I had already started writing my angry views about my president unzipped and exposed. When I started, I wrote it as a man, a black man, Saartjie Baartman’s brother, as someone raised by my grandmother with a moral stick.
And I had joined in solidarity with those who are angry about the way President Jacob Zuma is portrayed in a painting at the Goodman Gallery.
In my draft, my anger was about the fact that we cannot rejoice or laugh when a grown man’s penis – whether it’s black or white – is hanging out in the name of art. Where I was raised, when we saw even an old drunk man with his manhood hanging unchecked we were told to either close our eyes or look sideways until the zip was fixed.
I also raised the issue about our country facing a serious moral dilemma, coupled with the division and anger along racial lines, and the timing of Brett Murray’s exhibition.
My draft was also asking whether art can be used to denigrate in the name of freedom of expression and speech; and whether Murray’s artwork is indeed art, or was he just taking a swipe at a president he dislikes, who is black.
The artwork which dominated headlines for the past two weeks and had many people talking, and is now before the courts, shows (showed) what looks like President Zuma in a Vladimir Lenin-like trench coat pose with his trousers unzipped and his penis hanging out. It’s called many names as well: Unzipped Fly, The Spear, Mshini, Dick-tator, etc. The painting has since been defaced (for better or for worse?).
In my draft piece I expressed how this artwork was distasteful, immoral and insulting – not only to the person of President Zuma, but to myself as a man.
But then again, I wondered, who am I defending? This is my president we’re talking about.
I wondered: Murray and his artwork aside, how will I remember President Zuma, say, ten years from now?
Truth be told, I will remember the president for his many wives, and his confession that he slept with his comrade’s daughter who happens to be HIV positive without a condom. I’ll remember that he took a shower to try and minimise chances of contracting the disease. And that he, despite the fact that he has not one, not two but four wives waiting for him back home, went on and cheated with his friend’s daughter, Sonono Khoza, with whom he sired a child. And he’s my dancing president – that’s what will first come to mind if I was asked about President Zuma.
Seriously. I cannot say I remember him for delivering water to my mother’s village in Ga-Mamabolo in Limpopo because he hasn’t. Or for governance, because since he came to power we have been talking more about his personal life and family than issues that will take the country forward.
So if I was Murray or any comedian and wanted to do something about President Zuma, what would I do?
Alex Eliseev summed it up when he asked, “Are we witnessing an assassination of Zuma’s character or are we seeing the art world holding up a mirror to a man who has never been far from controversy? Would artists have painted Barack Obama with his penis hanging out?”
I don’t think artists would have reason to strip Obama naked, but with President Zuma they do, and they did. President Zuma should admit he, in part, brought this upon himself. He needs to start self-introspecting and get his life in order.
He cannot cry victim when he lives his life like a porn – sorry, I meant pop star.
Since his presidency, comedians had him write their script. He helped them keep us in stitches.
And cartoonists like Zapiro are having a meal of President Zuma with his signature showerhead and sperm-spitting machine gun depicting a penis. The president is currently embroiled in a two-year legal spat with Zapiro over another cartoon, which shows him about to rape a blindfolded Lady Justice.
So the societal perception of President Zuma cannot be limited to Murray’s artwork.
Where the ANC is right is that the painting is “against the grain of African morals”. But where it’s wrong is to think that we have the responsibility to improve the president’s public image. He is responsible for his own image and no one but him needs to start behaving as a public servant worthy of respect.
The painting may be defaced; the full bench of judges may rule in his favour to have the painting removed from the gallery (something that has already happened anyway). But the public perception of him is not defaced. No court will rule to have the images we have of our president’s sexual ways removed from our minds.
I could have gone to join others outside court this week. Or I could have been the third guy to deface and vandalise the painting at the Goodman Gallery.
But the many times President Zuma has disappointed me and many others with his moral slip-ups is why I couldn’t.
