Genny Kamanga – Glass Cutter and Recycler

We spent a Friday afternoon with Mr. Genny Kamanga in his glass-cutting workshop in Chazenga, an industrial area in Lusaka’s North-West.

Since I first met Mr. Genny in 2011, I had the idea of filming a portrait of him and after a number of talks and visits to his workshop, we both were very excited when the day finally came.

Mr. Genny, who originally worked as a Jeweller in Zambia’s Northern Province, has been working as a glass recycler, cutter, designer, producer and artist in Lusaka for almost 20 years. Creating an ever evolving assortment of glasses all made from used bottles. These normally end up in landfills, as there is currently no industrial glass recycling taking place in Lusaka. Just like us, there are a number of people who collect their empty bottles and supply them to Mr. Genny. Thus, he never runs out of his valued resource and the environment is conserved a tiny bit.

Mr. Genny sells his products that he creates together with his son, Mr. Genny Junior at the monthly Dutch Reform market in Kabulonga as well as every Sunday at Pakati Market at Arcades Mall.

Thanks to Mr. Genny for inviting us to his workshop and demonstrating his skilled craft.

Let me share with you some photos of the shoot below. Thanks to Terry Roopnaraine for taking and processing them!