Africa-Press – South-Africa. Award-winning cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro, better known as Zapiro, has been granted an honorary doctorate in education by the University of Pretoria.
Known for his satirical and controversial cartoons depicting events in South Africa, especially politics, his work spans four decades and has appeared in national and international publications.
“It’s really pleasing for me to see my cartoons being used in our schools and universities as teaching aids and in exam papers and textbooks,” Shapiro said during an interview with the university. “It’s therefore particularly special for me to be receiving an honorary doctorate in education.”
The Daily Maverick editorial cartoonist was previously published in various newspapers, including the Sunday Times, Sowetan, The Times and Mail & Guardian.
He pursued a degree in architectural studies at the University of Cape Town but switched to graphic design before his studies were disrupted by army conscription. In 1988, he went to the School of Visual Arts in New York, where he studied media arts, satirical cartooning, and caricature.
As his work sparked reactions and criticism, he has received death threats, has been a target of assassination, was detained in 1988, and was unsuccessfully sued by former president Jacob Zuma. Recently, his work about US President Donald Trump withdrawing US aid, in which he depicted Trump in a Nazi uniform sending out aid vultures to kill millions of Africans, was taken down by Facebook and Instagram.
He said that when the Cape Argus newspaper stopped publishing his cartoons in 1997, former president Nelson Mandela phoned him and told him he was upset about his cartoons not being in the newspaper any more.
“At first I thought that it was friends messing with me, but I quickly realised it really was Mandela. He said he was upset that my cartoons would no longer be in the Cape Argus; that he liked seeing them every day. I told him I was amazed that he’d personally phoned me after seeing my cartoons becoming more and more critical of the ANC. Mandela responded, ‘That is your job’ — and in that moment it affirmed everything that I was and am meant to do.”
He advised his fellow graduates to be mindful of how they interpret what they see and read.
“Being in the world is all about ways of seeing. Question what you hear, see and read. Not taking things at face value is an inherent aspect of free thought. Don’t rely on social media. Find proper sources and back up what you think. Don’t just swallow fake news and conspiracies.
“Be conscious of confirmation bias, be conscious of free thinking, and continue developing an independent way of thinking — with a lot of second-guessing.”
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