SOUNDTRACK: hiatus
[READ: February 20, 2022] Call Mr. Delivery
This is Zapiro’s fourth book and it’s the first time, I think, that he’s put himself into the cartoons. And it seems like maybe the world is getting to him.
Although his first appearance is in the meta-joke:
“Only one tiny minority welcomes the formation of Louis Luyt’s new political party” : Cartoonists.
But later by March 1999 he is on a therapist’s couch. The therapist asks “when did you first experience this feeling of uselessness. Zapiro says “this week suddenly reality seemed weirder than anything I could come up with.” (And the world hasn’t even gotten to trump yet).
It’s the end of the Mandela era and his successors don’t seem to be shaping up very well.
Although Mandela gets one nice shoutout. He parts the waters for the Lockerbie Breakthrough and Libya asks if anyone ever get blasé about this sort of thing.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Final Report had to have any negative mentions of F.W. DeKlerk removed. And Desmond Tutu seems under attack from the left, right and centre (PAC, IFP, FF, ANC, NP, TRC).
The DP Party’s new slogan “Fight back” is roundly seen as meaning “fight black.” And all of the parties gang up on the ANC saying that they want a two-thirds majority to change the Constitution But every other party in their manifestos want to bring back the death penalty, outlaw abortion, reduce workers rights and judicial curtailing, all of which would require changing the constitution.
There’s also a lot of local political jokes that I really don’t understand. He talks about Mamparlanga, a guy named Banana (Zimbabwe’s ex-president, Canaan Banana) and a lot of other big names from the 1990’s Africa.
But for some of the pages, he does give us some like Vito Palazzolo being outed as the head of the mafia but living in South Africa. Or “Youth Under Apartheid” shouting “liberation before education” while “Youth Post-Apartheid” has the same youth yawning. “Only 5% of first-time voters have registered.”
Mugabe gets some much needed abuse. He walks down the street naked while his thugs beat up two journalists: “next time show some respect when describing his clothes.”
On the international front there’s NATO trying to rescue Kosovo from Milosevic. And later of the U.S. walking all over NATO.
There’s a really good one of Saddam Hussein perched on the edge of a cliff. There’s a sign that says Brinksmanship Championship and Hussein whispers to Milosevic: “Watch this: Now I agree to negotiate…drives ’em nuts!”
The E.U. talks about how to negotiate trade deals with developing countries–riding on a cart full of things while Erwin from South Africa is chasing after them with his bag of Sherry and Port. One of the E.U. members says “Let ‘im get a Leetle Closer… …zen pull away.”
Zapiro has his claws out for Clinton. A silhouette of Clinton and a woman. She asks “What’ll you do if they find out about us?” His reply: “Deny it. If that doesn’t work, bomb Iraq, ha ha, just kidding.” Two days later there’s Presidential Impeachment? U.S. Congress: Not Sure. U.S. People: Dead Against. Iraqi People: Dead For (as bombs fall out of the sky).
And one last jab at the U.S. The statue of liberty holding aloft AIDS drugs and a cash register as the third word reaches with arms outstretched.
There’s not a lot about sports this year. There’s a page titled “Swallows players truck by lightning.” Did this really happen? There’s one about the Windies Rebels not touring South Africa. And a rugby World Cup in which there’s a team called The Quotas. As well as a coach getting a gag after saying something offensive about players if Indian origin.
Of course there’s always cartoons that apply beyond South Africa. Like the black man who says “Sure’ I’ll gladly accept symbolic reparations. When you get my creditors to send me symbolic bills.”
In June 1999 there’s a giant divide between black versus “white and coloured” saying it happened after the great coalition disaster of 99.
There’s a great one that says “He why’s this upside down….?” The cartoon is upside down and reads:
A woman in raped. The rapist is HIV-positive and the victim becomes infected. The rapist is convicted. As a prisoner he receives free AZT treatment at a private clinic. The states provide no free treatment for the victim and she cannot afford AZT.”
He asks: Well, don’t you think the whole thing should be turned on its head?
The new government Mpumalanga is quickly dubbed the Mpumaliar because the new premier Mahlangu said it was okay for politicians to lie [Pinocchio hands in a resume]. “I swear to tell lies, lies, and nothing but lies.”
And one that could be in any Right wing shop in America right now
Are you a white racist feeling threatened by tough new gun laws? We have the answer: Baasskap Hardware: Toxic Spray Paint (sprayed on naked victim); welding tool (used to torture and kill workers) Spade (used by DeKock to finish off Jaoie Maponya).
And the white racist realizes Hell, who needs guns?”
Naw, Americans would never go for that. Baasskap means, literally “boss-ship” or “boss-hood”, is an Afrikaans term that was used during apartheid to describe the social, political and economic domination of South Africa by its minority white population.
He ends by saying that South Africa needs a new coat of Arms (a crest with four fields with a gun in each one–surrounded by bullets and hand grenades. The national flower-plastic bag stuck in a tree; the new national bird is the vulture and the national flag is a sign that says: “On Strike” or “No Job.”
Things don’t seem to be boding well for South Africa in the new millennium.
You can see more of his cartoons at https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/zapiro and at www.zapiro.com.
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