The art of satirical deterritorialization: Shifting cartoons from real space to cyberspace in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

African cartoonists do not have the right to ridicule and offend political leaders. As a result, cartoons that deterritorialize African leaders by taking them out of their traditional zones of power and comfort, and place them in absurd, imaginary cartoon ‘realities’ for purposes of criticism, are often met with censorious judicial and extra-judicial measures. These efforts are aimed at reterritorializing and rehabilitating the ‘tarnished’ images of the powerful and enable them to control their media images. In response to these pressures, many Sub-Saharan African cartoonists engage in symbolic ‘space shifting’. This is the phenomenon whereby critical commentary and political cartoons are deterritorialized or transferred from real space to cyberspace, the Internet and social media sites, for purposes of escaping censorship. This study focuses on a select group of cartoons and cartoonists who transferred their work from real space to cyberspace in a bid to escape censorship and political pressure.

Keywords

Caricature deterritorialization Internet in Sub-Saharan Africa media censorship political cartoons reterritorialization space-shifting

Introduction

African cartoonists operate in atmospheres that are generally hostile, adversarial, and characterized by law and disorder (Eko, 2007). Cartoons that offend authoritarian leaders and government officials are faced with a barrage of censorious judicial and extra-judicial measures. As a result, one of the most useful skills cartoonists in Sub-Saharan Africa have to master is the art of self-censorship. Despite the fact that many African societies have ancient cultures of visual satire (Ola, 2013), cartoonists operate in post-colonial environments where there is no right to offend, disrespect, or ridicule the rich and powerful. As Thompson (1979) asserts, ‘African traditions of artistic criticism… tend to favor discretion’ (p. 3). Lest they forget to be ‘discreet’, editors remind cartoonists that cartooning can be a dangerous ritual that sometimes has negative consequences for cartoonists and their newspapers. As a result of this reality, African cartoonists develop a habit of subtlety. They are very skillful and subtle in couching their criticism in visual and verbal puns, proverbs, turns of phrase, aphorisms, and figures of speech that state or exaggerate the truth. Satirical couching is the technique whereby cartoons tactfully place slices of reality in cultural idioms and metaphors for purposes of criticism (Ricœur, 1967). In authoritarian African countries, communicators resort to surreptitious satirical techniques that are essentially messages within messages (Eko, 2003; Monga, 1996).

Sometimes, even the best cartoonists have to be reminded of the risks of cartooning if they are not subtle enough. Godfrey Mwampembwa (a.k.a, Gado), the award-winning editorial cartoonist of The Daily Nation of Nairobi, Kenya, posted a cartoon that had been censored by his newspaper on his blog (Figure 1). The fact that Gado could use the Internet as a space to republish cartoons that had been censored in real space demonstrated an unprecedented development of the right of freedom of expression in Sub-Saharan Africa. When cartoons are transferred from real space to cyberspace, they become transterritorial ‘texts' that take on a life of their own.

Figure 1.

Censored cartoon published online by Godfrey Mwampembwa (a.k.a) Gado of The Daily Nation, Nairobi, Kenya.

Aim of the article and significance of the topic

The main premise of this article is that the right to ridicule and offend the rich and powerful is not recognized in the political cultures of most African countries. Therefore, cartooning can be a dangerous craft (Eko, 2007). Autocratic leaders resort to judicial and extra-judicial measures that ban objectionable cartoons and silence cartoonists. These censorious actions are often aimed at saving face, maintaining or rehabilitating images and reputations, regaining legitimacy, and retaining absolute sway over the media and their construction of political reality in specific national territories (Eko, 2007, 2010; Monga, 1996; Olorunyomi, 1996). The second premise is that in a number of Sub-Saharan African countries, the Internet and its related social media platforms have broadened the scope of freedom of expression. When faced with censorious political pressure in real space, cartoonists seek refuge in the dematerialized world of cyberspace where satirical cartoons are often beyond the censorious long arm of the government. The aim of this article is to analyze and explain the status of the satirical press in a number of Sub-Saharan African countries, using as exemplars, a number of satirical newspaper and cartoon controversies. The focus is on cartoons that were banned or involved in government-instigated litigation in real space, but were republished in cyberspace (web pages, blogs, Facebook, Twitter) as acts of resistance against censorship. In the early days of Internet diffusion in Africa, newspapers did not have a web presence. Many newspapers now have Internet editions that extend their reach into cyberspace and enable them to seek shelter from the censorious authoritarian governments. This topic is significant because in virtually all parts of the world, governments are imposing restrictions on the Internet and carrying out surveillance of its content. At the United Nations and International Telecommunications Union conferences, many non-democratic countries have called for greater control of the Internet. African cartoonists have shown that the Internet is a haven of freedom of expression that must not be allowed to become part of governmental architectures of repression (Eko, 2012).

