Political Cartoons Capture Gaddafi’s Many Sides
Cartoonists and caricaturists around the globe react to the death of Moammar Gaddafi.
The former Libyan leader displayed cartoonish qualities for most of his 42-year rule.
Sometimes the focus on his clownish antics — like setting up elaborate tents to stay in during overseas visits –obscured the ruthlessness of his rule back home.
And Thursday, cartoonists across the globe reacted to the news of his death with some fresh drawings.
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Lisa Mullins: I’m Lisa Mullins and this is The World. Muammar Gaddafi ruled Lybia for forty two years. His image varied widely during those four decades in power. Gaddafi was referred to as a revolutionary, a strongman, a dictator, and a clown. Those depictions showed up over and over again in political cartoons and today cartoonists around the world reacted to news of Muammar Gaddafi’s death with some fresh drawings. The World’s global cartoon editor, Carol Hills has been monitoring the reaction. What are you finding Carol?
Carol Hills: Well I’m seeing all sorts of like a rat finally caught by the tail. I’m seeing the head of a scorpion. The head is of course Muammar Gaddafi and the rest of his body is being pulled away. There’s one cartoon with a sort of bullet going through his head and the bullet is democracy. So theirs a lot of different types of images and most of them are kind of mixed gruesome with the kind of age old cartoon look of Gaddafi.
Mullins: And the drawings themselves, the images, how do they differ today after Gaddafi’s death from those that were drawn before his death in terms of the images used?
Hills: Well, in recent months since the uprising started there have been a lot of kind of, you know, the line up pictures with the head of Tunisia, head of Egypt, and Gaddafi in waiting, waiting to be found and gotten rid of, but before that, I think cartoonists took much more liberty and depicted him in more of a clownish way and made fun of him less as a dark dangerous figure and more of a sort of funny figure.
Mullins: Anything in particular about his personality that they were pointing to in kind of the clown image?
Hills: Well it often comes up in the form of either him with his so called “nurse” and it’s usually a beautiful woman from Russia or Eastern Europe, or him arriving with a giant tent. I mean he famously travels with a tent. It’s usually quite an elaborate and beautiful tent and you might recall that, I think it was last year or the year before, he came to the US and he wanted to pitch his tent in various town around New York City for a UN meeting and town after town said, “No, we really don’t want you,” and finally one town said, “OK, you can pitch your tent her.” So it’s sort of his outlandishness and there’s less outlandishness in today’s cartoons since the announcement of his death and more of what a really horrible and vicious leader he was.
Mullins: And are you seeing a difference in the way Gaddafi is depicted from drawings generated in the Middle East versus elsewhere?
Hills: I guess the Middle East, I would say there’s more of a “phew!” you know, “That was horrible. This is finally over.” I think you get more of a sense of, there’s sort of a residue of Arab spring in the Middle Eastern cartoons because they’re living it. Whether it’s a Palestinian cartoonist in Jordan or a cartoonist from Tunisia or elsewhere in the Middle East, you get more a sense of they are in the middle of this story themselves.
Mullins: Versus on the outside.
Hills: Versus Europe, they tend to be more beautifully drawn and clever, but less allusions to the greater Arab spring theme.
Mullins: Alright. Thank you. The World’s Carol Hills. By the way, you can see a slideshow of some of the cartoons that were drawn after the news of Gaddafi’s death. They’re at theworld.org. Thank you Carol Hills.
Hills: You’re welcome Lisa.
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