Comics Quotes & Facts
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THE MIDDLE EAST
and
AFRICA
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Information about secular and general circulation comics literature from around the world
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All information is © by the individual publications and organizations noted as sources
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Bahrain
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Egypt
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Iraq
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Kuwait
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Lebanon
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Mozambique
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Oman
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Pakistan
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Qatar
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Saudi Arabia
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Somalia
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South Africa
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Syria
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Tanzania
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Tunisia
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Turkey
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the United Arab Emirates
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Quotes on this page are arranged by date, not by country
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"Teshkeel Comics is the Middle East's leading developer of comics and children's entertainment. Based in Kuwait with offices in New York, the company is the exclusive Arabic publishing partner for Marvel Comics in the Middle East and North Africa region. Teshkeel is also the originator of ... the first ever superhero team conceived exclusively from Islamic culture. Teshkeel Comics are available in bookstores, grocery stores, co-ops and supermarkets, airports and other retail outlets throughout the Middle East and North Africa."(From a Teshkeel Media Group press release, February 2006)
"EVERY self-respecting comic book has to have a superhero, and Nelson Mandela is the champion of the Madiba Legacy Series. The first of the series, launched by Mandela ... traces his story from his birth in Eastern Cape on July 18, 1918 to the start of his adult life in Johannesburg. 'You know you are famous the day you become a comic character,' he said at the launch ... The comics will be translated into all official languages ... Newspapers and schools will help distribute one million copies of the first one, free of charge. 'The medium is perfect for giving teenagers a powerful message in an easy format' (according to the publisher)." (From the Business Day in Johannesburg, November 2005)
As South Africa's first black president approached his 87th birthday, the Nelson Mandela Center of Memory Project, run by the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg, South Africa, planned a 9-part comic book series on Mandela's life and values aimed at encouraging young South Africans to read. "One of the sad realities today is that very few people, especially young people, read books,'' Mandela said. "Unless we find imaginative ways of addressing this reality, future generations are in danger of losing their histories.'' (From an AP news story, July 2005)
"A new Egyptian publishing venture which has created what it bills as the first Arab superheroes. AK Comics says its goal is 'to fill the cultural gap created over the years by providing essentially Arab role models, in our case, Arab superheroes to become a source of pride to our young generations.' " (From a BBC news story, 2005)
The US military is planning to win the hearts of young people in the Middle East by publishing a new 12-issue comic series. "In order to achieve long-term peace and stability in the Middle East, the youth need to be reached," a spokesperson said. "A series of comic books provides the opportunity for youth to learn lessons, develop role models and improve their education." The initiative for the comic-book project came from the US Department of Defense's Central Command, which is responsible for US security interests in 25 Middle Eastern and Arab nations. (From a BBC news story and the US government's Federal Business Opportunities website, 2005)
With help from US Army reservist Capt. Dave Seiter, Iraqi prison warden Wali Jaleel Jaber has opened a library in west Baghdad's Karkh Juvenile Detention Facility, the city's sole lockup for child criminals. Among the other Arabic language books are a supply of comic books and other booklets for children. The books and comics are used by social workers in literacy classes for the prisoners. (From an AP story, March 2004)
"The South African government is concerned enough about the disease [anthrax] that every year it distributes nearly 100,000 pamphlets - illustrated with cartoons of unhappy cows - telling farmers to vaccinate their cattle and never to eat animals they suspect may have the disease." (From a Nov 2001 AP story)
At a Pakistan book bazaar on a Sunday in Rawalpindi, a U.S. journalist reported finding Archie comics among the many tattered volumes of English-language books for sale. At the KFC a block from the booksellers, he discovered a portrait of Pakistan's founder, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, surrounded by six Colonel Sanders cartoons. (From an October 2001 AP Story)
"Syrians ... snapped up most of the 50,000 copies of the first satirical newspaper to hit the stands since a relaxation of the press law... Al-Domari, or Lamplighter, is owned by Syrian cartoonist Ali Farzat who became the first individual to publish a newspaper since the ruling Baath party came to power in 1963. Farzat said ... that during an exhibition of his work seven years ago, [current President Bashar] Assad told him that all his cartoons, many of which were banned by government papers, should be published. So when Assad announced the change in the press law in November, Farzat applied for a license. The 20-page weekly, which will carry an equal dose of cartoons and satirical essays, will address political, economic and cultural issues..." (From an AP Story, Feb 2001)
