Cartooning and democratization world-wide

Resistance can take many forms, depending on the severity of the state of oppression. In totalitarian regimes, the resistance is truly underground, an example in cartooning being Soviet (and other Soviet bloc nations’) exhibitions of oppositionist drawings in private homes or other places normally not used for displaying art.

The National Salvation Cartoon Propaganda Corps, started by seven cartoonists in China in 1937, was also an underground group. As the invading Japanese soldiers marched through their country, these Chinese cartoonists also moved from place to place, etching their anti-Japanese and morale-boosting messages on walls, in newspapers, and exhibitions.

In other instances, when the danger was too great, cartoonists fled to neighbouring countries where they continued to draw oppositionist cartoons that found their way home. (One report stated that at least 30 prominent cartoonists switched countries in the 1990s for political or economic reasons.) Myanmar cartoonists worked as exiles in Thailand, as have others in various countries of Africa. Slim (Menouar Merabtene) is one of the latter. Feeling the situation in his native Algeria too threatening, he left in 1993, eventually settling in France, where he works for L’Humanité and submits cartoons to the Algerian daily Le Matin.

The form of resistance cartoonists normally use fits the ‘hidden transcripts’ notion of Asianist James C. Scott; the term almost seems to have been coined to describe what cartoonists do. Russian cartoonist Mikhail Zlatkovsky calls it layering, explaining that during Soviet times, the subtler the hint, the more numerous the layers of meanings. He said the first layer, which was false, allowed these cartoons to be published. In Francophone Africa, this form of dissent is known as Radio Trottoir, described by Francis Nyamnjoh as the ‘perfect medium of communicating dissent and discussing the powerful in unflattering, even if muted terms.’ The hidden transcript of resistance was obvious in cartoons of Em Sokha, taught by Cambodia’s political order to caricature its enemies; Em Sokha gradually poked fun at all sides and used grotesqueness to correspond with Cambodia’s history of violence.

To survive, cartoonists everywhere have become masters of subtlety, stealth, insinuation, innuendo, and the double entendre. Some credit such artistic cleverness as a national trait; thus, G. M. Sudarta, a top Indonesian cartoonist, says it is the ‘Indonesian way,’ to evoke a smile from officials whom cartoonists criticize, at the same time, allowing them to save face. Malaysia’s daring political cartoonist Zunar thinks of it as the Malaysian style, to criticize obliquely and then be prepared to respond to those who have been attacked.

Of course, criticizing in a non-specific manner does not belong exclusively to any one country or its cartoonists. Examples abound everywhere. For instance, Syria’s Ali Farzat is expert at drawing the blunted barb, avoiding anything that might link his cartoons to a specific individual or government, and leaving it to the readers to decide what they see. In some cartoons, the message is so subtle that readers debate among themselves who is being attacked; they have been known to read messages into cartoons where no message was intended.

Hidden meanings appear in at least the titles of cartoons, symbols used, plots of stories, and depictions of characters. The four-panel strips in Korean dailies, very popular during the dictatorship eras, had titles that directly or indirectly implied strength, unity, or resistance. One, Kim Pan-yuk’s Ch’onggaeguri, means blue frog, which itself represents resistance.

Symbols of resistance can be found in many cartoons. For years, Korean cartoonist Kim Song-hwan put black lens glasses on his character Kobau, a dig at President Park Chung-Hee who wore such eyewear. The implication was that Park had too much to hide to look Koreans squarely in the eye. Iran’s Nik Ahang Kowsar, jailed early this year for his cartoons, has a whole assortment of symbols he regularly employs, one of which means censorship of much more that should be but cannot be said.

The subtlety can be in the stories themselves. In 1992, Chai Rachawat vowed not to draw his popular strip until the dictatorial authorities of his country were replaced. In the last segment of his strip, he showed his once lively, fictional village, in which his characters normally romped, turned into a wasteland. Slim, while in Algeria, used his strip, Zid Ya Bouzid, to take pot shots at his favourite villains, liberally using bilingual puns, intertextual references, and artistic tricks. For example, to parody the many shortages of Algerian society, Slim on one occasion left a number of frames blank with the words ‘shortage of ink’ below them.

