Côte d'Ivoire: the satirical newspaper "Gbich", an institution that wants to diversify to survive
Audio 01:39
[Illustrative image] An employee of the Ivorian satirical newspaper "Gbich" watching a cartoon about Ebola on September 25, 2014, at the newspaper's headquarters in Abidjan. AFP - SIA KAMBOU
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
In Côte d'Ivoire, the satirical newspaper Gbich remains an institution despite the erosion of its sales. The group that publishes it is counting on the diversification of its activities, in audiovisual and digital in particular, to revive this title which has played a major role in the development of comics in the country.
Advertising
Read more
With our correspondent in Abidjan, François Hume-Ferkatadji
Gbich is inseparable from the rise of comics in Côte d'Ivoire. A satirical newspaper, without political color, whose characteristic front page is a satirical and gaguesque press cartoon.
Today, the group consists of three titles: Allo Police, Go Magazine and Gbich, which are among the best selling newspapers in the country.
Gbich can also be read online, and will soon venture into television. The newspaper embarked on the production of animated films and hoped to regain the number of employees of its golden period.
"We quickly realized that we had to diversify"
The cartoonist Willy Zekid, 20 years old from Gbich on the counter, the father of the character "Papu", receives in the newsroom decorated by the famous front pages of the newspaper: "At first, Gbich was just a paper newspaper, but with the evolution of technologies and then with the evolution of the market, we quickly realized that we had to diversify. "
Focused on large graphic palettes, the cartoonists have busy days, between the paper newspaper and the new animation projects. Seri recreates a street corner in the Koumassi district: "I rely a lot on existing streets to be more or less realistic.
»► To listen also Reportage Afrique - Nouch, slang become language?
Gbich is now an institution. Created in 1999, the newspaper quickly became a great success, thanks in particular to its use of nouchi, a vehicular language born in the working-class neighborhoods of Abidjan: "Because nouchi, if you will, basically, it was a popular language. We did not find him in the press, we found him very little. But thanks to Gbich, in fact, people found themselves and found comics in which the characters spoke like them, found comics in which the characters lived their daily lives. »
"With the drawings, we reach a large part of the population"
The recipe for Gbich's success is, of course, his comics. The newspaper offers five to ten plates each week on social or political topics. "Gbich is the only newspaper in Côte d'Ivoire that makes drawings," says Colombe Souéné, head of digital communication. In Côte d'Ivoire, we have a population that is a little more than 40% of people who are illiterate, so who will not necessarily hang for the articles. But for the drawings, we reach a large part of the population, and that's something quite exceptional."
Due to the press crisis, however, Gbich has not escaped the collapse in the number of its sales. From 45,000 copies in the 2000s, they hardly reach 5,000 copies today. Gbich relies on the audiovisual sector to survive.
► To listen also The Dance of Words - Gbich
If we talk about the history of comics, we think a little about the history of Côte d'Ivoire
Koffi-Roger N'Guessan, professor of visual arts and co-author of a book on the place of comics in the Ivorian cultural landscape
François Hume-Ferkatadji
Newsletter Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
Read on on the same topics:
- Ivory Coast
- Journalism
- Media
- Freedom of the press
- Society
- Culture