MIchelle Obama Charms SA Cartoonists

Michelle Obama's visit this week to South Africa has provided local cartoonists with a much appreciated platform upon which they can compare perspectives between her country and ours. 

Amongst those to seize the opportunity were Jerm (Jeremy Nell) and Madam & Eve creators Rico and Steve Francis, whose cartoons on the American 'royal' tour both show the visit from the perspective of the Obama motorcade. The Madam & Eve strip hilariously shows the lengths American secret service agents will go to sanitise the visit for their First Lady.

Jerm's cartoon shows the Obama motorcade on its way to visit Mandela. The cartoonist uses this pretext to compare South Africa and America's first black presidents,  dis-favourably, as it turns out for the Americans.

The two cartoons have captured the eye of the excellent website comicstripoftheday.com which sifts through scores of cartoons and strips daily from all over the globe and features the best of them. Reviewing the cartoons, the site notes that Michelle Obama (comparing her to Jacqueline  Kennedy) made an impression on her hosts, or at least its cartoonists. The fact that she was unaccompanied by her husband hasn't seemed to diminish the interest value and, "If nothing else, it's interesting that, when she goes overseas, the resulting cartoons take a wry poke at her hosts and at her husband, but not at her".

For a selection of all the Africartoons on Michelle Obama's visit, go here.

Posted on Jun 25, 2011 by Africartoons