Cartoons for everyday democracy

Sammi Mwamkinga’s cartoons in the MS Uganda’s Democracy handbook are humorous, serious and hit the point for young students in primary schools as well as offi cials in local governments. And the best is that they keep on being a source of inspiration for new ideas and projects.

By Vibeke Quaade

28. February 2006

The story about MS Uganda’s Democracy Handbook elections, and cartoons began in 1999, the year which MS had dedicated to the theme “Human Rights, Democratization and Development”. In MS Uganda a democracy work group was established to work on the theme and Rita Popo was invited to go to Denmark and take a closer look at the Danish version of democracy.

For eight weeks and together with eight other MS representatives from Africa and Central America Rita Popo travelled around Denmark in MS’ Democracy Bus and visited schools, old peoples homes, football associations, folk high schools, kindergartens, hospitals, local councils and the parliament. Everywhere the group had a close look at how agreements are made, how people interact and cooperate in all spheres of daily life and make use of key democratic principles where everyone has a say and all opinions count.

On her return to Uganda Rita Popo talked about her Danish democracy experience at MS Uganda’s Annual Meeting. In her presentation entitled “Everyday Democracy” she emphasized that democracy for her is no longer only about political structures and free but is about how people interact in their daily life.

A hit

Nobody knew it then; but the 1999 theme on human rights and democratization combined with Rita Popo’s experiences jump started a project which keeps on growing with great success. About half a year after the 2000 Annual Meeting the distribution of the fi rst Democracy Handbook began. The reactions to the handbook were very positive. However, the democracy work group suggested making a cartoon out of the Democracy Handbook. The Tanzanian born cartoonist Sammi Mwamkinga was contacted, and by 2002 the fi rst democracy cartoon: Democracy - your handbook was published.

The democracy cartoons were a big hit and were in great demand. And while they were revised and extended in the following years and other democracy material evolved including calendars and posters, the good news about the humorous yet serious democracy cartoons spread in ever-widening circles.

For various target groups

At the Annual Meeting in 2000 Rita Popo wished that everyday democracy could be part of all Ugandans’ life, and she suggested beginning with democracy education in Primary School. Rita believed a miracle had to happen for it to become reality.

However, something indicates that wonders never cease.

Six years later Rita Popo is busy developing democracy teaching methods and a teaching manual to accompany the democracy cartoons and the other democracy material. Commissioned through MS Uganda by the National Curriculum Development Centre, which are working towards a more thematic approach in the Ugandan school systems starting in June 2006, Rita collaborates with her Danish teacher colleague Mie Hersted and the Ugandan politician and consultant Alex Jurua, who among other projects was part of the team which developed The Ugandan Constitution. To help them test their material, the team consults primary school teachers and representatives from secondary schools, civil society groups and adult education. The long term goal is that the democracy material will be useful for various target groups. However, in the beginning of 2006 the first issues of the democracy teaching methods and manuals were ready.

Great demand

Other parties have also expressed their interest in the cartoons and the other material. One of them is Uganda’s Local Government Association (ULGA) the other is the Ministry of Local Government, which has commissioned MS Uganda and Rita and her team to develop the democracy manuals for the training of local government leaders as well as for incorporation into the manuals of the Ministry of Local Government’s training modules.

Furthermore, MS Uganda was contracted by the National Civic Education Programme (NCEP), to be one of the five Ugandan CSOs to carryout a national civic education programme as Uganda transits to a multiparty system. And also the Electoral Commission has expressed interest in using newly revised posters in their Voter Education.

Democracy at home
Rita Popo is glad that back in 1989, she was inspired by her experiences with daily life democracy. And she is not only glad because she and her team are soon done with the democracy material for the primary school, but also because democracy indeed has become part of her own daily life. When Rita’s youngest teenage daughter does not feel that her parents live up to their own ideals about participatory decision making she just looks up at democracy posters in their living room. The parents then know that they succeeded in planting a seed of democracy.