Godfrey Mwampembwa, is a renowned political cartoonist. Originally from Tanzania, Gado has lived and worked as an editorial cartoonist in Kenya for many years, and currently works for The East African Standard in Nairobi. His cartoons have also been published in Daily Nation (Kenya), Le Monde and Courrier International (France), Deutsc he Welle (Germany), and The Guardian (UK) among others. He is the Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Buni Media, an independent multi-media company based in Nairobi, where he produces the weekly satirical puppet show, The XYZ SHOW. Gado is a recipient of many awards including the Kenya National Human Rights Commission Award in Journalism in 2005 and 2007 and the prestigious Cartoon for Peace 2016 International Editorial Cartoon award. In 2011 Gado was among 12 extraordinary leaders to receive a Visionaries Award from Ford Foundation for their innovative efforts on the frontlines of key social issues. In 2014, Gado was named as one of the 100 most influential people in Africa by the New African.

Nic Cheeseman is Professor of Democracy and International Development at the University of Birmingham. In addition to numerous book chapters, he is the author of Democracy in Africa: Successes, failures and the struggle for political reform (CUP, 2015) and over twenty journal articles including “Rethinking the ‘presidentialism debate’: Conceptualizing coalitional politics in cross-regional perspective” (Democratization, 2014), which won the inaugural GIGA prize for the best article published in Comparative Area Studies. Professor Cheeseman is also the editor of the collections Our Turn to Eat: Politics in Kenya Since 1950 (2010), The Handbook of African Politics (2013), and African Politics: Major Works (2016), and two special issues of the Journal of Eastern African Studies on the Kenyan elections of 2007 and 2013. As well as being the former editor of the journal African Affairs, the #1 ranked journal in Area Studies, Professor Cheeseman is the founding editor of the Oxford Encyclopaedia of African Politics, the Oxford Dictionary of African Politics, and the co-editor of the Handbook of Kenyan Politics (forthcoming). These days, he spends much of his time writing about contemporary events in Africa in a bi-weekly column for Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper.

On Friday 20 November, the Frontline Club hosted a premiere screening of the documentary I Am Sun Mu, a remarkable insight into the life and work of North Korean defector and political pop artist Sun Mu. The film follows Sun Mu as he prepares for his first solo exhibition in Beijing in 2014 while trying to remain hidden from the Chinese authorities – a feat that proves more challenging than he, or the filmmaker, had anticipated. The screening was followed by a Q&A session with director Adam Sjöberg.
The documentary is peppered with Sun Mu’s work, from rosy-cheeked North and South Korean children running through a pastel-lit field to a grotesque portrait of Kim Jong Il posing in a bubblegum pink tracksuit. The artist recalls life under the regime, and the subsequent paranoia of living in hiding, over bold animation sequences that become an essential part of the storytelling process.

#I AM SUN MU by #AdamSjöberg screened @frontlineclub! Powerful Documentary abt North Korean defector turned artist. pic.twitter.com/546OhzIxmf

— Mica Shibata (@Micabubby) November 21, 2015

Sjöberg began the discussion by answering a question on how he originally approached Sun Mu, particularly given the artist’s objection to revealing his true identity in fear that it would endanger the family that he left behind in North Korea over a decade ago.

Sjöberg explained that he met Sun Mu through the organisation Liberty in North Korea. “Over a relatively short amount of time, he grew to trust me… That was in 2013, and it was about a year later that I found the hook to pin the story to, which was the exhibit in Beijing.”

“As far as I know, no other North Korean has had a solo exhibit in Beijing that was not sanctioned by the North Korean government. So going into this exhibit, we already knew that it was going to be a relatively historic moment for North Koreans.”

Sjöberg later commented on the Korean conflict, saying that working with Sun Mu “helped solidify for me that change is going to happen on the peninsula… There’s a lot to overcome, but change is going to happen by people thinking differently about this issue and not toeing the party line because clearly that hasn’t been working for 60 years.”He said: “I was really interested in Sun Mu as a person because he talks about his divided heart. He creates images that are offensive to South Koreans as well. He’s creating images both of hope, but also images that are supposed to make you feel conflicted.”

When asked about how the animated sequences in the film were incorporated into the film, Sjöberg said: “Very early on, I had the idea of using animation to bring his paintings to life. My animator actually flew to Seoul and worked with Sun Mu to create the plates. The sketches were all inspired by actual sketches that we had him recreate for us, frame by frame.”

