Migration, Emigration, - Am MIT spezialisierte KI-Forschung

Migration, Emigration,
and Immigration
African Cartoonists Draw the Lines

dele jẹgẹdẹ

In the minds of many, cartoons evoke fun, amusement,

or hilarity. As a medium of communication, the cartoon
has the power to convey in a few deft strokes of the pen
or brush what an editorial writer would labor to express
in hundreds, even thousands, of words. The cartoon at-
tests to the power of the graphic medium to deliver wit-
ticisms that may evoke in the viewer a spate of convulsive chuckles
or bouts of laughter. Undoubtedly, the capacity of the cartoon to
communicate with brevity, speed, and poignancy boosts its appeal
and universality. Sadam Issa (2016) explains that this process is
known in scholarly circles as the “pictorial turn,” as some readers
favor its capacity to convey complex issues in simple terms. Noch,
cartoons, especially editorial cartoons, command more than fleet-
ing giggles. They elicit in the viewer long, thoughtful pauses that
result from brooding over the broader and deeper implications of
the issues broached by the cartoon.

As a tool of speedy communication, the cartoon is a potent plat-
form for catalyzing global discourse on issues of consequential
appeal, like global warming, interminable wars, religious extrem-
ism, and global economy. Important and integral to these flash-
points is the complex tinderbox of migration, emigration, and im-
migration, which is the central focus of this cartoon-driven essay.
The underlying curatorial thrust here is the assumption that, als
artworks, cartoons are fraught with meanings, even those that the
artist did not input, infer, or confer. Inherent in the multidimen-
sional capacity of the cartoon is the power to reflect back to the
reader whatever meanings are projected onto it.

Aus diesem Grund, I have abstained from critiquing, overreading,
or overtranslating the cartoons examined here, in the hope that
readers will be able to see them not as mere illustrations of the
salient points under consideration, but as major contributions to
a global issue. Drawing copiously from the works of notable and

dele jẹgẹdẹ, art historian, art critic, painter, curator, and cartoonist, Ist
Professor Emeritus of Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. dele.jegede@mi-
amioh.edu

30 | afrikanische Kunst HERBST 2020 VOL. 53, NO.3

award-winning African cartoonists—from Morocco, Algeria,
Sudan, Tanzania, Ägypten, Südafrika, Zimbabwe, Benin Republic,
and Nigeria—this essay attempts to pry open the triple quandary
of migration, emigration, and immigration. How do these car-
toonists perceive the issue? What solutions do they proffer? Was
are the waves of underlying and interconnected issues that make
immigration to African and industrial democracies an inevitabil-
ität? Endlich, how have the immigration policies of America and the
European Union exacerbated the situation?

THE CARTOON: POWER AND INK
Originally, a “cartoon” was the preliminary, preparatory draw-
ing used by fifteenth century European painters to transfer images
onto various surfaces, such as a large wall or a ceiling, for full
Entwicklung (Harrison 1980). The cartoon was taped and then
traced directly onto the desired surface, sometimes through holes
punched on the outlines of the drawing. Italian Renaissance paint-
ers, including Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael
Sanzio da Urbino, favored this method for carrying out stained
glass designs or fresco paintings. Over the years, the meaning and
deployment of “cartoon” changed, as did the methods employed
by artists in executing large commissions on diverse surfaces.
Heute, the cartoon—be it strip, political/editorial, gag, illustra-
tive or even animated—has evolved and shed the preparatory ca-
pacity that begat it.

Our current usage of cartoon as a graphic idiom for parody
and satire dates back to 1843. John Leach, who was apparently
disgusted upon seeing the abysmal quality of the drawings that
were submitted as entries for the frescoes for the new House of
Parliament in London, savaged them in the newly established
British weekly magazine Punch, which quickly distinguished itself
as a source for acerbic cartoons. Before Punch amplified the sear-
ing edge of cartoons in public commentaries, the British painter
and satirist William Hogarth (1697–1764) had created graphic
parody as an effective medium for social engagement, while in
Spain and France, Francisco Goya (1746–1828) and Honoré

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1 Mike Asukwo
“Visa Office”
Business Day (Nigeria) Juli 2006.
Image used with kind permission of the artist

Daumier (1808–1879), jeweils, deployed cartoon for assailing
social practices that they deemed inimical to collective harmony.

