From 25 to 26 June, around fifteen young Beninese men and women training to become youth workers in the country’s socio-cultural centres and seven Beninese cartoonists were trained in teaching through press cartoons by Cartooning for Peace, as part of the “To Kplon Nou” project co-sponsored by the Fédération Léo Lagrange and the Fédération Léo Lagrange Bénin, with the support of the Agence française de développement (AFD).
The aim of the project is to offer a complete range of educational services in the field of popular education, with the gradual deployment of trained youth workers in the country’s socio-cultural centres in 2025 and 2026.
The participants were able to discover the universal language of press cartoons and the educational activities they will soon be deploying with young people in social centres. They also ran their own sessions based on the educational booklet produced by Cartooning for Peace as part of the project and a selection of press cartoons from Benin and more widely from around the world. All these cartoons offer a diversity of views on a series of themes chosen in conjunction with the Fédération Léo Lagrange Bénin: civic commitment, climate change, violence against women, dissemination of information, the challenges facing young people, social inequalities, health, etc.
The course was a great opportunity to share ideas and build links around press cartoons. Seven press cartoonists (Constantin Adadja, Lenfan Claudio and Makéjos, Pamela Chablis, Iris Hounkanrin, Lea Houhoue and Esmelle Coffy) took part in the training. As cartoonists and animators, they presented their careers and their passions, testifying to the richness of Beninese cartooning in an economic context that is nonetheless difficult for the media.
The cartoonists will be asked to contribute their experiences, insights and decipherings to future workshops organised in the social centres with the youth workers.
Introduced to the Cartooning for Peace method prior to the training course, press cartoonist Constant Tonakpa is running the course on 8 July for another group of facilitators, accompanied by cartoonist Pamela Chablis, who will also be trained during the session.
The use of press cartoons as a teaching tool is set to spread throughout the country’s socio-cultural centres and Cartooning for Peace will be monitoring its development until 2026.
