Arts

No laughing matter: The unvarnished truth in satire

satire

"Newseum" by American cartoonist M. Wuerker. PHOTO | MARGARETTA WA GACHERU | NMG

Satire is a splendid thing. It is a means of making fun while cutting your adversary to the quick. It is an art form that can morph from being a cartoon, newspaper column, stage play, standup comic or even a film.

But whatever form satire takes, it is not always easy to understand. One thing that is seriously required to appreciate it is a sense of humour. That’s especially difficult to get if you happen to be the butt of the satirist’s “attack”.

Indeed, the thin-skinned politician can rarely, if ever, enjoy satire, especially if it generates public laughter at his or her expense.

But it is clear that a sizable portion of the Kenyan public loves satire. It is one major reason why they still buy daily newspapers.

Apart from sports and obituaries, it is the daily cartoons that compel people to read the papers. They want to see who and what cartoonists like Munene, Madd, Ndula or Gaddo’s are satirising that day,

As top Kenyan journalist and satarist Kwamchetsi Makokha pointed out during the recent Nairobi Satire Festival which focused on the theme of “Speaking Truth to Power”, people are drawn to satire because it does not pretend to be “objective” or “balanced”. But it does tend to convey the unvarnished truth.

That’s why Buni Media did not have a problem bringing together works by cutting-edge cartoonists from all around the world to be part of the Satire Festival.

Up until last week, sassy satirical cartoons from almost 20 countries could be seen at Alliance Francaise. They came from Europe, US, Cuba, the Middle East and other parts of Africa.

The cartoons came in a wide array of artistic styles and symbolic images related to the concept of “Speaking truth to power.”
Understandably, the new American president Donald Trump preoccupied many of the works.

Among East Africans, however, there was more attention focused on lampooning local leaders and on what Kwamchetsi called “taboo topics” like tribalism, corruption, and impunity.

The festival also featured panel discussions and a public lecture on The Politics of Satire by Dr Wandia Njoya, Literature professor at Daystar University.

Several panels also highlighted the inescapable issue of satire and Kenya’s upcoming elections. One point that consistently came up during the week was the fact that satire as a genre can be incredibly dangerous for artists to produce.

That is because cartoonists like those who died working for the French magazine Charlie Hebdo specialised in truth-telling and thus pose a genuine threat to dictators and fascistic megalomaniacs. Satirists are especially threatening because freedom of expression, is a central plank in their platform of ideas.

Hopefully, there will be more Nairobi Satire Festivals in future and ones as well organised as Buni’s was.

One follow-up idea proposed during the fete was for Kenya to start its own satirical TV station. The idea is a provocative one whose time may be coming sooner than we know.