Existing comment:
By the late 1970s, the political and social circumstances of the continent of Africa made a prominent appearance in Oliphant's illustrations. A variety of incidents were featured in his daily images of the period, yet his works share an awareness of how various African and European regimes sought to coalesce power throughout the region. Rhodesia and South Africa were particular targets of Oliphant's commentary.
Notably, Oliphant's works often pictured such political conflicts in Africa as racially determined, and his images relied heavily on dramatic visual contrasts of dark and light forms to do so. This unfolds in Oliphant's depiction of two hulking elephants. Labeled to represent black and white racial identities and described by a preponderance of black ink and the light color of Oliphant's drawing paper, the tusked animals threaten to charge one another from opposite sides of the composition. It is a seemingly inevitable clash despite the efforts of U.S. diplomat Henry Kissinger, whose presence appears both small and futile.
Oliphant also relied on difference in scale to articulate repressive political policies meant to subjugate black Africans. Suited white characters appear to subdue enlarged black bodies. Despite their diminutive size, the white figures couple physical aggression and threats with a denial of access to a free press as a means of control. Meanwhile, black African victims are placed on display. This takes the form of near-nude bodies laid bare visually and metaphorically before readers, or the imposing gravestone of Steve Biko, the anti-apartheid activist who died in the custody of white government officials. |