Cartoons At Large exhibition launched

Spira Tlhankane | Wednesday June 21, 2017 17:27

 

The exhibition is made up of press illustrations by artists from around the world. Cartoons At Large as seen through the eyes of 50 cartoonists from all over the world was brought by Alliance Française de Gaborone, the European Union and the Embassy of the United States in Botswana.

It featured works from veteran cartoonist, Simon Seisa who works for Mmegi and The Monitor Newspapers.  The cartoonists are devoted to a specific theme concerning liberty like being free from censorship, corruption, gender inequality, sports and racism with a strong focus on the freedom of expression. The aim of Cartoons At Large is to stir up a debate on freedom of expression.

Speaking during the exhibition, Seisa popularly known for his Selefu signature said he started at an early age illustrating set textbooks at secondary school level as he read stories.  Seisa said he used the name Selefu because of his grandfather of the same name.

“From then, I became interested in movies and cartoons from Punch and Judy magazines.” He said he got inspiration from the likes of Ranan Lurie amongst others. Seisa said he started cartooning work for the Daily News after having been discovered by one of the senior editors at the state-owned newspaper. 

He said when the private press emerged, he found an outlet for self-expression without threat of censorship especially that news presentation was controversial. “I felt that the private press allowed more freedom of speech especially that the Daily News removed editorialship.

“I have never had a problem of censorship with the private press because I worked closely with the Editors for the papers I worked with which were Mmegi, Botswana Guardian and The Patriot on Sunday. He said in future he would like to see more cartoonists coming up.

He highlighted that most papers cannot afford cartoonists because of the loss of advertising from the government.  Joel Kokopo of INK Center for Investigative Journalism said as an epitome of independent journalism, they have had a serious challenge of freedom of speech and expression.

“We still have arrests and detention of journalists. We struggle to access information,” he said.  Konopo said as a result, there is self-censorship because of the stakeholders like the government who aid in advertising. 

In addition, he said society does not give support because they think journalists are troublemakers. Konopo said they do not have a space to express their freedom. 

The exhibition will run until July 1.