Talk with Zambian artist Milumbe Haimbe on her recent work …
The Soapbox: Dear Milumbe, it’s exciting to learn about your new comic book project and your according research. You’ve told us that you came across some graphic novels from the African continent that were of interest for your work. Could you specify the authors or protagonists for our audience? What kind of heroes and heroines appear in these novels?
Milumbe Haimbe: Aya de Yopougon comes to mind, by Ivorian author, Marguerite Abouet. It is set in Ivory Coast in 1978 and features the adventures of Aya, a rather studious 19-year-old girl and her friends Adjoua and Bintou, as well as their nosey relatives and neighbours. Another interesting one is June 12. The struggle for power in Nigeria by Abraham Oshoko. It chronicles the political upheavals that transpired during and after the elections held in Nigeria on June 12th 1993 after a decade of military rule, and of course the story is dramatized with some fiction and hearsay. There are a couple of other graphic novels that I have come across, but these are still works in progress and it may be too soon for me to go on record mentioning them.
TS: You said that you would like to “interact with the cultural gap” of lacking representations of Black female characters in contemporary graphic novels. I remember the examples you presented at the Refiguring Women workshop in Johannesburg in 2012 that were exposing a shocking setback in the illustration of women in this genre. In contrast to the emancipatory trends of the 1970s they are now again depicted as villains, vampires and sex objects. What’s your approach to challenge that?
MH: On the one hand we have the stereotypical – if I may venture to say – objectified representation of women in general in a lot of popular media, and on the other hand we have black, female characters in specific that are practically invisible within these genres. Either way, there’s a danger that this limited view starts to paint a constrained portrait of what a woman should look like and how she should act to the negation of alternative experiences of womanhood. I set my graphic novel in a not-so-distant future, which is dominated by a cult-like corporation. Social conformity in the interest of the collective is subliminally enforced through symbolisms and iconology while the economy is purely corporate-driven. Robots are created for sexual gratification and in this new world order human-women have gradually become obsolete. Then news spreads that the Corporation is developing a prototype robot that is so advanced that it is quite impossible to tell it apart from a human-woman. This is the point of departure in the graphic novel as it gives rise to the resistance, calling itself the “Army for the Restoration of Womanhood”. By portraying this resistance as a collection of both men and women, but mostly kick-ass women of various colours, shapes, sizes and temperaments, I am attempting to challenge that negative and stereotypical depiction of women as villains, vampires and sex objects. As far as interacting – within the framework of this project – with the cultural gap of lacking representations of black female, characters, I actually position a young, black, female character as the focus of the resistance.
TS: Could you tell us more about your novel as a diversity project? Is it linked to any social projects in Zambia or elsewhere?
MH: I call it a diversity project because the characters and situations represented in the graphic novel are eclectic and otherworldly, which I hope opens it up to folks of different strokes in terms of ethnicity, race, gender and sexuality. I am projecting forward to a time when whom we love or what truths we choose to believe in are a non-issue, regardless of whether we are straight, bi, gay, lesbian, queer, transsexual or gender-unidentified, wherever we happen to live whether it is in Europe, North and Latin America, Asia or Africa. The protagonist in my graphic novel grapples with her sexuality not because she is falling in love with someone of the same sex, but because her object of desire is a robot which goes against her core principles as a member of the resistance. This project is not linked to any particular social project in Zambia or elsewhere at the moment. I tend to think that the issues it discusses have a relevance that is far-reaching so I am open to forging links with other social projects.
TS: Thank you very much especially for allowing us a glimpse of your work in progress on Ananiya. We can’t wait for more …
Die
Am 21. September 2023 um 11:07 Uhr
You’ve mentioned the need to address the lack of representations of Black female characters in contemporary graphic novels. Can you elaborate on your approach to challenging the stereotypical depictions of women in popular media and how your graphic novel aims to contribute to this challenge? we have good student art in Tel U