The cartoon is an elusive conundrum that can deny as well as
affirm. It is an evasive codifier that possesses the unsparing ca-
pacity to confuse or elucidate, depending on the predisposition
of readers. Far from being an innocent or even innocuous visual
medium that is indexical of prevailing social repartee and cafete-
ria chat, the cartoon reserves the power to admonish, mesmerize,
cajole, or instigate. It is a living metaphor for all manner of conun-
Schlagzeug, real and imagined. It is a powerful artform that masks its
sting under simple and effective lines and or mesmerizing color.
As a multifaceted medium, it has the capacity to arouse mirth and
indignation in equal measure. When the cartoon is used as an
instrument to appeal to corporate emotion, the results might be

disastrous. Since cartoons have the power to elicit responses from
a broad spectrum of audiences across diverse geocultural spaces,
their messages are susceptible to being misread, misunderstood,
or ill-digested, depending on the geographic locale within which
such messages are decoded or the sociocultural or religious prisms
through which such cartoons are filtered.

Societies are known to have been thrown into spasmodic pangs
of turmoil on account of a cartoon or two, even if the cartoons
originated in a different locale. An example was the publication of
the “Muhammad Cartoons” in September 2005 by Jyllands-Posten,
Denmark’s largest newspaper (Lindekilde, Mouritsen, and Zapata-
Barrero 2009). By early 2006, the ensuing mayhem had led to over
250 deaths globally, many in faraway places such as Maiduguri,
Nigeria, where fifteen people were killed while eleven churches

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Franklin Oyekusibe

2
“Departure”
Unpublished cartoon from artist’s portfolio
Image used with kind permission of the artist

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VOL. 53, NEIN. 3 HERBST 2020 afrikanische Kunst | 31

Sanouni Imad

3
“Illegal Immigration: Life of Despair”
Africa Cartoons, Encyclopedia of African Political
Cartooning (https://africacartoons.com/?s=im-
migration&submit=) Dezember 15, 2018
Image used with kind permission of the artist

were razed. In January 2015, the world was traumatized when
armed Islamists invaded the editorial meeting of the cheeky, satir-
ical French magazine Charlie Hebdo, murdered twelve people, Und
inflicted severe injury on many others.

THE CARTOONISTS
Cartoonists are often perceived as jokers. In actuality, such a
perception is nothing but a trivialization of a challenging and ex-
acting enterprise. The image of cartoonists as satirists belies the
seriousness that creating cartoons entails. The art of manufactur-
ing “jokes” is indeed a serious, even perilous, business, particu-
larly in countries where press freedom is nominal or altogether
nonexistent. In Africa, cartoonists are customarily subjected to
harassment by the state, with attendant discomfiture and even

exile. Examples abound. In 1998, the Cameroonian cartoonist
Paul-Louis Nyemb Ntoogué (Popoli) was forced to flee his duty
as the editorial cartoonist for Le Messager, as President Paul Biya
simply had had enough of the cartoonist’s graphic ire. As reported
in the RSF (Reporters Sans Frontières) on February 17, 2006,, Die
Algerian cartoonist Ali Dilem was sentenced to one year in jail and
slapped with a fine of 50,000 dinar (um $420) In 2003 for his
cartoons, which were considered uncomplimentary to President
Abdelaziz Bouteflika. In South Africa, the ace cartoonist Zapiro
(Jonathan Shapiro) was locked in a legal tussle with the then-pres-
ident Jacob Zuma in 2008. At issue was Zapiro’s unrelenting de-
piction of Zuma as a pervert. And in Nigeria, the first example of
the persecution of a cartoonist occurred in 1966, when the pio-
neer cartoonist Akinola Lasekan (1916–1972) was sent to jail for

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4 Abdelghani Dahdouh
“Illegal Immigration”
Africa Cartoons, Encyclopedia of African Political
Cartooning (https://africacartoons.com/
wp-content/uploads/illegal_immigration___
abdelghani_dahdouh.jpeg), Nov. 9, 2018
Image used with kind permission of the artist

