Somalia.
Somalia
Somali comics history is mostly the history of political cartooning, and very little of it is written down in English.
Abdulkadir Mohamed Mursal began publishing hand-drawn satirical cartoons in the early 1970s and is remembered as the country's first newspaper cartoonist, working for the paper Xiddigta Oktoobar. After the civil war began in the early 1990s, the best-known cartoonists worked from abroad, such as Amin Amir in Canada, who draws in Somali for Somali media, and Abdul Arts in Norway.
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Somalia in 2 chapters
A short history you can leaf through. Click a page, use the arrow keys, or press Turn the page to read on.
Somalia.
2 chapters
Chapter 1
1973
to 1990
The first newspaper cartoons
1973
to 1990
Chapter 01
The first newspaper cartoons
Abdulkadir Mohamed Mursal was the first person in Somalia to create and publish satirical cartoons, starting in the early 1970s. In 1973 he took a job at Xiddigta Oktoobar (The October Star), where he became a famous cartoonist. One cartoon people still remember mocked the socialist government for failing to supply steady electricity in Mogadishu.
1990
to today
Chapter 02
Civil war and the diaspora
After the civil war began in the early 1990s, Amin Amir left Somalia, living in several countries before settling in Canada in 2000. He draws in Somali, and his political cartoons run in major Somali media such as Hiiraan Online. Abdul Arts, a Somali cartoonist and blogger, now lives in Norway.