Political Cartoons, Post-Colonialism and Critical African Studies

Abstract

Political cartoons function as a key indicator of the democratic health of a polity. These images provide individual, momentary insights into the expressions and experiences of power and the creative ways in which these are responded to. Through an exploration of the potential for analysis of political cartoons to contribute to the post-colonializing of knowledge, key questions of power, resistance and representation are addressed. This introduction sets the scene for the subsequent contributions while arguing for a broader, critical role for political cartoons and humour in research and teaching about Africa.