The satirical press in Sub-Saharan Africa

Many Western countries are known for having ancient traditions of court jesters or ‘fools’ who had a ‘jester’s space’ or ‘jester’s privilege’. This enabled them to parody, mock, and satirize kings, queens, and the aristocracy – within certain bounds – without fear of punishment because their words and actions were considered inconsequential tomfoolery (Armin, 1610). This tradition is believed to be the origin of newspaper cartoons. Western colonialism and education led to the importation of the concept of the ‘jester’s space’ into Sub-Saharan Africa. The idea of the jester’s space was recently advanced by South African cartoonist, Zapiro, as a defense in a cartoon defamation suit (discussed below) filed against him by Jacob Zuma, President of South Africa (Zapiro, 2012). However, before the arrival and diffusion of Western notions of satire, many Sub-Saharan African cultures had traditions of visual and oral satire. Griots or itinerant bards are famous for their oral satirical wit. Additionally, in pre-colonial Sub-Saharan Africa, masks and masquerades (jujus), carved furniture, wooden tableaux, talking drums, totem poles, artistic grave markers, sacred and secular art objects, festivals, and masked dances had satirical components (Lent, 2009). These cultural artifacts and visual manifestations created a ‘juju’s space’, a mythic sphere of cryptic and satiric expression that masqueraders used to disseminate the cultural and moral values of the people. The masquerader’s space was respected by all members of the community including powerful traditional rulers. Some of the manifestations of ‘graphic laughter’ performed by masquerades in this space had ritual and religious significance (Champfleury, 1890; Lynch, 1927). In his book, Satires of Power in Yoruba Visual Culture, Ola (2013) suggests that Nigerian newspaper cartoons draw from traditional African concepts of visual satire that have existed from time immemorial. Cartoons are Africa's contemporary masquerades.

Researchers have noted that the African press was rejuvenated in the 1990s, after the end of the Cold War (Eko, 2007, 2010; Gado, 2002; Mbaku, 1997; Ihonvbere, 1997; Waltremez, 1992; Mason, 2009). This period saw the emergence of hundreds of newspapers, tabloids, magazines, newssheets, and satirical publications of all political hues, journalistic competence, and ethno-religious affiliations (Eko, 2003; Geslin, 2002). The Sub-Saharan satirical press practices a free-wheeling style of journalism, which often has no patience with the niceties of ‘standard’ journalism or journalistic ethics. It combines skillful writing – satirical publications are masters of the clever turn of phrase – invective, cartoons, comic strips, and caricature into combustible mixtures of text and images that are designed to ridicule the elite (Geslin, 2002). Its cartoons are deceptively simple counter-discourses that satirize the excesses of African political leaders. The satirical press became popular in Sub-Saharan Africa because it used traditional artistic and satirical techniques – proverbs, parables, cryptic sayings, animal and human archetypes, idioms, similes, metaphors, parodies, and narratives couched in the language of the common people – to satirize political leaders (Nyamnjoh, 2009). Maurier (1984) suggests that in African cosmology, ‘things, the cosmos, the realities of this world, supernatural beings, are too much mingled with human realities for them to be looked upon from an objectivist and substantialist [Western] viewpoint’ (p. 34).

The vast majority of satirical newspapers in Sub-Saharan Africa are based in the Francophone countries. The most well-known satirical newspapers – and their names give away their editorial postures – became famous because they had problems with governments. They include Le Messager (The Messenger) and Le Popoli of Cameroon; l’Araignee (The Spider), Bôl’kotch, and L’Agouti Penseur (The Thinking Agouti) of Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire; Le Cafard Libéré (The Liberated Cockroach) of Dakar, Senegal; Le Marabout (the Marabou with a play on the word, Marabout, Fulani name for soothsayer); Le Lynx (the Lynx) and La Lance (the Lance) of Guinea-Conakry; La Griffe (The Claw), Le Gri Gri International (2014) (The International Amulet) of Libreville, Gabon, and so on.

