Full Description
Cartoonists make us laugh—and think—by caricaturing daily events and politics. The essays, interviews, and cartoons presented in this innovative book vividly demonstrate the rich diversity of cartooning across Africa and highlight issues facing its cartoonists today, such as sociopolitical trends, censorship, and use of new technologies. Celebrated African cartoonists including Zapiro of South Africa, Gado of Kenya, and Asukwo of Nigeria join top scholars and a new generation of scholar-cartoonists from the fields of literature, comic studies and fine arts, animation studies, social sciences, and history to take the analysis of African cartooning forward. Taking African Cartoons Seriously presents critical thematic studies to chart new approaches to how African cartoonists trade in fun, irony, and satire. The book brings together the traditional press editorial cartoon with rapidly diverging subgenres of the art in the graphic novel and animation, and applications on social media. Interviews with bold and successful cartoonists provide insights into their work, their humor, and the dilemmas they face. This book will delight and inform readers from all backgrounds, providing a highly readable and visual introduction to key cartoonists and styles, as well as critical engagement with current themes to show where African political cartooning is going and why.
Contents
Contents Illustrations Acknowledgements Peter Limb / Introduction: Drawing a Line between Play and Power in African Political Cartooning Part 1. Essays Tejumola Olaniyan / The Art of Bisi Ogunbadejo Ganiyu A. Jimoh / Wetin You Carry? The Nigeria Police Force in Cartoonists' Space Andy Mason and Su Opperman / South African Cartooning in the Post-Apartheid Era Paula Callus / The Rise of Kenyan Political Animation: Tactics of Subversion Patrick Gathara / Kenyan Cartoons and Censorship Baba G. Jallow / Ideology and Intention in Ghanaian Political Cartoons, 1957-66 Joseph Oduro-Frimpong / This Cartoon Is a Satire: Cartoons as Critical Entertainment and Resistance in Ghana's Fourth Republic Part 2. Interviews with African Cartoonists Zapiro (Jonathan Shapiro, South Africa) Gado (Godfrey Mwampembwa, Kenya/Tanzania) Mike Asukwo (Nigeria) Mabijo (Tebogo Motswetla, Botswana) Dudley (Dudley Viall, Namibia) Bibliography Contributors Index
