FLY ON THE WALL: How a Tanzanian’s satirical pen has earned him a place in Kenya’s history

During the last ten years of Daniel arap Moi’s 24-year reign in Kenya, Tanzanian caricaturist and satirist Godfrey Mwampembwa, better known as Gado, succeeded in depicting Moi in a manner that no words could, and, incredibly enough, even had the late strongman himself in stitches. His cartoons also tickled Kenyans at a time when they had little to smile about until Moi stepped down in 2002.

When historians capture the facts of the second liberation of Tanzania’s northern neighbour, their narrations should include Gado, whose origins are in Mbeya Region, and who was not only there between 1993 and 2002 and beyond to capture it all, but was truly part and parcel of the testing of waters of Kenya’s liberal democratic space. This earned him enough epaulettes to be decorated as a hero of Kenya’s second liberation. Gado, who is married with two daughters, calls himself a true East African.

Whatever role Gado has played in Kenya’s second liberation struggle is so well documented, a story that started back in 1992 when multi-party elections were held for the first time under Moi in Kenya, which has since had the second, third and fourth phases of the presidency.

Gado’s fame and fortune would most probably not have happened in his native Tanzania. Moi’s iron-fist rule probably gave his career the impetus it needed to gravitate from an artist earning pocket money by drawing for fun to a cartoonist of international stature.

Consequently, Gado became one of the best caricaturists to have come from this part of the world, earning plenty of fame and glory. All this is, ironically, thanks to the excesses of the Moi regime.

Could a non-Tanzanian pull off a Gado in Tanzania and not only survive but thrive to tell the tale of the many ironies of our nation through satire? Could a non-Tanzanian caricature a sitting head of state in a manner that depicts the presidency in not-so-positive light continuously and get away with it?

The answer may be different depending on who you ask. However, that Gado stayed on in Kenya and made a career out of making Kenyans laugh at bumbling and fumbling politicians at the highest echelons of power says a lot about the threshold with which that country tolerates media freedom with all its attendant challenges.

In his 27 or so years as a syndicated caricaturist, Gado has achieved a diplomatic coup that from the outset may not be easy to see, but which runs deep in building bridges in East African and beyond.

His quest has shown that, if we keep open minds, cross-border fertilisation of talent and minds is not necessarily a bad thing. If anything, it is a great thing.

Over the years, Gado has gone on to become not only a syndicated caricaturist, but also the creator of platforms such as “Pikaboom”, a TV satire magazine show that has created jobs and succeeded beyond his wildest dreams.

At home we seem more interested in characterisation that mimics the power barons, but which does not show their foibles with respect to a few very respectable ones that you know.

When history is written, there shall be acres of columns showing that Gado did more in humanising Tanzania’s face in Kenya than many decades of political gerrymandering has and will ever do – all in his cartoon strips that can be also be viewed online.

Gado is a Pan-Africanist and his heroes are Mwalimu Nyerere, Nelson Mandela and Kwame Nkrumah despite all their foibles. His acerbic pen has made it possible to understand China in Africa, religion and the continent, as well as Kenya to the world. “With all their faults, Nyerere and co had intellectualism and leadership, and at least stood for something many leaders lack today,” says Gado in an interview published in The Financial Times.