selfportraitsofcolor:

John Ndevasia Muafangejo, b. 1943, d. 1987
Forcible Love
Namibia (1974)
Linocut
Iwalewahaus, Bayreuth
[Source]

This work is made in 1974 by the idiosyncratic Namibian artist, who is best known for his expressive narrative and graphic quality in etching, woodcuts and linocuts. His works depicts issues relevant to him, mostly expressing thoughts and feelings of political and social-historical situations.

Forcible Love is divided into two rectangular vertical parts. Both portions consist of text describing a situation of jealousy between himself and another artist involving a woman. Central to this rectangular, we see the woman and behind her, eight individuals pointing fingers into her direction. The smaller rectangular contains a self -portrait of the artist with a chisel and a linoleum block in the hands, surrounded by a palm-tree branch on each side…

The text insinuates inexplicable misfortune that could have befallen him had he fallen for the temptations. The woman is considered by John Muafangejo to be very beautiful though she has been forced by her boyfriend to derail the artist not to succeed or attend art school. Her suffering can be interpreted either for not have succeeded to seduce him or for have been forced against her will to seduce him.