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NAIROBI, Kenya – In a quiet office on the third floor of a building in Nairobi’s central business district, the cartoonist known by his pen name, Gado, was drawing a satire about the coronavirus.
Entitled “Conspiracy Inc.”, it parodied the unfounded claims that have exploded about The pandemic, which has killed nearly a quarter of a million people in 177 countries. He represented men and women promoting claims that pharmaceutical companies invented the virus and that American soldiers spread it in China, and that the Chinese government wants to use it to depopulate and conquer Africa.
“I kept thinking,” How am I going to contribute to educating the masses? “” Gado said one recent afternoon, as a downpour blew through the streets of Nairobi, desolate and nearly empty of the government-ordered closure.
“This is the time when satirists and writers should be on their utmost vigilance,” he said. “We shouldn’t let go of the gas because it’s very important that we ask tough questions.”
Gado, 50, is one of Africa’s leading editorial draftsmen. A Tanzanian native who calls Kenya home has It won awards and was distributed in newspapers and digital publications worldwide. In a career spanning three decades, his drawings have touched on everything from corruption and terrorism to revolutions, migration, religion and climate change.
Working mainly with pen and ink, he has mocked local politicians, mocked dictators. and Democrats alike, singled out companies like Uber for taking advantage of drivers, portrayed President Trump as a naked emperor, and examined China’s deepening role in Africa. Overall, the sketches have involved, and sometimes enraged, audiences and legislators, and incubated important public debates in Africa.
But as the coronavirus spreads, Gado, sporting a salt and pepper goatee and speaking in a deep voice, is rethinking the role and place of cartoons in these uncertain times.
Beyond provoking thoughts and ideas, Gado said, he wants to use the shared experience of the plague not only to shape conversations but also to make sense of the moment and keep people safe.
Gado said he particularly loves his audience: hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram: to connect the dots on how poor leadership and cronyism might have contributed to the failures exposed by the pandemic.
His illustrations, as such, have become partly instructive, teaching viewers to disinfect their hands and practice social distancing. In a series titled “Myth Busters,” he notes that Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, does not spread through 5G data networks, that taking hot baths will not stop the virus and drinking alcohol, promoted by the governor of Nairobi, it is not a treatment or a cure.
Gado admitted that it is a challenge to provoke and criticize at a time when leaders are struggling to contain the spread of the virus.
“But I don’t draw in a vacuum,” he said. “And I never avoid any subject.”
However, he said, he strives to avoid sending the wrong message.
“I have always said that I have the copyright for my drawings, but I do not have the copyright for their interpretation,” he said. “But these are not normal times. These are strange times.
Gado was born in the Tanzanian port city of Dar es Salaam, where his mother was a teacher and his father worked for the country’s tourism agency. He said his parents had encouraged his passion for drawing and even enrolled him in a high school that offered an arts curriculum.
In addition to the copies of Newsweek and Time magazine that his father would bring home, he grew up reading the Tintin and Asterix comics, he said.
Gado first came to Nairobi in 1992 to collect an award in a drawing contest. Although he was studying architecture in Dar es Salaam and had promised his parents that he would return to complete his education, he never did. Instead, he persuaded the editors of Kenya’s largest newspaper, The Daily Nation, to hire him.
Gado reached a crucial year, when Kenya was holding its first multi-party elections since independence. As a stranger and a beginner, I had quite a learning curve.
“I had to become a professional while working,” he said.
In the late 1990s, Gado spent a year in Italy working with Oliviero Toscani, a former art director for the clothing company United Colors of Benetton, and another year studying classical animation and film at the Vancouver Film School.
His editorial cartoons, Gado said, were also shaped by the works of American illustrators Pat Oliphant and Jeff MacNelly, as well as cartoonists such as Philip Ndunguru from Tanzania, Tayo Fatunla from Nigeria, Frank Odoi from Ghana and Paul Kelemba from Kenya.
As his cartoons became a staple in regional and Kenyan newspapers, Gado became the target of criticism, with local politicians, embassy officials from China, Zimbabwe and, more recently, the United States.
Few leaders, he said, have taken their cartoons calmly. Fortunately, those who, like former Kenyan Chief Justice Willy Mutunga, and former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, have provided some degree of isolation from others.
But not entirely. In 2015, Gado’s cartoons in The East African newspaper led to his banning of Tanzania and his eventual dismissal in 2016 of his sister newspaper, The Daily Nation, which no longer publishes his cartoons. Although the management of the Daily Nation said the decision was a standard contractual separation of forms, the cartoonist attributed his expulsion to pressure from government officials.
Gado has compiled some of his work from The Daily Nation in books such as “Freedom After Speech” and “DemoCrazy”.
“It was a privilege to work at The Daily Nation,” he said, recalling the heady days when he worked alongside the best journalists and editors.
“It is the way I left The Nation that left me in bad taste,” he said. “The political interference became too evident. It became too difficult. “
These days, Gado’s routine, like that of everyone else, has been disrupted. Although he sometimes sneaks into his office, works mainly from home, he has taken over the family dining room table, much to the chagrin of his wife, Stephanie Uwingabe, a Rwandan human resources specialist, and their two daughters, Mwaji. -Odeta, 16, and Keza-Anganile, 14. Gado describes himself as a “true East African.”
Many projects at the firm he co-founded, Buni Media has also been put on hold, including the popular satirical The XYZ Show with latex puppets.
In the confrontation between humans and microbes, Gado said he was more determined than ever to use his cartoons to make audiences not only laugh and think, but reimagine their world. If he can challenge people’s perceptions and bring about even a little change, he said, that will be “the ultimate joy.”
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