Hi Nathi. Thanks for talking to us. Can you introduce yourself?
My name is Nathi Ngubane and I am a South African illustrator, cartoonist, and author. My artistic journey began at the age of six, and by my teens, I had developed a passion for writing. I was particularly inspired by the work of renowned South African cartoonists like Zapiro, Dr. Jack & Curtis, and Nanda Soobben, which led me to political cartooning.
After earning a diploma in Graphic Design from the Durban University of Technology, I began my professional career as a political cartoonist for The Daily Vox and later The Citizen. My focus eventually shifted from politics to my deeper passion: illustrating stories of social justice and human rights.
In 2020, I authored and illustrated my first children’s book, Duma Says: Wash Your Hands, Wear a Mask!, which highlights how children from disadvantaged backgrounds not only survived but thrived during the COVID-19 pandemic.
I currently work as a social justice cartoonist for the Daily Maverick in South Africa, where I continue to use my art to advocate for change.
Last year you published a colouring book called From the River to the Sea. What’s that about?
I’ve wanted to do something on Palestine for many, many years. In 2014, with my publisher Azad Essa, we launched a website called the Daily Vox. I was the cartoonist, That was the first time I touched on Palestine. But over the years I wanted to do more.
Then October 7 happened. South African lawyers approached the ICJ with the charge of genocide against the Israeli government. I was working with a fantastic team called Social Bandit Media which does a lot of research.
Our aim is to create learning materials that will help kids make sense of the world around them. You could say it’s an intervention. We try to introduce difficult topics to children. Kids are never too young to learn about what is happening around them.
After our lawyers approached the ICJ, we decided to create not just a colouring book, but something called From the River to the Sea which would be a gateway into Palestine. Kids get to learn about the Nakba. They get to learn about literary icons, like Edward Said and Ghassan Kanafani, about activists like Ahed Tamimi. They also get to learn about Nelson Mandela and what he said about the Palestinian cause when he was alive.
We knew that the title would be quite controversial. But I always stand by the fact that this title isn’t antisemitic. ‘From the river to the sea’ is an inspirational call for freedom and justice and self-determination for the Palestinians. Advocating for the rightful return to a land of a people that was taken over 75 years ago isn’t antisemitic at all.
We want to teach kids empathy and hope. We want to teach kids about what their peers are going through in this genocide and in this ethnic cleansing.
Who is the book for? What age range are you aiming at?
The book is really aimed at kids between six and ten. None of my family members knew about the Palestinian conflict. They thought that everything was so complicated and there was so much information to take in.
This book is for everyone to really start learning about Palestine from the land, to the Nakba, to the literary icons, and to learn about the journalists who have sacrificed themselves while reporting, about what is happening in Gaza and what link there is to South Africa.
Nelson Mandela is featured in the book and what he did during the time he was alive. So this book is really for everyone in spirit.
Does Soweto have a particular link with Palestine?
We definitely have a shared history of oppressive systems such as apartheid. I was fortunate enough not to have witnessed apartheid because I was born in 1990. That was also the year when Nelson Mandela was released from prison.
We’ve seen the struggle of Palestinians. We feel that as Africans, our struggles are universal and interconnected. Nelson Mandela said while he was alive that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of Palestinians. We still see and feel the legacy of Apartheid South Africa today, through economic inequality and millions of South Africans still having no access to land.
If Israel can do what they are doing to Palestinians, we are going to be next. They are already oppressing us for supporting Palestinians and their right to return. We definitely share the same struggle.
In South Africa the book doesn’t go down well universally. In some places, it was banned. What happened and why?
We officially launched From the River to the Sea on 25th February 2024. In May, we held our official launch in South Africa. At the end of that same month, the South African Jewish Board of Deputies caught wind of the book and put out a statement on Facebook, accusing the book of antisemitism. They said that it advocated the obliteration of the Jewish people.
This influenced many Zionists to contact South Africa’s biggest bookchain, Exclusive books to remove our book from their bookshelves. That started the backlash in South Africa.
The book was extensively researched. Before we published anything, we consulted with professionals and scholars like Ilan Pappe. We made sure that all the content was age friendly for kids to consume. There is no single page in our colouring book that promotes hate or violence.
Exclusive Books put out two statements, one of them stating that they do not approve or censor books. The other statement said that after carefully reviewing the content of this book, they found it not to be offensive. So the book has been reinstated by Exclusive Books and I guess the Jewish board of Deputies in South Africa didn’t win in silencing Palestinian voices..
