Operation Legacy and Other Stories: Graphic Histories from Africa

Catalyst Press is publishing a collection of three comics depicting African historical narratives, two of which I illustrated. The first story in the collection is an adaptation of When Satiety Marries Avarice, Hunger is Born by Haddis Alemayehu, beautifully illustrated by Fanuel Leul.

From the press kit:

"A narrative of enslavement, a satire on colonialism, and a court battle for justice by those
tortured and detained during the fight for independence from colonial rule: three comics
depict key moments in African history."

 

"In one, readers are offered a translation of a short story, turned into a comic, that satirizes the
colonization of Africa by depicting Europeans as cats and Africans as mice. The cats wish to feast on the mice and so create an elaborate ruse by proclaiming that they can turn the inferior mice into cats via education and medication, a ruse that is finally discovered by the mice, who rise up against the cats.

In a second, readers are offered a deconstruction of a slave narrative, The Interesting Narrative
of Olaudah Equiano. Several historians weigh in to evaluate the memoirs of Olaudah Equiana and decipher whether his claims are true or false; nevertheless, despite some problematic aspects of his narrative and questions that remain as to its veracity, the effect it had on the abolitionist
movement is without question.

And finally, the third comic details how ordinary Kenyans who had been tortured and abused by
the British government during the Kenyan fight for independent from colonial rule were able to
obtain justice, decades later, from a British court of law."

The book, written by Trevor R. Getz and Audra A. Diptée, edited by Hewan Semon, will be released in August 2026. Find out more at the publisher's website: https://www.catalystpress.org/all-content/operation-legacy-and-other-stories