These satirical publications are part of the feisty, combative, irreverent journalistic movement that has been called a ‘journalism of resistance’ (Palmer, 1997). This is a journalism of opinion and expression that reported news and events from an oppositional and adversarial perspective. This journalism defied government censorship and banning orders and called on the people to show contempt for authoritarian leaders who presided over corrupt regimes of law and disorder (Olorunyomi, 1996). One of the hallmarks of satirical journalism is that it gives the impression that it takes nothing seriously. Indeed, the cartoonists do not take themselves seriously. For example, Nyemb Ntoogué, the self-styled ‘caricaturist-in-chief’ of Le Popoli, a satirical newspaper in Cameroon, calls himself, the ‘certified village idiot’ and the ‘fool in chief’. The motto of Le Popoli is: ‘He who laughs first laughs best’. Nevertheless, this attempt to appropriate a masquerader’s privilege in the print press has not protected Nyemb from physical attacks, death threats, and even exile (Eko, 2007; Nyamnjoh, 2009).

Characteristics of the satirical press in Sub-Saharan Africa

Though specialized Sub-Saharan graphic newspapers drew inspiration from French satirical newspapers, they successfully reinvented the genre of satire, grounding it on the continent’s many artistic and visual cultures. Benoist (1975) states that each civilization has its alphabet of symbols, rites, and myths, which serve as the building blocks of communication. Ideas are clothed in myths and symbols and ‘myths are the visual language of principle’ (p. 6). Senghor (1966) suggests that despite Western influences, African art, caricatures, and cartoons are expressions of African visions and obsessions, couched in African idioms. On a continent where the human image or likeness has both spiritual/metaphysical and physical dimensions, the satirical press and its traditional newspaper competitors have transformed cartoons into instruments of demystification and demythification. Cartoons are essentially graphic humor that strip Africa’s ‘republican monarchs’ of the aura of power, invincibility, and omniscience and subject them to artistic ridicule. The stock-in-trade of cartoonists is parody, satire, visual puns, and humor. Their activities in real space and cyberspace broaden the scope of freedom of expression.

Theoretical perspectives: Deterritorialization, reterritorialization, and space-shifting

Deterritorialization

The world exists in time and space. It is also a place that is divided into geographic, politico-cultural, economic, ethno-national, and regional territories demarcated by physical boundaries or ‘symbolic territorialities’ (Deleuze and Guattari, 1983: 184). As a result, the world is characterized by territorial logics. Deleuze and Guattari (1983) coined the term ‘deterritorialization’ to critique capitalism, which they viewed as a ‘movement of displacement’ (p. 231), a force that transcends territorial boundaries. In globalization studies, deterritorialization has come to refer to the interconnection of nations and peoples and the role of networked communication systems in diffusing cultural products from centers of production in the Western world to the periphery of the global system. Therefore, deterritorialization is the decontextualization and diffusion of culture, technology, and worldviews without regard to territorial boundaries and jurisdictions. In media studies, the term deterritorialization refers to the crossing of distinct media boundaries, trans-national and trans-territorial media flows, the shifting of meanings, shapes, and spaces (Eko, 2007).

Reterritorialization

The media in Sub-Saharan Africa are, generally speaking, freer now than they have ever been (Eko, 2003, 2010). They have wrested a relative amount of freedom of expression from reluctant governments. Satirical cartoons are the evidence and barometers of freedom of expression. Nevertheless, the satirical press in Sub-Saharan Africa is caught, to use the expression of Deleuze and Guattari (1983), between ‘the simultaneity of the two movements of deterritorialization and reterritorialization’ (p. 260). Reterritorialization is defined as the ‘reconstitution of territorialities’ for purposes of compensating for the original ‘movement of displacement’ (p. 315). They conclude that ‘there is no deterritorialization… that is not accompanied by global or local reterritorializations, reterritorializations that always reconstitute shores of representation’ (p. 316). This means that for every action of displacement of reality, there is a reaction, a counter-action aimed at restoring the status quo. For every presentation of reality, there is a re-presentation of reality. When media content or other phenomena are deterritorialized (banned or censored), the vacated space is filled with functionally equivalent media and content. This is the act of reterritorialization. Deterritorialization is applicable to cartoon representations of reality in Sub-Saharan Africa because cartoons are ‘forces of de-territorialization’ (Deleuze and Guattari, 1980: 400). When cartoons de-territorialize African leaders by distorting their physical features and exaggerating political truths, authoritarian leaders and their families resort to acts of reterritorialization. They seek to eliminate unflattering cartoon images of themselves from the public consciousness through judicial and extra-judicial means.

Space-shifting

The concept of territoriality on which deterritorialization and reterritorialization are grounded presupposes that the world is partitioned into physical, geographical, politico-cultural, and ethno-national boundaries in real space. Technological developments in the fields of information, communication, and networking have led to the emergence of new virtual communication spaces and social media platforms. These virtual communication spaces have been called ‘cyberspace’. This is a virtual sphere that the US government defines as ‘The interdependent network of information technology infrastructures that include the Internet, telecommunications networks, computers, information or communications systems, networks, and embedded processors and controllers’ (Presidential Policy Directive, 2014).

