#22: International Womens Day

In honor of International Women's Day, this cartoon was drawn by Victor Ndula from Kenya in 2012. Though it is not extremely recent, it is still incredibly symbolic of the current struggle of women and it was awarded first place in the United Nations political cartoon contest in 2013. I think that while drawing this, Ndula did not was not targeting a specific group of people; this cartoon was intended for everyone's eyes. He is reaching out to women, indicating that various people, including himself, understand their current struggle. But he is also reaching out to men, by illustrating the daily strife of women. Through his use of subdued coloring and various symbols, Victor Ndula attempts to shed light on the lack of equal rights for women, despite their hard work, and that their struggles should be addressed. The entire cartoon is lacking in color and is very dull and monochromatic. This allows the audience to focus more on the subject matter, the working woman, with her various tasks at hand. There are also many important symbols in the cartoon that really stand out. First, the most obvious, is the large female symbol being dragged by the woman. Its sheer size, the symbols indicating its movement, and the small rocks and dirt being moved illustrate that the fight for women's equal rights is significant and not an easy one. However, the women in the picture does not appear to be phased. Her facial expressions appear to be determined while carrying this large issue on her back. The fact that she is also carrying a baby and a bundle of sticks along with her indicate the many jobs of a woman and how on top of all of these tasks, they have a larger one at stake. Ndula does an incredible job of illustrating the willpower and determination that many women all over the world have though picturing just one women, in particular. Overall, I believe that Victor Ndula really did a nice job in attempting to achieve his purpose. It is quite obvious that a lot of thought went into what was going to be pictured, in order to portray his message in the best possible way and he definitely deserved to win the United Nations Political Cartoon Contest. He shed light on an incredibly important issue of our time and did so in a very appropriate and powerful way.