{"id":28569,"date":"2016-09-13T01:31:51","date_gmt":"2016-09-13T01:31:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/robert-mugabe-statue-zimbabwe-sculptor-denies\/"},"modified":"2016-09-13T01:31:47","modified_gmt":"2016-09-13T01:31:47","slug":"robert-mugabe-statue-zimbabwe-sculptor-denies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/robert-mugabe-statue-zimbabwe-sculptor-denies\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Mugabe statue: Zimbabwe sculptor denies mocking president"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>{A famous Zimbabwean sculptor has insisted his statue of Robert Mugabe was not intended to mock the president.}<\/p>\n<p>It was widely criticised on social media after it was unveiled at his official residence State House on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Dominic Benhura told the state-owned Herald newspaper that &#8220;honestly, no-one would abuse such an opportunity&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Mugabe, who has been in power since 1980, has vowed to crack down on protests against his rule.<\/p>\n<p>Tweeters questioned the sculptors motives, with some suggesting it was a reaction to being forced to make the statue.<\/p>\n<p>The sculptor Mr Benhura, who has exhibited his work across the world, denied he was making fun of the president and said that people don&#8217;t understand his art.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That sculpture was never meant to look exactly as the president&#8217;s image. I do not do exact figures.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is the style I have mastered. My collectors can identify my pieces when they see them anywhere in the world because I chose to be different and that is my signature.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Mr Mugabe also praised the statue.<\/p>\n<p>He was quoted in the Herald as saying that he was so grateful that the statue stimulated &#8220;a kind of wonder, a kind of love, a kind of appreciation and satisfaction&#8221;.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-14947 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/_91162985_b260c0e4-ebbf-4178-b9a2-d3268633c5be.jpg\" alt=\"The sculptor (right) presented the president with his image of him\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>{A famous Zimbabwean sculptor has insisted his statue of Robert Mugabe was not intended to mock the president.} It was widely criticised on social media after it was unveiled at his official residence State House on Friday. Dominic Benhura told the state-owned Herald newspaper that &#8220;honestly, no-one would abuse such an opportunity&#8221;. Mr Mugabe, who [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[249],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-28569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-bbc"],"bylines":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"contributors":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28569\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28569"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=28569"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=28569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}