The emergence of cyberspace takes the territorial concepts of deterritorialization and reterritorialization beyond real physical territories and spaces to the more expansive, virtual domain of cyberspace. The transfer of media content and policy from real space to cyberspace has been described as space-shifting (Parsons and Oja, 2010). Space-shifting became a realistic construct in 1992 when the American Congress authorized the deterritorialization of educational, cultural, business, and other activities that existed in real space to cyberspace (Eko, 2012). This decision globalized the Internet and transformed cyberspace into the greatest repository of the world’s information and knowledge, a repository to which many African cartoonists have deterritorialized their politically ‘offensive’ content. Space-shifting is a heuristically interesting concept that is applicable to the realities of the media in Sub-Saharan Africa. In effect, in order to avoid censorious government regulations and actions, many African newspapers transfer their content from real space to cyberspace, where it is often hosted or mirrored by other newspapers and international freedom of expression organizations. Space-shifting therefore globalizes censored media content and puts it beyond the reach of all but the most determined authoritarian governments.

Research questions

Deleuze and Guattari (1980) state that art – including satirical art – is a vector of deterritorialization. In many Sub-Saharan African countries, the satirical press instrumentalizes cartoons as weapons against the shortcomings of political leaders and political regimes. Previous studies have shown that in the post-Cold War era, one of the techniques used by cartoons was to dehumanize political leaders and frame them visually as rapacious animals in political jungles (Eko, 2007). In response to trenchant criticism, many countries clamped down on the satirical press (Eko, 2010; Gado, 2002). This reality brings up the following research questions: (a) How were satirical press cartoons instruments of political de-territorialization and re-territorialization? (b) What do the satirical cartoon controversies reveal about the ‘masquerader’s space’ in Sub-Saharan Africa? (c) What role did the Internet and social media play in the power dynamics and adversarial relationships between the media and political leaders?

African cartoons case studies

In order to address the research questions, this study focuses on cartoon controversies in Ivory Coast, Gabon, Kenya, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. In these countries, government officials threatened cartoonists with death, prosecuted them criminally or civilly, imprisoned them, or forced them to go into exile. I got interested in this topic when I read press reports of the dramatic escape and exile of Cameroonian cartoonist, Nyemb Ntoogué, and newspaper editor, Engoudou Loundah of Gabon. I wondered if there were other cases like these, so I searched the databases of international organizations whose mission is to protect freedom of the press. These organizations include the Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters Sans Frontières (Reporters Without Borders), Freedom House, Index on Censorship, and Article 19. These organizations have databases that provide statistics of violations of freedom of speech and expression around the world. I focused on the Sub-Saharan Africa region of each database and read their articles in English and French (in the case of Reporters Sans Frontières).

The period under study was 1994–2014. This period represents the first 20 years of Internet connectivity in Africa. The following African newspapers were found to have had cartoons or caricatures that were censored in real space and republished in cyberspace: Bôl’kotch from Ivory Coast, Le Marabou from Burkina Faso, Le Messager Popoli (The People’s Messenger) from Cameroon; La Griffe (The Claw) and its supplement, Le Gri Gri International, from Gabon, The Daily Nation from Kenya, The Mail and Guardian, and The City Press of South Africa. Verification of my interpretations of the cartoons featured in this study, as well as the events that triggered their republication in cyberspace, was carried out through member checks in the field (Lindlof, 1995). I first carried out e-mail communication with three of the cartoonists whose work was the subject of political controversy or who were the subjects of criminal libel actions or death threats: Godfrey Mwanmembwa (Gado) of The Daily Nation (Nairobi, Kenya), Nyemb Ntoogué of Le Messager Popoli (Cameroon), and Damien Glez of Le Marabout and Le Journal de Jeudi (Burkina Faso). I also communicated with Pius Njawé, the late editor-in-chief of Le Messager (Cameroon) and the editor-in-chief of Le Lynx and La Lance (Conakry, Guinea), as well as South African cartoonist, Zapiro. I also made a field trip to Cameroon, West Africa, and visited the newsrooms of three satirical newspapers: Le Messager, L’Aurore Plus, and Le Popoli. I communicated with these cartoonists mostly to get their views on these controversies and to request permission to reproduce their cartoons in my research. The cartoonists confirmed that my interpretation of their work and my translations of their texts were accurate.

