Khalil Bendib

MOI JR: I know that you just came out with a new political cartoon book that deals with a lot of the politics of the day, domestic politics dealing with the Black community, the immigrant community and the Arab community, as well as international politics dealing with the Middle East and North Africa. What prompted you to do this book and take up this subject matter?

Khalil: What prompted me, I guess, is my background. I'm able to connect the dots because of my background, because I am from an area that is Africa and the Middle East. I was born under French colonial rule, and that was quite an experience as a tiny child to be aware of all the injustice that goes on and the horrors of colonialism and all of that. So wherever I happen to be, whether it is out there in North Africa or here in Amerikkka, I can see these things. What really motivates me is that no one else in my field, at least in the cartooning business, is doing these things, so I feel it is my special mission.

MOI JR: Can you tell the readers about the book? How many pages does it have, and how many cartoons are in it?

Khalil: It's about 200 pages and about 185 cartoons or so. They're in several categories. You have all sorts of topics, whether it be domestically or internationally, about white supremacy at home or abroad. I have a chapter on the Middle East. I have a chapter on Africa, the Motherland. I have a chapter on African-Amerikkkan affairs and the things that go on here - police brutality, environmental racism and Katrina, you name it - and all the problems that we are still dealing with.

I have chapters on all of these different topics, and again what makes the connection for me is that they all bring me back to my origins, my roots. This imbalance in power and this imbalance in justice that I just can't stand is what I try to be funny about. It's a challenge, but I try to do it; otherwise people will not pick up the newspaper and look for the cartoon.

MOI JR: I know that you are a survivor of the "Battle of Algiers" and the Algerian revolution under Ahmed Ben Bella. Can you tell us a little about those experiences and how those experiences impacted your work?

Khalil: As I was telling you, I was born during that war of independence at the end of 1956, and I was almost not born for that reason, because my parents found their name on a the list of people to be killed as a retaliation for the killing of a French police chief in the city where they lived, and my mother was pregnant with me. So we escaped with our lives like within 10 minutes. We could've stayed right there like many Algerians did. One and a half million out of 10 million Algerians died during this war. And during the conquest, which happened 130 years previous, the French eliminated one third of the population: 1 million out of 3 million natives were massacred and destroyed.

So that whole background in genocide and racism and the whole horror that I was born into didn't really give me a choice; that's what I grew up with. And I have a couple of uncles who were tortured. You know these water-boarding techniques and all of that stuff that we hear about today aren't anything new; they were being used 50 years ago in Algeria by the French. And two of my uncles suffered from it. One of them died, and he was in his 20s, and the other one survived just barely because he was a strong man.

So all of that stuff, you know, I grew up with, and I wasn't able to tune it out, and it's still around me and it is in my face every day that I wake up. It is there whether it is in the media or just in life in general, and that motivates me to do the cartoons.

MOI JR: How do you look at contemporary history and what was going on in Algeria when you were born? And compare that today to what is going on in Africa and the Middle East, as well as to what is going on now in the United Snakes? How do you compare these two eras - the era where a number of African countries were fighting for independence among other countries and this new period of neo-colonialism where resistance seems to be stirring up again.

Khalil: Well, JR, it's been a long struggle. It has been hundreds of years, and it is nothing new. It didn't start yesterday with the Algerian revolution, and it is not ending yet. I mean, it has been going on for what, 500 or 600 years, and it's just relentless. I mean, no matter how many battles we win, it seems like they just always come back.

And I just immediately - not just me but the entire Algerian people - identified just viscerally with what was going on in this country, and it didn't change when I came here. I still see it and I feel it. So the connection is there. It's obvious; it's the same enemy. It's white supremacy, it's white colonialism and it's white enslaving of all of our peoples over such a long period of time.

As you said, it's not necessarily colonialism any more, but it is neo-colonialism, although we seem to be slipping back into straight intervention like with Iraq. You know, just go there and grab the country just like what was happening a hundred years ago. It's just amazing.

MOI JR: Well, getting back to your book, what is the purpose of political cartooning in your opinion?

Khalil: I think that the purpose for me of political cartooning is to make people think while you entertain them. That's sort of the little trick, you know. To grab people's attention, you do this in an entertaining fashion; you try to be funny. You try to draw things that capture people's attention. At the same time that they are laughing, you tell them something that they weren't maybe aware of or something that they haven't noticed or focused their attention on.

And I feel that the importance of a cartoon is to reflect on some important topics that, in my opinion and in the opinion of whoever does the cartoon, really deserve some attention. In my case, since I happen to be in a country that is dominated by this Euro-centric narrative, my whole job is to constantly debunk, demystify and deny what is being sold to the people by the mass media and their brainwashing.
I never run out of stuff that I have to do. I'm always reacting, thinking, "My god, I cannot believe that they said this!" or "I can't believe they won't touch things like the Jena 6." I mean, how long was it? Eight months that they wouldn't touch it, like it wasn't important. I mean, it's unbelievable.

They keep saying it is the post-civil rights era and all of that, but we are still in the thick of it. They wouldn't touch it. And what is the justification? It beats me. Well, the justification is a pure racist agenda and the same thing for Katrina. I mean, you pick up the newspaper, and if it wasn't for my information here that I get at Pacifica and from friends, I wouldn't know what was going on there. I wouldn't have no idea just picking up the newspaper or watching TV. I mean it is just unbelievable.

I mean the gap between reality and the story the media gives us is just like night and day. And so my job, and the job of people like us, is to try to rectify that as much as possible to try to motivate people, to wake them up and say, "Look, this ain't so, and this is what needs to be done." In a way, it is an activist role or a preacher's role or something. But I try to do it in a funny way or otherwise people will not read the damn cartoon (laughing).

MOI JR: What has the reaction been to your book?

Khalil Bendib New Orleans Negro Removal 1207

They don't like the message, it is something embarrassing. So, like everything we produce that is embarrassing, they just try to pretend it isn't there. So depending on who, it is a very good reaction or the same predictable reaction depending on who we are talking about.

MOI JR: Can you tell the people where they could get the book and when they can see you next doing readings in the Bay Area?

Khalil: Yeah, they can find the book at some bookstores around the Bay Area. If you don't find it at your bookstore, they'll order it; they know it is there. My website is one place to go: www.bendib.com. There's Amazon and all of those websites, but I'd rather you support your little local bookstore if you can.

So it is available widely. It's there. It's just a matter of being aware of it and asking for it. And as far as the events, just go to my website www.bendib.com/events and you will see the calendar there - where I'll be, when and all of that.

Email POCC Minister of Information JR at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and visit www.blockreportradio.com, hiphopwarreport.com and myspace.com/blockreportfilm.

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