And as for Murray, I still don’t think undressing someone, exposing his manhood, can be described as art. I don’t think Murray would draw his father’s genitalia (every older person in a village is our father) and hope to win a pat on his back accompanied by the words: “You are creative, my son.”
@Isaac, I am going to brutal and declare that I am glad that someone had the initiative to deface that painting. Also let me say that I am angry at all of those who try and justify this travesty. I have said it before, we are all equal and we all enjoy equal rights and therefore NO right supercedes that of the other. I am angry and gatvol. I am angry and gatvol because I dont think that this is the type of ”cr*p we need in our fragile democracy. Tensions are way too high. Not only is it that there seems to be a total onslaught on our reason of late, we have had Zille calling us refugees, FW de Klerk glorifying apartheid, students tweeting about their hatred for blacks, I mean how much more must we endure? I am angry because we are expected to smile when we are being ”klapped” with their evil racism. I am angry because it is us blacks, who constantly have to uphold the principles of the constitution. To strip one naked for all to see is an act that is so demeaning, so insulting so humiliating and all of those who argue against this knows that there is something that runs deeper when one is fully exposed. It is abnormal and degrading. So in the face of all of this, do they wonder why I am so bitter and downright angry. How much more must we forgive?
Tofo please transcend victimhood. Be the change you want to see in the world. Rise above perceived racism. We have all been damaged by our history. Defend our constitution before it is systematically destroyed – this is the bigger picture. Don’t sweat the small things.
@ Isaak, well said brother. I just love what you said and to top it off you did not run the racis card to anyone. You just stated the facts and we has been raised by our parents. Thanks for that, and true, our President brought this to himself no one else. We as the public cannot always polish his image….. I was trying to put my feelings and word and could not, but you did it perfectly.
Thanks for sharing your thoughs….
I think this is a good article. And while I respect Tofolux’s anger, I think our democracy became a LOT more fragile when Zuma took over.
Remember all those cartoons grotesquely mocking Mbeki, or the burning of posters and T-shirts bearing Mbeki’s face? Somehow those were not considered to be such a threat to either the Presidency or the ANC that they required marches, defacement, threats of violence or indignant legal actions.
The fact is, if Murray’s painting had been treated as a silly publicity stunt by an indifferent, overrated member of the Joburg postmodern art clique, it would have sunk with hardly a bubble. Now people like me are obliged to defend a work and an artist that we don’t even like.
We are the new oppressed, I tell you!
@Bleet, it just isnt fair man…
Is that not the beauty of art; it is open to interpretation?
One core feature of art is its ability to shock and through this to create awareness. As to what constitutes Art: I am reminded of a friends’ comment on a teacher we had in school, “Is it oxen or it art?”
For restrictions to be applied to what art may or may not express is to sanitize the very essence of art – a very dangerous thing to do.
On the issue of culture: it is very much a part of Western culture, predominantly white, to satirize prominent figures, both black and white, whether humorous or crass. It is a global village and cultures will clash…
And on the governments’ response to the painting I think a sense of humour would have been more appropriate. Their response is juvenile and hysterical (here you may call me what you like!) and arguably divisive.
Good points Isaac. As stated somewhere else this storm in a teacup actually suits the ANC as they can wail on about racism, respect etc etc while busily looting away. If you don’t like it Tofo, is emigration an option? Zim maybe? Whitsh critics are often told this.
I like this articulation.
the holy cow of “manhood” still comes through a bit but the author is introspective.
A great analysis. Zuma brought this on himself.
@Isaac
Your principles are very lose if you have them at all. You stated all the reasons why the painting is disgusting yet you seems to agree with it because the person painted is Zuma. How low can you get?
Zuma has his own weaknesses as a human, whether he deserve the office he holds is the topic for another day. Dehumanising him in public in this manner is disgusting, to as the least. Let’s learn to stick to the issue at hand for once and may be we can get somewhere as the country.