Results

The first research question is concerned with how specific cartoons serve as instruments of satirical deterritorialization and political reterritorialization. Cartoons are effective vehicles for exaggerating the physical traits, human foibles, and political idiosyncrasies of the rich and powerful for purposes of passing moral judgment on them. Cartoons are therefore journalistic counter-discourses and satirical instruments that seek to reorganize moral territories and political relationships (Deleuze and Guattari, 1980: 230). Many African rulers who are the subject of satirical cartoon criticism attempt to reterritorialize themselves by literally deterritorializing cartoons and cartoonists. They ban newspapers and cartoons and jail or exile cartoonist. A good example of this phenomenon occurred in Ivory Coast. On 17 April 2014, the Conseil National de la Presse (National Press Council), the official regulator of the media, issued an order suspending five different newspapers from publishing for different lengths of time. The Press Council found the newspapers guilty of ‘serious violations’ of the press laws of the country. One of the suspended newspapers was the partisan satirical weekly, Bôl’kotch. The newspaper had published a caricature of the president of Ivory Coast, Alassane Ouattara. Furthermore, the newspaper was sanctioned for giving the president the ironic name ‘Magellan’, an allusion to Ferdinand Magellan, the famous Portuguese navigator. This allusion is highly sensitive in the country, given that some Ivorians question the birthplace, and hence the citizenship, of President Ouattara.

The other Ivorian newspapers were suspended for calling the president a ‘dictator’ (Le Gri Gri International, 2014). As soon as the suspensions of Bôl’kotch and the other newspapers were announced, ‘cyber activists’ uploaded the newspapers on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, websites, and blogs outside the country. One of these websites was that of Le Gri Gri International (The International Amulet), a satirical newspaper that was launched in Libreville, Gabon in 2001 and banned by the government shortly thereafter (Eko, 2007). Figure 2 shows one of the offending covers of Bôl’kotch that was posted online when the newspaper got into trouble with the government. The cartoon is an exemplar of African satirical cartoons. It drips with irony and has several layers of meaning that are grounded in the traditional folk culture of the Ivory Coast. The subject of the cartoon is the extradition of former Ivorian president, Laurent Gbagbo, to the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague for allegedly committing crimes against humanity. The newspaper uses the banned name, ‘Magellan’, to describe the President of Ivory Coast. It also gives the country a new name, ‘Dramatistan’ (a subtle play on the president’s middle name, Dramane). ‘Dramatistan’ suggests that the Ivory Coast under Ouattara was similar to Afghanistan or the other authoritarian Central Asian republics whose names end with the word ‘stan’. This is also a subtle reference to the fact that Ouattara is a Muslim. Furthermore, some of the words in the cartoon allude to other things in French and numerous African languages of the Ivory Coast. The headline of the newspaper reads: Echange de marchandises (Exchange of goods). The former president, Gbagbo, who is given the fictitious name ‘Gbapé’ (Father Gbago), is exchanged for the Ebola virus. The implication is that President Ouattara is so dictatorial that he arrests, imprisons, and deports anything and everything, including the Ebola virus. The cartoon clearly deterritorializes the Ivory Coast and its president, who is subtly accused of being a Muslim fundamentalist dictator. By banning the newspaper, the government sought to reterritorialize the president and his administration and rehabilitate his soiled image. All editions of Bôl’kotch are available online despite the fact that specific editions of the newspaper are banned in real space.

Figure 2.

Bôl’kotch headline: ‘Exchange of Goods Gbapé deported to the International Criminal Court, and the Ebola virus Imported into Dramanistan’. Minister of Health Speaking: ‘Magellan, the Ebola virus is about to attack the Ivory Coast’, The President responds ‘Arrest it. Imprison it, torture it and deport it to the International Criminal Court’. Published on 28 March 2014.

This was not the first time Bôl’kotch had been sanctioned by the government. On 21 March 2012, the Press Council sent Bôl’kotch an official note of censure (known in French as blâme). The note stated that the newspaper had published an article about the government’s slum-clearing activities that was illustrated by an offensive and injurious cartoon. The Press Council alleged that the cartoon contained gross and obscene puns that insulted the person of the female Minister of Health and Hygiene, and women in general. A few months later, the Council banned Bôl’kotch for publishing yet another objectionable cartoon. This time, the cartoon depicted President Alassane Ouattara, as a student who mindlessly implemented economic policies dictated by his former employer, the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC (see Figure 3). As soon as the ban took effect, Le Gri Gri International and newspapers in other African countries scanned that offending cartoon and re-published it online.

Figure 3.

