Freedom of Pression

About the time when this blogpost was written on Thembo Muhindo Kashauri, he had been silent on social media for about a month. As had Alain Mushabah Massumbuko of Le Centre African de la Caricature and it was obvious what had happened. 

Obvious since their sudden silence followed from the publishing date of a drawing by Thembo Muhindo Kashauri on the protests which took off on that very day; an anger prompted by the delay of the presidential and parliamentary elections, which were to have taken place in 2016. The opposition labelled the delay a constitutional coup in that President Kabila claimed a census should be conducted before elections could be held. This would de facto postpone elections for an indefinite period of time, securing his presidency for just as long. 

And so the protesters took to the streets, colliding with the security forces: the latter afterwards denying having fired on the protesters, explaining away the number of corpses to be seen:

Thembo Muhindo Kashauri, January 19, 2015:
- We have a coffin for every peaceful protester who mentions the constitution!
- Send the supply to Kivu and lets us talk politics!
The worst clashings took place in Kivu

Thembo Muhindo Kashauri is at his very best here, staging the conflict on the streets from a next to impossible angle. No action is taking place, instead he presents each of the parties to us, next to one another, of which the tank is the major aggressor, representing the "Kabila Inc". Which of course has no intention of budging one inch, while the people is trying to make an impact through the word. The blood is running in our direction, this being of direct importance to us as beholders and consequently as contemporaries.

And so this happened:

Thembo Muhindo Kashauri, March 5, 2015:
- Freedom of Expression!
- Freedom of Pression!
Bula Matari ("Breaker of Rock") was the nickname for Sir Stanley; yes, that one.
Known for his brutality, he had a hand in the Belgian exploitation of Congo.

KASH is back!!!

- Thembo Muhindo Kashauri announced on March 5 with two drawings on the reaction against those voices daring to have spoken out and his own resolution as a result of having been silenced:

Thembo Muhindo Kashauri, March 5, 2015:
- Is it loaded?
- Yes! Mined in graphite, 0,12 mm!

This is thus a story on the cartoonist's own life being inextricably entwined with that of his present day.

Since March 6 we have yet again not have word from either of them.

The cartoons shown are courtesy of Thembo Muhindo Kashauri and must not be reproduced without his permission.