As the world holds its breath ahead of the swearing-in of Donald Trump on Monday, January 20, African literature icon David Maillu has built a latrine with an imposing statue of the incoming US President.
The scholar says the steel and concrete monument is an expression of protest that he hopes will trigger debate on racism and African dignity.
Named “President Donald Trump S***hole”, the bizarre statue is inspired by a derogatory reference— considered by some as racist — which President Trump made in 2018 against African countries.
“We have employed satire against (president-elect) Donald Trump. It is a clap back after he insulted Africans by calling them people from s****hole countries. The statue is part of our creations which are meant to spark a conversation around racism,” Dr Maillu told Nation.Africa as he supervised two workers who were putting final touches on the monument sitting at a corner of his countryside home in Makueni County.
Work on the ‘stinking’ Trump statute started in 2018 with the sinking of a deep pit. The building of the structure stalled when Mr Trump lost the 2020 election to President Joe Biden.
Dr Maillu re-started the project when Republican candidate Trump recaptured the seat after beating Kamala Harris in a landslide victory last November.
A tuft of dry grass forms the hair while a delicate mixture of red oxide paint and white cement is used to depict Mr Trump’s skin colour.
“We have made the statute big because President Trump is a prominent figure,” Dr Maillu said.
Unveiling of the statute is scheduled for Monday, January 20, the day President Trump is set to assume office.
As the world watches after Mr Trump vowed to kick out thousands of immigrants from the United States during the campaign, Dr Maillu hopes that the statue will at least call attention to Mr Trump’s previously expressed “condescending” views on Africa and, hopefully, help to change such attitudes.
Importantly, he hopes the statute will spark conversations around racism and restore the African identity which he believes has been eroded over the years, particularly during the colonial era.
“As the president of the most powerful country in the world, President Trump should shun racism. He should know that we are all human. If anything, the Black community plays a big role in America’s economy,” Dr Maillu said.
Renowned novelist David Maillu at Kola Village in Makueni County on January 14, 2025.
Photo credit: Pius Maundu | Nation Media Group
A self-taught artist who has over the years become an accomplished sculptor, painter, novelist, poet, and musician, the 85-year-old Dr Maillu uses his works of art to confront authorities.
The Trump monument is the latest arsenal in his fight against neocolonialism, a theme which has dominated his works of art. According to his latest novel, Push Gen Z Push Harder: Storm of Political Revolution, for instance, White supremacy and neocolonialism are key catalysts for the waves of uprisings which have defined the Kenyan political landscape for years.
Dr Maillu is a prolific author whose books published since the early 1970s in English, Kiswahili and Kikamba include My Dear Bottle , After 4.30 , Unfit for Human Consumption , Broken Drum , The Kommon Man , Black Madonna , Crossing the Red Line among others.
Dr Maillu thinks there should have been a more robust response to Mr Trump’s 2018 outburst against Africa and other immigrants.
“As Africans, we are still nursing the scars of colonialism. We have been conditioned that it is wrong to criticise those in power. The many years of colonialism have seen us lose our power in the face of the most powerful nations. It deprived us of our sense of identity through indoctrination," he said.
We are damaged psychologically. Many people are made to feel small and our creativity has been destroyed. That is why as an artist I have been trying to address this problem. I have set out to educate the community on regaining our lost identity,” he explained further.
A set of seven flags which welcome visitors at Mathemboni, the name of his countryside home, sit at the heart of Mr Maillu’s campaign against neocolonialism.
He says the British, German, French, Italian, Belgium, Portuguese and Spanish flags “represent the big brothers who came to the wilderness, killed an animal called Africa using an axe, gun, machete, and the Bible and took away all the meat.
They only left the skin behind. The flags are still flying meaning the big brothers are still active through the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.”
The antithesis is a larger than life monument of Syokimau, a revered Kamba prophetess who is believed to have predicted the coming of the European colonialists.
The monument sitting at a corner of Dr Maillu’s compound is inspired by Wasya wa Syokimau (Syokimau’s voice), one of his novels.
The steel and concrete Syokimau statue which has placed Dr Maillu on a collision path with some staunch Christians in the region, is meant to spur a sense of Kamba cultural consciousness in a society immersed in modernity.
“The Syokimau statute gives us an opportunity to appreciate our African roots and cultural values which were eroded by Christianity. Spirituality was a very crucial element of African culture. We should refuse the fallacy that Africans did not know God before the advent of colonialism,” he said.
