Cartoon, 23 May 2012.
Godfey Mwampembwa, who uses the pseudonym Gado, is a Tanzanian political cartoonist. Since the 1990s, he is the most syndicated cartoonist in Central and East Africa. His work is also published outside his home continent, namely in France, Austria, Japan, the UK and the United States. Gado's cartoons have often been subject of official complaints, threats and court cases, even resulting in him being fired from one of his newspapers. At the same time, his controversial work has also received several international awards. Gado is additionally the brain behind the Kenyan satirical puppet show 'The XYZ Show' (2009), which lampoons politicians in the style of 'Spitting Image'. While not a comic artist in the strictest sense, Gado occasionally uses narrative sequences and has a recurring character, Wanjiku, a common African wife who acts as the voice of reason.
Cartoon by Gado showing the Ethiopian prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn reacting to a question on the number of journalists jailed in Ethiopia (10 July 2014).
Early life
Godfrey Mwampembwa was born in 1969 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. His father worked for the Tanzanian tourist agency and often brought home copies of Newsweek, Time and 'Tintin' (by Hergé) and 'Asterix' (by Albert Uderzo) comics. Gado's mother was a school teacher who encouraged him to draw. From a young age, Gado followed news reports about politics, including on BBC radio. Among his main graphic influences were Pat Oliphant, Jeff MacNelly, Philip Ndunguru, Tayo Fatunla, Frank Odoi and Paul Kelemba.
At age 15, Gado became a professional cartoonist, earning extra money by freelancing for local newspapers and magazines like the Daily News, The Business Times, New African Magazine and The Express in Dar Es Salaam. After completing high school, he joined the army for a year. In 1991, he studied architecture at the Ardhi Institute. A year later, Gado won second prize in a drawing contest in Nairobi, Kenya. As he traveled to the capital to pick up his prize, he decided to drop out of college and stay in the city.
Cartooning career
In 1992, Gado became house cartoonist for the Daily Nation, a newspaper based in Nairobi, Kenya, which has a readership all over East and Central Africa. By not being a native Kenyan, Gado brought a fresh foreigner's perspective on Kenya's news events. Soon his cartoons were published in The East-African Standard (Kenya), The Guardian, The New African (U.K.), Le Monde, Le Courrier International (France), Deutsche Welle (Germany), Des Standard (Austria), The Sunday Tribune (South Africa), The Washington Times (USA), and the Japan Times (Japan).
Cartoon starring Wanjiku, 27 July 2008.
Wanjiku
A recurring character in Gado's cartoons is Wanjiku. The name 'Wanjiku' is a popular female name among people of the Agikuyu tribe in Kenya, but is nowadays used as a metaphor for the common woman, comparable to 'Jane Doe' or 'Jane Average' in U.S. popular language. The metaphor is well-known in Kenya, to the point that in the late 1990s president Daniel Arap Moi dismissed constitutional reforms based on people's demands with the remark: "Wanjiku doesn't know anything about the constitution." In Gado's cartoons, Wanjiku is a common African woman, who always has some sarcastic or otherwise dry reply ready that puts arrogant and ignorant politicians, religious leaders, generals and activists into place.
Cartoon, 18 August 2005, featuring Wanjiku.
Style and beliefs
As a cartoonist, Gado is notorious for his sharp satirical commentary. He doesn't avoid taboo subjects and is a strong defender of the freedom of speech. Politically, Gado is a firm believer in the Pan-African idea of uniting all African countries as one country. He admires statesmen like Julius Nyerere, Kwame Nkrumah and Nelson Mandela. He has often received death threats and was frequently taken to court over his work. In 2002, at the occasion of President Moi leaving office, Gado drew a cartoon depicting a mugshot of the politician. Underneath the drawing he wrote: "You need more than an inauguration to let people know that he is no longer president!"
'Hustler's Jet'. Cartoon ridiculing Kenyan Vice President William Ruto, 23 May 2013.
Controversy and censorship
Throughout his career, Gado has sometimes caused controversy. In 2005, he drew a cartoon depicting a female suicide bomber asking: "I'm also going to get 72 virgins... right?!". The drawing sparked outrage among Muslim readers. In 2009, the Kenyan government had spent extraordinarily high amounts of money, yet denied it by claiming it was "just a computer error." Gado thereupon drew Kenyan Minister of Finance Uhuru Kenyatta as an idiot unable to count, which promptly led to Kenyatta filing a legal suit. In 2013, Kenyatta was elected President, but this didn't stop Gado from drawing him with balls and chains around his feet, referencing his corruption scandals.
While Gado eventually agreed to no longer depict Kenyatta and vice president William Ruto with balls and chains, he kept mocking them in his cartoons. In 2013, Ruto, who is nicknamed "The Hustler", caused scandal when it was revealed that he had spent 100 million shillings on private jet trips, while the government tried to cut back on spending. On 23 May of that year, Gado drew Ruto receiving a massage in a "hustler's jet", while still making business deals. Some members of the Kenyan parliament demanded an official apology. Yet the cartoon became so well-known that a committee on Ruto's spending was actually named the "Hustler Jet" report. Funny enough, Gado and the President are practically neighbors. When Gado had to move into a flat, he deliberately picked one near the official presidential residence. Not just to be close to one of his frequent targets, but also because it gives him a more secure feeling. The President is better protected than anyone in the country and the area suffers from less electricity cuts than other parts of Nairobi.
