This vertical painting, displayed as part of an exhibit in the Nairobi National Museum in Nairobi, Kenya, depicts a historical scene of forced labor in an East African landscape

This vertical painting, displayed as part of an exhibit in the Nairobi National Museum in Nairobi, Kenya, depicts a historical scene of forced labor in an East African landscape. In the immediate foreground, large, weathered ivory tusks are visible on a display stand, positioned in front of the painted scene. The painting features a procession of dark-skinned individuals moving from left to right across rugged terrain. In the foreground, center-left, a man dressed in white Arab-style robes and a head covering kneels over a prone, emaciated dark-skinned individual, whose face is obscured. A curved sword is sheathed at the robed man's hip. Further to the right, a line of chained laborers carries heavy loads. One dark-skinned man, bare-chested and wearing a loincloth, carries a large wooden log or tusk on his left shoulder, secured by thick black chains extending downwards. Immediately to his left, another bare-chested dark-skinned man, also in a loincloth, carries a similar log on his right shoulder, with a whip or strap draped over it. Behind him, a dark-skinned woman with a baby strapped to her back carries a log on her left shoulder. Several other individuals, similarly dressed and burdened, follow behind. One man is notably chained around his neck. To the far left in the mid-ground, another man in white Arab-style robes stands, observing the procession. The environment consists of rocky hills covered in green foliage, a dusty path, and in the background, a savanna landscape with scattered acacia trees and distant mountains under a pale sky.