adminThe cops reacted by identifying the cab driver, strapping him to one of their vehicles and dragging him across the streets in broad daylight.
Several onlookers captured the scenes with their cellphones and that footage found its way to the South African media and soon after, went viral.
Macia’s fateful encounter with the ‘boys in blue’ took place on February 26, 2013.
He never got to see another day — he died later that day, not in hospital, but in holding cells at Daveyton police station.
Immediately, Jonathan Shapiro, better known as Zapiro, penned an editorial cartoon showing a man handcuffed to the back of a police van, being dragged along a street.
The intensity and frequency of thick diagonal lines around the vehicle and the man, coupled with the presence of several dust clouds and the blurred shoes suggests that the vehicle was moving very fast.
His mouth is wide open and his eyes shut, a clear signal that one is in excruciating pain.
The man being dragged has ‘SA’s reputation’ inscribed across his torso. The message the cartoonist wants to portray with the composition is clear.
He wants the world to know that police brutality is tainting the overall image of the Rainbow nation.
By using a scene still fresh in the memory of readers, Zapiro composes his message using Macia as a metaphorical representation.
In the Western world, this concept would be normal and the editorial cartoon would be regarded by most as a masterpiece.
But here in Africa, things don’t quite work out that way.
In any societies, editorial cartoons are culture-based.
Because they are specifically drawn to be viewed by a particular society, extreme care has to be taken if the cartoonist wishes not to offend or fray into cultural grey areas.
For instance, no cartoonist in the Arab world would dare or even dream of depicting the prophet Mohammed.
Similarly, Sri Lankan cartoonists know a depiction of Buddha is pushing matters way too far.
Across Africa, death, especially one that is sudden and unexpected is treated with utmost respect.
Forget metaphors and satire, cashing in on a tragedy is not a part of the African culture.
Zapiro is the same cartoonist that, following the death of Susan, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s wife in a tragic accident, unashamedly pinned everything on President Mugabe in a Sunday Times cartoon. Zapiro’s stance on the sensitive subject of death by accident in Africa shows that he is either arrogant or ignorant towards the emotions of the black majority newspaper readers in South Africa.
Zapiro’s response to the criticism his editorial cartoon received was, “The face is not a caricature of Macia’s, nor is there a label identifying him by name”.
Really? Resorting to legal language only weakened his claims because everything in the editorial cartoon pointed to the Macia case.
Personally, I have only been drawing cartoons in newspapers for the past 14 years and compared to several decades for Zapiro, I would have expected to learn humility from him.
The South African cartoonist also stated that, “the concept for the cartoon was to use the brutal dragging of Macia as a metaphor for the image of our nation in the eyes of the world”.
True. Everyone probably got that part regarding the editorial cartoon.
But the criticism was never about the meaning of the editorial cartoon.
It was about the effect the cartoon’s emotional value has on the majority of a newspaper’s readers.
For an American newspaper, re-enactment of 911 attacks on the twin towers hours after the event would draw less emotional response than Macia would to African readers.
Respect for the dead and the bereaved is central to cultural ethos of African civilisation and any cartoonist on the continent, regardless of who they are or how they are brought up has a moral obligation to, at the very least, be on the same wave length with everyone else. After all, editorial cartoons are products made to be consumed by the general public through the medium that carries them. Unfortunately, most editorial cartoonists are fiercely independent-minded individuals well used to working alone and making decisions that no one questions. Because of this, cartoonists tend to be more arrogant than they are ignorant.
One American cartoonist, Pulitzer award winner Michael Ramirez is a good example.
Ramirez once said, “I believe in the right of groups to express their opinion and I hope that they understand that I have a constitutional right to ignore them”
It is a dangerous superiority complex that makes some cartoonists think that they are always right, regardless of what the readers think.
That is wrong, because essentially, all cartoonists seek validation from the readers.
When all the validation one needs comes from their own head, when cartoonists think freedom of expression is more important than morals and ethics, it can only be somewhere out of Africa.
In Africa, our communities, their feelings, emotions and struggles are more important than press freedom.
That is why any cartoonist in Africa, when faced with direct criticism over an editorial cartoon of theirs would get more respect if they issue an apology.
Online Reporter