Abdelmadjid Tebboune is "the chosen one". Sitting on his red velvet throne, legs crossed, the 74-year-old man is surrounded by his competitors for the Algerian presidency. Kneeling before him, the army chief of staff, Ahmed Gaïd Salah, puts on a pair of vair slippers. All this under the benevolent gaze of a stately Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
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A post shared by Nime officiel (@nime_bd) on Nov 14, 2019 at 9:26 am PST
The scene inspired by Cinderella was imagined by the cartoonist Abdelhamid Amine - alias Nime - in early November, a few weeks before the presidential election which propelled Abdelmadjid Tebboune to the presidency of the country, in the first round of the poll on December 12.
It is in particular this drawing which is worth to Nime to be today in prison. The Algerian designer was sentenced on December 11 to one year in prison, including three months. According to the National Committee for the Liberation of Detainees (CNLD), the Oran prosecutor's office had requested 18 months in prison against him for damaging the army's morale and the integrity of the territory, for his latest drawings published on Instagram .
"This decision represents a flagrant attack on freedom of expression and is part of the recent wave of arrests that have taken place in recent weeks," replied Cartooning for Peace, a global network of committed cartoonists.
Artists and journalists arrested
According to the CNLD, more than 140 demonstrators, activists, artists or journalists have been arrested since June and the hardening of the repression against "Hirak", this popular protest movement which led to the resignation of Abdelaziz Bouteflika last April.
"There is a real climate of intimidation," confirms Meriem Amellal, journalist for France 24, specialist in Algeria. "The state media have not covered Hirak for weeks. Youtubers have been arrested for a photo posted on social networks. Freedom of expression is there in Algeria!", She protested, denouncing the "turning back" of a country now ranked 141st in the world press freedom 2019 (5 places lower than in 2018).
The Algerian authorities did not, moreover, wish to issue visas and accreditations to special envoys as well as to France 24 correspondents to cover the presidential election.
From repression to self-censorship
"This climate of restriction of freedom of expression and the arrest of Nime makes us think," explains France 24 the cartoonist Karim Bouguemra. "I always want to draw but I pay attention to the way of expressing my opinions, I try to remain subtle, to adapt to the repression and to avoid confrontation", he admits, grateful " a form of self-censorship. "
Despite this, this 32-year-old autodidact, collaborator of the daily newspapers Le Soir d'Algérie and Maracana (sports newspaper), did not hesitate to mock the presidential election in his drawings posted on Instagram. The last dates from December 14. Imitating the style of Tex Avery, Karim Bouguemra represents the newly elected president Abdelmadjid Tebboune with the inscription "That's all, Folks" ("that's it, ladies and gentlemen"). Between mockery and resignation.
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A post shared by KARIM Bouguemra (@karimbouguemra) on Dec 13, 2019 at 11:20 am PST
"We have to be careful. Since the election, we expect the repression to harden", fears Karim Bouguemra. His fears are not unjustified. According to RFI journalist Leïla Beratto, arrests have increased, particularly in Oran, since the election.
Karim Bouguemra was nevertheless on the streets of his hometown of Skidda, in the east of the country, Thursday and Friday, after the announcement of the electoral results. As every week for months: "Demonstrating on the street or on paper has become a routine," he explains.
Social networks, space of freedom for a well-established gender
If newspapers have been reluctant to publish controversial cartoons since the beginning of Hirak, social networks offer boundless space for expression for a new generation of cartoonists, who are renewing the genre of satire, which is well established in Algeria.
To the names of the famous Ali Dilem or Slim are now added those of Nime, Karim Bouguemra or the Andalusian. This young designer from the Fine Arts of Algiers has notably shared on Instagram his "waltz" of the candidates, dancing like puppets.
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A post shared by L'Andalou (@_landalou_) on Dec 8, 2019 at 9:55 am PST
His elder, Le Hic, a famous cartoonist since the 1980s, also took advantage of the Internet to publish on December 14 a corrosive portrait of President Tebboune announcing: "I will put the countries back on track", a mocking allusion to the son of the president arrested in June for his involvement in cocaine trafficking.
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A post shared by Le HIC (@le_hic_officiel) on Dec 13, 2019 at 10:24 am PST
"Cartoons are what make us up. We will continue to express ourselves and to exploit all the gaps of freedom we have left," concludes Karim Bouguemra.
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