Have you experienced other forms of censorship?
Earlier this year, Israeli police raided the Educational Bookshop in East Jerusalem. During the raid, officers used online translators to confiscate books containing the word “Palestine” or images of its flag, and among the materials seized was our colouring book, which they cited as evidence of “incitement and support for terrorism” . The official Israeli police account even featured our book in a social media post to further justify their raid.
Then there was the Paris backlash. The book store Violette and Co was bullied and harassed online for having such a colouring book, which, again, has been labelled as Hamas propaganda.
And now the backlash has come to Germany. There was an article this week in the Jüdische Allgemeine which claimed that the book propagates conspiracy theories against Israel, and depicts Palestine as being peaceful and Israeli soldiers as aggressive.
I find that to be completely ridiculous. Zionists and supporters of Israel have asked me: “What about telling both sides of the story?” My answer today is always: “there is no both sides of the story when a genocide is happening”.
Israel has been trying to change the narrative and silence Palestinian voices. The more Palestinian voices are silenced or accused as being antisemitic, the more they will be met with solidarity from our side.
It’s really heartbreaking when you get to read about Palestinian children like Hind Rajab, who was murdered by the IDF. They have no outrage for the murder of Palestinian children. But you have a colouring book that aims to humanise a people who have been dehumanized for more than 75 years. A book that aims to shine light about their culture, their history, their activism, their right to return to their homeland. This book is then labelled as antisemitic and hateful?
There are no hate messages in this book. It’s just a message of solidarity, resistance and justice. The backlash has aimed to try and silence Palestinian narrative, which is absolutely never going to happen. We will continue to advocate and continue to amplify Palestinian voices.
The backlash is having some effects in Germany. Your publishers Hugendubel have withdrawn the book? What’s their justification for this?
I guess their justification in pulling the book is to amplify the propaganda of Israel, and this victimhood that Israel is always playing. Israel’s narrative is getting weaker and weaker. They are trying so hard to ensure that Palestinians are silent.
Of course, we can challenge literature that we do not “agree with”, but being banned, being removed, and being called “hateful material”? We cannot fight hate with hate. We are fighting hate with truth through our research on the work that we do.
My latest book Malcolm X in Gaza continues the conversation about Palestine and touches on Malcolm’s very little known visit to the Middle East in the 1960s. This is our way of continuing the conversation of Palestine and to keep Gaza alive through our speeches, through our poetry, through our art and writing.
Christmas is coming up, and people are looking for presents. Your book is not available in German book stores at the moment. Is there any other way that people can order it?
The UK Friends of Al-Aqsa have the book available.
Are you aware of any campaigns in Germany to get the book republished? Or should activists in Germany be starting a campaign.
I’m unaware at the moment of any campaign to republish the book in Germany, but I did come across a gentleman who visited South Africa from Germany last year. He wanted to translate the book and make it widely available in German. I’ll have a chat with him and let him know about the latest backlash and we’ll talk about getting the book into Germany and possibly translated.
If there’s anybody who needs to know why it’s not that complicated, it’s the people in Germany.
Exactly.
Is there anything you’d like to say that we haven’t covered so far?
This book really teaches empathy, hope, and justice – what it means to be in solidarity with the oppressed. It’s not just in Palestine. We have the Congo, and so many other places where there are extensive human rights violations.
These books that we create for young ones are planting a seed of empathy through research and making sure that our content is factual – we don’t just publish for the sake of publishing. For those who are confused, still on the fence, or don’t know what to do to support, just look through the noise, open the book, and learn about Palestine. We have a genocide happening tight in front of our eyes. Let’s bring Apartheid Israel and its supporters to account.
Palestinian voices have been silenced for a very long time, but during this genocide, we have begun to see a shift. We’ve begun to hear more Palestinian voices.
This book is not just a colouring book. It’s an archive. We cannot simply wait for 10, 20, 40 years for such material to exist. We need to cover the genocide and the ethnic cleansing in real time while it is still happening.
In 40 to 50 years, a lot of countries will be ashamed of themselves for being on the wrong side of history and for supporting a genocide and ethnic cleansing,
Do you have hope in the next generation – the people who will be reading your book?
I know that we live in a time where people just don’t read, and we have social media and a lot of distractions. This kind of material really pulls us back and grounds us to really start learning about the world around us.
I’ve seen Gen Z have been very aggressive in the push back against oppression. So I really do have hope in the next generation picking up the book and continuing the fight.
