Cartoons make readers think
Good cartoonist should have ability to see below the surface
and a voracious reader. ‘Observe that family there,’ he said pointing out to a family enjoying their meal in a corner. ‘The father may be telling his children about the dangers of smoking and yet he has a cigarette dangling from his fingers. That is an opportunity for a cartoonist to make an observation.’
Bader Bin Ghaith is a self-taught artist. As a child, urged by his mother to stay indoors, he picked up the rudiments of drawing while watching a television show . He followed this up with art sessions at the school he studied. His first tentative steps into the world of cartoons and graphic happened at university. ‘While in college, once I noticed that the classroom was dirty and littered. It was not being cleaned. When the problem persisted, I drew two Pepsi cans telling each other ‘Hello. This is my home.’ My friends urged me to publish it in the college newspaper, but I refused as I wanted to avoid trouble. However, I dropped the sketch into the magic box.’ Lo and behold, a few days later, Bader found the cleaners cleaning up the mess. His cartoon had worked. It had done its job. In the months that followed, Bader Bin Ghaith slowly discovered the power of the pen, and he drew attention to the problems faced by the students, and by the university. He signed his name upside down on all his work. He began contributing to the college newspaper and soon had his first solo exhibition as a student cartoonist in the university. Later in his career, Bader Bin Ghaith went on to work with different Arabic newspapers.
Bader’s is a gentle take on the quirks and foibles, hypocrisies and idiosyncrasies of Kuwaiti political and social life. ‘I believe a lot of what I draw is political cartoon, but then society and everything that happens in it is so closely connected to politics. From the bottle of water I chose to drink to the area in which I decide to live, everything is connected to politics.’
Cartoons have had a rich legacy in the Arab world and even now as the world grapples with issues facing the Middle East; cartoonists continue to work, draw attention, and try to remove the apathy. ‘Kuwait had its share of cartoonists in the early sixties, but although the government sponsored their studies abroad, when they came back they could not use their skills.’ But over the years, Kuwait has had an increasing share of graphic artists who have tried to make a profession of their passion. When asked about his parent’s reaction to his special gift, Bader observed, ‘My mother used to encourage me until the time I got into trouble because of one of my drawings. It was wrongly identified, and the case went to court. My mother told me ‘You are not a Gandhi or a Mandela. You are a simple man. Stay away from problems.’
At times, Bader is assailed with selfdoubts regarding his purpose in life. ‘As a teacher, I like to go beyond the written word. In fact, my students tell me that I not only tell them about the problems, I also give them the solutions, but the parents do not want me to do that, they want me to limit myself to the text. As a teacher, I want to use my freedom of speech, my freedom of thought to teach my students what is right.’
Today, Bader Bin Ghaith draws what he calls ‘smart’ cartoons that are effective without being offensive. He mentors young artists and represents Kuwait at international exhibitions. And as a human rights volunteer, he teaches Kuwaitis about the importance of human rights. And despite the risk, despite the threats faced by his family, and despite the lotus-eating attitude of his compatriots, he refuses to stop give up his idealism. ‘I like what I do. I will lose myself if I stop. I will lose my wings.’