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ABSTRACT
The political cartoon has proven to be an effective means not only to mock but also to criticise the government of the day and to expose its abuse of power. The visual nature of cartoons, combined with humour, enables cartoon artists to bring across their message in a succinct manner. Cartoonists also employ references to events that their readership can relate to, making cartoons a mode of communication whose impact should not be underestimated. This article considers how cartoons that appeared in English-language South African newspapers viewed the Verwoerd government’s policies, specifically the implementation of those regarding the Bantustans or homelands. The article focuses on how cartoon artists used two phenomena of the time, the Space Race and the Beatles, to convey their criticism of the National Party government. The article also considers the effectiveness of the cartoons artists – like jesters in the royal court, masking their moral judgement behind witty remarks – to unmask the true intentions of the government’s homeland policy.
Notes
1 W. Werner, ‘On Political Cartoons and Social Studies Textbooks: Visual Analogies, Intertextuality, and Cultural Memory’, Canadian Social Studies, 38, 2 (2004), https://canadian-social-studies-journal.educ.ualberta.ca/content/articles-2000-2010#ARpolitical_cartoons_ss_textbooks202, accessed 12 March 2018.
2 W.A. Gamson and D. Stuart, ‘Media Discourse as a Symbolic Contest: The Bomb in Political Cartoons’, Sociological Forum, 7, 1 (1992), 55–86.
3 S. Heller and G. Anderson, The Savage Mirror: The Art of Contemporary Caricature (New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 1992), 12; A. Bal and L. Pitt, ‘Caricatures, Cartoons, Spoofs and Satires: Political Brands as Butts’, Journal of Public Affairs, 9 (2009), 229–237.
4 Stidy, Over the Rainbow: The First 10 Years of South Africa’s Democracy in Cartoons, edited by Karen MacGregor, text by Karen MacGregor and Anthony Stidolph (Pietermaritzburg: The Witness, 2003), 7.
5 L.H. Streicher, ‘On a Theory of Political Caricature’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 9, 4 (1967), 427–445; Heller and Anderson, The Savage Mirror, 12; B. Bergen, ‘To Awaken a Sleeping Giant: Cognition and Culture in September 11 Cartoons’, in M. Achard and S. Kemmer, eds, Language, Culture and Mind (Stanford: CSLI Publications, 2003), 1–11; Bal and Pitt, ‘Caricatures, Cartoons, Spoofs and Satires’, 230; M. Hogan, ‘Cartoonists and Political Cynicism’, The Drawing Board: An Australian Review of Public Affairs, 2,1 (2001), 25–50; R. Scully, ‘Towards a Global History of the Political Cartoon: Challenges and Opportunities’, International Journal of Comic Art, 16, 1 (2014), 29–47; J.I. Marín-Arrese, ‘Cognition and Culture in Political Cartoons’, Intercultural Pragmatics, 5, 1 (2008), 1–18.
6 J. Greenberg, ‘Framing and Temporality in Political Cartoons’: A Critical Analysis of Visual News Discourse’, Canadian Review of Sociology, 39, 2 (2002), 181–198; Heller and Anderson, The Savage Mirror; L. Shelton Caswell, ‘Drawing Swords: War in American Editorial Cartoons’, American Journalism, 21, 2 (2004), 13–45; R. Widd, L. Pitt and Adam J. Mills, ‘Every Story Tells a Picture: Lessons from Cartoons on Corporate Governance’, Business Horizons 55, 6 (2012), 543–550.
7 Bal and Pitt, ‘Caricatures, Cartoons, Spoofs and Satires’, 231.
8 T.M. Kemnitz, ‘The Cartoon as a Historical Source’, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 4, 1 (1973), 81–93; Bal and Pitt, ‘Caricatures, Cartoons, Spoofs and Satires’, 231; Shelton Caswell, ‘Drawing Swords’, 15; W.A. Coupe, ‘Observations on a Theory of Political Caricature’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 11, 1 (1969), 79–95; Heller and Anderson, The Savage Mirror, 12.