@Tofolux
The idea of offending people and setting the guide lines to their responce is misleading. Suddenly people who defaced the painting are worse than the painter. People are angry over this painting. The painter and gallery should have thought about that before painting and displaying it. If they wanted to offend the people (because apperently the good art must offend) than they got what they wanted, they cannot come back and dectate as to how people should vent their anger.
They must learn to be responcible for their actions.
What concerns me is that Brett Murray is not the first artist to paint Zuma with an exposed penis. It was done two years ago by a black artist, Ayanda Mabulu, in his painting “Ngcono ihlwempu kunesibhanxa sesityebi / better poor than a rich puppet”. In that painting Mabulu depicts both Zuma and Tutu with exposed genitals, and it was exhibited in November 2010 at WorldArt Gallery as part of his solo exhibition “un-mute my tongue”. Why was there no similar outrage over that painting then, and why is it being ignored now?
Another thing I find disturbing is that Brett Murray has been an anti-apartheid activist his whole life and his past has been ignored by those who have branded him as “a racist white artist”. On the front page if The Times newspaper today there appeared a collage of some of Murray’s anti-apartheid artworks together with some photographs of him. In one photograph a young Brett Murray is wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the ANC logo and the words “Victory to the ANC”. In another photograph he is standing with a group of people holding a banner reading “S A Resisters against Apartheid”.
To me that is not consistent with a person who is a racist. In the words of the editorial “It is an indication of a young South African growing in consciousness, fleeing the country to escape being conscripted into the army. The images reflect a man who turned his back on white South Africa because of his beliefs”.
Ayanda Mabulu has come out strongly in…
@Issac, this was a very good article and you did an excellent job giving both sides of the debate about the painting of Zuma. In a democracy the leader of a country is supposed to be a person that stand out with high standards and not a person that admitted sleeping with an HIV positive lady that she claims raped her. Zuma has gone on record of having sex with this woman even though he knew she was infected with this illness and he had four wives. Zuma’s behavior has been like the singer James Brown everywhere he went some woman was putting a baby on him to take care. When James Brown started to ask for a DNA test these women stop putting babies on him. Zuma doesn’t care if he is the farther because the state will take care of the babies.
The big question is the painting of Zuma is art and my answer is the artist is painting Zuma’s behavior has been so, it could be art. The next question is does this painting of Zuma has redeeming social value and I would say yes. I personal don’t think it’s a great painting but, I am only one person.
Mkhulu, after the fall of the Romans empire, the wild tribes came down from Germany and sacked Rome. The great paintings and art works were destroyed because these people were wild and didn’t give these works any value. When Hitler took over Germany he had many art works destroyed along with many books burned because they didn’t conformed to the NAZIS thinking. So, base on your thinking if one goes to the art galleries in New York,London and Paris, one has a right to destroy works that they don’t like. I think these people that defaced this painting should be put in prison and taught the value of art while in prison. The creative people of any society should be protected because without these people you wouldn’t be sitting at the computer making comments. I think you are a very ignorant person and it’s sad that you don’t have artistic values.
Great piece, Isaac.
There is an analogy: Think not of a painting – but a man-size nude statue: You stand in front of it. I stand behind it. And ‘X’ stands on the side of it. We all describe exactly and truthfully what we see. And we will all see something completley different and will all describe something different.
It is only when we move to another vantage point, or closer together, that we see it as the other person did and from a different perspective,
You have put forward all sides to this painting. You have written it with truth and artistry.
@ Mkhulu
Zuma has more than just ‘weaknesses’ as a human being – and he certainly doesn’t deserve to hold the office he does.
But the point is, he does hold it; and he is, therfore, accountable for it.
He also represents the corruption, nepotism and criminality in the ANC – and has done nothing to stem the rot that has beset South Africa.
In fact, he has set the tone for it.
I think in any other truly democratic country, something like a naked painting of the president would not really make news at all.
The ANC is just using this to run their propaganda machine.