32 | afrikanische Kunst HERBST 2020 VOL. 53, NO.3

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Silham Zebiri

5
“Specter de L’Immigration Clandestine”
Africa Cartoons, Encyclopedia of African Political
Cartooning (https://africacartoons.com/wp-content/
uploads/specter_de_limmigration_clandestine__
siham_zebiri.jpeg), August 3, 2016
Image used with kind permission of the artist

publishing a cartoon that was deemed violative of a new military
government decree that prohibited all political activities. In der Tat,
that singular assault brought an end to Lasekan’s career as a car-
toonist. Lasekan was the first cartoonist in the West African sub-
region. In 1944, he began cartooning for the West African Pilot,
which had been founded in Lagos by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe in 1937.
African cartoonists recognize and capitalize on the power of
their medium and the immediacy of impact that their caricatures
or political cartoons have. They have variously exerted this power
in tackling the issue of emigration to other geo-political nation
Räume. The focus of the cartoons under consideration here is un-
invited or unapproved emigration, the type that is undertaken, Und
often on a massive and persistent scale, when people are compelled
to flee from a set of adversities in their home states. A large number

of those depicted in these cartoons appear to have reached the
limit of their endurance, preferring to risk their lives by embarking
on journeys to unpredictable shores.

AFRICAN CARTOONISTS AND THE
HUMAN DISASTER
The cartoonists whose works are under consideration here ex-
plore the same theme (of migration, emigration, and immigration)
but bring their individual perspectives and styles to bear on the
way that they portray their reactions. While some employ color
to emphasize the saliency of their standpoint, others rely solely on
transmitting the depth of their anguish with the use of pen or brush
and ink in simple, evocative lines. The strength and poignancy of

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6 Tayo Fatunla
“Europe’s Sweep of Refugees”
Cartoon Movement (https://www.cartoonmove-
ment.com/cartoon/23350), September 2015
Image used with kind permission of the artist

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VOL. 53, NEIN. 3 HERBST 2020 afrikanische Kunst | 33

7 Talal Nayer
“Xenophobia”
Cartoon Movement (https://www.cartoon-
movement.com/cartoon/27475, Februar 17,
2016)
Image used with kind permission of the artist

most cartoons derive from the masterful deployment of the simple
Linie. As a critical element of art, the line is incredibly versatile; Es
can be at once expansive and contractive, munificent or stingy. In
the hands of a cartoonist, the line could be soft and poetic, or brash
and aggressive. It could evoke moods of pensiveness, elicit anger,
or induce bouts of incredulity. The line is a mischievous charac-
ter that is constantly summoned to assail, cajole, satirize, incite,
criticize, mollify, or inspire critical thinking on a local, National,
or global scale. Mike Asukwo, one of Nigeria’s celebrated cartoon-
ists, reveals in his line cartoon “Visa Office” (Feige. 1) the absolute
contempt in which some security officers at an embassy visa office
hold applicants. Their unbridled disdain for the applicants can be
seen in their dialogue.

It is particularly instructive that the cartoons discussed here
are drawn from all over Africa. This affords us the opportunity to
feel the empathy and, In der Tat, anguish that the cartoonists expe-
Rience, since all of them, regardless of cultural affinities, religious
or political persuasions, are unified in their critical reaction to the
stereotypical disdain with which Euro-American agencies handle
the immigration-induced humanitarian crises that have erupted in
recent years. At core is what migration means for each of the car-
toonists whose pieces are featured here. In his cartoon “Departure,”
the Nigerian cartoonist Franklin Oyekusibe makes the subtle but
powerful connection between emigration and corruption (Feige. 2).
A cursory reading of this cartoon is likely to focus attention on
the discussion—or, as often happens in cases of illegal migration,

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8 Talal Nayer
“Boats of Death: Illegal Immigration to
Europe”
Cartoon Movement (https://www.cartoonmove-
ment.com/cartoon/13000), Januar 9, 2014
Image used with kind permission of the artist

34 | afrikanische Kunst HERBST 2020 VOL. 53, NO.3

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9 Tayo Fatunla
“Fortress Europe”
politicalcartoons.com, September 2015
Image used with kind permission of the artist

negotiation—going on at the departure lounge, as seen in the left
part of the cartoon, where an immigration officer is in a discus-
sion with a traveler. Oyekusibe in a few deft strokes conveys the
umbrage of the Nigerian traveler as the immigration officer en-
gages in small talks with the elderly traveler. But to focus on this
Gruppe, whatever the issue they may be discussing, is to miss the
import of the cartoon completely. For a closer perusal of the lower
right corner of the cartoon reveals the center of attraction, welche
is hidden in plain view. It shows a more sinister undertaking: Die
“underhand” business involving passenger luggage. Corruption
thrives in several African nations precisely because those who are
designated to checkmate it are themselves deeply involved in per-
petrating it. There is correlation between the crises of immigration
in Africa and the tragedy at the visa offices, immigration centers,

Und, crucially, the seas and seashores.

