Political cartoons are often viewed as entertainment, but could cartoons also be used to build peace?
The power of graphic art has long been recognized.
“If we go all the way back to World War I, the US government took political cartooning so seriously that it established a bureau of cartooning,” said Dr Rafael Medoff, director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies.
Festival’s like Graphic Brighton look at conflict and resolution in comics, such as cartoonists’ roles in the Arab Spring, and Kate Evan’s depictions of anti-war activist Rosa Luxemburg. Graphic Brighton curator Alex Fitch said war comics play an important role in our culture, and can bring the experience of conflict to readers in a way that text alone cannot. Comic books are being used to connect with youth to warn them of the realities of war, and they can give a voice to minorities in conflict. For example, the influential Maus by Pulitzer Prize winner Art Spiegelman, and the story of comic book pioneer Lily Renee in Escape Artist both bring genocide survivor stories to life.
“Graphic novels, especially in recent years, that have dealt with subjects such as the Holocaust or genocide, have increased sensitivity,” said Dr Medoff.
Given that cartoonists are often at the center of controversy, however, is there a danger in war and peace comics?
“Ultimately it’s in the hands of the creator, in other words the cartoon is just the instrument. The cartoonist has the ability to use his or her artistic and cartooning skills for good or bad, Dr Medoff said.
“There’s nothing more important in the world than peace,” he said.
“I would like to hope that comic book creators, artist and writers, can play some small role.”
Op-ed: Markus Bayer is Ph.D. student and research fellow at the University of Duisburg Essen‘s Chair of International Relations and Development Policy.
We all know places where history was written. The Winter Palace in St Petersburg and the Bastille in Paris where the Russian and the French Revolution were triggered, or the railway wagon in the Forest of Compiègne where the First World War ended. Most of these places have a history of violence.
The Hotel PLM-Alédjo in Cotonou/Bénin has a different story. It is the place where the so-called third wave of democratization hit the African continent. It became the center of a political earthquake that sent shockwaves through the whole continent.
This impact was quite astonishing since the small country, located between Togo and Nigeria, has long been considered the “sick child of Africa”.From its independence in 1960, Bénin was riddled by numerous coups d’états, and today it remains one of the poorest states in Africa. But, from February 19th to 28th 1990 la Conférence Nationale des Forces Vives de la Nation – the Conference of the Living Forces of the Nation – convened in the Hotel Alédjo.
Initially intended as an advisory institution to get necessary reforms on track, the Conference declared itself sovereign and began working on drafting a new democratic constitution and molding the transition to democracy. The conference itself was the consequence of huge waves of protests and strikes, which made the country ungovernable during 1988 and 1990, and eventually enforced le renouveau democratique – the democratic renewal. As a result of the consultations, the first free presidential election was held in 1991, won by Nicéphore Soglo.
Consequently, Bénin’s Mathieux Kérékou became the first president on the African mainland who was defeated at the polls and peacefully resigned. Bénin’s democratic transition was so successful that many countries – like Togo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Namibia – adopted the concept of a National Conference to preside over the process of negotiating the transition and drafting the constitution, albeit with mixed results.
Since then, Bénin has held six consecutive presidential elections and witnessed another three peaceful democratic turnovers of power. Four peaceful turnovers is quite impressive and remains unequaled in Africa. In comparison, the most consolidated African democracies (South Africa, Namibia and Botswana) have never witnessed a peaceful turnover since their transition.
The people of Bénin are very proud of their role as democratic trailblazer and, as a consequence, feel deeply committed to their constitution. However, Bénin’s democracy has an Achilles heel. Being a low income country, Bénin has not witnessed much economic development since its democratization. Since 1990 the annual growth of the GDP per-capita has been at around 2%, with major setbacks in 2005 and 2010.
The current state of the PLM Hotel Alédjo, the birth place of Bénin’s democracy, metaphorically resembles the current state of democracy in Bénin. After the hotel went bankrupt the place underwent a conversion. People moved into the bungalows where the conference delegates were once housed, and now grow vegetables on the former lawn.
Bénin is an example of democratization without development, a combination that brings some serious problems with it. Communists in Bénin say: “We fought for freedom and bread – we did get freedom, the bread is still missing”.
Even if this lack of economic development is unlikely to undermine the democratic consensus, it represents a severe obstacle for developing it further. So, twenty-six years after the democratic renewal Bénin remains a young and imperfect democracy in its consolidation phase, trapped between democratic principles that bring freedom, and anachronistic systems that secure a living.
The main building of the hotel is now in decay, but it still contains the two most valuable assets for the democracy in Bénin – first, the legacy of a peaceful, consensual transition and second, the physical voters register for the national and presidential election.
