Ogon draws more than attention at book launch

They say when you launch a beer, you will see youth, launch a song and there are wannabes, get a detergent and a mother of school-going child will be there, but for a cartoon book, you get everyone who matters and cares.

The care is for democracy and rule of law. And the weight at Plot 1645, Forest Village in Muyenga, told that Chris ‘Ogon’ Atukwasize, the man whose sketches in Daily Monitor have made many live longer from regular mirth, was celebrated.

“You are very funny, you are very courageous and you are a man of deep intellect,” said Katikkiro of Buganda, Charles Peter Mayiga, who was the chief guest at Ogon’s book launch, Ogon Drawing Attention .

Mayiga’s presence here was in celebration of the cartoonist’s works that have endeared many Ugandans to the role of art in democratic dispensation.

Accompanied by Buganda Minister of Information Noah Kiyimba,  the Katikkiro encouraged the audience and Ugandans to invest in seeking knowledge by buying books to read them and not just gather books to fill shelves.

You would have expected to see the amiable and very approachable Deputy Lord Mayor Doreen Nyanjura here. But certainly, again, not one of Uganda’s most respected army officers and past and present, General Mugisha Muntu.

The Alliance for National Transformation president, who until last week thought Ogon was a well muscled Acholi from Gulu – that Ogon name is straight outta Gulu – was here, maybe to confirm again from the cartoonist’s father that the guy of the magical brushstrokes was truly a Mukiga.

Of course, Muntu was celebrating the young man whose works have since 2013 been one of the salient acts in Uganda’s democratic dispensation.

As for the confirmation, Theodore Beshishira said his son was a rascal. No, he did not exactly say that, but you can tell from his cartoons, right?

Beshishira said he and Ogon’s mother thought the child was chaotic growing up. He was a doodling nuisance and moulded anything in sight.

However, when his primary school teacher tapped them and said their Ogon was showing possible talent in art, he knew the book launch on Friday was one to celebrate that prophetic message from 1997 when the cartoonist was in Primary Three.

“We took to supporting him with art books and materials and given his deep interest in news, we bought him a radio,” he said.

Ogon took the guests through his works that were displayed on a giant screen, explaining the concepts, while Joseph Watema did the Q&A honours, picking on former Daily Monitor Managing Editor Margaret Vuchiri, FDC mobiliser Samuel Makokka and Maria Nakato, a curator and crocheter with Muumbe Collective.

The launch of the book, whose production was facilitated by Kuonyesha Art Fund, was hosted by activist Anthony Natif, the lead at Public Square.  

Ogon Drawing Attention might be a cartoon compilation but it is a book that will continue to shed light on Uganda’s society for generations to come.