Lessons from the IMF: ‘Repeat after me! I will apply, without reflection, that which is written…. Increase the price of fuel and electricity’. Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara (ADO) responds ‘I will repeat without reflection that which is written’. Cartoon published by Bôl’kotch, Ivory Coast in 2012. Banned by the government but republished online by Le Gri Gri International.

A number of other Sub-Saharan African newspapers whose satirical cartoons offended political leaders also suffered the fate of Bôl’kotch. In Cameroon, the cartoonist for Le Messager Popoli, Nyemb Ntoogué (a.k.a Nyemb Popoli), was literally deterritorialized. He fled the country in December 1998, after receiving numerous death threats and a nighttime home invasion by government agents. He used the Internet to file his comic strips and cartoons from South Africa, where he had sought refuge. He reterritorialized himself – returned to Cameroon – after international human rights organizations had made his case a cause celèbre. One of the most celebrated cases of de-territorialization of newspapers through censorship in real space and republication in cyberspace was that of Michel Ongoundou Loundah of Gabon. When his satirical newspaper, La Griffe (the Claw), wrote about the president’s sister-in law’s involvement in a ritual murder, the newspaper was banned in 2001. Loundah was accused of attacking President Bongo and his family (Geslin, 2001). He launched a new publication, Le Gri-Gri International (International Amulet/Talisman; Figure 4). The newspaper promptly reported that it was the ‘victim of a fatwa’ [Islamic edict] from ‘Mollah Omar B’. This was an ironic play on the name of the President of Gabon, Omar Bongo Ondima, who had converted to Islam, and the name of the leader of the Taliban, Mullah Omar. In February 2002, Ongoundou Loundah survived an extreme act of de-territorialization – a kidnapping and murder attempt. He fled the country and was ultimately granted political asylum in France where he re-launched Le Gri Gri International as an online pan-African newspaper that defends freedom of expression. Le Gri Gri International has republished African cartoons that have been banned in real space. Michel Ongoundou reterritorialized himself – he returned to Gabon in 2009 – after the death of president Omar Bongo Ondimba.

Figure 4.

Le Gri Gri International (2001). Print edition with story of ritual murder by the Gabonese president’s sister-in-law and cartoon of Congolese president Sassou Nguesso (nicknamed Sassounegger). The newspaper was banned in real space and now publishes in cyberspace.

The second research question is concerned with what these satirical cartoon controversies reveal about the ‘masquerader’s space’ or ‘privilege’ in Sub-Saharan Africa. We have seen that many countries in the region have sophisticated cultures of visual satire (Ola, 2013). However, expressions of satire through the visual arts were stifled during the colonial period and the post-colonial era. Figure 5, a cartoon by cartoonist ‘Glez’ of Burkina Faso, summarizes the situation of cartoonists in Sub-Saharan Africa. It depicts the cartoonist’s pencil as a time bomb. Cartoonists are also targets of violence. It was unthinkable to caricature powerful dictators before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 because there was no masquerader’s space (Eko, 2007).

Figure 5.

The cartoonist’s pencil as a ticking time bomb. Cartoon by Glez, Le Journal de Jeudi, Burkina Faso. Cartoonists in Sub-Saharan Africa get in trouble even for drawing caricatures of the president of the former colonial power, France.

One regime whose censorious actions have gone beyond deterritorialzing cartoons and cartoonists to criminalizing the possession of cartoons is the Mugabe regime of Zimbabwe. In January 2012, three Zimbabwean political activists, Calvin Ncube, Mpumelelo Donga, and Gift Mlala, members of the Youth wing of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, were arrested in Bulawayo and charged with violating Zimbabwe’s Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act of 2004. The three men were charged with insulting and undermining the authority of President Mugabe because they were found in possession of the cartoon in Figure 6. The government of Zimbabwe alleged that the cartoon mocked the Zimbabwean president, his wife, Grace, and Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor, Gideon Gono. The cartoon, which was originally published in The Daily Nation, Nairobi, Kenya, was featured on the newspaper’s website, as well as the website of Radio Netherlands Africa Service. The cartoon was downloaded in Zimbabwe and distributed by e-mail and social media. Printed copies ultimately found their way to the streets of Bulawayo. The narrative of the cartoon was grounded on a rumor that Mrs Mugabe was having an affair with Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor, Gideon Gono. This was the same bank that issued a billion Zimbabwe dollar bank note that could not buy a loaf of bread. The cartoon was the ultimate act of political defiance – ridicule of the 88-year-old President Robert Mugabe and his 46-year-old wife. A magistrate subsequently acquitted the accused of all the charges (Radio VOP, 2012).

