Un-mute My Tongue by Ayanda Mabulu

I ignored the uproar over South Africa’s president, Jacob Zuma, getting his dick immortalized in Brett Murray’s painting The Spear. I even contained myself when Zapiro, our country’s most famous cartoonist, got sued. After all, i realized ages ago that my country isn’t a democracy and that media/artist freedom is a liability to guilty leaders (as it has been throughout history) – “we wouldn’t want the public to start thinking for themselves, hey!” It’s the latter that irks me, not the sex – most men would live out their fantasies if given the opportunity so i couldn’t give a hypocritical damn how many women Zuma got lucky with so long as he paid for them out of his own pocket (instead of ours).

So, today, there’s uproar again because Ayanda Mabulu decided to continue the legend of the penis (it’s gotten bigger) in his painting Umshini Wam (Weapon of Mass Destruction). Ironically, Ayanda had painted the “royal” penis before but wasn’t condemned because he wasn’t white. Black on Black is real but isn’t “in” whereas White on Black or Black on White has always been “cool”. This time, after the previous marches, Ayanda will likely get a scolding – and kudos to him for bravely realizing that!

Maybe Ayanda simply used his artistic skills to deliberately provoke my brain into the masturbating mantra of “Presidents, Penises and Paintings!” Then again, this is a community blog so it’s better that i substitute alliteration with with a more respectful request for the Provocative Presidential Penis to please skip stumbling over his “ego” this time lest he fall endlessly into the great divide between  South Africa’s rich and poor.

Umshini Wam (Weapon of Mass Destruction) by Ayanda Mabulu