Maddo's take on Nairobi transport wins him a CNN Award

Maddo with his award

MADDO (Paul Kelemba)  Kenyan cartoonist and creator of the long running and extremely popular It's a Madd Madd World cartoon in the Standard (see blog posting August 2013) was in 2015 awarded a CNN Award for his cartoon called ”Sorting out Nairobi Transport”. It was chosen from entries spanning 39 nations across the African continent.

CNN gives annual awards for outstanding journalism in Africa.  Paul Kelemba's piece was the first CNN award to have ever been given to a cartoon. It gives recognition to the fact that also cartoons can be seen as solid journalism.

To complete ”Sorting out Nairobi Transport” has involved a lot of research, sci-fi modelling, etc. And, as usual, Paul Kelemba pokes gentle fun at his fellow Nairobians which makes the cartoon even more enjoyable.

Congratulations to Maddo, who is, incidentally, at the time of my writing this, struggling in severe  sub-zero weather in Estonia on a visit to the University of Tallinn.

Leif Packalen

The Madd Madd World Special "Sorting out Nairobi Transport"

Iraqi refugees at "Hei Helsinki" comics workshop

Two panels from Firas Sabar's comic about his perilous journey from Iraq. The story ends with his arrival at Helsinki airport. Note: In Arabic you read from right to left.

Hei Helsinki arranged a comics workshop for a group of Iraqi asylum seekers. They stayed in Helsinki at at a reception centre, but the workshop was held at Kiseleff’s house in Hei Helsinki’s premises in three sessions in November - December. The workshop was facilitated by Leif Packalen of World Comics Finland. The Iraqi artist Mohaned Durubi did the interpreting at the workshop.

During 2015 an unprecedented number - about 30.000 - of migrants came to Finland to request for asylum. This put a lot of strain on the authorities, but also generated many positive initiatives from NGOs and spontaneous groups. The Hei Helsinki initiative is a good example.

Samples from the workshop:

Hasheim Jama's story about the car bomb that killed his father.

A detail from Khattab Uday's comic about the religious fighting in Bagdad. The man with the gun says: Either you follow us, or we will kill you.

A detail from Mohammad Al Fith's love story, which ends with a broken heart. 

Alaa Al Abady's story is about his journey to Finland and the reunification of his family here.

Posted by Leif Packalen