What it took to make cartoons under dictator Amin’s regime

A strip of the Ekanya cartoon by James Tumusiime in The Voice of Uganda.

Photo credit: Pool

Three Ugandan veteran cartoonists, John Jones Salongo Sserwanga, Willy Ochaya, and James Tumusiime were making cartoons in the 1970s during the reign of dictator Idi Amin.

A new documentary, The Tongue Turns to the Aching Tooth, explores how their work has left an imprint on Uganda’s popular culture.

At 102 years old, Serwanga is still working at Radio Buddu in Masaka Town. He began his career as a journalist for Uganda Yogera in the 1960s, the official newspaper of Kabaka Muteesa of Buganda. His cartoons in Taifa Empya in the early 1970s depicted the daily struggles of ordinary citizens.

Between 1975 and 1976, Ochaya—a cartoonist and photographer known under the pseudonym Drink H₂O—drew more than 100 cartoons for The Voice of Uganda newspaper. His work was political and daring, addressing pan-African and women's rights issues. He now lives in the United States.

In the 1970s, Tumusiime became widely recognised in Uganda for his cartoon character Ekanya. After his career as a cartoonist in Uganda and Kenya, he co-founded the state-owned New Vision newspaper and Fountain Publishers in the late 1980s.

The 41-minute, 44-second film, directed by Michiel van Oosterhout, premiered on YouTube on January 25, 2025.

“There was only one Ugandan cartoonist working for Taifa Empya in 1970, and we have not been able to trace him, as he signed off with a pseudonym rather than his real name. Finding John Jones Sserwanga (who signed as JJSS) and Ochaya (who signed as Drinkwater) has taken years because they never used their real names,” Michiel told The East African.

“Many journalists at Taifa Empya and The Voice of Uganda did not even know who the men behind the cartoons were. Only Tumusiime, creator of Ekanya, became a household name as a cartoonist—mainly because he continued producing cartoons until the 1990s. Ochaya only made cartoons in 1976 and 1977, while JJSS was active only in 1972/73 and 1980,” he added.

In the film, Jimmy ‘Spire’ Ssentongo, one of Uganda’s leading contemporary editorial cartoonists, interviews the three veteran artists.

James Tumusiime

During Amin’s regime Tumusiime became highly successful with a cartoon character called Ekanya. A dare devil vagabond, published in the Voice of Uganda. He fled to exile in Kenya when Milton Obote became Head of State in 1981.

Tumusiime believes that politics and religion were the most sensitive topics that cartoonists avoided.

“The rest, we were used to. We could freely explore sports, family matters, school, and football, as long as it did not touch on Idi Amin or appear to denigrate Islam.”

Tumusiime says it was risky for Ekanya to venture into political satire.

“Your sense of judgement would guide you. Yes, but for you, Spire, you have come at a time of great liberty and freedom, where you can say anything. But in our time, if you talked about Idi Amin, they could shoot you on the spot. And it was not a mistake.

"Someone once walked into a butchery and asked for the head of a sheep or a pig, and the butcher replied, ‘Can’t you see I have the head of a human being?’”

“That night, Amin’s regime had just killed Archbishop Luwum, and people were referring to Amin as a butcher. So they assumed Ekanya was talking about him. His intelligence officers came to arrest me, so I had to run. I had a relative working at Makerere University, and I hid in his small flat on West Road.

“When they said, ‘You have got the head of a human being,’ they were talking about Idi Amin,” he adds.

Willy Ochaya

His work was political and daring, addressing pan-African and women's rights issues.

“I was tackling topical issues and some of the events President Amin was involved in, presenting them in the form of cartoons.”

He created two cartoons: Drink H₂O and Mzee Kijana.

Explaining the inspiration behind the name Mzee Kijana, Ochaya said, “All the different issues and policies introduced by Idi Amin fell under Mzee Kijana. When he was in a playful mood, he would behave like a young man. You know how young men tend to act in certain ways, and most of his Mafuta Mingi (Amin’s loyalists) behaved the same way. So Mzee Kijana had a significant social impact because people could easily relate to it.”

Ochaya says Mzee Kijana allowed him to discuss sensitive topics about Idi Amin and his inner circle.

“Amin himself couldn’t even suspect that Mzee Kijana was referring to him. So, yes, it was quite hysterical. And I have seen, for instance, how you, Spire, and Ogon have used the milking cow in discussions on economic development. I also used the milking cow in that sense—symbolising how people like Idi Amin and the Kakwa, who dominated the government, were milking the country.”

“And the poor were scavenging through garbage, eating whatever scraps they could find. Then there was the issue of fashion. The trend at the time was bell-bottom trousers. To make it even more humorous, I exaggerated them—drawing enormous bell-bottoms, so large that people could hide inside if the police were looking for them. Especially women wearing miniskirts; they would hide in the oversized bell-bottoms because they were huge,” he adds.

John Jones Salongo Sserwanga

Sserwanga says he was Uganda’s first cartoonist in the 1960s.

“When I joined Taifa Empya, I found there were no cartoons. But in the Uganda Argus, I saw cartoons, so I suggested to the editor, ‘Why don’t we adopt cartoons as well?’ He asked, ‘But who will draw them?’ I said, ‘Let me try.’ The editor agreed and said, ‘Okay, give it a go.’”

“I took it very seriously. People loved my cartoons, and once they liked them, they had to buy the newspaper. At the time, the paper cost just 20 cents.”

Sserwanga stopped drawing cartoons in 1966 but resumed his comic work when Idi Amin came to power.