“I have said it before, we are all equal and we all enjoy equal rights and therefore NO right supercedes that of the other. I am angry and gatvol. To strip one naked for all to see is an act that is so demeaning, so insulting so humiliating and all of those who argue against this knows that there is something that runs deeper when one is fully exposed. It is abnormal and degrading. So in the face of all of this, do they wonder why I am so bitter and downright angry. How much more must we forgive?”
That’s a curious outburst when we have witnessed the African culture of stripping women in public for exercising their equal and democratic right to dress as they wish. Get over yourself. Your outrage is totally disproportionate to the stripping of real women and other horrors such as child rape, corrective lesbian rape and necklacing.
@Mkhulu, I have resolved that I am done with this brotherly/sisterly love. I have resolved that my patience is wearing very very thin. The time has come for us to be honest with each other and declare that we have an enemy. The time of forgiving is over, we just need to deal and face the enemy head on. I resolve to do this is in interest of my future children and their children. Que Sera, what will be, will be.
Thanks Isaac. – I too initially felt the painting was wrong and unjust, until I realised deep down Brett Murray has expressed what I really feel. Zuma’s presidencey at every level I can think of has been a cock-up. Its not about race. I will defend any black president who does everything in his power to create a better South Africa for people of all race and gender groups in this country. Zuma claiming that he is competent because he fought for liberation is weak and popularist. Brett Murray has certainly sparked a much broader debate that we have been needing to have in this country.
Saartjie Baartman was famous in Europe and had no desire whatsoever to return to Africa – she, in fact, had to persuade a whole court of law in Britain that she did NOT want to be sent back to Africa by do-good interfering missionaries.
And personally I don’t care if Zuma has 100 wives, provided they are not abducted, over 21, and marrying him voluntaraly.
But our attention should be on CORRUPTION and stopping E-tolling, which followed by National Health and Nuclear Power stations will bankrupt us to make profit shares for the ANC elite involved, LEGALLY BY LAW, in those deals!
What has our country come to? We are now an “Open Society”. If the emotion and energy applied to ‘open’ toilets and ‘open’ trouser zips, by the ANC, was applied to:- open borders, open tenders, open crime, open corruption, open looting, open suppression of all dissent, open and blatant disregard for the rights of citizens to their rightful services, we would have a much better country. As we can see what matters to us all does not matter to the ruling party. Posters are printed, marches are held and mayhem follows for what really was not of great concern in the overall ‘openness’ that exists in South Africa. Forget about the needs of others and lets have more elections that are based on toilets and zips. It’s of interest to note that when the open toilets were closed, the ANC then ‘opened’ them again. The zip has been closed but I suspect that the ANC will not reopen that zipper. What a sad circus we have become. When are the real concerns and problems of the country going to be ‘undressed’, sorry addressed?
Issac you are misleading cos you are angry at the same time you say, the President brought this to him self. Let us stick to Murray’s painting. Is it hatred or expression of what he feels and think. Artwork according to what I know, its where artist express their inner feelings. If we can really look to most of the gallery exhibition you will notice that there are a lot of paintings and drawings that show people naked. If it was a black child that made this painting was the ANC going to take the kid to court let us be realistic we cannot prescribe to people how to express their inner feelings. It might happen that this Murray is actually in love with the carisma of our President he likes him. We must grow up not everything is about racism.Let us for change ignore these things they will stop them and move on with life.
@Tofolux
Your enemy is within yourself.
The old apartheid regime also saw the enemy out there with anyone who did not agree with them.
You say “The time of forgiving is over, we just need to deal and face the enemy head on. I resolve to do this is in interest of my future children and their children.”
Are you a white supremacist or a black supremacist? You certainly are not balanced like the author of the above article, Isaac Mangena.
