposure to Westernart".

 

Tragically, in August 1995 Brighton Sango took his own life. Hiswork will continue to speak with great eloquence to local andinternational audiences through group and specific exhibitions, aswell as to herald possible new directions for the future ofZimbabwean stone sculpture.