One of many paintings Kyeyune made on the subject of circumcision, the piece has legendary status because of the way it came to be in this collection. Klaus Holderbaum had acquired it when he served as the German ambassador to Uganda in the 2000s. In 2023, after his death, it was one of several pieces in the Holderbaum Collection exhibited by Xenson Art Space in Kampala. This collector acquired the painting one hectic but lucky day months after the exhibition when it was (briefly) on sale. It’s a sensational picture. A woman with impossibly long coiffured hair (wrapped in a multi-colored cloth à la Matisse) restrains another woman who faces a man armed with a knife. We can’t see what’s in the face of the woman whose genitals are about to be tampered with, even though we must assume she’s anguished or terrified, which is partly why she must be held back by the woman squatting behind her. The painting’s point of equilibrium is not the hand that holds the knife but the man’s eyes peering into the woman’s groin. He seems to be hesitating, as if he is slowly coming back to his senses and giving himself up to nature. It’s as if Kyeyune, as he made the painting, had been shouting, You fool, what do you think you are doing?
