Bolekaja

Tayo Fatunla

Tayo Fatunla, a British-Nigerian artist, editorial cartoonist, writer, and illustrator, was born in Wimbledon, London, in January 1961. He is the creator of Our Roots, an illustrated cartoon series focusing on Black history and the African Diaspora..

Early Life

Fatunla was born to Emmanuel Olushola Fatunla who retired as an electrical engineer and distribution manager, and Marcelina Fatunla, a retired nurse and great-granddaughter of George S. A. Da Costa, a Nigerian photographer and artist who was active in the late 19th and 20th centuries.

Education

Fatunla developed a keen interest in cartoons and comics as a student at Lagos Baptist Academy. Soon after leaving high school, he secured employment as a cartoonist at The Punch, a newspaper that was founded in 1973, and is considered as one of the most popular in the country. The Punch newspaper made its debut with a vibrant group of young cartoonists, including Kenny Adams, Ose Awosika, Dotun Gboyega, and Tayo Fatunla.

He studied at the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art, now known as Kubert School in Dover, New Jersey. Fatunla graduated in 1984. While studying at Kubert School, he developed Our Roots, the illustrated briefs on Black History, which has been launched in London and other countries.

Career

After graduating from Kubert in 1984, Fatunla returned to Nigeria and worked briefly as a cartoonist at the Punch. This was during the military dictatorship of [Buhari] Fatunla has continually used the medium of cartoon to critique issues of international import in general and, in particular, corruption and socio-political problems in Africa south of the Sahara Desert.

He returned to Nigeria and worked briefly as a cartoonist at [Punch] during the military regime of [Muhammadu Buhari,] who promulgated Decree 4, which Olatunji Dare has described as "the most constrictive press law ever enacted in Nigeria." Beginning from the mid-1970s, The Punch newspaper in Nigeria had a vibrant cohort of cartoonists such as Kenny Adamson, Mooyiwa Collins, and also Tayo Fatunla—a group that [Olaniyan] has suggested as constituting a "school" or "tradition." In 1989, Fatunla returned to London and worked at the weekly magazine,[West Africa, ]now defunct, as resident cartoonist and cover designer.

Our Roots

Our Roots, which Fatunla developed in the 1980s, has been used as an educational and commemorative tool on a global scale. In 2016, it was launched in London as a Black History Sketchbook. It has been published in the Amsterdam News, and has also been used as a theme for a workshop that Fatunla held at the Smithsonian Fatunla's work as a graphic artist and cartoonist, and his concept of Our Roots also were the inspiration for the Camberwell Black History panels in South London, England.

Recognition and Awards

He was one of African cartoonists, including [Zapiro,] (South Africa),[Mwapembwa] (Gado), (Tanzania), and [Bendib] (Algeria/US), whose cartoons are in the [Court] collection in the Hague. In May 2016, Fatunla was invited as a guest of Coast Black Age of Comics Convention] (ECBACC), a non-profit organization founded by Yumy Odom in 2002, with affiliation with Temple University [University] Known for its annual convention, the ECBACC attracts key stakeholders in the world of comic arts, including comic artists, publishers, graphic arts creators, and enthusiasts of black superheroes and sci-fi. Fatunla is ranked among notable African cartoonists whose cartoons, according to Ojo, "...criticize corrupt social conditions so uniquely that their undeniable rhetorical power overshadows concerns about aesthetics." In 2024, Fatunla received the Professional Creative Cartoonist of the Year award in the U.K.<ref>https://punchng.com/former-punch-cartoonist-bags-international-awards-in-uk-us/</refRetrieved 2025-08-30.> His video production, Conflict is the Main Driver of Hunger also won an award in the not-for-profit category.<ref>https://punchng.com/former-punch-cartoonist-bags-international-awards-in-uk-us/</refRetieved 2025-08-30Bolekaja (talk) 01:08, 1 September 2025 (UTC)>

Fatunla has attended conferences and held workshops on cartoons and comics in many countries, including South Korea, Israel, Italy, Belgium, Nigeria, ireland, France, Ethiopia, Algeria, Finland, and the U.S.

He is a member of Cartoonists Association of Nigeria (CARTAN), an association of more than 85 cartoonists in Nigeria.

Additional Reading

Dare, Olatunji. “Journalism in the Time of Repression: The Nigerian Press Under Military Rule, 1984-1999. In dele jegede and Aderonke A. Adesanya, eds. Akinola Lasekan: Cartooning, Art and Nationalism at the Dawn of a New Nigeria. Ibadan: Bookcraft, 2020. 125-131.

jẹgẹdẹ, dele. “Migration, Emigration, and Immigration: African Cartoonists Draw the Lines.” African Arts 2020; 53 (3): 30–43. https://doi.org/10.1162/afar_a_00536

jegede, dele and Aderonke A. Adesanya, eds. Akinola Lasekan: Cartooning, Art and Nationalism at the Dawn of a New Nigeria. Ibadan: Bookcraft, 2020.

Jimoh, Ganiyu. "Cartooning in Nigeria: revisiting the paradigmatic Tradition." Journal of the African Literature Association 18.2 (2024): 333-351

Kofoworola, Wale R. “Place of Cartoon in Remolding Character for Sustainable Political and Economic Development in Nigeria.” AJOVED. 14.1 (June 2024), 75-93.

Ojo, Philip A. Review of Arts and Humanities. 4.1, (June 2015), 60-71.

Olaniyan, Tejumola. “The Traditions of Cartooning in Nigeria.” Glendora African Quarterly on the Arts. 2.2,(1997) 92-104.

Olaniyan, Tejumola. “Cartooning Nigerian Anticolonial Nationalism.” In Images and Empires: Visuality in Colonial and Postcolonial Africa, edited by P. S. Landau and D. D. Kaspin, 124-140. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.

External Links

https://africacartoons.com/interview-with-tayo-fatunla-nigerian-cartoonist-in-the-diaspora/

https://www.tayofatunla.com/ourroots.htm

https://www.theafricancourier.de/30-years-of-drawing-our-roots-tayo-fatunlas-his-story/

https://www.cartoonmovement.com/ [[ ]] cartoonist/158