If Oyekusibe’s cartoon is couched in the subtleties of immi-
gration and corruption, the Moroccan cartoonist Sanouni Imad
employs metaphor to emphasize the consequences of corruption
within nation-states. One of the factors propelling emigration is
economic marginalization, especially of able-bodied youths in
African home states. Oyekusibe’s cartoon addresses legal migra-
tion. What Imad addresses in his cartoon is immigration that cir-
cumvents formal admittance processes. It does not matter that the
country at the receiving end calls it “illegal” immigration. That is a
legalese that does little to discourage the burning desire of margin-
alized populations desperate to escape their oppressive condition.
Internal strife, economic dissonance, religious unrest, politisch
uprising, mass unemployment: These are some of the conditions

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10 Talal Nayer
“Migrant Boat Sinking”
Cartoon Movement (https://www.cartoonmove-
ment.com/cartoon/20899), April 20, 2015
Image used with kind permission of the artist

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VOL. 53, NEIN. 3 HERBST 2020 afrikanische Kunst | 35

11 Talal Nayer
Untitled
Cartoon Movement (https://www.cartoon-
movement.com/cartoon/31047), Juni 26, 2016
Image used with kind permission of the artist

that precipitate mass migration from one location to another. And
when desperation becomes the driving factor for migration—when
people are stuck between the rock and the hard place—calling the
struggle to escape from what some believe is perdition “illegal” is
mere semantics that does little to assuage the fear, desperation, Und
frustration of the afflicted.

The caption in Imad’s cartoon “Illegal Immigration: Life of
Despair” (Feige. 3) is proclamatory. The signpost reads “Secret
Immigration,” while a skinny but determined youth struggles to
pull in a heavy cast iron ball on which the word “Despair” is boldly
inscribed. At the base of the hill is a neatly wrapped corpse on
which the word “Life” is written in Arabic. When you disambig-
uate the texts, you will arrive at the core of the issue, which poses
the question, what is the value of a still life? And when you are de-
spair personified, what approval do you need to plot your escape?
Zusamenfassend, this cartoon essays on a hopeless, insipid existence as the

driver of illegal immigration. Dort! In a brief but compelling pic-
toriality, Imad just summarized what scholars or astute editorial-
ists would spend eternity to communicate.

EU, IMMIGRANTS, AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA
For desperate Africans striving to reach Europe on their own,
the Mediterranean Sea has become a battle site. Vulnerable, ill-
equipped, overpromised, underprotected, demoralized, but overly
optimistic groups see the Mediterranean as the only barrier be-
tween them and escape—between despondency and opportunity.
Regardless of how daunting, they reason that the chances of sur-
viving the unforgiving nature on the seas are much higher than
outliving the inexorability of economic strangulation in the home-
Staaten. From these cartoons, we have an overwhelming sense of the
dangers that desperate folks face as they attempt to find their ways
to Europe. Abdelghani Dahdouh, another Moroccan cartoonist,

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12 Khalid Cherradi
“Immigration”
Africa Cartoons, Encyclopedia of African Political
Cartooning (https://africacartoons.com/
wp-content/uploads/immigration_corrup-
tion__khalid_cherradi.jpeg), Dezember 6,
2018
Image used with kind permission of the artist

36 | afrikanische Kunst HERBST 2020 VOL. 53, NO.3

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13 Popa Matumula
“Wave of Migration”
Cartoon Movement (https://www.cartoonmove-
ment.com/cartoon/80), Oktober 13, 2008
Image used with kind permission of the artist

evokes in the viewer the anguish that the mere thought of facing
the vast sea in an overpacked and ill-equipped raft stirs (Feige. 4).
The wide and eerily calm expanse of a deadly blue sea is the leitmo-
tif favored by many cartoonists from the Maghreb, einschließlich der
Algerian Siham Zebiri, one of a very few active women cartoonists
in Africa (Feige. 5).

