Case studies


Marie-Martine Buckens



The key role of the SITIRICIL PRESS


 in the remoual of the sacred aura


 surrounding power in ffrica

The Lynx in Guinea, the Cafard Libr in Senegal, the Journal du Jeudi in Burkina
Faso, as well as the Gri-Gri International, a "refugee" in France, have ail been
subject to censorship to various degrees. Satire attracts censorship in countries where
democracy is barely established. The sociologist Souleymane Bah looks at this issue in
his thesis on the satirical press in French-speaking Africa*.


 small matter. This is something Michel
 Denouncing the abuse of power is no
 Ongoundou, publication manager at the Le Dromadaire
 Gabon weekly satirical magazine La Griffe, DU -
knows only too well. He is prohibited from working as -r* '-.~ .' -
ajournalist in his country, and his publication was with- .
drawn in February 2001. Exiled in France, together with
other journalists he has created Le Gri-Gri International, *
which is now celebrating its sixth anniversary. In
Guinea, Le Lynx an independent weekly satirical maga- 1 1N Q %/ZIYM"
zine is also frequently the target of sanctions imposed '**
by President Lansana Cont's entourage. ilu5 P, l 
The threat of sanctions does not seem to overly con- M11A
cern Mr Ongoundou, the director of Gri-Gri. He told N'A AQU
Souleymane Bah: "The press is like a drop of water j" 'IUIC
falling on the rocks. It's not like using a pneumatic drill. iiNT
You make gains bit by bit. We can see that the voice of
the ballot box, for example, does not work. So does the
opposition really have to be stopped?" J
His optimism encourages the sociologist, also a column-
ist of the Guinean Lynx for several years, but also shows
that there is still a long way to go. He said: "Seen, on the / -
one hand, as public entertainers whose words are without
great consequence, and, on the other, as an alternative
to the traditional media with its highbrow content, the r
African satirical press today plays an important role in
removing the sacred aura surrounding power in Africa.
But the question is whether its standing as a sacrosanct
force, and in particular as one of political legitimisation,
contributes to undermining its own efforts to clean up .
public affairs on the continent. As the popular Guinean
saying goes, we end up like a groundnut collector whose '
work is done going backwards." M
* 'Altrit, hybridit, organinalit. La press satirique en Afrique franco-
phone,' Souleymane Bah published by L'Harmattan Founded in August 1991, le Journal du Jeudi, popularly known as JJ', is considered by the newspaper
 'Courrier international' as "probably one of the best satirical newspapers which have appeared on the
 stands since the 1990s in francophone Africa". Pictured here is a cover sketched by Damien Glez. The
 Keywords cover pictured here celebrates the newspaper's 17 years of existence. Relations between the politicians
 Satirical press; Souleymane Bak of Burkina Faso and the newspaper are depicted with an air of irony. A curiosity: Hamidou Zoetaba
 collaborates with the 'JJ'. ourtesv ofthe Journal du Jeudi


SPECIAL ISSUE 2 N.E. DECEMBER 2008