Wuh.ey - “Mwili wa Ushahidi”

From the series: African Fusion
Paper: Hahnemühle Fine Art Archival Print
Sheet size: 60 × 60 cm
Year: Edition of 2025
Edition: 3 + 1 AP

Wuh.ey – “Mwili wa Ushahidi”

A young man stands in the middle of the street, naked except for his orange shorts. His body is covered with nails that protrude from his skin like a steel crown. One hand rests on his hip, the other points upward—a silent sign, a gesture somewhere between pain and triumph. "Mwili wa Ushahidi" —the body of testimony—is a manifesto about wounding, survival, and visibility in urban space.

The scene takes place against a wall of tropical colors: blue, red, and green, houses that speak of heat, poverty, and dignity. Here, where the everyday persists in its raw beauty, the body becomes a monument. The nails are reminiscent of the Nkisi nkondi from the Congo, the figures into which iron was driven to seal contracts, prayers, or curses. But Wuh.ey brings this symbol out of ritual and into the street—into a present that must prove itself.

Here, the body is not an object, but language. Each nail represents an experience, a word, a moment of resistance. The raised hand speaks of strength, not pain. It says: I am here. I carry history, I carry the future.

Wuh.ey interweaves myth and reality, spirituality and social critique. The man is simultaneously martyr, dancer, and prophet—an urban Christ without religion, a son of the city who doesn't hide his wounds but rather lifts them up.

"Mwili wa Ushahidi" asks what resistance means in the digital age. It's an image that doesn't accuse, but testifies—that the body itself has become the ultimate locus of truth.