DOHA, Qatar — THERE are many players in a protest — the sign makers, the rabble rousers, the logisticians. And then there are the political cartoonists, who sketch the events unfolding on the streets and, if they are like Khalid Albaih, inspire even more tumult. Lanky, with thick glasses and a nerdy air, Mr. Albaih does not look the part of a rebel. By day, he works in multimedia for the Qatar Museum Authority here, sitting behind a 27-inch iMac screen with a Superman bobblehead doll on his desk. After hours, though, he becomes a cartoonist with an attitude, one whose online work has inspired discontented youth across the Arab world. While the Arab Spring has led to considerable instability and uncertainty, Mr. Albaih continues to wield his pen as he surveys the region. “I hate it when people say it failed; it took the French Revolution 70 years to settle!” he said in a break from his jotting, which is part traditional ink on paper and part computer design. Born in Romania — his father was based there as a Sudanese diplomat — Mr. Albaih, 33, was exposed early in life to both hard-edge political and social issues, and cartoons. His father was fired by Sudan’s military government in 1989. His mother, an activist, campaigned against the practice of female genital mutilation in Sudan. “I love comics, and my dad used to bring home an Egyptian magazine called Sabah al-Kheir that heavily relied on cartoons,” he said in an interview that mixed English with Arabic. “It was amazing to me how effective cartoons were.” Signs of his creativity, and talent, were evident early on. One of the first characters he created as a child was “Supernamusa,” a superhero mosquito on a mission to rid Sudan and the world not of evil in general, but of malaria. “He was a hero fighting his own kind,” recalls Mr. Albaih, laughing. “Malaria was everywhere in Sudan!” He followed the work of many cartoonists, but his greatest inspiration was the Palestinian cartoonist Naji al-Ali, who was renowned for his criticism of Arab governments and the Israeli occupation of Arab lands, through his character Handala. “His work was so simple yet so deep,” Mr. Albaih said. Mr. Ali’s cartoons were also provocative. He was shot to death in 1987 outside the London offices of the Kuwaiti newspaper that published his hard-edge caricatures; the crime remains unsolved. Cartooning, sometimes an inspiration to protesters, has also fomented anger. Demonstrations broke out across the world in 2006 after a Danish newspaper published editorial cartoons satirizing the Prophet Muhammad. Early on, Mr. Albaih had a difficult time finding anyone to publish his work. He received rejection after rejection. “It was these old guys behind big desks who had no idea about technology,” he said. “They would tell me ‘This is not caricature!’ ” Not one to give up easily, Mr. Albaih turned to social media. “Khartoon!” is the name of his Facebook page, a play on Khartoum, the Sudanese capital. He posts cartoons addressing the politics of his native Sudan as well as developments across the rest of the Arab world. Among those who first noticed his work was Rana Jarbou, 31, a Saudi social researcher. “I felt his consciousness in his work,” she said. “He was able to address what would be controversial, political or complicated in very simple graphic representations of our realities.” Months after his page made its debut, a disenfranchised fruit vendor in Tunisia set himself ablaze, setting off revolutions across the region. Mr. Albaih was ready to document the history-making developments through cartoons. Mr. Albaih’s “The Rest Will Follow” was one foretelling cartoon. It featured a fist with different Arab flags painted on each finger. The Tunisian flag was affixed to the raised middle finger, a message Mr. Albaih meant for Arab dictators. Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution succeeded; soon revolutionaries poured into the streets in Egypt. But when Hosni Mubarak, the longtime Egyptian leader, showed no signs of ceding power, Mr. Albaih posted a silhouette of Mr. Mubarak’s face with the word “Egypt” in Arabic next to it. It was marked with an accent, though, that altered the word’s meaning to “insistent.” Soon after, Mr. Albaih received an e-mail from a protester in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, telling him that his political cartoon had become a symbol for the Egyptian protesters, spray painted on the streets as antigovernment graffiti. HIS renown as cartoonist to the revolution only grew. “I suddenly started to get all these ‘likes’ on my Facebook page,” he said. “It was crazy.” Mr. Albaih’s work was reproduced on walls in Cairo and Beirut and spread to the Facebook pages of revolutionary youth in Sana, Yemen; Khartoum; Tripoli, Lebanon; Tunis; Algiers and elsewhere. While parts of the Arab World were caught up in revolution, a different type of change was happening in Sudan. Early in 2011, the country split in two as South Sudan voted in a referendum to become an independent nation. Mr. Albaih understood the desire of the South Sudanese to govern themselves but was nonetheless saddened by the division of the country. One of his most popular cartoons became “Sudan Needs a Hug,” which reflected the overwhelming feeling of sadness and failure that many northern Sudanese felt when Sudan split into two. “I couldn’t do anything else in reality to prevent the separation but do what I do best — draw,” Mr. Albaih said. THAT sense of despair, born after years of war, poverty, corruption and dictatorship, then turned into anger and protests. After some initial demonstrations in 2011, Sudanese youth took to the streets again in the summer of 2012 in an effort that ultimately failed to bring the Arab Spring to their country. Mr. Albaih not only drew about it. He flew to Sudan and joined the protests. “I was even hit by a tear-gas canister,” he said. Sudan’s unrest was controlled by the security forces, but Mr. Albaih’s art left a mark. “Khalid broke a barrier,” said Amru Elfil, 33, a Sudanese follower of Mr. Albaih’s work. “There were no Sudanese cartoonists online. He motivated a lot of people. Now you see more.” Two years on, Mr. Albaih’s art continues to spread. This year, Reporters Without Borders used one of his cartoons for the organization’s 2013 New Year’s postcard. Among his current projects is an illustrated history book of Sudan. Mr. Albaih, who lives in Doha with his wife and infant daughter, continues his political sketches, drawing both admiration and fury. “Yeah, sometimes I get e-mails from Sudan telling me, ‘You’re a Communist!’ or from Syria, telling me to mind my own business and to look at my own country,” he said. He knows that his work has the potential to rile government officials throughout the region but at the same time he cannot imagine not drawing. “I am careful, but if something happens, it happens,” he said. Despite all the notoriety, Mr. Albaih appeared surprised by all the buzz his creations have caused. “I don’t think I’m famous,” he said. While that may be true, on the streets of the Arab world, some of his cartoons certainly are.
Posted on: Sat, 08 Jun 2013 22:09:31 +0000
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