9 E.H. Gombrich, Meditations on a Hobby Horse and Other Essays on the Theory of Art (London: Phaidon Press, 1963), 131; Coupe, ‘Observations on a Theory’, 87.
10 W. Verwoerd and M. Mabizela, Truths Drawn in Jest: Commentary on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission through Cartoons (Cape Town: David Philip, 2000), viii.
11 Stidy, Over the Rainbow, 7.
12 M.H. Spielmann, Cartoons from ‘Punch’ (London, 1906), v; Kemnitz, ‘The Cartoon as a Historical Source’, 81.
13 Gombrich, Meditations on a Hobby Horse, 131; Coupe, ‘Observations on a Theory’, 87.
14 Verwoerd and Mabizela, Truths Drawn in Jest, vii.
15 Streicher, ‘On a Theory of Political Caricature’, 440; Kemnitz, ‘The Cartoon as a Historical Source’, 82; Shelton Caswell, ‘Drawing Swords’, 17; Widd, Pitt and Mills, ‘Every Story Tells a Picture’, 554.
16 E. Hines, quoted in Kemnitz, ‘The Cartoon as a Historical Source’, 87.
17 Streicher, ‘On a Theory of Political Caricature’, 438–440.
18 Shelton Caswell, ‘Drawing Swords’, 15.
19 Streicher, ‘On a Theory of Political Caricature’, 431; Bal and Pitt, ‘Caricatures, Cartoons, Spoofs and Satires’, 233.
20 Shelton Caswell, ‘Drawing Swords’, 14.
21 Stidy, Over the Rainbow, 7.
22 Shelton Caswell, ‘Drawing Swords’, 15.
23 Gamson and Stuart, ‘Media Discourse’, 61.
24 Kemnitz, ‘The Cartoon as a Historical Source’, 84.
25 Gamson and Stuart, ‘Media Discourse’, 61–62.
26 Verwoerd and Mabizela, Truths Drawn in Jest, vii.
27 J.L. Edwards, ‘Media History and Marginalized Form: The Editorial Cartoon Profession Considered’, Review of Communication, 7, 1 (2007), 127–130; Gamson and Stuart, ‘Media Discourse’, 62.
28 Kemnitz, ‘The Cartoon as a Historical Source’, 82.
29 Greenberg, ‘Framing and Temporality’.
30 Shelton Caswell, ‘Drawing Swords’, 14. See also G. McVay, ‘Yankee Fanatics Unmasked: Cartoons on the Burning of a Convent’, Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia, 83, 3–4 (1972), 159–168; A. Nevins and F. Weitenkampf, A Century of Political Cartoons: Caricature in the United States from 1800 to 1900 (New York: Charles Scriber’s Sons, 1944), 9–10; Bergen, ‘To Awaken a Sleeping Giant’, 2; Greenberg, ‘Framing and Temporality’.
31 McVay, ‘Yankee Fanatics Unmasked’, 160; Shelton Caswell, ‘Drawing Swords’, 15; Scully, ‘Towards a Global History’, 33.
32 Gamson and Stuart, ‘Media Discourse‘, 62.
33 Kemnitz, ‘The Cartoon as a Historical Source’, 81.
34 Coupe, ‘Observations on a Theory’, 82, 84; Kemnitz, ‘The Cartoon as a Historical Source’, 87; Bergen, ‘To Awaken a Sleeping Giant’, 2; Shelton Caswell, ‘Drawing Swords’, 14; Greenberg, ‘Framing and Temporality’, 181.
35 Kemnitz, ‘The Cartoon as a Historical Source’, 87, 92–93; Greenberg, ‘Framing and Temporality’, 184–186; Bergen, ‘To Awaken a Sleeping Giant’, 2.