Figure 6.

Ménage á trois between Sally Mugabe, Gideon Gono and President Robert Mugabe. Cartoon by Gado. Published in The Daily Nation, Nairobi, 2010.

Figure 7.

South Africa is an interesting example of the uncertain state of freedom of expression in Sub-Saharan Africa. Despite its liberal constitution, South Africa’s libel and group defamation laws allow disgruntled individuals to initiate legal action against the media if they feel specific media content violates their human dignity. South African President, Jacob Zuma, has filed a series of defamation suits against media houses, seeking millions of dollars in damages. His most virulent opponent has been Zapiro, a South African cartoonist who has made it his vocation to ridicule Zuma as a buffoonish polygamist who is married to four wives (Zapiro, 2012). In 2008, Zapiro drew a cartoon metaphor of the rape of justice. In the cartoon (Figure 7), leaders of the ruling party in South Africa, the African National Council (ANC), its youth wing, and its allies, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), and the South African Communist Party (SACP), are pinning down the Justice System, personified as a woman. They ask Zuma, who is unbuckling his belt, to ‘Go for it, Boss’ (Zapiro, 2012).

Figure 8.

Zuma’s legal swat team presents the cartoonist a summons. Published in the South African Sunday times on 23 May 2010. © 2014 Zapiro (All Rights Reserved) Printed/Used with permission from www.zapiro.com.

The cartoon caused an uproar in South Africa because it brought back very unpleasant memories of two ‘affairs’ involving Jacob Zuma, then Vice President of South Africa. In 2005, Zuma had been accused of raping a family friend who happened to be HIV positive. Zuma denied that he had raped the woman, claimed that the act was consensual, and that he had taken a shower immediately after the sex act in order to reduce his chances of contracting AIDS. When the victim reported the alleged assault to the police, Zuma promptly offered to marry her (BBC, 2006a). Though the Johannesburg High Court ruled that the sex act between Zuma and the alleged victim was consensual, Zuma’s statement about showering as a method of AIDS prevention was roundly condemned in South Africa (BBC, 2006b).

That same year, when the South African Prosecution Service brought corruption charges against Zuma, his political allies started engaging in intimidation tactics against judges and other members of the judiciary. Zuma was acquitted once again (BBC, 2006c). Zuma, who eventually became the President of South Africa, was a gift to cartoonists. Zapiro ridiculed him by always drawing him with a shower-sprinkler on his head. In 2010, two years after publication of the ‘Rape of Justice cartoon’, President Zuma sued Zapiro, the publisher of the South African Daily Times, and a dozen other media outlets for publishing cartoons and other media content that allegedly defamed his character, damaged his reputation, violated his human dignity. He said the publications were ‘calculated to bring his good name, and in some instances the Office of the President into disrepute…’ (Presidency, 2013). Zuma stated the objectionable material, ‘…in some instances, sought to cast African males in a particularly negative light with bigoted and racist overtones and innuendo’ (Presidency, 2013). In his defense, Zapiro (2012) wrote a letter to the Human Rights Commission defending his constitutional right to engage in the ‘Jester’s privilege’. He continued to publish cartoons that framed the president as an individual who had no reputation to speak of. In a reprise of the classic saying, ‘The pen is mightier than the sword’, Zapiro drew a cartoon that transformed Zuma’s legal team into a police swat team, which stakes out the cartoonist’s studio, weapons drawn, brandishing a summons for millions of dollars (Figure 8). In an ironic twist, the cartoonist put the following words into Zuma’s mouth: ‘Careful! His pen is loaded!’

Figure 9.

Former Ethiopian Prime Minster, Meles Zenawi and the Internet. Cartoon by Gado, Daily Nation, Nairobi, Kenya. 19 February 2011.

Despite 5 years of political threats, intimidation, ideological rhetoric, legal maneuvering, summons for millions of dollars, and very expensive litigation, Zapiro continued to maintain a diverse portfolio of Zuma cartoons on his web site. This act of deterritorialization essentially put the cartoons out of reach of the South African judicial system. In effect, Zuma’s lawsuits against Zapiro and other media outlets made news around the world. The objectionable cartoons were republished by newspapers and by international freedom of expression organizations. In 2013, President Zuma abruptly dropped his defamation lawsuits against Zapiro and 14 media organizations, cartoonists, journalists, editors, and radio disk jockeys. He had been asking for a total of 10 million dollars in damages from the defendants (Olukotun, 2013). Zuma claimed his decision to withdraw the lawsuits was driven by a ‘broader national interest’ (Withdrawal of Defamation cases by President Zuma, 2013). Zuma’s attempt to reterritorialize and rehabilitate his image through judicial and extra-judicial means essentially failed. The ‘offensive’ cartoons had succeeded in extending the ‘jester’s privilege’ and the African village masquerader’s space to the media in cyberspace.

