SOUNDTRACK: hiatus
[READ: February 9, 2022] The Madiba Years
Having read some of the more recent Zapiro books, I was delighted to see that our library had most if not all of his previous books as well–one that cover pretty much from the start of the Mandela years. Mandela even blurbed this book: “Very exciting ad quite accurate.”
So why is it called the Madiba years? It doesn’t say in the book, so I had to look it up
The clan or family name represents a person’s ancestry. The meaning is deeper than a surname and is used as a sign of respect and affection. The origin of Madiba comes from a chief who ruled in the 18th century, according to the Nelson Mandela Foundation. Madiba would be used in “an intimate context,” said Richard Pithouse, a politics professor at Rhodes University in South Africa. When Mandela entered school, a teacher gave him the name Nelson. It was customary for Africans to also give children English names back then. But the wider public had also taken to referring to Mandela as Madiba. “People would not tend to use that name if they didn’t have positive feelings for him,” Pithouse said.
So there you have it.
This collection opens in 1994 with leader Mangope of Bophuthatswana’s declaration that democracy would not be coming to his homeland (he was very wrong). With the eyes of the world on South Africa, Election Day shows the shining face of Mandela, pictured as the rising sun over the garbage heap that was the un-democratic elections.
June sees the proposal of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission–to find out what really happened during Apartheid. There’s also talk of Joe Tokyo, a figure who has been mentioned in other books. I’m fascinated by his name. In this particular cartoons, his housing plan is described as a pie in the sky.
Things that could apply to any leader include a woman scrubbing the floor in the Prime Minister’s Office. In 1956, the assistant says to the PM: “Delegation of women to see you.” Then in 1994, the same woman (now much older), the same comment. This time the scrubber says, “And this time it better work.”
There’s a lot of pages about Winnie Mandela (full name: Winnie Madikizela-Mandela). I’d heard of her but never really realized what all the fuss was about–she was Nelson’s wife, right? Well, apparently after he was imprisoned (citing Wikipedia):
In the mid-1980s Madikizela-Mandela exerted a “reign of terror”, and was “at the centre of an orgy of violence” in Soweto, which led to condemnation by the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, and a rebuke by the ANC in exile. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) established by Nelson Mandela’s government to investigate human rights abuses found Madikizela-Mandela to have been “politically and morally accountable for the gross violations of human rights committed by the Mandela United Football Club”, her security detail. Madikizela-Mandela endorsed the necklacing of alleged police informers and apartheid government collaborators, and her security detail carried out kidnapping, torture, and murder, most notoriously the killing of 14-year-old Stompie Sepei whose kidnapping she was convicted of.
Damn! And apparently her totally horrific activities weighed on Mandela.
They divorced about two years after he was elected. But even in 1996 there’s a cartoon of Mandela behind bars with 1962-1990 and then from 1990-1996, he is chained to Winnie.
The big question after the Apartheid government failed was what to do with the men leftover. Could they just put them in a museum? Boerassic park? Apparently F.W. De Klerk had a lot of “amnesia”–couldn’t remember anything that happened before 1990.
And what about the 3,000 former government functionaries that acting president Pik Botha indemnified? It sounds like the blanket indemnity was ripped off of them–hopefully that will happen to anyone in this country pardoned under our former leader.
I particularly like the one where all of the dominoes fall, knocking down all of the former bad leaders with de Klerk next–again, could be very relevant to our country if they can actually act on it. It’s depressing though that this de Klerk cartoon is in November 1995–so long after the election in April 1994.
But Mandela wasn’t perfect. When it comes to South African arms sales, apparently he turned a blind eye to backdoor sales. And his Assembly Chairperson Cyril Rhamaphosa was concerned that when he consulted the public, they seemed to be full of intolerance. The leaders cut down a hangman’s noose, but there’s a large tree with “pro hanging public opinion.”
There’s also the great unsolved mysteries of the world like The Curse of Tutankhamen, Bigfoot, The Bermuda Triangle and South African foreign policy.
It’s not all politics–there’s some strips about rugby and Springbok, which I’m fascinated by. And of course much celebration for South Africa in the football (soccer) world.
He also has a strip for National Crime Prevention week. It was suggested that prisons becomes places of education. But Zapiro says they already are–the criminal leaves with his diploma in drugs, gangs, guns, and knives. Maybe they just need to change the curriculum.
And the first of many anti pro-life cartoons. This one has Dr. Claude Newbury saying there shall be no abortion under any circumstance. Then there’s a lightning bolt with Newbury suddenly pregnant and unwanted babies all round him with god saying “Get real, Claude.”
Evidently the Boer separatists (Volkstaat) were trying to prevent a new South Africa from forming
The concept of a Volkstaat, also called a Boerestaat, is the set of proposals to establish self-determination for Afrikaners (Whites) in South Africa, either on federal principles or as a fully independent Boer/Afrikaner homeland.
Then he shows the trouble with the integration of primary schools as two black students. The room full of students all look like H.F. Verwoerd (and old man with his nose in the air). But the glimmer of hope comes when a little white girl takes off her Verwoerd mask and smiles the black students.
Bishop Desmond Tutu as part of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee is shown in a graveyard labelled Apartheid Crimes. Tutu says, “God help is to remember that the people who did this are also your children.” God says “lemme get back to you on that one.”
And then in May 1996 De Klerk says the new NP position is “We brought you democracy.” This compares to the short attention span of the voter: Western Cape voters oppressed by the Nats for 40 years and happily votes Nat today.
On to Olympics fever! We see that Cape Town is bidding for the Olympics in 2004. There’s old man Uncle Sam with an Atlanta 1996 shirt tripping over hurdles of security and efficiency and asking Baby South Africa if he really wants to try this.
Then Mandela went to England and it was a big celebration with Nelson’s column having its own Nelson removed and the nearby lion statue saying “tough luck old chap there’s only one Nelson In London this week.
Speaking of London, there’s nothing like the Charles and Diana Royal Side Show to distract the world from real problems.
And remember mad cow disease?
Zapiro sets his sights on Mugabe.
Robert Gabriel Mugabe was a Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician who served as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 1987 and then as President from 1987 to 2017.
Obviously Mugabe was a bad dude. Zapiro shows Mugabe putting targets on the back of gays and lesbians in Zimbabwe, while wearing a button that says bigot and proud of it
There’s only one mention of Clinton in this book. He looks like Tintin as he is in The Adventures of Clintin in Bosnia. He waltzes in with a peace but there’s Snowy the dog “I’d feel a lot better if that piece of paper has a disarmament clause.”
Zapiro also introduces Netanyahu who will have Isareal aiming for peace (by firing missilesat the peace dove)–he sure nailed that one.
You can see more of his cartoons at https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/zapiro and at www.zapiro.com.
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SOUNDTRACK: JANN ARDEN-“Could I Be Your Girl” (1994).
It’s fascinating to watch the video for this song now, since all I really know about what Jann Arden looks like is the author photo and her TV appearances since the 2000s.
I Just Read About That... 