One audience member asked Sjöberg if he had been worried about footage from the exhibition being confiscated by Chinese authorities.

He responded saying that the curator from Yuan Art Museum, where the exhibition was being held, had actually expected it to be shut down by the authorities within 48 hours. “It was always known that this was not going to be an exhibit that lasted very long.”

Sjöberg also added that, “when the police started showing up, it became clear that things were a lot more serious than we thought. We had to scramble to make do, and be as safe as we could.”

Within hours of the exhibit being shut down by Chinese authorities, Sun Mu left the country. However, his work is yet to be returned to his studio in South Korea.

Sjöberg explained: “The concern is, will they make it out of China. That was his livelihood for the next year and a half. Luckily Liberty in North Korea has been great in supporting him, but that was an enormous body of work that is stuck in limbo.”

Information about I Am Sun Mu and upcoming screenings can be found on the film’s website and Twitter page.

Martin Rowson walked onto the stage at the Frontline Club last night with a pint and Laurie Taylor, presenter of the Radio 4 discussion programme Thinking Allowed and commisioning editor for New Humanist magazine, to which Rowson also contributes.

As you would expect from a satirist, the tone of Rowson’s presentation was humorous with generous lashings of acerbic wit thrown into the mix. The first to be treated to the latter was the absent Alistair Campbell, the “second most powerful man in the UK at the time… after Rupert Murdoch”, who in 2002 didn’t take kindly to playing a part in Rowson’s ruse to earn free meals at Greek Street restaurant The Gay Hussar. Rowson had struck a deal with the manager to caricature patrons of the restaurant while they dined in return for a meal for each drawing. There are 60 such pictures on The Gay Hussar’s walls now.

Rowson described the cartoon Campbell so strongly resented as some kind of vodoo, as "doing damage to somebody with a sharp object from a distance”, or a form of shamanism, stealing the subject’s soul and somehow revealing it on paper, an apt summary of what cartoons are about.

In a short historical overview he informed the audience that cartoons were more or less legalised in 1695 when the Licensing Act was abolished by Parliament, ending royal censorship of printing presses and paving the way for a free press. Or, as Rowson put it, Parliament forgot to schedule a renewal of the censorship laws, and by the time anyone noticed, they had already lapsed.

 Rowson documented his influences by his predecessors in the job, from William Hogarth and James Gillray in the 17th and 18th centuries to David Low whose most famous work was a chronicle of the rise of fascism and the ensuing World War II produced for the Evening Standard.

In a lively question and answer session he revealed how difficult it sometimes is to get a handle on a new character on the political scene, and he offered a rather surprising, though convincing, opinion on the Danish Muhammed cartoons, concluding that they were used in attempts by individuals to provoke anger and enhance their own power.

With his own cartoons being sometimes jaw-droppingly outspoken in a visual way, there is however a line Rowson would draw for himself: he only attacks people for what they think, never for what they are.

Cartoonist Martin Rowson will be speaking at the Club in his own entertaining fashion about the power of satire, how he uses cartoons to create acerbic critiques of the world of politics and politicians and explaining how he goes about his work.

Rowson has colourfully caricatured the political climate since 1982. His recent depictions of Nick Clegg as Pinnochio have brought him praise and awards (including Political Cartoonist of the Year 2010). In 2001 Ken Livingstone appointed him London’s first Cartoonist Laureate in exchange for one pint of London Pride per annum. This payment is still six pints in arrears, and despite being apparently reappointed by Boris Johnson, not a single pint has been forthcoming from the current mayor.

Rowson‘s work has appeared regularly in The Guardian, The Times, The Independent on Sunday, The Daily Mirror, The Spectator, The New Statesman, Tribune and The Morning Star, as well as many other publications. He has penned comic books, a novel Snatches and a memoir Stuff.

Rowson won the Cartoon Art Trust’s Political Cartoonist of the Year Award in 2000 and 2004, and the Political Cartoon Society’s Cartoon of the Year in 2003 and 2007. He also won the prestigious Premio Satiri de Forte di Marmi International Satire Award in 2006.

Laurie Taylor, who will moderate the event, is a sociologist and broadcaster. He regularly presents Thinking Allowed on BBC Radio 4 and is the commissioning editor for New Humanist.