The Africa Cartoons website, a project run by Tejumola Olaniyan out of University of Wisconsin-Madison, collects and preserves both print and digital cartoons from across the African continent, making them accessible through digital means. Organized via country, the site is an excellent resource for educators, scholars, and comics fans, that makes available material that might otherwise disappear due to lack of local infrastructure. At the same time, the political nature of the cartoons can educate readers about the histories of various countries.
Ethics of Digital Archives
At the Digital Humanities and Art Symposium in Madison in 2015, Caitlyn Tyler-Richards and I presented about our work on the website and explored some of the ethical issues of digital archival projects. While feedback from cartoonists and fans alike was mostly positive and we knew we were preserving cartoons pulled from ephemeral media housed in archives that were literally crumbling to dust due to lack of infrastructure, we were also aware of our position as Western researchers presenting African history and art. The Prezi below begins with a walk through of the website and then discusses some of the best practices we developed and challenges we faced.
Cartoonist Interview
In addition to this presentation, I also conducted an interview with Nigerian cartoonist Ganiyu “Jimga” Jimoh where we discussed the history of censorship and comics, the importance of digital sharing, and his exhibition “The Change We Need,” which was on view at Michigan State University during the time of the interview. I learned a lot about Nigerian politics and a little about Jimga’s process. Check out his Facebook page for the latest cartoons. The Africa Cartoons website now hosts “The Change We Need” as an online exhibition.