Many cartoonists have faulted the European Union for its lack of
compassion in the mass migration crises. Tayo Fatunla, the inter-
nationally recognized British-born Nigerian cartoonist and writer
who is resident in Britain, makes this quite clear in his piece on
the attitude of Europe to refugees (Feige. 6). Refugees are perceived
as irritating parasites who must be cleansed lest they contaminate
European purity. Fatunla summons the power of scale to demon-
strate the relative might of Europe and the inconsequentiality of
the immigrants. One artist who has consistently decried the cal-
lousness of the EU in its response to the humanitarian disaster
that immigrants on the Libya-Europe route face is the Sudanese

cartoonist Talal Nayer, who translates this sentiment by portraying
Europe as a monstrous beast, with jaws wide open in readiness to
devour the harmless and petrified African (Feige. 7). Two other car-
toons by Nayer are unsparing of the EU in its atrocious response
to the humanitarian problems raised by the plight of desperate
immigrants clawing the waters, literally, as they struggle to reach
Europa. In “Boats of Death” (Feige. 8), Nayer dips the EU logo into
the sea, with the upper part of it hovering ominously on the site, A
symbolic sunset over the wreckage of the battered and broken boat
containing African immigrants. Nothing could be stronger than
summoning the EU to bear witness to the institutionalization of
gross inhumanity: the blatant disrespect for those who, fleeing per-
secution, are met with supercilious disdain. It is an indictment that
the Nigerian cartoonist Tayo Fatunla displays as an unmistakable
banner on a fortified holding enclosure with the black background
standing in ominous contrast to the barbed wire fence (Feige. 9).

In what seems to be a sneering requiem mass for the hundreds

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14 Mike Asukwo
“Recession Beach”
Business Day, Dezember 9, 2016
Image used with kind permission of the artist

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VOL. 53, NEIN. 3 HERBST 2020 afrikanische Kunst | 37

15 Mustapha Bulama
“Corruption”
Daily Trust (Nigeria), Marsch 10, 2018
Image used with kind permission of the artist

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of souls lost at sea when their boats capsized on the way to Italy
and other European locations, Nayer lays the floating and dis-
membered bodies of twelve African victims in an arrangement
that visually replicates the EU logo (Feige. 10). In this cartoon, Nayer
assigns the EU total responsibility for the deaths of hundreds of
migrants who sacrificed themselves in search of meaningful life.
As if to convince the world of his own fairness on this issue, Nayer
provides in another cartoon what, to many European nations, Ist
the underlying rationale for their hostility (Feige. 11). In diesem Stück,
the gun is transformed into a boat atop which the lone subject
stands as he paddles his way, presumably to Europe.

The inference to be drawn from this cartoon appears to be that
the refugee problem in Africa is being used as a cover by religious
extremists to invade Europe. But a closer reading of the cartoon
reveals that such a line of thought is nothing but a mirage that can
only thrive in the imagination of racists and religious bigots. Der
argument that religious extremism is the only cause of mass mi-
grations from Africa is fatally flawed; it is not. In Africa, a myriad
of causes is readily identifiable. This includes military dictatorship,
endemic corruption, political instability, and attendant underde-
velopment. Zum Beispiel, the Arab Spring, which had its origin in
Tunisia in 2010 and quickly spread to other countries in North

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16 Mustapha Bulama
“Two Years of Buhari Administration”
Daily Trust (Nigeria), Mai 29, 2017
Image used with kind permission of the artist

38 | afrikanische Kunst HERBST 2020 VOL. 53, NO.3

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17 Zapiro
“Xenophobia”
Cartoons by Zapiro © 2008–2015 (www.zapiro.
com)
Republished with permission

Africa—Morocco, Algeria, Tunesien, Libyen, Egypt and others—re-
flected the concerted efforts of the citizens of those countries to rise
and shake off the yoke of oppression that had festered for so long.
At base were the political, financial, and socioeconomic systems
that were severely tilted against the poor, the marginalized, und das
underprivileged. The massive show of public defiance, leading to
waves of demonstrations in the face of brazen show and abuse of
power by authorities, further fueled the yearning for participatory
democracy, realignment of economic policy, and a corruption-free
polity. That such sheer authoritarianism couched in extreme reli-
giosity has its limits can be seen in the balkanization of Sudan in
2011. One factor that cartoonists repeatedly cited as a causative for
emigration is corruption. Khalid Cherradi of Morocco illustrates
this in his cartoon “Immigration” (Feige. 12).