36 Widd, Pitt and Mills, ‘Every Story Tells a Picture’, 544.
37 McVay, ‘Yankee Fanatics Unmasked’, 167.
38 Greenberg, ‘Framing and Temporality’, 186; Werner, ‘On Political Cartoons’.
39 Streicher, ‘On a Theory of Political Caricature’, 444; Coupe, ‘Observations on a Theory’, 79.
40 Greenberg, ‘Framing and Temporality’, 186; Widd, Pitt and Mills, ‘Every Story Tells a Picture’, 545.
41 R. Morris, ‘Visual Rhetoric in Political Cartoons: A Structuralist Approach’, Metaphor and Symbolic Activity, 8, 3 (1993), 198–199.
42 D. Atkinson, ‘Patriarchalism and Paternalism in South African “Native Administration” in the 1950s’, Historia, 54, 1 (2009), 265.
43 Atkinson, ‘Patriarchalism and Paternalism’, 263, 265.
44 IANA Annual Conference Proceedings 1957, quoted in Atkinson, ‘Patriarchalism and Paternalism’, 267.
45 Atkinson, ‘Patriarchalism and Paternalism’, 271.
46 S. Dubow, ‘Racial Irredentism, Ethnogenesis, and White Supremacy in High-Apartheid South Africa’, Kronos, 41, 1 (2015), 243.
47 Dubow, ‘Racial Irredentism’, 243; D. Posel, The Making of Apartheid, 1948–1961: Conflict and Compromise (Oxford: Clarendon, 1991), 205.
48 Dubow, ‘Racial Irredentism’, 242.
49 Dubow, ‘Racial Irredentism’, 242. See also Atkinson, ‘Patriarchalism and Paternalism’, 265.
50 E. Klein, ‘South African Bantustan Policy’, in L.J. Pike, Encyclopedia of Disputes Installment 10: Published under the Auspices of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law under the Direction of Rudolf Bernhardt (Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1987), 393–397; I. Evans, Bureaucracy and Race: Native Administration in South Africa (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), 239.
51 J. Seroto, ‘A Revisionist View of the Contribution of Dr Eiselen to South African Education: New Perspectives’, Yesterday and Today, 9 (2013), 99.
52 Atkinson, ‘Patriarchalism and Paternalism’, 270.
53 Seroto, ‘A Revisionist View’, 94.
54 Atkinson, ‘Patriarchalism and Paternalism’, 270.
55 Atkinson, ‘Patriarchalism and Paternalism’, 270.
56 K. Norman, Into the Laager: Afrikaners Living on the Edge (Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball, 2016), 106.
57 Dubow, ‘Racial Irredentism’, 243.
58 Dubow, ‘Racial Irredentism’, 243.
59 Norman, Into the Laager, 106.
60 Posel, The Making of Apartheid, 229.
61 Atkinson, ‘Patriarchalism and Paternalism’, 267, 266, 267.
62 Norman, Into the Laager, 106; South African History Online (SAHO), ‘The Homelands’, https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/homelands, accessed 18 April 2019.
63 SAHO, ‘The Homelands’.
64 SAHO, ‘The Homelands’.
65 SAHO, ‘The Homelands’.
66 Greenberg, ‘Framing and Temporality’, 186; Widd, Pitt and Mills, ‘Every Story Tells a Picture’, 546–547.
67 G. Eisman, Epic Rivalry: The Inside Story of the Soviet and American Space Race (Washington: National Geographic Society, 2007); https://search-proquest-com.uplib.idm.oclc.org/abicomplete/index?accountid=14717, accessed 4 May 2019.
68 Seroto, ‘A Revisionist View’, 94, 97.
69 In member countries of the British Commonwealth, the British Government is represented by a Governor-General. When South Africa became a republic in 1961, this ceremonial role was replaced by that of state president. Yet, despite wanting to do away with British imperial symbols, the NP used a similar model in each homeland, where a Governor-General represented the South African government. The position came with the title of ‘Honourable’, a special uniform and a ceremonial chair to be used at official occasions. The English press was quick to allude to the fact that the pomp and circumstance that characterised the inaugurations of the various Bantustans was a smoke screen to provide substance to what in the word of Steve Biko was the ‘greatest single fraud ever invented by white politicians’. Frank Talk (S. Biko), ‘Let’s Talk About Bantustans’, SASO Newsletter, September-October 1972, 18–21.
