{"id":6124,"date":"2015-02-16T15:38:28","date_gmt":"2015-02-16T20:38:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/?p=6124"},"modified":"2015-02-16T15:38:28","modified_gmt":"2015-02-16T20:38:28","slug":"kwezi-south-african-superheroes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/2015\/02\/16\/kwezi-south-african-superheroes\/","title":{"rendered":"Kwezi: South African superheroes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/pictures\/wissewords\/kwezi.jpg\" width=\"600\" height=\"344\" alt=\"Kwezi superheroes from South Africa\" class=\"aligncenter\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\nAn interesting  post on Afropunk.com, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.afropunk.com\/profiles\/blogs\/feature-south-african-superheros-kwezi-the-new-comic-book-from\">about a new South African superhero series<\/a>, <cite>Kwezi<\/cite>:\n<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\nCreated by acclaimed artist Loyiso Mkize, the series is centered on 19 year old Kwezi, a typical South African youngster &#8211; immersed in popular youth culture &#8211; who develops a connection with his traditional roots,. Mkize says, \u201cIt is the journey of a young man. He starts off as an arrogant, opinionated anti-hero who discovers and appreciates his superpowers \u2026 the cultural aspect brings him back to his roots.\u201d\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\nQuite a difference from the late seventies Apartheid era <cite>Mighty Man<\/cite>, which as Nick Wood describes it, <a href=\"http:\/\/southafricancomicbooks.blogspot.co.uk\/2011\/10\/sowetos-super-man-mighty-man-and-mid.html\">was basically propaganda for the Apartheid state<\/a>, aimed at the inhabitants of the townships:\n<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\nBut Mighty Man (MM) never challenged any agencies or laws outside the township in which they were set &#8211; ostensibly Soweto. A black hero seemingly meant exclusively for black people, his enemies were township gangsters (&#8216;tsotis&#8217;), drug Lords (&#8216;dagga merchants&#8217;) and generally opponents of peace and &#8216;law and order&#8217;. As Bill Mantlo (1978) states, Mighty Man propounded subservience to laws, non-violence and an anti-gun message (for blacks). With readership targeted to the townships and perhaps priced to ensure affordability to a relatively impoverished community, it was evident Mighty Man was implicitly intent on ensuring compliance to laws &#8211; with the underlying message that opponents of &#8216;law and order&#8217; were invariably gangsters, murderers and, in some instances, &#8216;communists&#8217;. (As Mantlo asserts, a thinly veiled allusion to the then banned African National Congress.)\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/southafricancomicbooks.blogspot.co.uk\/2015\/01\/afri-comics-mighty-man-series.html\">Great covers though<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An interesting post on Afropunk.com, about a new South African superhero series, Kwezi: Created by acclaimed artist Loyiso Mkize, the series is centered on 19 year old Kwezi, a typical South African youngster &#8211; immersed in popular youth culture &#8211; who develops a connection with his traditional roots,. Mkize says, \u201cIt is the journey of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2200,2201,2202,2203,675],"class_list":["post-6124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comix","tag-kwezi","tag-loyiso-mkize","tag-mighty-man","tag-nick-wood","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6124"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6125,"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6124\/revisions\/6125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}