In several parts of the continent, Africans continually scram-
ble in droves in search of greener pastures believed to be found in

Europe and the United States. It was a scramble that became expo-
nentially worse as a result of the global financial meltdown of 2008,
which had catastrophic effect on the anemic economies of several
African states. The Tanzanian cartoonist Popa Matumula captured
the effect of the global financial turmoil on migrant workers in an
iconic cartoon of a human tsunami wave: Every drop of the crest
is an African migrant worker caught in a convulsive churn (Feige.
13). “Migrant Worker” is a summation of the instability that Africa
continues to experience. Generations of African leaders sought
election with the promise to purge the state of ensconced mala-
stirbt, only to renege and use all apparatuses of state to perpetuate
themselves in power. Matumula’s piece demonstrates the power of
the tsunamic wave, the type that invariably promotes anomic con-
ditions as normative lifestyle. The absence of strong leadership is
one of the conditions precipitating the waves of unrest and immi-
gration so powerfully articulated in Matumula’s cartoon.

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18 Zapiro
“Xenophobia”
Cartoons by Zapiro, © 2008–2015 (www.zapiro.
com )
Republished with permission

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VOL. 53, NEIN. 3 HERBST 2020 afrikanische Kunst | 39

19 Zapiro
“Rainbow Nation of God”
Cartoons by Zapiro © 2008–2015 (www.zapiro.
com)
Republished with permission

Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, is perpetually
mired in an unshakable miasma of poverty, arising no doubt from
endemic corruption fostered by a succession of military regimes
that took nearly half of the country’s postindependence existence.
Since Nigeria’s fourth republic, which began in 1999, corruption
has metastasized. Mike Asukwo, one of Nigeria’s most abrasive
cartoonists, shows in “Recession Beach” (Feige. 14) how the current
administration of retired General Muhammadu Buhari, whose
Dezember 1983 coup d’état ended the country’s Second Republic,
created a condition precedent to social upheaval and, consequently,
emigration. A nation’s economic team in a boat that is stranded on
Recession Beach does not inspire or deserve the confidence of the
citizenry. The consternation on the faces of the team mirrors the

anguish that is clearly inscribed on the face of the president.

Mustapha Bulama, another Nigerian cartoonist, in his epic on
corruption demonstrates the relative disproportion that exists be-
tween the monster and the strategy for getting rid of it by two West
African leaders—Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana and Muhammadu
Buhari of Nigeria. Just by itself or used as a car sticker without the
Bilder, zum Beispiel, Buhari’s plan as contained in the dialog box
evokes laughter and incredulity. But seen in full context, the car-
toon is a masterstroke as it provides instant visual index of who
is threatening whom (Feige. 15). The two presidents are reduced to
no more than two pesky buffoons—pusillanimous rascals who are
full of long talks that earn nothing but the contempt of this hid-
eous thing called corruption. In yet another cartoon Bulama did

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20 Tayo Fatunla
“Visa Section”
BBC World Series, Dezember 2005
Published with kind permission of the artist

40 | afrikanische Kunst HERBST 2020 VOL. 53, NO.3

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religious flare-ups in the northern part of Nigeria (Brydon 1985).
In Wirklichkeit, Jedoch, the mass deportation, which affected over one
million Ghanaians and gave rise to the slogan “Ghana Must Go,”
had to do with an economy that was beginning to buckle because
of the country’s economic policy. In der Tat, Nigeria was not the only
country that expelled citizens of neighboring African states who
were often classified by the pejorative term “illegal aliens.” Okolo
(1984) explains that Ghana, Senegal, and Sierra Leone also purged
citizens of other countries in defiance of existing protocols that
these countries assented to as members of Economic Community
of West African States (ECOWAS).

The most recent iteration of mass opposition to intra-African
movement of people occurred in South Africa, where antago-
nism towards immigrants resulted in a spate of vicious attacks
on immigrants from countries such as Nigeria, Somalia, Malawi,
Mozambique, and Zimbabwe. Nigeria had no option but to evac-
uate its battered citizens from South Africa in September 2019.
These xenophobic attacks became more pronounced because of
the perception that illegal immigrants and refugees from various
sites of conflict on the continent were a national security threat
and a parasite on the South African economy. Whatever the rea-
sons, the horrific optics of the situation was not lost on the South
African cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro, who goes by Zapiro. Clearly
one of the best and most prolific cartoonists in Africa, Zapiro is
battle-tested, having engaged in protracted legal sparring with
former president Jacob Zuma, whom Zapiro relentlessly sav-
aged in his cartoons over Zuma’s perceived moral, ethisch, Und
leadership deficiencies.