The very nature of cartoon characters can convey ‘hidden transcripts of resistance.’ The cartoon that landed Iran’s Kowsar in jail certainly did that, portraying a hard-line cleric as a crocodile, a creature representing treachery in Muslim culture. Former US Vice-President Dan Quayle’s meriting no more than a depiction as a feather in Garry Trudeau’s Doonesbury was subtlety par excellence, as was Thai cartoonist Prayoon’s sewing his mouth shut in self-caricatures until the repressive Thanom government lifted censorship.

Besides going underground, working in exile, and drawing in an indirect fashion, another means of resistance is through organized campaigns. What the Chinese cartoonists did in the 1930s to resist the Japanese is a prime example, as is the April 1999 Internet site, ‘Scream Caricature,’ set up to oppose the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. More than 300 cartoonists world-wide posted nearly a thousand cartoons reacting against the US and NATO actions. The Internet was also used by Reporters sans Frontières this year when political cartoonists were called upon to post cartoons in support of Iran’s jailed cartoonist Kowsar.

Cartoonists fight back

Perhaps the first world-wide campaign to protect cartoonists of resistance is the Cartoonists Rights Network, located in the US. Started by Robert I. Russell, CRN aims to lobby those who threaten cartoonists rights, train at-risk journalists in defensive lifestyles and survival techniques, create support systems to aid families of cartoonists under attack or threat, and provide cartoonists marketing outlets for their works on an international scale. Besides identifying cartoonists in trouble with the authorities in more than 20 countries, and helping some of them in various ways, CRN has also offered an ‘Art to Die For’ exhibit of the works of threatened cartoonists.

In the US a similar effort has been the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which gathers funds through auctions of donated cartoons and other means to resist the increasing threats spurred by the Christian Coalition and other rightist groups.

Sri Lankan political cartoonist Winnie Hettigoda has resisted authoritarian and unegalitarian systems by mounting personal exhibitions of his works to solicit contributions for various causes. After he and the entire staff of the daily Lakdiva resigned in 1993 because of the publisher’s editorial interference, Hettigoda put together an exhibition of his works that toured 25 locations and gathered Rs. 1.2 million (US$25,000) in donations to start a people’s newspaper. Hiru (Sun) was the result. Earlier, his private exhibitions brought in enough money that Hettigoda could use the monthly interest to help support poor and handicapped students.

Of course, many cartoonists’ and other artists’ exhibitions have acted as forms of resistance. About the time of the 1999 elections in Indonesia, tens of thousands of people went to the streets, many of whom roared their vehicle mufflers (knalpot) as a form of protest and resistance. Seventeen artists set up a Knalpot Exhibition as a result, their works full of political messages which functioned as their own mufflers.

In Algeria, it was the general public which organized itself into a street demonstration in 1996, demanding the release from jail of cartoonist Chawki Amari and the suspension of press restrictions against his newspaper, La Tribune. Amari was released after 20 days and La Tribune was allowed to resume after six months.

Finally, two other forms of cartoonist resistance are offered: 1. Trying to find ways (often devious ones) around the regulations, as evidenced by Francophone Africa’s satirical magazine Le Politicien, when it avoided the press law of mandatory registration by appearing irregularly and on different days of the week; 2. Openly defying the authorities as an act of resistance and then taking the consequences. The latter is extremely risky, resulting in death, injury, arrest, or other harassment of cartoonists and suspension or financial ruin of periodicals.

Naji al-Ali was deported from Middle East countries, detained in prison, fired from various positions, and received more than 100 death threats before he was assassinated in London in July 1987. For years, he had drawn close to the poor and harassed, defying the authorities in the process. Slim knew of two Algerian cartoonists killed because of their drawings; one was his friend, Brahim Guerroui, working for the official government daily. According to Slim, ‘He was executed. The fundamentalists took him from his home, to the streets. They told his family they just wanted to talk to him. Later, they took his body, his severed head with his drawings stuffed in his mouth, back to his family.’

