kameraad mhambi

How odd is South Africa.

Just the last week we experienced another moment in the South African twilight zone. Zapiro, arguably the countries most talented cartoonist for a generation (or perhaps ever?) caused a massive outcry when the cartoon below was flighted in the Sunday Times.

It depicts ANC president Jacob zuma unclasping his trousers while ANC youth leader Julius Malema, Communist Party leader Blade Nzimande, and Cosatu (the trade union federation) leader Zwelenzima Vavi, and Gwede Mantashe ANC secretary general, holds down Justitia – the traditional female representation of justice.

The inference was clear. Zuma is about to rape the justice system, and the other four gents were accomplices – holding her down.

Very cogent and coherent commentators were in a tizz. Sipho Seepe and Xolela Mangcu denounced Zapiro’s cartoon.

Seepe said:

“There are other reasons why the cartoon is problematic, aside from its vulgarity. First, the suggestion that Jacob Zuma is engaged in acts that violate the constitution needs examination. I am not aware of Zuma refusing to appear before a court of law. No court has found his attempts to explore the legal possibilities available to him to be frivolous.”

Mangcu:

“But is it not ironic that the same Shapiro, who pretends to defend the justice system, actually mocks that system’s acquittal of Zuma on rape charges in this cartoon? The hypocrisy lies in the fact that not once did Zuma ever defy our courts, or mock their decisions the way Shapiro has done in this cartoon. It is Shapiro who is resorting to extra-judicial tactics, not Zuma.”

Does Mangcu and Seepe really need an explanation on this score? Zuma is the the president of the ANC. Malema, Vavi, Mantashe and Nzimande have to various degrees threatened the courts and the country, even with violence, if Zuma were to be found guilty. Zuma has not rebuked his attack dogs. Zuma does not have to be attacking the justice system explicitly himself to be very complicit in the undermining of it.

A second charge was made that the cartoon demeans rape. South Africa is a country with allegedly the highest incidence of rape in the world. Considering this fact it’s remarkable how little rape is part of the public discourse. Out of site is no sign of respect. Rather it’s a sign of out of mind. We have a track record in this after all. Many foreigners were killed in South Africa before we acknowledged we have a problem. Rape is another one of our dirty little secrets we’d rather not be reminded of.

There was a third attack on the cartoon. Seepe again:

“The next issue relates to racial sensitivity. Of course, Zapiro and company could easily produce their nonracial struggle credentials and argue that the cartoon was not meant to be racially offensive. They may even produce blacks who agree with them. But this does not detract from the fact that many did find the cartoon racially offensive.

Many scholars have argued that experiencing the world as a white person enables whites to view race issues with some form of detachment. This detachment allows them to view blacks’ response as an over-reaction. For blacks these are not isolated events but a perpetuation of the stereotype that Africans are beings of a lower order who turn a blind eye to rape.”

Mangcu:

“The cartoon is a recycling of the age-old racist stereotype about the uncontrollable, sex-crazed black male. What business does a family newspaper have carrying this stuff? And what are our children supposed to make of it — that their leaders are a bunch of gang rapists? And even if you do not want to accept the Zuma acquittal, on what basis can you infer that Gwede Mantashe and Zwelinzima Vavi and others in the cartoon are gang rapists?”

This I think goes to the heart of the matter. The cartoon hurt many black people’s feelings. Seepe and Mangcu feels it as a personal slight against black males.

These statements are very revealing, they say a lot about black attitudes and views of themselves.

Let me explain. It’s universally acknowledged that cartoonists work with the twin weapons of metaphor and hyperbole. Just below exhibit one.

This cartoon depicts lady justice being tortured. With Tony Blair and George Bush present in the room. This of course never happened. But the Guardian published the cartoon. Is torture so much less reprehensible than rape? No. Why were there no outcry in Britain?

Here is another cartoon. It depicts Tony Blair in a sea of blood. The inference is clear, Blair is responsible for the deaths of hundreds. Any outcry? None.

In this Zapiro cartoon hyperbole and metaphor was in action again. But in South Africa the cartoon offended, because the metaphor was judged by some to be to close to the truth.

There is another way to explain this disparity in reactions to cartoons. By looking at events that Zapiro has not drawn cartoons of.

South Africa also has the most carriers of the deadly HIV virus. And for years we had a president that denied that HIV caused Aids. Conservative estimates put Mbeki’s inaction responsible for 340,000 deaths. Zapiro never drew a hard hitting cartoon about this.

It would no doubt have seemed obscene if he had.

And so I can easily imagine cartoons ‘of bad taste’ in respect of Jackie Selebi, the arms deal, the Frere hospital incident. South African politics is – quite frankly – obscene.

That is perhaps Zapiro’s crime. He has not been even handed in his attacks. As with many others he let the Mbeki administration’s gross excesses get a free ride. Zuma on the other hand has been fair game.

That and the ‘crime’ that Zapiro lives in South Africa, a country where gross hyperbole often rings painfully true.

Related deployments:

1. Mhambi’s 2008: Twice bitten by South Africa, once comfortably numb
2. England and South Africa win the Ashes
3. The 74 Lions in South Africa
4. South African society & institutions are holding up so far
5. South Africans want to discuss race