Global cartoon expo reveals world class local genius

If ‘a picture can speak 1000 words,’ just imagine the power a well-crafted cartoon can have to rouse public interest—be it local, national or international—in a topic, burning issue or event that the cartoonist personally feels keenly about.

Impact

That’s a big part of why I favour cartoonists. The best of them not only follow public affairs closely but also take the liberty to feel deeply about topics that touch their heart.

They then have the capacity to creatively translate that depth of soulful feeling and analytical observation into black and white lines that tell stories in their essence – something a newspaper article or even a TV or radio spot cannot necessarily capture with the same impact and insight.

These are my personal feelings but the current cartoon exhibition at Alliance Francaise bears out my perspective.

“Freedom and Security: Can we have both?” is an exhibition of over 100 cartoons coming from nine countries, five of which are African (namely Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and Togo); the other four come from Australia, Canada, Sweden and Turkey.

XYZ

All crafted by professional cartoonists (all members of Reporters without Borders), the selection of the 100-plus images was made by the exhibition organisers, Alliance Francaise together with Buni Media, the makers of The XYZ (TV) Show.

It’s an explosive exhibition, one that makes one think and take time to digest all the burning issues being addressed not just by Kenyans but by cartoonists from many corners of the world.

One point I found striking about the show is the way the cartoonists seem to speak in a similar language, one that combines satire and symbolism to make a statement or share a message.

For instance, they may wish to comment on censorship, self-censorship and/or the tension that cartoonists confront everyday between expressing themselves freely and being conscious of their social context—the fact that some of their colleagues are dying for daring to freely express what they feel about issues like ‘The War on Terrorism’ or authoritarianism among African ‘Big Men’ who purport to be leaders.

Touchy topics

Some of the most poignant images in the show are ones which are deceptively simple. There may not be many written words in the cartoon but the images are graphically plain and powerful, especially if one has been following the topic being satirized.

For instance, there is one by a South African artist named Zap… who depicts President Jacob Zuma standing with several soldiers who have a woman bound and gagged on the ground. They are inviting their President (who’s been charged in court for being a rapist) to have his way with the woman.

It’s a disgusting image but one that makes the point that the public hasn’t forgotten his violations of women.

Out of all the cartoons hung at AF’s ground floor gallery, more than half are by Africans and the majority of those are by Kenyans.

The best known, of course, are Gado and Madd, both of whom address terribly touchy but timely topics such as insecurity, corruption and Al Shabaab, the potential muzzling of the media and the handling (or mishandling) of current events ranging from Westgate to Garissa to even targeted assassinations of Muslim clerics and the unfortunate after effects.

Visual art

Yet Gado and Madd are clearly not the only outspoken cartoonists from Kenya as the exhibition makes plain. The other eight also expose the fact that cartooning has become another vibrant visual arts field in the country and one that merits more than just one exhibition.

Fortunately, one of the key follow-ups to the exhibition is a roundtable talk which was initially set for this past week but is now set to be held on May 7th at Alliance Francaise.

The other eight local cartoonists include Abiha Victor, Celeste, Gammzo, Munene, Ndula Victor, Ngari and Stano. All intriguing visual story tellers with salient points to make, what I found most positive about this showcase of local talent is that while their cartoons stand side-by-side with those of internationally-acclaimed professionals, all of them seem to hold their ground and speak in a language we can all understand.

Equal

What’s more, this show did something that I have wanted to see for a very long time and that is to place Kenyan cartoons on equal footing with those from overseas so the world can understand that we have world-class talents who tell our stories much better than others ever can.

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