Caricaturists and cartoonists tend to delight in taking swipes at political and religious figures.
Newspaper and magazine cartoons and caricatures might not be as developed in Cameroon as in other countries, but the two art forms have over the years been gaining in importance. Generally, illustrators of cartoons and caricatures tend to take pleasure in attacking or ridiculing politics, politicians, religion and religious leaders, more than any other subjects.
Making subtle use of their ‘language,’ cartoonists and caricaturists often take liberties in lambasting officials or ideas they disagree with. So free and daring are these art forms that their authors do not stop at anything in depicting anyone or anything in bad taste. Heads of State, Statesmen, politicians, God, Allah, Christianity, Islam, Jesus Christ, Prophet Mohammed, etc are hardly spared. The result in most cases has been unwarranted bloodletting.
In 1988, British essayist and novelist, Salmon Rushdie, published, ‘The Satanic Verses.’ The novel was seen by some Muslims as blasphemous and mocking their faith. On February 14, 1989, the late Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a ‘fatwa’ or religious decree calling for Rushie’s death. This was followed by assassination attempts on the author and attacks on individuals connected to him. Isioma Daniels, a young fashion writer for Nigeria’s Thisday daily newspaper in 2002 drew the ire of Muslims after an article on the Miss World beauty pageant, which was moved from Nigeria to England. Some Muslims had objected to Nigeria hosting the event, arguing that it would demean womanhood.
Isioma then wrote an article saying that Prophet Mohammed might not have objected to the holding of the event in Nigeria because he could have selected one of the women as wife. The bloody riots provoked by the article left at least 220 people dead following clashes between Christians and Muslims in the northern city of Kaduna. Similarly, 12 members of the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly paper in Paris, France, were shot dead on January 7, 2015, by gunmen in apparent reprisal for the magazine’s repeated ‘irreverent depiction’ of Allah and Prophet Mohammed.
