Cartoonist steps ahead of time with satirical puppets

Some of the images that Kenyan television viewers are treated to every week by the XYZ crew. Photo | XYZSHOW.COM |

By MWENDA wa MICHENI  

 

Only last week, the American ambassador to Kenya Michael Ranneberger had a rare encounter with himself. At the Nairobi-based GoDown Arts Centre from where a team of local puppeteers work, one of the hosts at hand to receive the 'omnipresent' ambassador was a puppet that mimics his moves and utterances.

It appeared lifeless, harmless--even clueless, but the ambassador knew only too well that artistic appearances can be deceiving. When the life size thing hits the screens with annoying honesty and biting satire, the other side of it comes beaming with life.

This is what the XYZ show, a pioneering Kenyan puppetry programme that has been widely talked about since it hit television screens last year. In the case of Mr Ranneberger, humour laced criticisms aside, the television show must have also aroused his curiosity.

For over two decades, Godfrey "Gado" Mwampembwa has been entertaining and provoking his readers on Kenya's Daily Nation as an editorial cartoonist. He still does but to reach out to more people, the Tanzanian-born artist found his way onto the screens. With XYZ, the award winning cartoonist has found a new way through which to express himself at a time when media trends indicate shifting fortunes, especially for the traditional newspaper.

Apart from television, Gado is eying a slice of online audience that opens up territories he has hitherto been a stranger. For $299, viewers from any point of the world can stream one episode of the show. In future, XYZ that has attracted over 66,000 Facebook fans, plans to be on DVD and even mobile phone formats.

Power of satire

In some sense, the show screening on a popular Kenyan television station is a matter of passionate storytelling and a wicked sense of humour. It easily gets the audiences cracked up. "...and that is the power of satire," says Gado who is the show's creator and producer.

One moment you are with the country's Prime Minister playing his political cards in an unwieldy coalition government put together after the 2007/08 political turmoil, the other minute is a response from the golf loving President. Most of these XYZ instances invariably leave the viewers pondering over the issues raised.