We can only speculate what a great democracy Bénin would be if its democratization, rooted in a nonviolent uprising and a national conference, was backed by a solid economic upturn.
UNICEF Ambassador and Scottish actor Ewan McGregor recently drew attention to the plight of Iraqi youth when he visited the Harsham Displacement Camp in northern Iraq.
The situation for children in Iraq is becoming increasingly desperate. According to the UN, around 3.6 million children – one in five – are at serious risk of death, injury, sexual violence, abduction and recruitment into armed groups.
For youths like 16-year-old Laeth, future choices are limited. Laeth was forced to flee his home in Mosul after his father was killed in conflict, and he now lives with his grandmother in a caravan in the Harsham camp.
“We lived in Mosul and our lives were good,” Laeth said. “Before coming here I used to go to school. Sometimes I would go and say hi to my mother. I used to go out with my friends, we used to have a good time, it was very nice.”
Despite his situation, Laeth has chosen to channel his emotions into music and performance, helping as a volunteer at the camp. It’s not something many youths in Iraq have to opportunity to do. Peace-builders have warned that many Iraqi youth like Laeth face a difficult choice between fight or flight.
A recent report by the International Crisis Group shows that dis-enchanted youth in Iraq have become easy quarry for predators, be they IS, Shiite militias or populists preaching Iraqi nationalism.
The report claims that the youth of Iraq are its greatest asset, and that while the government’s reform capacity may be limited, it must address its youth crisis as its top priority if it is to hold Iraq together.
Findings show that the current vacuum sucks youths into one of three directions: protests (with aspiration to dramatically transform a non-functioning system); fighting groups on either side of a sectarian divide; or migration toward Europe. This counters conventional wisdom that youth of Iraq are being radicalised on a large scale, and suggests that young Iraqis are not radicalised so much as recruited into organisations that provide community and direction, regardless of ideology.
If that is the problem, then what’s the solution?
The International Crisis Group says the solution lies in giving Iraqi youth viable alternatives that can reduce fighting groups’ ability to attract them in the first place.
The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebel group perpetuated violence in northern Uganda for almost 20 years. The group was led by the infamous Joseph Kony, target of the global Kony2012 campaign, and areas like Gulu, Kitgum, Dokolo and Lira were hit particularly hard.
The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebel group perpetuated violence in northern Uganda for almost 20 years. Rehabilitation programs, medical care, and employment initiatives help with the damage from the war. But for women and children kidnapped by the rebel group, re-entering society is extremely difficult. Nancy* was one of these abductees, and she was brave enough to tell us her story.
Nancy was just 12 years old when she was kidnapped in 2003. She was taken from a village about 25km north of Gulu town, during a night invasion by the LRA.
“There is a boy from my village who joined the rebel group (LRA),” Nancy told Peace News.
“He was asked to write the names of all the girls he knew from the village,” she said.
“Unluckily, my name was first on the list. He wrote a total of eight names, all were girls. We were then invaded in the night, they had torches. Whosoever the boy identified on the list had their hands tied. A lot more people were abducted that night but their interest was girls.”
Nancy said she was forced into military training with the LRA, and spent 2 years as their captive. At one point during her captivity, she said two of her friends tried to escape, but they were recaptured before they got too far. Nancy said she and six other girls were forced to execute the escapees by stoning them to death.
Eventually, Nancy and another friend were able to escape, running away early one morning and hiding in a nearby plantation field. She made it to a military camp, where she spent a month before moving to the Gulu Support the Children Organization for further rehabilitation.
After returning, Nancy said she struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder. She would hallucinate about being back in captivity and the stress eventually lead to her dropping out of secondary school. She moved to another town to avoid retribution from the murdered girls’ families.
“My mother did not take me back to the home where I was abducted because life would not be easy for me,” Nancy said.
“At the new home we went to, no one knew me,” she said.
“Sometimes if you talk about this sort of a story, people will judge you differently, others will despise you and others will think of you as a murderer. There are others who had their relatives abducted and never returned and yet I did return. So some people will not be happy about you and could consider you as an accomplice to the rebels and their evil activity yet I never was abducted at will.”
Despite what she has been through, Nancy is still positive and said she forgives her captors.
“On the issue of forgiveness, I forgave them because I never want to judge anyone, you can never know the circumstances under which a person joined the rebel group so I cannot hold any grudge against anyone.”
Nancy has met with former-LRA members and said she hopes for a better future for both victims and former fighters.
“When I see them return, I am glad they will start a brand new life like the way I have tried to restart mine.”
The LRA is still active in areas of Central African Republic and Democratic Republic of Congo where they kidnapped 728 people in the last year alone.
When Kyalu was raped during the conflict in the DRC, her husband Abby almost couldn’t bare it. See their incredible story for yourself, and meet the people helping rebuild lives in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