On 28 February 2016, Gado was fired from the Daily Nation after 23 years of loyal service. The official reason was a 2015 cartoon ridiculing Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete. He depicted the politician as a Roman emperor being fed and admired by women who have the phrases "incompetence", "cronyism" and "corruption" written over their bodies. Gado had taken a sabbatical afterwards, but when he wanted to pick up the pencil again, the paper informed him that his contract wouldn't be renewed. In the knowledge that this was far from the most offensive cartoon he ever drew, Gado knew that Kenyatta probably pressured The Daily Nation to fire him. The artist therefore joined Germany's International Media Company -Deutsche Welle (DW) - Swahili.
The cartoon that got Gado fired from the Daily Nation, 17 January 2015. It mocks President Jakaya Kikwete.
The XYZ Show
In 1996-1997, Gado took a course in animation at Fabrica, a Communication Research Center in Treviso. In 2000, he also followed animation and film making at the Vancouver Film School in Canada. These studies came in handy when he ventured into television. Since 2009 Gado is the creative spirit behind the satirical puppet show 'The XYZ Show' (2009- ), where famous politicians are lampooned through the use of puppet caricatures. The idea was pioneered by Peter Fluck and Roger Law's British puppet show 'Spitting Image' (1984-1996), but Gado was actually inspired by the French spin-off version 'Les Guignols de l'Info' (1988- ). During a visit to France in 2003, he even visited the show's set. Gado wanted to create his own Kenyan version and collaborated both with the makers of 'Les Guignols de l'Info' and the Kenyan sculptor Gerald Olewe to push his vision through.
It took a full six years before the 'XYZ Show' actually got on the air, but it was an instant success with viewers. In 2013, it won the award for "Best TV Series" at the Africa Magic Viewers' Choice Awards in Nigeria. As one ought to expect from a satirical show, some politicians actually took offense. Minister of Public Services Dalmas Otieno complained about a sketch in which Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki had his nose twisted. Aides of Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka felt offended by the fact that he was depicted "giggling like a schoolgirl" and actually questioned if the show was politically motivated. In a way Gado was lucky. A decade earlier, during the dictatorial regime, such a show would've never aired. To bring the point home, Gado's good friend and fellow cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro (Zapiro) tried to create a similar puppet show, but was instantly rejected after TV executives saw the pilot.
The creators of the XYZ Show Godfrey Mwampembwa and Marie Mungai with a puppet modelled after Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan.
Recognition
Gado has often won awards for his work. By 1999, he was already named "Kenyan Cartoonist of the Year". In 2006, he joined the Cartooning for Peace initiative of the United Nations. A year later he received the Prince Claus Award in the category "Culture and Conflict". In 2011, the Ford Foundation gave him a Visionaries Award for his innovative efforts in the field of key social issues. In 2014, the newspaper NewAfrican named Gado one of the 100 Most Influential people in Africa. In 2016, he and the Malaysian cartoonist Zulkiflee Anwar Ul-Haque (Zunar) both received the prestigious International Editorial Cartoons Prize from the hands of UN secretary-general Kofi Annan. In May 2016, Gado received the Cartooning for Peace Award in Geneva, Switzerland. In May 2022, he was knighted as Chevalier in the Ordre des Art et Lettres.
Cartoon depicting US President Donald Trump with British PM Theresa May (26 January 2017). It refers to Trump's off-camera remark that he "just grabs women by the pussy if he wants them."
Other activities
Gado is co-founder and executive chairman of Buni Media, an independent multi-media company. He is a member of Kenya Union of Journalists (KUJ), the Association of East African cartoonists (KATUNI), Cartoonists and Writers Syndicate (C&W), Cartoonists for Peace and a Board Member of Cartoonist Rights Network (CRN). In the late 1990s, he was also active in Italy for a year, working under Oliviero Toscani, former art director for 'Benetton'.
Books about Gado
Gado's cartoons have been collected in four books so far: 'Abunuwasi' (1996), 'Demo-Crazy' (2000), 'The End of An Error' (2006) and 'Crisis...? What Crisis?!' (2012). The latter had a foreword by UN secretary-general Kofi Annan.
'An African Guide to Dictators, Part I', 22 September 2016. The cartoon depicts presidents Paul Biya (Kameroon), Yoweri Museveni (Uganda), Pierre Nkrurunziza (Burundi), Omar Al-Bashir (Sudan), Hailemariam Desalegn (Ethiopia), Teodora Obiang Nguema (Equatorial Guinea), Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe) and John Pombe Magufuli (Tanzania). A second part, 'An African Guide to Dicators, Part II', additionally depicts Paul Kagame (Rwanda), Abdulaziz Bouteflika (Algeria), Yahya Jammeh (Gambia), Abdel Fattah el-Sisi (Egypt), José Edouardo dos Santos (Angola), Denis Sassou Nguesso (Congo-Brazzaville), Joseph Kabila (Democratic Republic of Congo) and Ali Bongo (Gabon).