(AGN) – Sergio Picarra, popular cartoonist of Angola, has received the Franco-German Prize for Human Rights and the Rule of Law, it was announced this week. It was a first for an Angolan satirist.
Created in 2016, the prize is awarded every year to human rights defenders around the world. Recipients include lawyers who represent human rights defenders and journalists who delve into the under-reported stories.
More than 70 entries were received by the French and German Ministries of Foreign Affairs and 15 winners were chosen.
Born in Luanda, Picarra works from his home in Angola, where he studies national and international newspapers for fodder for his drawings.
His work was shaped by Angola’s recent history as a country that became independent in 1975. His pieces appear in independent weekly newspapers and his comics are also shared on social networks. He collaborates with numerous civil society organizations. His drawings have become a standard point of reference for political discussions, such as on the reform policies of the Angolan Government.
He began his career as a cartoonist in 1990, giving life to the well-known character “Mankiko, the undefeatable,” a problematic individual who criticizes the political and social contexts of Angolan reality.
Besides Mankiko, Sérgio Piçarra gave life to another character, Esperança, a young girl who carries her brother on her back, which aims to draw society’s attention to another reality very common in Angola.
In 2019, he became the first Angolan cartoon artist to participate in the initiative Cartooning for Peace in Africa.
“For me, it represents a way of expressing my critical view of what goes on in society, in politics, in everything, but especially in politics because this type of cartoon is the editorial cartoon that is exactly dedicated to the analysis, let’s say, humorous, satirical of political events,” he told Euronews.
Picarra’s work also appears in the Encyclopedia of African Political Cartooning. w/pix of S. Picarra
By Lisa Vives / GIN
Africa Global News Publication
