How political cartoons communicate to an audience and take protest further than words and actions can.
South African history often reflects the violence and pain stemming from the injustice of the Apartheid regime that ended in 1994. During this period, strict government policies gagged the majority of the people from opposing the discrimination they were experiencing. At this time many other forms of protest emerged that transformed the way people fought for their freedom. In a society where there was a strong history of silence and suppression, visual protest has been the most powerful method of resistance. George Orwell’s observation that, ‘In a time of universal deceit—telling the truth is a revolutionary act’,1 indicates the significance of revealing a truth that is often hidden by propaganda and political concealment. Through his satirical and political cartoons, Jonathan Shapiro (Zapiro) has exercised this act of revolutionary truth-telling. Today Zapiro continues to inform and educate the public, and he even outrages the subjects he critically mocks. Using the medium of cartooning, he has taken the act of protest further than simple words and actions could.
One of the many controversial cartoons Zapiro has drawn was of the President of the time, P.W. Botha. The cartoon, entitled Laughter in the Belly of the Beast (1988), was part of an exhibition of Zapiro’s cartoons which satirically challenged the Apartheid system in South Africa.
In this work, P.W. Botha, depicted as a purple, disproportioned reptile, sits on a throne furnished with skulls. Embedded into this seat is the date 1948, the year the National Party came into power and governed South Africa. These small, yet significant symbols are placed throughout the image. The beast rubs... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline
Zapiro, Laughter in the belly of the beast, 1988. From Zapiro, The Mandela Files, 2008.
