On the shooting, or otherwise, of messengers. Plus some cartoons

“Don’t shoot the messenger!” we say in English.

The Waswahili have it different: Mjumbe hauawi, the messenger is not killed.

In English, it’s a plea, recognising that in anger we can so easily misplace the blame.

In Swahili, it’s affirmative, expressed as a statement of fact. (But if they’re so confident, why bother saying it?)

Either way, I don’t envy Judge Joseph Warioba his job this week. Or Samwel Sitta, as the referee, for that matter.

First up, from @Mkandamizaji (of Orijino Komedi fame) on Twitter, offers his respect:

Warioba be like >>>>>>>>>

Now, on to those cartoons.

Mwananchi took the bold step of putting a cartoon on their front page a few days ago, filling half the page:

“I want action, not words”; “slap him” – from Mwananchi 7/3/14

So what’s it all about?

Revising the standing orders for Constitutional Assembly – from Nipashe 7/3/14
(This is just about the arguments about setting the rules of the game, before kick off.)

More fundamentally, there’s one big constitutional issue dominating:

From The Citizen 17/2/14

On the same issue – from Nipashe 4/3/14

But it’s worth remembering that there are other issues at play here as well:

“This is where I can regain my reputation / popularity” says Sitta from Majira, 25/2/14

And finally, on a similar note. The Tanzanian cartoonists have been on top form in the past few months – they have had a rich mine of raw materials to work with - but this is my favourite of the lot:

Who’s the big fish? – from Masoud Kipanya (in Mwananchi?) 6/12/14

See also:

• Public opinion on the union question
• An earlier collection of cartoonists views on the Constitutional Assembly
• Two insightful takes on the preliminary rounds of the 2015 campaign: from Omar Mohammed (@Shurufu) and Jenerali Ulimwengu

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UPDATE:

Another cartoon, from the Citizen:

Warioba making his case – from the Citizen, 18/3/14