Nanda Soobben Related News

FROM BEING BANNED TO BEING IDOLISED

As global attention is focused on the ailing Nelson Mandela, a recent radio interview and two online slideshows featuring South African cartoonists tells the story of the icon's life through editorial cartoons.

But Mandela's cartoonography is missing a few chapters, at least from a South African perspective. For one thing, the struggle hero's image was banned by the apartheid government's 'Banned Persons Act (1950)' which prohibited the quoting, referencing and depiction of political opponents.

And then, in about 1989 when those laws became relaxed, and in 1990 when they were lifted, cartoonists - starved of any graphic reference of the famous prisoner because of the ban - were stretched to imagine what he looked like after 27 years in prison.

The interview and slideshows tell how the cartoonists overcame these challenges and went on to produce perhaps the most positive cartoon narrative of any politician's life ever told.

BY JOHN CURTIS

South Africa’s top editorial cartoonists have banded together to protest against the government’s intended press restrictions.

In rejecting the proposed Protection of Information Bill and Media Tribunal, they have warned that these restrictions will erode the right to freedom of expression achieved by the country’s hard fought struggle for democracy.

Presented by THE SA JEWISH MUSEUM and AFRICARTOONS.COM

Corrupt politicians, dodgy business persons and lazy public servants will all benefit from at least a partial reprieve from local cartoonists who have shifted their focus towards the Soccer World Cup, and joined the rest of South Africa in a mood of patriotic goodwill.