The third research question concerns the role of the Internet and its associated social media in the power dynamics and adversarial relationships between the media and political leaders in Sub-Saharan Africa. We have seen that the Internet has generally been a haven of refuge for some newspapers fleeing the censorious laws and actions of their governments. The Internet in general, electronic mail, and social media in particular have changed the practice of journalism in Africa. In the 1990s, for many African newspapers, the World Wide Web was a showcase, an outlet where journalists, cartoonists, caricaturists, and comic strip artists who had a brush with the law, or had either been banned, censored, or exiled, could present their work. In those early days of the Internet, some African governments showed signs of fear of this new free-speech space and tried to control it (Eko, 2003). However, techniques like mirror websites, e-mail message attachments, and re-mailing from generic servers around the world rendered government controls ineffective. The social media have made it possible for newspapers that are censored or whose reporters get arrested to quickly post information on the Internet. This is tantamount to extending the masquerader’s space from real space to cyberspace through space-shifting (Eko, 2008).

As African newspapers have developed web editions, some African governments have begun to develop and deploy censorious technologies and capabilities designed to control Internet content. Ethiopia, a country that has been at the forefront of reinventing and localizing Internet technologies, is an example of this phenomenon. The government exerts active censorious control over media content in real space and cyberspace. Ethio Telecom, the government-owned telecommunications agency, has acquired Internet surveillance, blocking, and filtering software to prevent Ethiopians in the country from accessing objectionable critical content posted by Ethiopians in the Diaspora. Blocked material included US State Department information on Ethiopia that had been leaked by WikiLeaks. The government has also arrested and charged bloggers with criminal offenses under the country’s harsh anti-terrorism laws. Figure 9 illustrates the hostility of former Ethiopian Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, toward the social media. In Ethiopia, the Internet is no longer a haven of freedom of expression. Other governments have tried, with differing results, to use the law to control the activities of Internet Service Providers and to block objectionable media content on the Internet.

Conclusion

This study was concerned with the circumstances under which some newspapers in Sub-Saharan Africa transferred their satirical content from real space to cyberspace. We have seen that cartoonists take slices of political reality, deterritorialize them through cultural idioms and figures of speech – similes, metaphors, analogies, parodies, visual puns, and the like – for maximum humorous and satirical effect. Deterritorialization through visual satire therefore demystifies and sometimes demythifies its targets who often seek to reterritorialize their images by resorting to censorious judicial and extra judicial means (Eko, 2007; Monga, 1996; Nyamnjoh, 2009). We have seen examples of this phenomenon in a handful of Sub-Saharan African countries. This is because governments as well as powerful public and private forces have succeeded in eliminating the mocking gestures and gyrations of the masquerade, the ‘sharp mouth’ of the oracle, the talking drum of the town crier, the biting wit of the soothsayer, and the fast-talking griot (itinerant bard) who are the functional equivalent of the ‘jester’. Only the voice of the sycophantic national radio and TV are given pride of place. As a result, cyberspace has become the last refuge of the satirical press, the place where African cartoonists can exercise the masquerader’s privilege to criticize the high and mighty without suffering negative repercussions. It was found that cartoons, caricatures, and other critical content is either uploaded or produced and stored on the Internet to put it out of reach of censorious governments. Nevertheless, some governments have begun to use Internet control measures – surveillance, filtering, and blocking technologies – to counter the deterritorialization of content from real space to cyberspace. Finally, since deterritorialization goes hand-in-hand with reterritorialization, some governments have taken steps to rearrange the media landscape at the expense of satirical newspapers and other critical media outlets. When the government of Gabon closed down La Griffe, it set up a system of government funding of the private media. Qualified – read uncritical – media outlets received government subsidies. This policy effectively reterritorialized the media landscape of Gabon and made it possible for pro-government media outlets to occupy the territory vacated by the critical satirical press. In some countries, only radio and television stations that are beholden to the government are given space in the airwaves. The censorious actions of the autocratic rulers are aimed at maintaining or rehabilitating their image and reputations, regaining legitimacy, and retaining absolute sway over the media and their construction of political reality. Only the Internet prevents them from doing this. Brave African cartoonists ensure that the Internet and the social media do not become part of the architecture of repression in Sub-Saharan Africa.

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