By BAMUTURAKI MUSINGUZI

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Chrisogon Atukwasize, 34, widely known as Ogon, is more associated with cartoons than books. But the Ugandan political cartoonist has published his first collection of humorous and dramatic cartoons to give his audience a compendium of the satirical pieces he has drawn over the years.

Titled Drawing Attention, it is a collection of laughs, but also a selection of cartoons that lampoon the powerful, political figures and ordinary citizens for their misdeeds.

Published with the support of the Kuonyesha Art Fund, the 194-page collection contains over 200 of his hilarious cartoons from the Daily Monitor newspaper in Uganda and elsewhere.

Ogon is a familiar name to consumers of this genre of criticism. He is known for targeting the mischief, corruption, greed, insincerity, arrogance, hypocrisy and impunity of Ugandan politicians, civil servants, religious leaders and ordinary citizens in his hilarious and hard-hitting cartoons.

The collection is divided into 11 chapters in chronological order, starting in 1986 when President Yoweri Museveni came to power.

The first cartoon in the first chapter, entitled "In 1986...", shows Museveni holding a Bible in his right hand and saying "So help me, guard". He is closely surrounded by mean-looking army men, armed to the teeth, with a jet and helicopter flying in the sky and military vehicles nearby.

The next strip is about the famous NRM Ten Point Programme. It shows the elaborate chart in 1986 and how it looks in 2023 with a rubber that has erased each point, and there are virtually none. The other cartoons in this chapter depict Museveni the illusionist and his failure to bring about the fundamental change he promised – the eradication of poverty, poor health, insecurity and maladministration in his 38 years in power.

A cartoon by Chrisogon Atukwasize aka Ogon. PHOTO | COURTESY

Ogon's third chapter, "Such A Mace", deals with the corruption scandals in the current parliament (the 11th). He suggests that in order to enjoy a free political drama, one should follow the daily chaos in Parliament.

Ogon pokes fun at the state of Uganda's economy, the spendthrift nature of the executive and Finance Minister Matia Kasaija's famous blurt "economy suiiiiii", a local phrase that implies the economy is growing steadily.

“The vehicle is in such a state that there could not have been a better relation to Uganda. And the wheel is a coin, the legal tender. This was (still is) the typical situation that when Kasaija said the economy was suiiii, you just saw it all in a flash,” says Ogon in his cartoon depicting the then governor of the Bank of Uganda, Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile.

He was drawn to run after a wheel that had fallen off his vehicle, which was Uganda.

Ogon looks at how President Yoweri Museveni has disorganised the opposition and bought off its leaders in the chapter "Off-Position".

Museveni's succession politics are covered in the chapter "Jump That Queue". The crazy things that happen in Uganda appear in the chapter "Uganda Zaabu!" 

“I have always had an interest in news and communication. I read lots of newspapers growing up, listened to the radio, and ended up developing an interest in news and events. Coupled with my passion for drawing, cartooning easily became the ideal mode of expression for me,” said Ogon when asked why he chose to use cartoons to lampoon leaders.

“Passion,” he said when asked what drives him in this form of protest art. “But since you refer to it as protest art, I, especially for the political cartoons, use them to highlight and push ideas and values close to my heart. But that's not so often. Most times it is just visual commentary...like a reporter would wake up to go gather news.”

“My creative process starts with reading and understanding a story. This is then followed by brainstorming. After this, I draw sets of thumbnail quick sketches of varied representations, after which I select the ‘winning’ concept. After this, I get to drawing...with a pencil, followed by inking and finally scan to colour using a computer.”

His caricatures are also available at @chrisatuk on X, Ogon on Facebook, and Ogon_Cartoons on Instagram.

He won the editorial cartooning category at the Uganda National Journalism Awards in 2015, 2016, and 2017.

He is a graduate of the Margaret Trowel School of Industrial and Fine Arts, Makerere University, Kampala.