During the Premadasa regime in Sri Lanka, cartoonist Yoonoos also faced harrowing experiences. After one hard-hitting, anti-government cartoon, Yoonoos was visited by about 20 Premadasa henchmen who, ‘Shoved a pistol into my mouth, broke a tooth, and then put the gun next to my head. He threatened to kill me in front of my wife if I did more cartoons against his excellency. The next day, they returned, smashed up my furniture, and stabbed me.’ When I interviewed Yoonoos much later, he was living in the newspaper office, away from his family.

Prison sentences meted out to cartoonists are usually completely out of proportion to the alleged ‘crimes.’ Maung Thawka of Burma died in prison serving a life term, Dogan Guzel of Turkey received 40 months because his Kurdish cartoon character called the state weak, and Essam Hanafy of Egypt was sentenced twice and is now serving a year for libelling the agriculture minister. Numerous other cartoonists have been arrested and jailed for shorter periods. Nik Ahang Kowsar only spent a few days behind bars earlier this year, although his situation is not resolved.

Kowsar, as did others who have been daring, anticipated being arrested. In an e-mail he sent me on 24 November 1999, he wrote: ‘I hope before going to where Karimzadeh had gone a few years ago [prison for two years for drawing a soccer player that authorities thought looked like Khomeini], I could print my first book and send it as soon as possible. The latest is that the ‘Azad’ newspaper was going to be closed yesterday because of two of my cartoons... And a few of the editorial staff were to be arrested, including me. Thank God I am still out!’

Revolutionaries armed with pens

Cartoonists have played key roles in political overthrows if we think of revolution by that definition. Certainly, David lent a hand in the French Revolution, as did Eastern European cartoonists during the dismantling of the Soviet Union in more recent times. But if we define revolution as any act of protest or rejection resulting in radical change, we can include cartoons that serve conscientization, developmental and educational purposes.

Conscientization has been defined as ‘the level of rationality which helps us understand the process which forms people and society, to take a positive stand in solidarity with the oppressed, and to work for grassroots organization and actions with programmes of liberation.’ The works of some cartoonists fit part of this definition. For example, in the 1930s, Zhang Leping created the strip character ‘Sanmao’ to express his dismay about the huge gap between the haves and have-nots, and in more recent times, cartoons and comics attempted to make people aware of issues such as child welfare, the homeless, AIDS, environment, illiteracy, drugtaking, sanitation, animal rights, child abuse, abortion, minority and gay rights, crime prevention, and mental health. Indonesian and Malaysian cartoon associations have done exhibitions and cartoon stories alerting the public to AIDS, anti-smoking, pollution, and environment.

In São Paulo, the group, Centro Vergueiro, has set up a simple graphic communications network that is in contact with, and acts as the voice of, hundreds of groups in poor and slum areas. Other institutions in at least Peru, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Argentina, Panama, Brazil, and Bolivia use popular cartoons and comic strips in conscientization work with the poor. In Venezuela in 1992, Accion Ecuménica, a WACC corporate member, published the comic strip book, 500 Años de Colonización---Que Celebren Ellos (500 Years of Colonization---Let Them Celebrate!), presenting a half millennium of Latin American history from the view of the indigenous and black populations, and calling on readers to recognize the profound value of the resistance of these people.

UNICEF has been busy for about a decade using animation in South Asia, Africa, and South America to bring public awareness to problems, particularly the plight of the girl child. Later, UNICEF challenged the mainstream animation industry to join an Animation Consortium and help with the production of 52 thirty-second animated public service announcements. Canada’s National Film Board made an AIDS cartoon film, Karate Kids, in the late 1980s, designed for children of the South.

