Not Ready For These Shoes

Not Ready For These Shoes

Discriminatory Perspective on Congolese Independence

This is a political cartoon entitled “Not ready for these shoes.” designed by Don Resse and published by The Montreal Star in 1960. While other materials discuss this subject more concretely, it is now worth discussing how during the 1960s, the world entered into an era of Decolonization, with the large empires of the world (like Britain and France) began in earnest granting or relinquishing authority to their colonies. This cartoon is a direct response to the Independence of Congo from Belgium, and portrays how many White Canadians felt dismissive about the growing sovereignty of African states. Resse represents Congo as a weak and thinly man of African Descent dressed in nothing but undergarments and comically large shoes labelled “Independence”. This cartoon thus enforces a stereotypically infantilized view of African Descended persons, presenting the people of Congo as being unable to effectively govern themselves, as being inferior to previous Belgian rulership and as needing to be in a servatile position in order to survive. It's in this cartoon where one can see how the attitudes of broader White society held a demeaning view of African Canadians as lesser.

Don Resse

This image can be found in the following article:

Hébert, Paul. “Race and Imperialism in Canada in the 1960s.” Black Perspectives, March 3, 2017. https://www.aaihs.org/race-and-imperialism-in-canada-in-the-1960s/.

The Montreal Star (Original source)

1960

Likely Public Domain but unclear

JPG file

English

Still Image