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#DrawingBlood

Ongoing #DrawingBlood Exhibition of Cartoons on Killings in Nigeria

#DrawingBlood in Buhari’s Nigeria is an ongoing exhibition of cartoons on killings in Nigeria. Through it, cartoonists chronicle violence, chaos, terror, insecurity, and death in Africa’s most-populous country. According to the curator, Dr. Ganiyu Jimoh, #DrawingBlood is an exhibition on the:

“…needless bloodshed in Nigeria. It is in response to the state of insecurity and indiscriminate killings in Nigeria over the years which reached a record high in 2018, the Cartoonists Association of Nigeria (CARTAN) took artistic obligation of distilling the obnoxious drawing of innocent blood in artistic expressions. Cartoons with dominant red color with themes around these killings were created and circulated in print and online media for mass education and participation between May and December, 2019. This was part of campaign against similar issue launched by The Arts and Civics Table Organization (TACT) on May 3, 2019 to mark world press freedom day. It was a brave attempt to lend critical voice to the state of the nation through visual metaphors drawn from different contextual allusions. A methodical examination of; the use, appropriation, and contextualization of these metaphors reveals significant patterns that may serve as pointers to some of the causes of the menace and why it is ongoing unabated. Through these works of satire cartoonists are able to provoke discourse on salient issues that may be too dangerous to express. Though some of these works are coated in humor, but finding it funny depends on the side you are in the “ring of audience”; as the exhibition reveals that it is difficult to humorously express terror to counter terrorism especially when you are on the victims’ side.”