"Cartoons are widely accepted by Arabic readers. I have used cartoon tracts for years in evangelism." (From a Lebanese-American businessman in New York City, 2000)
"Cartoons are being used by UNICEF Somalia to enhance child survival and development. During the 1994 cholera epidemic in Somalia for example, more than 500,000 anti-cholera cartoon leaflets and some 20,000 posters were distributed country-wide. Two other cartoon projects which have been developed are a publication called Facts For Life and an animated short ... Twenty thousand copies of the 74-page Somali version of UNICEF's popular Facts For Life has rolled off the press, rewritten, or redrawn at least, as a 'graphic novel' by one of Somalia's top cartoonists. This new Facts For Life features a day-to-day account of a perplexed Somali mother and father who learn what to do in case of diarrhoea, dysentery, dyptheria and dyslexia." (From the Southbound web page with information on UNICEF Somalia, 2000)
"For a small country, rich in neither oil nor population, Tunisia plays an enormous role in Arab comic strips. The influence of its children's magazines is second only to those of Egypt, the most populous Arab state and the traditional leader in mass culture. Tunisia is, in addition, the leading source of children's magazines for all of North Africa." (From the International Journal of Comic Art, Fall '99)
"Muslim youth [in the Middle East] read little other than comic books outside of school." (From a May '99 article in Pulse Magazine)
As part of the efforts to rebuild Mozambique's war-damaged infrastructure, the U.S. helps support a land mine removal program in the former Portuguese colony that includes printing comic books in Portuguese warning of their danger. (From a Dec.'98 AP story)
"For our environmental training program in the Middle East, we found the most effective teaching method we could use was to present the information in comic book form." (From a Colorado businessman, 1998)
"Arab comic strips: to most in the West, the reality is so unsuspected that the phrase itself almost rings like an oxymoron. Yet Arab comic strips are a flourishing genre with an enormous readership and a political and ideological range extending from leftist and other secular modernist to Islamic religious perspectives. In [Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates] is produced the most successful and the most pan-Arab of comic-strip magazines, Majid. With a certified [weekly] circulation of 150,000 to 175,000, Majid is probably the most widely read children's magazine in the region, delighting readers in every Arab state, with the sole exception of Syria. In Cairo copies at the newsstands are snatched up the day they are put on sale." (From the book Arab Comic Strips: Politics of an Emerging Mass Culture, 1994)
"...In an evolving South African society, comic books have taken on a dramatic new role: in literacy training, AIDS and environmental awareness, and in promoting democratic political processes. Inspired by First World graphic novels and Third World literacy programmes, an independent group of artists and writers have established the first publishing house in South Africa to produce original comic books...[for]... the state health department... the Department of Environmental Affairs... the African National Congress... the state education departments... the Red Cross..." (From the Times of London, March '92)
Published in Saudi Arabia, Basim, a weekly magazine for 8 to 15-year-olds, offers its young readers numerous comic strips, short stories, games and educational articles. It has an audited circulation of 35,219 copies weekly, with distribution in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Near East, North Africa and Europe. The magazine describes itself as an "overwhelming sales success," insisting that "Nobody reaches Saudi children quite like Basim." (From the Saudi Research & Publishing Co. web site)
"Illustrated Publications (IP), an enterprising Beirut firm... built a profitable comic book business on the Arabs' fierce pride in their own rich language... Until 1964 most comic books in the Middle East were in either English or French. Then a forward-looking editor began to wonder why comic books could not be translated into Arabic. This editor expected it to be profitable, of course, but was equally interested in encouraging children to read more in their own language. On both counts that editor was right. The project was profitable... and it did promote the reading of Arabic... IP built up a circulation estimated at 2,600,000 copies annually... distributed in 17 countries to an estimated 270,000 avid kids..." (From an article in AramcoWorld Magazine, March-April '70)
"I was stationed in Korea during the war there and saw American soldiers reading comics to the illiterate Turkish troops. A U.S. officer thought it was awful that the soldiers were reading 'funny books' but the Turkish commander said, 'Please don't stop them--My troops are learning to read from this!'" (From a retired surgeon living in Albuquerque, NM)
"The literacy rate in Mtwara [southernmost port of Tanzania] is very low. Yet the few comic books so far available in Swahili - translations of the Bible Society series - seem to be 'read' by the semiliterate and even the officially illiterate. And they usually get the point of the story from the pictures without depending a great deal on the words. Additionally, the literate youth here are much more likely to read a comic book than any ordinary one even with illustrations, big text, etc." (From a Christian literature worker in Tanzania)
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Middle East and Africa
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