There is mounting justification for the use of comic books to bring about change. In a previously published work, I listed these characteristics that make comic art suitable for conscientization, developmental and educational purposes: versatility, visualness, universality, indigenousness, adaptability, flexibility, popularity, and inexpensiveness. Matthew McAllister honed in on why comic books make a good medium to discuss AIDS: 1. The dominant mode of presentation lends itself to the illustration of processes; 2. The combination of visual and verbal forms of communication is appealing; 3. Comic books are a non-threatening medium; and 4. They are a personalizing medium.

McAllister cautioned that mainstream comics might trivialize or minimize AIDS messages, using the topic only as a plot device; mislead the public dangerously by imprecise language, and refrain from a full and frank discussion because of AIDS’ linkage to sex, drugs, and morality. He added that comic books might be imperfect vehicles for AIDS portrayals because of the medium’s often negative image in society.

AIDS comic books have raised eyebrows and, in some cases, have been stopped by authorities. The New South Wales government in Australia deemed a 1986 comic about AIDS ‘definitely not suitable,’ and after a public outcry, the administration at Montreal General Hospital suspended distribution of a 1991 comic book, designed by hospital personnel to teach safe sexual practice to street children.

South Africa in the 1990s was exceptional in its production and distribution of comic books about AIDS and safe sex, but many other topics, including literacy, making choices, environment, sanitation and young girls’ self-esteem. Most famous and productive among studios is Storyteller Group, under Neil Napper’s supervision in Johannesburg, but there are many other individuals and groups involved, including Andy Mason, Rick Andrew, Savyra Scott, Charlotte Peden, and Theo Hawkins.

Other countries such as Mexico, Nepal, Thailand, Singapore, England, Malaysia, Philippines, and India have realized at various times the educational and developmental uses of comic art. Probably ahead of all others was the Philippines where komiks were employed in many family planning campaigns of the 1960s. In India, a chemical engineer, appalled at Indian children’s ignorance of their own culture, started a series of educational comic books, Amar Chitra Katha, in the 1960s to fill this vacuum, while a researcher, Indi Rani, took on a World Health Organization task to develop a comic book on immunization for rural children. Rani built a number of research components into her field work, and concluded, ‘With careful research and thoughtful presentation, comic books with health information built into their storylines could become a common sight in rural communities, helping to dispel the belief that this popular format is not suitable for social messages.’

In Tanzania, a group of cartoonists and comic artists and writers joined forces in 1992 to form TAPOMA (Tanzania Popular Media Association) to promote the use of comics in development and education campaigns. Sponsored by the Finnish-Tanzania Friendship Society, TAPOMA has held workshops, exhibitions, training sessions (including on AIDS campaigns), festivals, and contests. Involved in many of these activities has been Leif Packalén, a Finnish cartoonist specializing in doing development comics. Packalén provides examples of successful developmental comics campaigns in Kenya on democracy building and on safe driving, in Malawi on a teenage girl who falls prey to a ‘sugar daddy,’ in Tanzania on land conservation, in Senegal on outside funding agencies, in Zimbabwe on AIDS, and in Ivory Coast on illegal money lending.

Conscientization and educational uses of cartoons and comics in the United States have included Cartoonists for Literacy, Newsday’s Comics on the News, and Captain Planet and the Planeteers. In 1989, Newspaper Features Syndicate started Cartoonists for Literacy, whereby 25 famous strip cartoonists blanked out captions in their works to simulate what happens when people can’t read. An asterisk led readers to punchlines in small type below. Newsday’s Comics on the News was an effort in 1996 to make children aware of current events. Complete with audiotext and Internet connections and a female superhero reporter, the programme solicited children’s thoughts on and reactions to news events through interactive modules.

Ted Turner was responsible for creating what was termed the ‘world’s first animated environmental action-adventure programme,’ Captain Planet and the Planeteers, which debuted recently on Turner Broadcasting System. Aimed at young people, it features five children from North America, Russia, Asia, Africa, and Latin American, who have been called upon by Gaia, the Spirit of Earth, to battle against further destruction of elements of nature, earth, fire, water, wind, and heart.

