Picture in Focus: Nativity in Tete by Camordino Mustafa Jetha

December 18, 2022

Picture in Focus: Nativity in Tete by Camordino Mustafa Jetha

My survey of arts and crafts pieces in the Sacred Art Pilgrim Collection by international artisans comes to a close one week before Christmas Day with a whimsical new addition to the Nativity Sets and Scenes page by a woodcarver from Mozambique. In Nativity in Tete, Camordino Mustafa Jetha ("Dino") offers us an African-styled Christmas tableau of individually carved and mounted figures made from soft cashew nut wood, which he has crafted in a traditional style first learned from a neighbor when he was in his teens. Set in a central western region of the artist's homeland, a hollowed-out baobab tree with its distinctive bulbous shape provides ample shelter for the Holy Family. Two speckled cows keep watch at this curiously-made stable, while a dog-walker, a child with a water pot, and a woman carrying chickens on her head to market go about their daily lives, seemingly unaware of the holy birth so close at hand. (John Kohan)