‘Freedom fighter’ loses limbs as family feud leaves famous Paa ya Paa gallery in ruins

The late Samwel Wanjau is considered by many to be one of Kenya’s greatest sculptors. His best known work is the 10-foot statue of the “Mau Mau Freedom Fighter.”

It has stood at the same location from the time it was commissioned by the then Attorney-General Charles Njonjo. That was at Paa ya Paa Art Centre, where Wanjau had created it out of cement and reinforced steel in the early 1970s.

But since last Sunday, December 2, the Freedom Fighter lies in pieces on contested ground, on land which according to the Nairobi County government, belongs to Elimo Njau, co-founder and artistic director of Paa ya Paa.

But according to a court ruling, half the Paa ya Paa land belongs to Rebecca Njau, author of Ripples in the Pool, and Elimo’s estranged first wife, who claims she owns half the land.

PRECARIOUS FATE

Two years ago, Rebecca sent workmen to the five-acre plot and they erected an extended mabati fence all along the line she claimed divided her land from Elimo’s. From then on, the fate of the Freedom Fighter remained precarious because he stood on her side of the fence.

Elimo has never accepted that the land belongs to himself.

“The land was bought by Maurice Wolf, my secondary school teacher, who specifically bought it on behalf of Kenyan artists, not me,” said Elimo. “I am only a caretaker. My land is in Tanzania.”

Elimo was born in Marangu, Tanzania, and is a former Makerere University lecturer.

His claim that he does not own the disputed land is weak from a legal perspective since the title deed identifies him as its owner.

Nonetheless, he is adamant that his first wife has no legitimate claim to the land, since, in his view, he is holding it in trust.

TRESPASSING

Local artists aligned with Elimo have tried to bring down the fence, and Rebecca has taken them and Elimo to court for trespassing.

In other words, the land dispute is a quagmire. To make matters worse, Elimo at age 87, has not had the means to retrieve the broken pieces of the Freedom Fighter. He has friends, like his neighbour, Dr Ernst Tenambergen, who have offered to pay to have Wanjau’s masterpiece removed from the contested ground so that the sculpture can be restored to its former glory. But for reasons best known to himself, Elimo has refused the help.

That left the 'Mau Mau man' vulnerable to the fate that befell him last Sunday when the gang of 10 returned to destroy not just the Mau Mau Freedom Fighter sculpture but also the wall of the Njaus’ ecumenical chapel which had stood adjacent to Rebecca’s fence.

They also did serious damage to Paa Ya Paa artists’ storage rooms where priceless artworks were being kept.

According to John Njuguna, the caretaker employed by Rebecca to look after the two and-a-half acres that she has claimed, he had been informed by her in advance that men would be going there to do certain jobs.

Nonetheless, she had not told Elimo that they were on their way to remove all property remaining on the land that she claims.

That included the chapel wall, other walls behind which had been the artists’ stores and the remaining pieces of the Wanjau sculpture, which was treated as no better than trash to be junked.

BROUGHT DOWN FENCE

Ironically, the gang also brought down several metres of the fence. Initially, it was a mystery why they would tear down the very fence that Rebecca had originally put up. But then, Njuguna said, the first demarcation was inaccurate.

It supposedly short-changed Rebecca, who is now claiming more Paa Ya Paa land, according to her surveyor’s measurements.

On Tuesday, the gang was back. By the time Elimo was informed by his second wife, Phillda, that they were still around, he found the men dragging parts of the Freedom Fighter off Rebecca’s side of the grounds back to Elimo’s.

“They had already broken off one of his arms. By the time I found him, he had lost another arm and a hand,” says Phillda.

According to her, the other “parts of the statue are still on the other side of the fence.”

So the restorers will have quite a task to reconstruct Wanjau’s masterpiece when and if funds are found to conduct the required artistic ‘surgery’ of putting him back together again.

One can hardly blame members of the gang, who were merely employees of the estranged wife. But the way they have treated a piece of art that many feel should be seen as a historic relic of an important period in Kenyan life is nothing if not philistine.

Clearly the case of the Freedom Fighter and the Paa ya Paa land are far from being unresolved.

One only hopes the Kenyan public, or even the family of Wanjau, will come forward to find out if the elder’s ‘Mau Mau man’ can be brought back to life and find a safe place to call home once again.