Zapiro’s cartoons on South African xenophobia tug at the con-
science of humanity. In one cartoon (Feige. 17), Zapiro reveals the
wretchedness of the mindset that would set fellow humans ablaze,
ostensibly for not knowing the meaning of “Ubuntu.” When the
reader realizes that Ubuntu is an African philosophic tenet that
emphasizes mutuality of humanity—the idea that peaceful and
mutually respectful coexistence is beneficial to all—the paradox-
ical meaning of Zapiro’s cartoon becomes magnified. For Zapiro,
South Africa has, quite unfortunately, traded the evil of apartheid
for the depravity of xenophobia (Feige. 18). For those who were yet to
grasp the enormity of the injury that such dastardly undertakings
constituted to the spirit of the new South Africa, a country that was
nurtured by such revered figures as Nelson Mandela and Desmond
Tutu, Zapiro depicts the flag of the “Rainbow Nation of God” cov-
ered in heavy drips of the blood of innocent immigrants (Feige. 19).
It should be clear at this point that on emigration/immigration,
there is no necessary linear order for leaving one location for the
andere. As the African proverb goes, there are innumerable ways to
the marketplace. “Secret immigration” or “illegal immigration” of
“illegal aliens” or any other classificatory mechanisms are simply
handles that do nothing to discourage those who must escape
their countries for an assortment of reasons. In Nigeria, for exam-
Bitte, years of military dictatorship and civilian regimes populated
with a succession of corrupt, indolent, and pompous politicians
have eliminated the middle class and produced a new generation
of Nigerians who are determined to emigrate even when they do
not know where to go. The crucial aim is to leave the country in
which the politician’s jumbo paycheck is reputed to be perhaps
the fattest in the world at the same time that Nigeria is generally
acknowledged among the world’s poorest countries. Perhaps the
VOL. 53, NEIN. 3 HERBST 2020 afrikanische Kunst | 41

21 Didier Viod
“Immigration Thing”
Yao: Visa Refusé
September 25, 2019
Published with kind permission of the artist

about the same time, we see Buhari’s report card and the myriad
of ailments that he and his vice president struggle to tackle. Was
is most poignant about this cartoon is the puerility of the effort
and the predictable failure that will result from it (Feige. 16). Diese
who are befuddled by the desire of generations of young Nigerians
to head for Libya in hopes of crossing over to Europe should take
deeper interest in Bulama’s cartoon.

In den vergangenen Jahren, attention has shifted to intra-African immigra-
tion, although internal migration amongst African countries is not
a recent phenomenon. In 1983, Zum Beispiel, the Shehu Shagari ad-
ministration deported millions of West African immigrants from
Nigeria, ostensibly because they contributed to the festering of

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22 Didier Viode
Yao: Visa Refusé
September 25, 2019
Published with kind permission of the artist

23 Didier Viode
Yao: Visa Refusé
September 25, 2019
Published with kind permission of the artist

most unfavorable public admonition of Nigeria was issued by
former British prime minister David Cameron, who in a conver-
sation with the Queen in May 2016 described Nigeria as “fantasti-
cally corrupt.” Transparency International recently ranked Nigeria
146/180 on its 2019 Corruption Perception Index. Clearly, unmiti-
gated corruption is one of the drivers of illegal immigration.

On the other hand, legal immigration is often not as unen-
cumbered as it sounds. Attempts to obtain a visa from EU or
United States consulates or embassies, even by those who have the

42 | afrikanische Kunst HERBST 2020 VOL. 53, NO.3

resources and proper documentation, are often rebuffed without
any explanation. Tayo Fatunla’s cartoon on the frustrations that
pent up from such arbitrary dismissal of applications for a visa
gives a comical consideration to the matter (Feige. 20). The subject
of Fatunla’s cartoon, a titled and befeathered traditional ruler, must
have been stupefied when he realized that the imperious visa of-
ficer, a begoggled white man, was neither impressed by his com-
mand nor awed by the invocation of Amadioha, the powerful Igbo
deity of thunder and lightning. While Fatunla’s cheekiness offers
what many—observers and applicants alike—who have been hu-
miliated at the visa office can easily relate to, the deeper issue here
alludes to the use of visa by European and American embassies as
an assertion of dominance and control.

