Humour comes with dangers

Not everyone finds cartoons amusing. Censorship and violent suppression are realities for some cartoonists. But judging from the mood at the International Cartoon Festival held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso’s capital, this week cartoonists there felt upbeat declaring, “drawing cartoons is a constitutional right.”
By Ramata Sore, Ouagadougou
Western embassies and diplomatic residences have come under attack numerous times in recent years. The reason: a cartoon.
In Denmark a Somali citizen armed with a knife and axe, broke into the house of Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard infamous for his depiction of the Prophet Mohammed with a bomb in his turban in the daily newspaper, Jyllands-Posten. The satirical drawings provoked a violent outcry around the globe, especially in the Muslim world where Islam forbids any representation of the Prophet, let alone one in which he wears a bomb in his head gear.
In South Africa, a cartoon of a woman depicting the country’s justice system being held down by members of the ruling ANC (African National Congress), while President Jacob Zuma prepares to rape her, caused outcry. President Zuma, who was drawn with a showerhead above him, reportedly said that he had taken a shower after the act, to prevent him from getting AIDS. The South African president was accused of raping a young HIV positive woman. The cartoon by Jonathan Shapiro, also known as Zapiro, capturing the incident, also caused a huge outcry.
A source of emotion
Cartoonists present at the festival, including Tignous from France, Dilem from Algeria, Thomas Plassmann from Germany, Karlos from Ivory Coast, and Glez or Timpus from Burkina Faso, all insist that cartoons depict facts. And for them, it is a source of emotion; emotion that always leads to awareness. “Drawing cartoons is a right,” firmly declares Dilem, author of more than 10,000 cartoons. It is actually “a constitutional right that reinforces freedom of speech,” adds Bénéwendé Sankara, a Burkinabe lawyer and politician.
Nevertheless, the Burkinabe Minister of Culture, Baba Hama, has urged cartoonists to show some restraint. According to him, some things should not be said even though, theoretically, everything can be made fun of. As far as French cartoonist Tignous is concerned, there are no taboos with cartoons. Nicolas Sarkozy can attest to that. The more “slip ups” the French President makes the more flies his caricature gets on the head, and vice versa. This is because there, “shouldn’t be any barriers to the expression of an idea or a feeling,”says Abdoulaye Diallo, the Director of the Norbert Zongo National Press Centre. He notes that “shocking people is a way of fighting for press freedom.” For Diallo, the average citizen feels avenged when cartoons demystify a president and his power. And, “we don’t care if some people can’t take it”, adds Dilem who has been taken to court more than fifty times.
Consequences
The anger and displeasure caused by cartoons can sometimes have devastating consequences. At best, the costs are financial. For the caricature showing President Zuma preparing to rape justice, the South African leader sued Zapiro, won and was awarded 5 million Rands (510,000 Euros). The worse case scenario when cartoonists risk their lives. The Libyan cartoonist, Kaïs, was gunned down by a sniper last March. He was making a wall painting of Gaddafi, says Damien Glez.
Although most African presidents are annoyed by satirical drawings, some seem to appreciate the media. Nelson Mandela is one of them. When he was informed that Zapiro’s work would no longer feature in Cape town’s daily newspaper, the former South African president called the cartoonist and declared his admiration. Although the cartoonist was quite surprised, he admits however that Mandela is one of the very few who appreciate his work. According to Dilem, there is no reason for people to be offended by a cartoon, it “contributes to the entrenchment of democracy.”