70 Collins Dictionary, ‘Take for a ride’, https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/take-for-a-ride, accessed 28 May 2019.
71 Several cartoons which appeared in the English press during this time portrayed the NP’s efforts to get rid of black spots as if they were stains on a white cloth.
72 D. Scher, ‘Die vestiging van die apartheidstaat, 1948–1966’, in F. Pretorius, ed., Geskiedenis van Suid-Africa: van voortye tot vandag (Cape Town: Tafelberg, 2012), 325–343.
73 Scher, ‘Die Vestiging van die Apartheidstaat’, 338–339; SAHO, ‘Becoming a Republic and Withdrawal from the Commonwealth in 1961’, https://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/becoming-republic-and-withdrawal-commonwealth-1961, accessed 29 May 2019.
74 G. Verhoef, ‘Suid-Afrika se ekonomie in die 20ste eeu’, in F. Pretorius, ed., Geskiedenis van Suid-Afrika: van voortye tot vandag (Cape Town: Tafelberg, 2012), 201–217.
75 Atkinson, ‘Patriarchalism and Paternalism’, 263.
76 A matter that puzzled many was the long-term goal of the Bantustan to become completely independent economically, politically, and even with their own institutions of tertiary education, despite being encircled by South Africa.
77 J. Butler, R.I. Rotberg and J. Adams, The Black Homelands of South Africa: The Political and Economic Development of Bophutatswana and KwaZulu (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978), 15–16.
78 M.R. Frontani, The Beatles: Image and the Media (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2007), accessed 29 March 2019.
79 UN General Assembly, Policies of Apartheid of the Government of South Africa: International Solidarity with the Liberation Struggle in South Africa, 20 November 1987, https://www.refworld.org/docid/3b00f39d4.html, accessed 13 June 2019.
80 S. O’Hagan, E. Wulliamy and B. Ellen, ‘Was 1966 Pop Music's Greatest Year?’, The Guardian, 31 January 2016 https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jan/31/three-albums-1966-beatles-revolver-bob-dylan-blonde-on-blonde-beach-boys-pet-sounds#targetText=Released%20on%205%20August%2C%201966,has%20not%20been%20equalled%20since, accessed 29 March 2019.
81 College Fashion, ‘Musical Muses: Fashion Inspired by the Beatles’, 31 January 2019, https://www.collegefashion.net/inspiration/musical-muses-fashion-inspired-by-the-beatles/, accessed 29 March 2019.
82 O'Hagan, Vulliamy and Ellen, ‘Was 1966 Pop Music’s Greatest Year?’
83 Morning dress, the formal western dress code for day attire, consists of a morning coat with tailcoats, a waistcoat, pinstriped trousers and a top hat.
84 P. Brogan, The Fighting Never Stopped (New York: Vintage Books, 1989), 88.
85 Brogan, The Fighting Never Stopped, 88.
86 ‘Israel online news - The Jerusalem Post’, http//:www.jpost.com, accessed 24 June 2019.
87 Stidy, Over the Rainbow, 7.
88 W.A. Hachten and C.A. Giffard, The Press and Apartheid: Repression and Propaganda in South Africa (London: Macmillan, 1984) 39.
89 Gamson and Stuart, ‘Media Discourse’, 62.
90 Hachten and Giffard, The Press and Apartheid, 52; M. Armoudian, Kill the Messenger: The Media’s Role in the Fate of the World (New York: Prometheus Books, 2011).
