Grassroots comics book - a development communication tool

Leif Packalen and Sharad Sharma. Grassroots Comics - A Development Communication Tool. Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, 2007. 160pp. ISBN 978-951-724-592-0.

The concept of grassroots comics draws upon the philosophies of Freire, whereby the learner participates in his/her own education, and the practices of development workers, who use media in an attempt to bring about social change. Comics have played a role in the development process since at least the 1960s. While living in the Philippines at that time, I was enthralled with the all-out efforts of University of the Philippines researchers to use komiks to make people aware of family planning and important every day survival issues. Later, I saw firsthand their uses elsewhere, especially in South Africa in the 1990s. And, of course, I have known of the lifetime commitment to grassroots comics of Leif Packalen, first in Africa and later elsewhere.

Therefore, this book is welcomed, putting in one place what Packalen has promoted previously in articles (see International Journal of Comic Art, I: 1), booklets, and chapters in books. With the help of Sharad Sharma, a co-worker in development projects, Packalen explains the power of grassroots comics, why they should be used, and their formats, before providing interesting case studies from South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Pakistan), Africa (Tanzania, Benin, and Mozambique), Lebanon, and United Kingdom. The case studies, illustrated with photographs of workshops and the distribution of the comics and examples of the comic art of participants, are written as personal narratives, capturing the enthusiastic spirit, difficulties, and end results of the projects.

Eight appendices provide how-to manuals for wallposter comics, printed wallposter comics, eight-page booklets, and accordion minicomics; other photocopy formats, descriptions; training plan for a wallposter comics workshop; sample project documents, and Web resources.

What Packalen, Sharma, and others do with grassroots media continues to be important in spite of the diminishment of interest in such small scale technologies since the 1970s, when the New World Information and Communication Order, the philosophies of Freire and E.F. Schumacher, and the practical work of many NGOs held sway. With the dominance of so-called high tech media, most scholars, media practitioners, and middle and upper class people have forgotten (if they ever knew in the first place) what Packalen and others keep in the forefront of their minds -- that most of the earth's inhabitants do not have access to nor can they afford the simplest of the so-called high tech media.

What Packalen and colleagues are doing is extremely worthwhile and should be reported, which Grassroots Comic -A Development Communication Tool so capably does.

John A. Lent
IJOCA. Fall 2007