Born in 1923 at Nkanyani, Limpopo, Jackson Hlungwani is one of South Africa’s known and critically acclaimed artists. The son of a Tsonga migrant worker, he started carving fulltime after losing a finger in an industrial accident. He lived and worked at Mbokota village near Elim in Limpopo. Hlungwani’s earliest extant sculptures date to the 1960s, although he gained acclaim for his later works in the 1980s. In 1978, a wounded Hlungwani experienced a vision; Christ and two figures appeared to him
and made three promises: that he would be healed, that he would see God and that he would become a preacher. This vision became the defining moment of his life, and his career as an artist.