He grew up in a rural environment. At the Serima Mission School he learned about woodcarving in the Christian and African traditions. In 1962 he met Frank McEwen, the director of the National Gallery in Salisbury (now Harare). While still a policeman, he began sculpting. From 1976, he made it his profession. Soon his works appeared at international exhibitions. Initially, he preferred simple round shapes for the depiction of African cult figures and scenes from the Bible, later he developed a more complicated geometric style, which he increased to far-reaching abstraction by using sharp lines and planes, often in overwhelming monumental expression, using the hard Penhalonga serpentinite.