“For me, it is (about) asking questions”

If a picture is worth a thousand words — as the adage goes — a political cartoon may be worth many more. It has the power to provoke, amuse, shock, inspire. And if it comes from the pen of Khalid Albaih, it can do all of this at the same time. He has this knack of creating art out of controversy.An independent Sudanese political cartoonist based in Doha, Albaih through his online cartoons has inspired youth across the Arab world. Rising to prominence during the early stages of the Arab Spring in 2011, his work is shared around the world.But for Albaih, it all started long back. Coming from a political family, he moved to Qatar with his family back in 1989 after his diplomat father was sacked and briefly jailed by the-then military government in Sudan. He was just nine.Community sat him down to discern his journey through years of political cartoons, his inspirations, and ability to sweep through social media landscape besides his upcoming exhibition @las at Virginia Commonwealth University Qatar (VCUQ) next month.Politics all along had a dominant influence on his thought process. And for Albaih, political cartoon has been his way of exploring, understanding and critically appreciating the science of politics. With his cartoons, he poses questions and genuinely seeks answers.“I am also from the generation that does not read much and is fed up. For me, it is (about) asking questions. It is not about this is right and that is wrong. It is like — this is what I think. What do you think?” says Albaih, a lanky, spectacled young man with an air of geek about him.Albaih has more than 60,000 followers on his Facebook page, Khartoon, a play of his name and native city of Khartoum, Sudan. He has another 10,000 on Instagram and 11,000 on twitter (@khalidalbaih). The comments section below his posts often becomes a lively debate area. And this is where he finds his answers.Albaih says he first took inspiration for political cartoons in early teens from a cartoon-based Egyptian magazine, Sabah al-Kheir that his father used to bring home. And he always loved comics and superheroes.“At the same time, I loved politics. For me, politics was the reason why I am not home. And as a teenager that is a big thing. Why am I not home? Why am I not with my cousins and my family?” says Albaih, who works as Head of Installation and Design for Public Art at Qatar Museum Authority (QMA) by the day, and assumes the role of an independent cartoonist by the evening. Albaih says he has been making and changing styles through years until achieving his signature style today. The unique aspect of his cartoons is that he makes them for social media. So they have to be fast and to the point.“Today’s generation does not have time to read. Everything is short. So I, too, had to do that. At the same time, I try to relate it to pop culture,” says Albaih.  “A lot of people have no interest in politics. Everybody is just fed up. It has been same situation for I don’t know how long. For me, I want to talk to this generation that does not want to talk about this never-changing politics,” he explains.Most of his ideas come from random conversations and general talk with people. Listening to people, he intuitively pictures situations in his mind.“I think in cartoons. I think in bullet-points. Whenever I hear somebody I get the highlight. This is what I want to do. I photograph conversations in my head,” says the political cartoonist. And he believes his cartoons are not meant to be funny.   “I don’t make them to be funny. They could be funny but you could call it dark comedy, maybe. My aim is not to make you laugh. I aim to make you think. If you find it funny, great but if you don’t find it funny, this is not what I am trying to do anyways,” Albaih smiles.With his cartoons he comments on anything that interests him from topics such as freedom of speech, immigrant situation, the war in Darfur, the Baltimore riots in America or the Israel-Palestine situation. Living in Qatar, “a home away from home”, he says, provided him with perfect settings to inspire and evolve as a cartoonist and writer.In Qatar, you are surrounded by a lot of journalists, intellectuals, and a lot of people from everywhere. And when you know other cultures, the good and bad about them, it is eye-opening.“You know that you are not alone in this world. A lot of people face same issues. It is like living in a very small United Nations,” observes Albaih. He turned to cartoons as means of his expression because he believes they are more accessible.“When I say cartoon, I can relate to a 10-year-old child or I can relate to a 60-year-old professor. I am not building a wall between me and you. So I draw cartoons,” says the artist.Everybody smiles when he tells them he is a cartoonist. This, he says, opens doors for me to understand more and talk more. Albaih loves the idea of political cartoon and its simplicity. “I love creating something that could be so simple and I could create it in two minutes but I would take 10 days thinking about it,” reveals the cartoonist.His upcoming exhibition @las (Atlas) to be held early next month at VCUQ is about using the internet as a medium. It will show a video of his work on the topic. And it has already been shown at the Arab American National Museum, Detroit, USA. Albaih is also working with VCUQ students to make the same @las into a 3D printed sculpture.Albaih has published his work extensively around the world, in the Atlantic, Global Voices and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, to name only a few. Alongside worldwide attention and major publications, he has staged major exhibitions of his work most recently in McGill University Montreal, Edge of Arabia London and The Arab American National Museum in Detroit, USA.With the ever-changing social media landscape, Albaih is constantly evolving his technique and style. “You need to keep up with social media. You need to find where people are and move with that,” concludes the cartoonist.