A Cartoonist’s View of Zimbabwe

– An exhibition to celebrate 10 years of city twinning between Munich (Germany) and Harare has been organised by the civil society the working group “HamuPa” (Harare-Munich-Partnership Association).
At the official level the twinning between the two cities is in cold storage as Harare does not have an elected council following the dismissal by the government of the democratically elected MDC council.
The exhibition, “A Cartoonist’s View of Zimbabwe – Political Cartoons since Independence “is a frankly critical exhibition, which would not be possible in Zimbabwe,” said Robert Hochreiter, the co-ordinator of HaMuPa. More than 80 interested guests attended the launch of the exhibition last month.
In the last few years there have been a number of events dealing with the subject of the relationship of Munich to Harare. To mark the end of the celebrations of 10 years of twinning Munich-Harare, this first viewing is a welcome opportunity to have good conversations, to look critically at the situation in Zimbabwe and Harare and to see the problems in the country where our twin city lies through the eyes of African cartoonists, and so to approach them differently.
The attention of visitors to the exhibition is drawn to the economic and political situation in Zimbabwe since its independence from Great Britain in 1980. In spite of censorship and repression, critical cartoonists manage to express what may not be spoken out loud. With acuteness and subtle humour they denounce social injustices such as the deepening gap between rich and poor, the high cost of living, the violation of human rights and corruption. They put their lives at risk. The exhibition shows 38 cartoons by six masters of their craft,” he explained.
Plans for the exhibition travel extensively are in hand. First requests have been received from Würzburg and Bielefeld. In addition contacts in South Africa, Austria and England have been established. Among on the works on display are a number of cartoons by The Zimbabwean’s cartoonist Paul Bogaert.