It was 1975 when the Guambe family were removed from Maputo because as members of a community of Jehovah’s witnesses, who reject all forms of combat, and therefore refused to participate in the war on either side, they were shunned. The family home was taken. And they were moved to Zambezi province. But in the heat of the war in 1984 they lost what they had built up there too. ‘It was terrible. We had had a farm there. We used to plough. But Renamo considered us collaborators with Frelimo and they destroyed all we had and scattered the villages of Jehovah’s witnesses. Schools were destroyed and people we killed. We lost our fields, our chickens, our pigs.

In 1987 the family moved to a refugee camp in Malawi. They built a shack and started over. But Americo needed to help the family who now had 10 children. He wasn’t selling enough in Blantyre. He moved to Maputo to sell his wares and to send money ‘home’. Moving was not straightforward. The roads were littered with landmines and so travelling by car was out of the question. Americo waited three months for a place on a plane to take him to Maputo.

In Maputo he met up with Armando again – Armando had also moved to the city. ‘I was 19. I stated working with Armando again. I worked during the day and at night I went to school’.

His family returned to Maputo. But they had lost everything. ‘We had lost in Maputo, and in Zambesi and in Malawi’, he says.  It was a stress that Americo believes claimed the lives of his parents and his brother.

Americo has always loved art. For as long as he can remember he admired people working in wood. ‘Once you learn the skills you can apply your own ideas’ says Americo. Which is exactly what he has done over almost thirty years. He carved animals and tables and sold at the Salisbury market in Maputo and in galleries and tourist spots around the city. But the economy was flailing and there wasn’t enough tourist trade to take his work to the next level.

In 1993 Americo moved to Johannesburg. He was 24. His family needed income and he hoped he could earn a living in South Africa.  Here he saw fallen trees in Zuurbekom and he set about transforming the logs into artworks. It was tough. For five years Americo walked from shop to shop and from market stall to market stall to sell his works.

Then he met architect Philip Fernando, who has a workshop in Newtown. Philip ordered pieces from Americo – chairs made from railway sleepers. But also ‘sculptures of people, snakes and animals’ says Americo. In 2000 the pair did work for a gallery at the airport.

Soon after, Philip returned to his home country of Spain. Americo took over the Newtown studio. In 2001 Americo decided to open his studio as a teaching space. He worked three artists, including his brother. The studio operated with 4 artists and 6 trainees. In the same year they were awarded an order for 380 wooden sculpted heads to animate Newtown and the fashion district. The heads were placed on plinths around Mary Fitzgerald Square and at various intersections and nodes in the precinct. Americo raised funding from government for equipment and tools.

But what would the heads represent? Americo says, ‘I wanted to show the different people of Johannesburg. It is a city of so many cultures. That’s what I wanted to highlight. And so the heads do that – people of all races, genders, ages and cultures adorn the plinths around the city. And they are joined by sculptures of shoes, or combs – the material objects that are made and used and sold in the space.

‘My sculptures changed Newtown spaces’ Americo says. ‘And my other sculptures have impacted on other parts of the city’. He estimates that over 600 of his works have become public art in the inner city. They are found in Newtown, the Fashion District, Pieter Roos Park, Hillbrow, Doornfontein and more. In Peter Roos park Americo transformed tree stumps into whimsical creatures and into park furniture.  He also made a sculpture of a Rea Vaya station for the launch of the City’s BRT.

Americo sculpted the famous figures opposite the Constitutional Court. The statue, a young boy pointing towards the court offers two messages. It indicates the direction to the highest court in the land and as the pillar of the statue is engraved with the names of countries on the African continent it reminds the court to uphold the rights of migrants to this city. And next to this young boy is a sculpture of a young girl, looking out over Hillbrow. Americo knows the advantages and the stresses of being a migrant in Johannesburg. Both he and his wife have South African IDs. But their children, one of whom came here at the age of 2 and the other who was born here, are not recognised as South African.

The heads of Newtown are now weather beaten and some are broken or lost. Americo is working on a project to restore many of the heads and to place these in new configurations that align with interesting paths and spaces in Newtown.