Khalid Albaih is a Sudanese political cartoonist and civil rights activist. He has earned international recognition as one of the most influential political cartoonists. His fight has no frontiers and his goal has never changed: using art to make the world a better place, as he told The Dialogue.
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00:00Next, on The Dialogue, we meet a cartoonist and champion of free speech and mutual respect.
00:08My name is Khaled Elbey. I am a Sudanese political cartoonist.
00:12His work has been adopted by many as images that convey their struggles,
00:19which in turn has helped open up conversations on human rights throughout the world.
00:25And every day I try to do something new. Every day I try to ask a question, start a conversation,
00:33because I don't want to let hope die, because we all have to work together.
00:38Khaled's work has evolved over the past few years.
00:42He's become a global force for promoting art as a means of emancipation.
00:55Khaled, thanks so much for joining us. Now, you are Sudanese. You were born in Romania.
01:07You have lived a lot of your life in Qatar, and now you also live in Norway.
01:13Where would you say you're actually from?
01:15I mean, I thought about that a lot, obviously. But, you know, I really think the place where I've spent most of my time with Internet.
01:24I'm there all the time. This is where my work is. And this is where I've learned and talked about a lot of things.
01:32And your work has inspired millions throughout the world, from the Arab Spring to Colin Kaepernick taking the knee in support of Black Lives Matter.
01:44How does it feel to know that the art that you've created is now part of those movements?
01:50I mean, I create the art to be part of it, you know.
01:54For me, it's about being part of these movements and showing solidarity,
02:00because I think this is, you know, really about showing the connections between all these movements that I've worked with,
02:07whether it's the Arab Spring, whether it's the Black Lives Matter movement, or the, you know, the Rohingya, or, you know.
02:13For me, it's, we're all fighting for one cause, which is injustice.
02:17So, I really feel proud, and that's why I take these things personally, because I am part of it. We're all part of it.
02:24You've said that freedom of speech is a great power, and with that power comes great responsibility.
02:40And you encourage people, don't you, to think about what they do with that great power.
02:45Yes, absolutely. I mean, because for a long time, I kept thinking, can I do this?
02:56What would the effects have on me, on my friends, on my family?
03:00So, when I moved to Europe and saw other cartoonists and how they deal with things,
03:08and that everything is just, you know, I can do whatever I want.
03:11But the question always becomes, what are you doing with it, though?
03:15Are you building bridges with that power?
03:18I think many people are scared to comment publicly these days,
03:23fearful of online trolls, the scrutiny that comes with cancel culture, for example,
03:31let alone the kind of persecution that you've experienced.
03:36How far does the pursuit of justice for others impact your own life, your family life, for example?
03:44It's a very scary thing, and, you know, you hear about it.
03:48But when you face it, you really start, you know, the question that really comes to life is, was this worth it?
03:57I have a family. I have children. I need to make a living.
04:01And you really need to believe in what you're doing.
04:04And you really need to believe in asking questions and pushing the line and pushing the boundaries.
04:12And now, you know, you're not only facing government's restrictions.
04:16You're also facing things like, of course, like, you know, cancel culture.
04:20You're facing trolls, of course, that, you know, that you need to also think about.
04:24And especially online, because it's just endless. It's all the time.
04:28And people online are more vicious because they hide behind the screen.
04:37We've spoken about power. When did you first become aware of the power of cartoons?
04:44I think since I was a child, I loved comics.
04:50And as a teenager, when I discovered political cartooning, and that world, these worlds collided for me.
04:59And then I discovered my favorite cartoonists. You know, I mean, you know, I discovered Najal Ali, who was a Palestinian cartoonist that got assassinated in London.
05:10And his work totally changed my life because his work wasn't only about the joke.
05:16It wasn't only about how good the art is. It was about the idea.
05:22Something else I know that is incredibly important to you is your work in Sudan, and in particular, the Sudan Arts and Design Library.
05:33Can you tell us a bit about that project, how it works, and just why it means so much to you?
05:39We started in 2017, and we were trying to do a book about the history and the future of Sudan.
05:48And the one thing that was missing was references.
05:51And that started the idea of, why don't we do a proper library then?
05:56But it focuses on arts and design.
05:59And by the time I tried to convince people with that, it was basically COVID happened.
06:06So everything shut down. And then by the time people got convinced again, it was the coup.
06:12And then everything shut down in Sudan.
06:15And then we said, all right, we don't want a building. We're trying to make a mobile library because we're trying to reach people around Sudan.
06:20And then we had a full program of screenings and books and workshops and all of that.
06:26And we had a great team. And then the war happened a day before we were supposed to start.
06:32So this is, you know, I always tell this example because this is how hard it is for us to start anything that has to do with arts and culture in Sudan.
06:45There's a lot of negativity reported in the world, isn't there?
06:48It's hard, I guess, at times not to get despondent.
06:51But do you also see hope for the things that you experience that you see that gives you hope about the future?
07:00Actually, yes. Yes, I do.
07:01And even though it's very hard because, you know, working in the news is, you know, you always see negative things, especially in social media, that you see a lot of, you know, negative news just coming in, coming in, coming in the replies.
07:12And then you find yourself that you're part of this cycle. Right. But, you know, once you step away from it and you realize that this is not what I'm supposed to do.
07:22I'm supposed to discuss different things. I'm supposed to discuss it in a different way.
07:27And this is when you discover that, you know, humans always found a way. The Internet kind of was that way around it. And now it seems that it is the block and people are moving around it to see what is the best way to use it.
07:42How can we be, you know, find ourselves again and get out of that filter bubble and get out of that vicious circle.
07:49Khaled, thanks so much for inviting us into your world. Thank you.
07:53Joining us on the dialogue. Thank you so much.
07:55Thank you so much.