Reconciliation themes

Cartoonists have played key roles in trying to bring people together after war and ethnic/racial conflicts, to mend what was torn asunder on the battlefield, to re-establish peace and brotherhood, and to prevent a re-occurrence of such catastrophic times.

East and Central European, South African, and Yugoslav cartoonists draw reconciliation themes in their works, and Malaysian cartoonist Lat shows Malay, Indian, and Chinese children playing together, a reassuring portrayal in a country very sensitive about ethnicity after the 1969 race riots.

Still other examples include the use of Superman in a US comic book sent to Bosnia to teach children the dangers of land mines, and the continuation of Keiji Nakazawa’s Barefoot Gen, the author’s memories of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Nakazawa named his main character Gen (roots or source), ‘in the hope that he would become a root or source of strength for a new generation of mankind – one that can tread the charred soil of Hiroshima barefoot, feel the earth beneath its feet and have the strength to say “no” to nuclear weapons. I myself would like to live with Gen’s strength – that is my ideal, and I will continue pursuing it through work.’

A last example of cartooning used for reconciliation occurred in the Philippines after the fall of Marcos. To introduce its National Reconciliation and Development Programme, the new government distributed 1.5 million copies of a comic book that described the campaign in some detail. An added goal of the programme was to persuade 15,000 guerrillas to return to the fold of the law.

Impediments to democratization

Thus far, I have been addressing the roles played by cartoonists world-wide in various stages of the democratization process. However, I would be remiss if I did not discuss some trends in the communication, culture, and cartooning fields that do not bode well for the profession or democratization.

1. Internationalization, centralization, and commercialization of cultural forms such as cartoons and comics. This is an alarming problem. More and more, multinational groups and syndicates are gobbling up the works of cartoonists and writers and promoting them as a global culture that is shaped solely by marketing considerations. As I wrote in Media Development earlier, ‘The level of commercialization brought on by corporate cartooning has reached dizzying and ridiculous heights, with comic merchandise becoming more important than the work of art and its story.’

2. The continued dominance of foreign (meaning US)cartoons/comics/animation globally. This results from the first problem in that many of the largest companies and studios are based in the US, the rest in Western Europe and Japan. Problems that result are: taking work away from local cartoonists as media use less expensive syndicated cartoons; continuing a colonial mentality that equates foreign products (cartoons/comics) with superiority and thus worthy of imitation; nurturing long-standing ideological colonialism through seemingly innocuous-appearing foreign cartoon characters.

3. The eroding of the watchdog function of political cartooning in many parts of the world. A number of factors account for the diminishing agitating role of cartoonists: Controversial/detestable leaders are not out front where they can be targeted, because of more carefully-orchestrated public relations style governments of late; self-censorship is rampant everywhere, because of many government/societal taboos, overly-sensitive interest groups and individuals practising political correctness, terrorist and vigilante group activity, and close economic liaisons newspapers have developed with big business and government, and libel and other legislation is being used more frequently to stifle cartoonists, who previously were almost exempt from prosecution.

4. The drying up of funding for, and thus interest in, cartooning for development and conscientization campaigns. In fact, interest in development communication itself has suffered a number of debilitating blows since its peak in the 1960s-1970s. Among these were the US withdrawal from UNESCO and the resultant deathblow this caused to the New World Information and Communication Order, the computer and new information technology craze that swept aside alternative communication and cultural forms, and the coming on the scene (at least in the U.S.) of a consumer-oriented me generation not particularly concerned about humanitarian causes.

Despite these impediments, true democratization still struggles to take root or to survive in every corner of the world, and cartoonists continue to promote its tenets, challenging conventional thought, getting closer to the truth than most journalists, and campaigning for the majority on Earth to whom a dignified existence is denied.

Keynote address presented at the International Workshop on Cartoon Journalism and Democratization in Southern Africa, University of Botswana, Gaborone, Botswana, 8-10 November 2000.