The Junk Art King of Zambia

[WhiteTara]

https://www.newsweek.com/meet-frederick-phiri-zambian-artist-who-turns-garbage-stunning-works-art

It's not often you meet someone who can turn garbage into gold. Yet in the small town of Mfuwe, just outside Zambia's Luangwa National Park, an artist is performing just such alchemy.

Frederick Phiri is the junk-art king of central Africa: At just 22, he's started to earn an international reputation for being able to make intricate and elegant sculptures from scrap metal found in his community.

As it is with most of life, his talent was aided by good timing—and luck -- that came from tragedy.

"My father died when I was starting [primary] school," Phiri tells Newsweek. "So my mother and sisters moved to Lusaka and I stayed behind with my grandfather."

Phiri's grandfather paid for his schooling through primary school but when he entered secondary school, he had to get odd jobs to pay for his fees. But even in school, "I was always drawing and making things in class," Phiri says.

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