sending...Is it Mandela’s “Long Walk to Freedom” or more accurately Mandela’s “Long walk to Houghton”? A question often posed by Pieter-Dirk Uys a well known political satirist from South Africa in reference to the rather wealthy Johannesburg neighbourhood where Mandela resides, a far cry from his humble roots.
According to Uys, in some of his political sketches, when a bus is stolen in a township these days, “We don’t call it hijacking. We call it affirmative commuting.”
Political Satirists rarely draw lines that they couldn’t cross just as it’s rare to find a political figure who “enjoys” being lampooned. It is, therefore, not surprising that political figures at the mercy of satirists get tetchy, especially as satires tend to reflect the truth and are at their most effective in countries where people are less engaged with “formal” political discourse.
Political Satirists aren’t immune to the occasional law suit, as happened when, jokes about Jacob Zuma, the South African President who was reputed to have taken “a shower to minimise his risk of infection after having unprotected sex with an HIV positive woman”, threatened to derail his political career. However, what political satirists have in their favour is that very few politicians like to be seen as repressive or seen as curtailing free speech.
In recent years, there has been a plethora of great satires primarily aimed at lampooning politicians and the well heeled in society. Some of the leading satires are:
XYZ (Kenya)
The brainchild of East Africa ’s leading political satirist, Godfrey Mwampembwa. According to its makers, the XYZ show “challenges famous from Kenyan high society and politics using humour and satire” Obama, Michael Jackson have not been spared either
View an excerpt here: XYZ Show
ZA News (South Africa)
ZA news is a South African political satire that was taken off air for incurring the wrath of the ruling party in South Africa. It now broadcasts mainly on its website and on the site of the newspaper Mail & Guardian. The show has done more than most in highlighting the political ramifications of satires in Africa.
View an excerpt here: ZA News
