*It was WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY on the 3rd of May. This image (above) I once did of Nigerian dictator, General Sani Abacha in black and white, now symbolises oppression and all that goes against Press freedom and Human Rights and against a nation’s people.
There were series of censorships against the print and electronic media and such was the case in Nigeria under Abacha.
I know of cartoonists whose cartoons in their respective newspapers in Africa, the US and elsewhere, have been discontinued due to political pressure, media ownership or simply by power crazed leaders. I remember a US cartoonist informing me of how his cartoons were dropped from a UK based newspaper because of his hard hitting cartoons against the then US president George W. Bush, the 43rd President of the United States.
Most often, cartoonists are confronted with threats due to censorship or they loose their jobs. I produced this image for London based West Africa magazine who because it was owned by Nigeria’s Daily Times under Abacha’s government, refused to publish it, so I sold the concept to another London based magazine, New African and was quick to use it.
Here it is in colour but first published in black and white, in magazines and as far as in publications in the UK, Finland and the US. General Sani Abacha’s gulag cartoon is a reminder of how censorship is still operative even in civilised societies. Like the Reggae singer Jimmy Cliff’s song…there are still “many rivers to cross.” I’ve had my fair share of censorship but in this case, the pencil is still mightier than the sword.
EURweb.com contributor, TAYO Fatunla is an award winning Nigerian Comic Artist, writer and illustrator and Editorial cartoonist. He is a graduate of the prestigious U.S. Art school, The Kubert School, New Jersey. His cartoons are used for educational purposes in school books, Newsletters, journals and for presentations – www.tayofatunla.com
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