I can choose any form of religion that appeals to me, I can choose to follow any culture that appeals to me, I can choose to be educated in any language of my choice, I can choose to………. (the list is endless). Its called democracy! My right to choose! On that note, the president of the republic makes his choice to marry many wives, father children out of wed-lock, have sex with a declared HIV positive women, etc. Why then many people would deem that morally (or whatever you may want to call it) wrong? In my thinking, we should have undergone metamorphism with the advent of democracy, but unfortunately not!!! What tranpiring is the promotion certain way of doing things (hide it behind morality). In democracy there’s law that are declared, but moral are not because their are subjective, most instances linked to religion, culture, etc., therefore to what extent can we support an argument based on morality? Keep your views to yourself……..
@Tofolux; sounds like Cosatu or maybe a Hutu in Rwanda some years back. Worked well for them?
Why oh why was this painting singled out is my question. Is the artwork of Ayanda Mabulu not doing worse in his depiction of President Zuma? Why has there been no outcry – he insults not only Zuma but Tutu as well! Worse in my eyes.
@ Junglegina.
It’s called hypocrisy.
I liked your article very much. Just one point`:
“And as for Murray, I still don’t think undressing someone, exposing his manhood, can be described as art.”
Um… you might want to visit a few art museums or look at a few art books where you will find that michelangelo (a catholic) did precisely what you describe to King David (a Jew), as well as countless other examples including Titian, Manet, Renoir, the ancient Greeks, Ingres as well as many African artists and countless others doing precisely what you describe to countless men and women’s bodies. Every one of the examples I have given are pretty much universally acknowledged as great masterpieces of visual art.
@Peter Joffe, why Zuma’s children not hurt when they found out he had sex with a HIV positive woman that he knew was infected with this illness and married to their mothers?
Actually the old apartheid regime did have an external enemy out there – communism. They were socialists and devout Christians.
You all assume that white men beat up black men because they were black, not because they were communist – because all you see is race and colour.
Both black and white Americans blitzed half the world fighting communism – but that is OK with you?
As an obvious example – Chris Hani was NOT assassinated because he was black, but because he was the main military leader of the Communist Party.
Do not ask what you can do for your country .
Ask what the ANC government has done for you over the past 18 years.
And don’t worry about Zuma. He’s not worried about you.
The interesting thing about Mabulu’s very complex and highly political work, is that he said he shows Zuma as having his penis on crutches because his manhood has been so overworked it.must be at breaking point, and he is in tribal dress to show.how.Zuma conflates his.sexuality and ethnicity, even though we all know that wanton womanising is NOT part of official Zulu culture. Tutu is shown sitting in the Bishop’s lap like a baby with a flaccid penis, to indicate the artist’s frustration that he has rendered himself an impotent lap dog to white liberalism. In other words, the nakedness of both men conveyed how the artist relates to who they project themselves to be. Mugabe is hammering nails up his nose, I presume, giving himself a frontal lobotomy.
I find Murray’s work to show none of that complexity, and I don’t understand one bit why JZ is posed like Lenin. There are no similarities between these men.
But the whipping up of people’s emotions for nefarious reasons, by both City Press and the ANC are what is doing the President’s reputation all the harm. The painting can be discusses and dismissed in a few sentences. It lacks intellectual content and I get bored with Murray’s plagiarism in his work (the Bart Simpson phase was a bore). Now it has more fame and fortune than it ever deserved.
Oh and Blade probably caused white South Africa to ensure Ferial gets her best circulation figures ever this.weekend, sadly.
@Isaac,
Zuma Rev(ealed)ered or Zuma Def(aced)ective makes no difference to how the majority is affected by Zuma Pres(ents)dent himself.
That’s reality.
Helen
You don’t see any similarity between Zuma and Lenin? Have you noticed that the only ANC leaders making a froth about this are the Communist ones?
You DO realise that the Communist elite has run the ANC for decades don’t you?
@Isaac – I admire your honesty and salute your thinking. It must be difficult to come from the apartheid era, being properly oppressed for such a long time and having evolved to be able to utter a point of view like this.