91 The Suppression of Communism Act 44 of 1950, the Public Safety and Criminal Amendment Act of 1953, which was the direct result of the press’s coverage of the 1952 Defiance Campaign, the Riotous Assemblies Act of 1956, the Defence Act 1957 and the Official Secrets Act 16 of 1956 allowed for the banning of newspapers considered to support opponents of the state. The Press Council, established in 1962, was as a kind of disciplinary body, which many editors foresaw as the first step towards more restrictive measures. The Publications Act of 1974 gave the South African government the power to censor movies, plays, books and other entertainment programmes. In the 1980s, under the ‘State of Emergency’ restrictions, reporting on black resistance movements and unrest in the black townships was banned. Hachten and Giffard, The Press and Apartheid, 50–52; K. Tomaselli, R. Teer-Tomaselli and J. Muller, eds, The Press in South Africa (Chicago: Lake View Press, 1990), 99; H.R. Kolbe, ‘The South African Print Media: From Apartheid to Transformation’ (PhD thesis, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, 2005), 95–96; sqm5404, ‘Censorship: Apartheid Era’, ‘Yoku Okimasu’ Team Charter, 27 April 2014, https://sites.psu.edu/yokuokimasu/2014/04/27/censorship-apartheid-era/, accessed 29 August 2019.
92 M. Kalb, J. Rauch, D. Wessel and J. Kirchick, ‘On World Press Freedom Day, Brookings Experts Reflect on the Importance of a Free Press’, Brookings Institute, 3 May 2018, https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2018/05/02/on-world-press-freedom-day-brookings-experts-reflect-on-the-importance-of-a-free-press/, accessed 25 June 2019.
93 Hachten and Giffard, The Press and Apartheid, 38; K. Owen, ‘The English Press: of Broadsides and Broadsheets’, Ecquid Novi, 8, 1 (1987), 63–72; Tomaselli, Tomaselli and Muller, The Press in South Africa, 57–62; G.S. Jackson, Breaking Story: The South African Press (Boulder: Westview Press, 1993), 15; E. Louw, ‘The English and Afrikaans Press in South Africa: One Press or Two?’, Communicatio, 9 (1983), 14–16; S. Jacobs, ‘Tensions of a Free Press: South Africa after Apartheid’, Research Paper R-22, Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University (June 1999), https://shorensteincenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/r22_jacobs.pdf; A. Zegeye and R.L. Harris, eds, Media, Identity and the Public Sphere in Post-Apartheid South Africa (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 16.
94 E. Bird and S. Garda, ‘The Role of the Print Media during the Apartheid Era’, Media Monitoring Africa, https://mediamonitoringafrica.org/1996/07/04/the-role-of-the-print-media-during-the-apartheid-era/, accessed 26 June 2019, 8.
95 Tomaselli, Tomaselli and Muller, eds, The Press in South Africa, 61.
96 Tomaselli, Tomaselli and Muller, eds, The Press in South Africa, 61; Jacobs, ‘Tensions of a Free Press’, 2; Zegeye and Harris, Media, Identity and the Public Sphere, 16.
97 Hachten and Giffard, The Press and Apartheid, 52.
98 Bird and Garda, ‘The Role of the Print Media’, 7.
99 Kolbe, ‘The South African Print Media’, 5, 93–94; Owen, ‘The English Press’, 66; Louw, ‘The English and Afrikaans Press’, 14–16.
100 Kolbe, ‘The South African Print Media’, 7.
101 J. Frederikse, ‘South Africa’s Media: The Commercial Press and the Seedlings of the Future’, Third World Quarterly, 9, 2 (1987), 638–656. See also Jacobs, ‘Tensions of a Free Press’, 5, 10; T. Skjerdal, ‘Mapping the Gap: Finding a Raison d’Être in South Africa’s TRC’s Media Hearings’, Ecquid Novi: African Journalism Studies, 21, 2 (2000), 177–184.
102 Bird and Garda, ‘The Role of the Print Media’, 8.
103 Bird and Garda, ‘The Role of the Print Media’, 5.
104 T. Skjerdal, ‘Mapping the Gap’, 181.
105 E. Potter, The Press as Opposition: The Political Role of South African Newspapers (Totowa: Rowan and Littlefield, 1975).
106 Bird and Garda, ‘The Role of the Print Media’, 8.
107 Jackson, Breaking Story, 5.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Ria van der Merwe
Ria van der Merwe is currently working at the University of Pretoria Archives. She holds a PhD in history. Her thesis considered community craft projects as a means of addressing the lack of representation of black women in South African archival holdings. She has presented several academic papers at international conferences and has published numerous peer-reviewed articles.