Democracy Betrayed

Khalid Albaih, October 25, 2021.

Mere moments into the military coup in Sudan, Khalid Albaih had published the khartoon that comprises the situation. The Sudanese military has carried out the most treacherous act possible: The stabbing to the back. 

The mutual dance is no longer in what was a council to constitute democracy following the fall of the dictator al Bashir. Khalid doubles its treachery by making his protagonist the embodiment of those very persons who made al Bashir fall, when they insisted on dignity and took to the streets to pull through a revolution in 2018 after 30 years of dictatorship. 

Khalid has created the khartoon without the use of contour, which makes for an airy, almost floating sensation throughout the picture plane. The shadows cast by the revolutionary's fingers is doubling the movement in the attempt to fend off the knives. The grasping into nothingness, not finding and not taking hold makes for the devastation of the situation and khartoon alike.

Or not yet? The revolution is as rightful as ever. That is the central message of the khartoon. It is creating understanding to the rest of the world while speaking directly to the revolutionaries of their continued right to dignity. They continue to be seen, they are in fact the complete picture plane. 

Khalid Albaih has given his cartoon free to be shared.