Dates: March 8-31, 2012
Venue: Alliance Française Exhibition Gallery
Wanjiku: Enigma, Allegory, Metaphor or Image?
In the 1990s, then-President Moi, responding dismissively to popular pressure for constitutional reform, posed the rhetorical question ‘What does Wanjiku want with a constitution?’ He thus unwittingly created the phenomenon of ‘Wanjiku’ who has since then become ubiquitous in the Kenyan public imagination and discourse as a way of gesturing to ‘public opinion’, the ‘common person’, or the ordinary mwanainchi. Although it might seem encouraging that “Wanjiku’ should emerge in the male-dominated world of the Kenyan public sphere, her appearance does not necessarily imply either a more equitable gender context in Kenya nor even an increased awareness to gender issues.
Wanjiku is successful as a popular icon because she is easily translatable into a number of different social contexts and because her persona is down-to-earth.
The participating women artists present their individual interpretation of ‘Being Wanjiku’.
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