In High School, I became very political and grew obsessed with political cartoons. I would cut them out of newspapers and magazines, then put them on my notebooks and my school calendar. I even started an issue of my high school's ACLU newsletter (Yes, we had an American Civil Liberties Union club in high school) that focused only on political cartoons of the day, which was during the 2000 elections. From time to time, I enjoy a good political cartoon, but mostly collect wacky and weird stories from the newspapers.
While I have been in South Africa and learning about the domestic politics, I have fallen in love political cartoons again. There is an artist/cartoonist names Zapiro here in South Africa, who I think is so talented and can say so much in one picture. Most of his cartoons focus on South Africa, but some cover international news like the Europe crisis and Egypt. My favorites are the commentary on the controversial President, Jacob Zuma, for which he is getting sued by for defamation. The topic and issue of freedom of speech is very interesting one here because it often conflicts with the other constitutional right of human dignity (like does it cover public figures, like Zuma). These constitutional issues are very interesting to me because South Africa is a developing democracy and country, and it has never had to deal w/ these issues before. Being here in Cape Town during the controversy over the Spear painting has been really interesting because it has raised these constitutional issues and also raised issues of race that hasn't been dealt with since apartheid. Zapiro recently made his own commentary about the issue freedom of speech and distaste for Zuma's hypocrisy, which has gotten him in trouble again. I am interested to keep following this issue when I return back home to the States.
But for now, here is a link to Zapiro's delightful tribute to Madiba for his 94th birthday. Enjoy!
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