Fascinating perspective, Isaac, because it made me realise what bothers me about the whole black/white issue in this. Those of us whose perceptions are not clouded by the culture issue tend to be far more forthright about defects that are really obvious to all, simply because our backgrounds don’t countenance the ideal of respect for elders at any cost. As such it makes the point that the entire race argument falls flat; no one mocks or criticises black because it exists, but because the facts too often stare us in the face: no ‘ifs’ or ‘buts’. We make no excuses for anyone. In this case, we don’t care about the quality of the painting, just the artist’s right to paint whatever he wants. We don’t care about presidential dignity because we believe we all make our own (or not). And so on. Much of our own criticism of the country is based on our own cultural backgrounds; you are all welcome to follow any you choose, just don’t expect us to follow yours.
I suspect that much of the supposed victimisation mentioned in the comments has to do with our belief in individuality and personal achievement. In essence, we are not really permanent team players; any tribalism is long since depleted. I can at last see why others object to my lack of understanding of their culture, but so seldom want to enlarge on how that culture operates. I empathise with those who stand between two cultures; for the life of me, I couldn’t and wouldn’t.
You hit the nail on the head,
The artist in my opinion wanted to make a criticism on the current state of affairs.
Those who’s faction are being criticized are of course upset, but they need to take a step back and evaluate the whole matter as the writer has done.
No where in the world is respect forced down peoples thoughts except maybe China or such, but then the respect means nothing and is false and has no value
ZUMA MEMO
Don’t nationalise.
Condomise.
Thankyou Isaac and Tofolux …your divergent views, mirror the feelings that so many South Africans express in the media and on the SAFM Talk Shows. The crux of this matter seems to be the question..”Is it Art?”…or…”Is it Racism?”. It is this latter question that really concerns me. So, let me express my view.
During President Mandela,s term, I was “puffed up with pride”..a truly “Proudly South African”!…and loved interacting with my overseas and local friends about my love for this country, it,s people, MY President and our positive future. But now (I,m sorry to say)..I am shamed and embarrassed about our present President; his antics and his handling of “Proudly South African”….and THIS HURTS!! This President hurts me, my patriotism and my NEED to RESPECT our President.
Does Mr Zuma deserve to be depicted so, in this silly painting? (my view). I think not. I believe the artist simply went too far, in his pursuit of personal gain…and Zuma made himself an easy target. So, does this mean “I,m racist” because I am white and hold these views? Well..I can tell you that I would be “OUTRAGED” if this “silly” painting depicted Mandela and I sincerely believe that the vast majority of whites would be so too.
So…where is this “white racism” that is so glibly thrown about?????
You want respect – earn it. Certain things you just can’t demand
thanks issacs for your highlights. let’s have it straight,what do you remember about Thabo Mbeki? He is an African,full stop. And now he is busy solving African conflicts. Prd Zuma? He prides himself in having many wifes and mistresses. He is mostly known for his ability to charm and satisfy women. so a “spear” is a good shortcut for all he is about.
He has been calling fof his “mshini” and now that somebody brought it he is crying…………I dont know man
“Aesthetics of the Phallus” by Neelika Jayawardane, at AFRICA’S A COUNTRY http://wp.me/pzpmG-dqR
Zuma has successfully built a presidency playing the victim card repeatedly, and the ANC Youth League and Women’s League have routinely acted as joint ringmasters, creating fireworks and spectacles that distract from pressing daily challenges faced by many (I’ll take a risk and say that it is, in fact, most) who came out in support of Zuma: the absence of service delivery, systematic gender violence, and lack of access to basic education (not to mention corruption, nepotism, cronyism and a general culture that encourages poor governance practices). Lately, however, it looked as though the gig was up for Zuma; but then, along came the Burning Spear.
Achille Mbeme, in On the Postcolony, reminds us that vulgar humour that makes reference to the commandement’s misbehaving body is an expression of the public’s apprehension of that power—and an attempt to take it down a notch. In turn, attempts to shut down the recognition of the “body royale” as a “real” body is also an attempt to construct it as untouchable, powerful, and sacred.