Story by Memory Chamisa
Pottery has saved a 25-year-old Chitungwiza man, as the craft represents a dividing line in his life between drug abuse and finding purpose.
While some of his peers still abuse drugs and other substances, Gift Zirende, popularly known as MaCenturion has turned a new leaf and is optimistic about what the future holds for him.
Having hanged around the wrong crowd which contributed to him using drugs, MaCenturion received his Damascus moment when he met a well-wisher who took him in and rehabilitated him through pottery.
From just passing time, the craft has now become a part of his identity and purpose.
“I was a troubled young man and was always in trouble as I associated with the wrong crowd which contributed to a lot of wrong decisions I made in my life. It also affected my life to the extent that I was thrown out of our family home by parents. I became homeless and was taken in by a well-wisher who then taught me pottery,” he said.
The persistent attention to spin, balance, the continuum between friction, mobility, earth and water has created unique pieces.
“I fell in love with the idea of creating millennia old forms of craft and industry with simple tools and my own hands. Pottery making proved to be therapeutic. When production and creation were measured in weeks and months, the slow, deliberate drying cycles gave my life a sense of structure and a schedule of sorts. The attention to balance, not in a clinical rehabilitation setting, but between my hands and a ball of earth. Pottery making helped fill that gap. I came to view this ancient art as healing. That realisation clarified the importance of wellness practices and self-care as part of my recovery .I have since managed to buy my equipment but now I’m in need of a place to work that is specious and has electricity as I’m using a generator most of the time which needs fuel,” he said.
As Gift experiments with various designs, sizes and shapes in vases and jars, one can only hope that as his name denotes, the talent and passion that burns within him will shake the world.
