gathara Profile picture
17 Sep, 11 tweets, 5 min read
This is an appreciation tweet for a living legend, @itsamaddworld, who's been doing amazingly insightful and hilarious work for 35 years, ever since he joined @NationAfrica in 1986 as Kenya's first full-time political cartoonist.

Question: What's your favourite Maddo cartoon?
Mine was of incident in Nyanza (I may be mistaken but I think it may have been when Safari Rally went to Kisumu) and he drew a crowd bearing stones shouting "Wadwaro donjo!!" or something to that effect.
Maddo gave me my first break as a cartoonist in 1997. He had started Africa Illustrated cartoon newsmagazine I went to pitch him my toons at Likoni Rd (he had been poached by @StandardKenya in 1990, creating room for @iGaddo at Nation) and he graciously agreed to publish them.
Later, it was Maddo who would recommend me to be the first General Secretary of the Association of East African Cartoonists, a job I would do for a decade.
People forget the barriers Maddo broke and the doors he opened for so many others. Before him, there were few indigenous, Kenyan cartoonists of note. He was also the first to draw Mo1 on the cover of Society magazine in 1992. His courage allowed political satire to flourish here.
At @NationAfrica and at @StandardKenya, Maddo made Page 3 (where the main cartoon and the paper's editorial used to be published) the most popular page after the front page. Around the country, one would frequently encounter cutouts of his cartoons plastered on living room walls.
Maddo even changed the way Kenyans speak, introducing and popularising words and phrases in the popular lingo. He gifted us "Boom! Twaf!" as shorthand for loud thumping music, and "T.K.K" for corruption.
Maddo is also hugely knowledgeable in Kenyan and African music and chairs @KetebulMusic. Here he is speaking to @theelephantinfo on the history of Kenyan music.
theelephant.info/videos/2017/11…
Remember Miguel Sede? Another first by Maddo.
And if course, Maddo pioneered the composite cartoon with the weekly "It's a Madd, Madd World" which has been continuously published for over 3 decades. Btw, some MMW strips have been compiled into a book with a foreword by @jnyairo. You can buy it here:
amazon.com/Madd-World-Pau…
Anyway, wherever you'll be this evening, please raise a glass to Paul "Maddo" Kelemba and to 35 years of delivering cutting edge political education, analysis and entertainment to the masses. Here's looking to 35 more. @itsamaddworld

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More from @gathara

17 Sep
On @bbcworldservice Heart & Soul, the Director of the Vatican Observatory admits teaching in "Africa" and the interviewer asks if, comparing the majesty of the heavens and the suffering in "Africa", he'd queried his faith. Nothing on querying suffering in Detroit where he's from.
It always fascinates me the space "Africa" occupies in the Western imagination. A paper I once read cited a study finding that many odieros regarded volunteering in "Africa" is the greatest good one can do, and few thought easing suffering in their own countries was as worthy.
I think many buy into the myth of the "civilising mission". Nobodies can turn up in "Africa" and imagine the natives looking up to them like superior beings bringing enlightenment and civilisation. "Africa" where the benefits and privileges of whiteness can be fully realized.
Read 4 tweets
16 Sep
Question: Why is Iran, which has not invaded anyone and which supports indigenous resistance to occupation in Palestine denied nuclear technology while Australia, whose troops committed horrible crimes in Afghanistan and which abuses its indigenous population, gets nuclear subs?
The racism underlying US nuclear proliferation policy is captured by the fact that it orchestrated a coup in Ghana in the 60s partly to get them to dismantle the atomic reactor Nkrumah was building at the same time it was helping apartheid South Africa build a nuclear weapon.
UNequal Nations: Why The West Isn't About To Get Rid Of Its Nuclear Arsenal
gathara.blogspot.com/2009/09/unequa…
Read 4 tweets
23 Jul
Yet again, I must emphasize that @Kenyajudiciary has brought this upon themselves by condoning the regular abuse of police powers of arrest against ordinary Kenyans. They have ignored, even encouraged, a situations where, on average, 1 in every 10 Kenyans is arrested every year.
While defending @Kenyajudiciary from "revisiting" by a President who believes the Constitution should not stand in the way of his dream to rule on high as King, we must not forget, nor excuse, its abominable failure to defend regular Kenyans from similar predation by the state.
"Kenya has incarcerated more of its citizens per 100,000 population than any other country in Eastern Africa with the exception of Rwanda and Ethiopia".

theelephant.info/features/2020/…

theelephant.info/features/2020/…
Read 4 tweets
18 Jul
Lap 1. Red flag. Disaster for RBs as Ver is taken out by Ham. Joy for Scuds as Lec inherits the lead. What will the stewards make if it?
Read 28 tweets
13 Jul
THIS!!! What law in Kenya creates the office of the First Lady, and why have we been paying for it since Kibaki's time? (In 2008, the GNU @RailaOdinga and Kamau are attempting to resurrect via BBI tried to include PM's and VP's wives in that deal as well).
gathara.blogspot.com/2008/08/gold-d… ImageImage
standardmedia.co.ke/amp/the-counti…
In 2014, then AG Githu Muigai (also of the BBI Brigade) argued that there was no provision in our laws for creating and funding offices of County First Ladies but did not share the law creating one for his boss' wife.
(Notice how reductive the headline is and how it attempts to sensationalise the issue and make it about the relatively trivial distinction about how they should be addressed rather than the much more important question of the prudent use of public funds.)
Read 9 tweets

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