He grew up in a rural environment. At the Serima Missionary 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). He began sculpting while still a policeman. From 1976, he made it his profession. His works soon appeared in international exhibitions. Initially he preferred simple round forms for the depiction of African cult figures and scenes from the Bible, later he developed a more complicated geometric style, which he intensified using the hard Penhalonga serpentinite with sharp lines and surfaces to achieve far-reaching abstraction, often in overwhelming monumental form.