Zapiro: The sword of satire

Abstract

Shapiro was conscious of the autocracies of the apartheid regime from a very young age. His mother, a refugee from Nazi Germany, was influential in shaping his social consciousness. He reminisces: 'By the time I was eight years old when Verwoerd died, I understood that this was a bad guy'. I didn't understand much about it, but I understood he was oppressing black people. In the late 1960s, a primary school teacher, Alan Kenyon, whom he described as having an 'enlightening attitude', allowed Shapiro to explore cartooning as a medium of social commentary. Alan Kenyon also shaped Shapiro's social consciousness through both meaningful and deep literature and light stories, which he refers to as 'comic doggerel'. For Zapiro, this experience and engagement with Kenyon proved valuable in his political awakening: At a time when politics was forbidden in the classroom he was clearly a political progressive, always promoting tolerance and humanity. 'He helped me open my mind and for that I am deeply grateful'.