So far, I have placed the accent on political or editorial cartoons
because such a format favors single-panel drawing, with or without
dialog box(es). It is a design that provides in one fell swoop a syn-
opsis of whatever it is that the cartoonist seeks to draw attention
Zu. Es gibt, Jedoch, other cartoon formats, such as the comic
strip, that have added flexibility for dealing with a single issue on
an extended basis. Comic strips are particularly suitable for intro-
ducing many characters and developing story lines in a manner
akin to the way a plot develops in a novel. Mossimo Repetti’s 2007
essay on comic strips examines how African artists have begun to
appropriate this platform.

Comic strips are versatile for creating a multitude of plots. In

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his graphic novel Yao: Visa Refusé (2019), the Beninois painter
Didier Viodé offers comic illustrations of events centered around
Yao’s frustrating attempts to obtain a visa at the French consulate.
Viodé’s storyline draws from social chronicles detailing the anxiety
that is often induced by visits to the visa office. The son of Beninese
parents who migrated to Côte d’Ivoire, Viodé’s growth as an artist
followed a path familiar to many young kids who grew up on a diet
of comic strips, often foreign imports. His imagination was whetted
by early exposure to French-Belgian comics, which spurred him to
create comic strips that affirmed his vision of Africa. The stories
that Viodé illustrates in his roman graphique lend credence to the
widespread notion that the process of visa issuance recalls the im-
petuousness of colonialist overlords, except that now the dramatis
personae are culturally tone-deaf and unempathetic visa officers.

For several decades, visa-issuing powers have continually
aligned their policies to the detriment of visa-seeking countries.
According to Eytan Meyers (2002) industrial democracies have,
over the centuries, pursued similar immigration policies and fol-
lowed comparable immigration practices with regard to illegal im-
migration and asylum seekers.

Viodé’s graphic novel offers a short but pungent narrative, welche
constitutes the artist’s riposte to the conceitedness of visa officials.
In “Selective Immigration” (P. 6), Yao has a nightmare; he is in a
capsized boat and struggles to stay alive (Feige. 21).

“I am alive! Oof! What a horrible nightmare!” Yao exclaims
upon realizing that what he experienced was only a nightmare,
where nightmare (cauchemar) is a metaphor for the ongoing deba-
cle in which thousands of Africans converge on Libya, convinced
that they were on their way to Europe, only to encounter a myriad
of problems ranging from slavery to capsized boats.

Later on, in the same book (P. 10) (Feige. 22), it is the next day. Yao

is thinking to himself:

“Oof—finally. It’s my turn. No stress.” Then from the visa window

comes the loud yell,

“NEXT!”
“Hello, ma’am. I am a painter and I want to ask for a visa, please.”
im-
“I’m

sorry. We’ve

the quota

reached

bereits

posed by the government.”

“Return in six months.” That was the officer responding.
“SIX MONTHS?”
“It’s not acceptable! Sarkozy said on television to give visa prior-

ity to talent, to artists …”

“I am a talented artist and I will not move from here

until the visa comes!”
“SECURITY!”
And the outcome of Yao’s attempt at asserting himself is bedlam.
In a later page (Feige. 23), Yao meets with success at last: sein
visa application is successful. The euphoric “Hallelujah” however
proves to be an anticlimax. In the last box, the visa clerk snig-
gers as she tells Yao,

“Hahaha—April fool!”
Ja, his visa application has been refused. Wieder!

CONCLUSION
African cartoonists are a formidable class of actors whose body
of work pesters dictators, corrupt governments, and authoritar-
ian regimes with explosive and penetrating canons of humor and
acidic lampoonery. While cartoonists are numerically few relative
to the number of writers, Journalisten, and critical media establish-
ments on the continent, they are perhaps the most effective group
out there pleading the cause of the deprived, disrespected, Und
marginalized citizens. They are at the forefront in drawing atten-
tion to the ongoing immigration tragedy in Africa.

Danksagungen
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the artists who were
tracked down and who, at short notice, cooperated and
gave permission for the use of their cartoons: Mike Asukwo,
Mustapha Bulama, Khalid Cherradi, Abdelghani Dahdou,
Tayo Fatunla, Popa Matumula, Talal Nayer, Franklin
Oyekusibe, Sanouni Imad, Didier Viodé, Zapiro, Und
Silham Zebiri. I am indebted to Susan Elizabeth Cooksey
and Robin Poynor for their tremendous help in tracking
down relatively difficult sources and for oversight in the
translations.