This is no way to treat sculptures commemorating Kenya’s heroic past

It was a shocking display of irreverence towards or at least gross disrespect for contemporary East African art.

On the portion of Paa ya Paa (PYP) Art Centre land being claimed by Rebecca Njau, the estranged wife of PYP co-founder and current director, artist Elimo Njau, a Caterpillar forklift bulldozer had just brought down Samwel Wanjau’s monumental Mau Mau Freedom Fighter.

I would have been speechless with horror, grief and dismay at the cruel treatment of one of Kenya’s most important works of art, the 12-feet tall cement and steel statue constructed by the late, great Kenyan sculptor who at the time of the Freedom Fighter’s creation was based at Paa ya Paa.

Instead I felt enraged at those who had maliciously ordered this dire and destructive deed. How could they not have felt it their duty to protect and preserve this monument to that important historical moment when Kenya’s anti-colonial forces chose to resist the misappropriation of their land and the humiliation of being treated like something less than second class citizens.

Wanjau’s Mau Mau Freedom Fighter stood for something more than just an awe-inspiring monument to the talent and skill of one man who personally had gone to the forest to carve wooden hand guns for the Mau Mau.

Wanjau went on after the freedom struggle to create increasingly impressive works of art; but no matter how precious and powerful his larger-than-life wooden sculptures became, none could ever compare to the emotional depth and impassioned ferocity that one could see and feel in his Mau Mau sculpture.

For now, the fallen Freedom Fighter remains on the piece of land that Mrs Njau says is hers. But whatever the status and ownership of the land on which Wanjau’s masterpiece stood, no one had legitimate grounds for intentionally bringing down a work of art that Elimo Njau says should be claimed by the Kenyan people as the artistic evidence of the sacrifices made for the achievement of the country’s independence.

The disrespect for Kenya’s heroic history as well as for its finest art stands in sharp contrast with the 100 stone sculptures from Zimbabwe that have been exhibited all this week at the British Institute of East Africa.’

‘Faces of Zimbabwe’ includes contemporary stone sculptures by 22 artists and serves as a reminder of that country’s great history, both for its tradition of stone sculpture and for it medieval Kingdom of Zimbabwe renowned for its granite stone monuments, the ruins of which remain as a testimony to the Zimbabwean civilization.

We only hope the Mau Mau Freedom Fighter isn’t left as it lays today to become little more than a ruin and reminder of the fighters to whom we owe Kenya’s Independence. 

Efforts to move Wanjau’s masterpiece are being discussed but before it’s moved, we’re told the law must take its course.