10 May 2018

 Francistown -born Moemedi Masenye, aged 30 years who is into fine arts, says students should take seriously extra curriculum activities and practical subjects.

Such subjects, he said, included Home Economics, Agriculture, Design and Technology and Art which are offered at junior and senior secondary schools.

Masenye said all these subjects could present a life time opportunity that could help one to revive the spirit of self-reliance.

“As we grew up, we were always taught about the importance of self-reliance, both from the community level and at school,” he said.

Masenye said he took the message well and when he finished his studies, he decided to continue upholding the spirit so that his youth becomes less complicated due to unemployment.

As such, he settled for fine arts and sculpturing though he had never been to any formal training in his chosen field. He used the basics he learnt at school.

“I was a high mark student in art both at junior and senior school and even got an A and an A star respectively in my final examinations,” he proudly said.

Masenye explained that engaging in arts at school was a way to nurture what he was taught at 4B club while at primary school, where he was encouraged to draw and paint physical features such as birds, rivers and others.

Such drawings, he noted, were often taken for competitions among other schools within their region and his works often found its way to the top.

Masenye noted that as he kept engaged in such drawings, little did he know that he was actually building up his treasure.

Today, his paintings focus on issues of life in general, women, human rights and several other themes and he does not despise the sales he makes from all his work because they enable him to move from one point to the other.

He does his paintings from his backyard and receives overwhelming orders from locals and visitors.

Due to the demands of his diverse customers, he now feels challenged to meet his target, and with such a challenge, he approached the Social and Community Development so as to request for a possible assistance under the poverty eradication programme.

He did not succeed and nonetheless this never discouraged him to keep the struggle of being financially independent.

“Sometimes I am forced to halt my drawings so as to engage in odd jobs to raise money to buy the material I need,” he explained.

Masenye appreciates the exposure he always gets through market days often organised by government departments.

He said such days gave him a milestone to fully market his work. “I hope that one day I will secure funding and be able to explore my business endeavour to a mega one,” he said. ENDS