The 2014 Ebola Epidemic in Liberia
International Response
National Response
The following editorial cartoons were created by a professional artist from Monrovia, Liberia, Leslie Lumeh. Lumeh draws cartoons for the Liberian Observer, a idependent Monrovian news website. Within these cartoons, Lumeh criticizes the initial national response to the 2014 Ebola epidemic in Liberia while also commenting on major social and political concerns. I have selected this collection of cartoons to analyze in order to highlight the most significant criticisms of the initial national response to the outbreak.
The following editorial cartoons were created by various cartoonist who are published by news websites around the world. Each cartoon makes a commentary on the initial international response to the 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa. I have selected this collection of cartoons to analyze in order to highlight the most significant criticisms of the initial international response to the outbreak.
Initially, the World Health Organization ranked the Ebola outbreak in West Africa as a two on their scale of one to three on the seriousness of the health emergency (Sun et al., 2014). A three is considered the most serious health emergency and would be in consideration to be an international concern (WHO, 2014). It wasn’t until July 24th that WHO upgraded the crisis to a three, but still had not declared the outbreak a global health emergency (Sun et al., 2014). It was not until August 8th (4.5 months into the epidemic) that the Ebola outbreak was declared a global health emergency (Sun et al., 2014). Olle Johansson, a Swedish cartoonist, published this cartoon just days before this declaration on August 5th. This cartoon illustrates the 2014 Ebola outbreak as a threat that is beginning to enclose on the world. According to this cartoon that was published before WHO’s declaration, Ebola should be considered a global concern.
Source: Olle Johansson/The Cagle Post
This editorial cartoon was published on August 26th by the International New York Times. The creator, Patrick Chappatee, makes a criticism of the international response to the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa. This cartoon addresses the social concern that the western response was more concerned with protecting themselves rather than those affected by the outbreak in West Africa. As of the end of August, after the outbreak had been declared a global health emergency, there is still criticism of the international efforts to provide assistance to the countries in need. It was not until early September that a coordinated global response began to be orchestrated (Sun et al., 2014). Note, that at this point of the outbreak, there had already been 1, 800 confirmed Ebola deaths in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone (Sun et al., 2014).
On August 8th, POLITICO published this editorial cartoon created by Matt Wueker. Within his cartoon he infers that the World Health Organization budget cuts are to blame for the Ebola epidemic getting out of hand. WHO is the branch on the United Nations that is responsible for coordinating the international response to a crisis such as Ebola (Sun et al., 2014). Due to recent budget cuts to this branch of the United Nations, WHO has lost some of their resources and were slow to respond to this 2014 Ebola outbreak (Sun et al., 2014). Due to this slow response to declare the outbreak at global health emergency, the WHO has received a lot of criticism, which is highlighted within this cartoon.
Source: Matt Wueker/POLITICO
Source: Nathi Ngubane/The Daily Vox
This editorial cartoon created by South African cartoonist, Nathi Ngubane, was published on August 21st. Ngubane is criticizing the international response to outbreak, which at this point had not yet been organized. Volunteer, non-governmental organizations, such as Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), however, were responding to the outbreak at that time. On August 28th, MSF released a statement that they are “rapidly scaling up [their] operations in Liberia as the international response to the outbreak in West Africa continues to be chaotic and entirely inadequate” (MSF, 2014). Ngubane highlights this major criticism of the international response within his cartoon by portraying a MSF worker desperately calling out for assistance from the world with no response as the number of fatalities keeps rising.
Source: Leslie Lumeh/ Liberian Observer
This editorial cartoon was published on October 3rd, roughly 6 months after the first confirmed cases of Ebola in Liberia. Lumeh criticizes the national response to the Ebola outbreak by addressing the widely withheld belief by citizens that it does no exist in Liberia. This addresses a social and even political reason why Ebola was able to spin out of control. Rumors began to be spread by citizens that Ebola was actually invented by their president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, as part of a ploy to receive more international aid (Msimang, 2014). This rumor stems from citizens mistrust of the government and of health workers.
Source: Leslie Lumeh/ Liberian Observer
Source: Leslie Lumeh/ Liberian Observer
Source: Leslie Lumeh/Liberian Observer
This editorial cartoon was created shortly after the previous cartoon, on October 6th. Within this cartoon, Lumeh is commenting on Liberia’s progress. Their lack of technological advances portrayed in the cartoon make a comment on how behind their industrialization is, despite being one of the oldest countries. Even with the $800 million Liberia receives annually in foreign assistance along with the 7,500 UN troops already on the ground, Liberia was still unprepared in handling the Ebola outbreak (Msimang, 2014). This turns the criticism onto Liberia’s own response to the outbreak by highlighting infrastructural weaknesses that may have contributed to the outbreak spiraling out of control.
In the wake of the Ebola crisis, Lumeh created this editorial cartoon. It depicts Liberia’s leaders as being solely concerned with wealth and their justice system being extensively corrupt and flawed. With the public eye being focused on Liberia and their response to the Ebola outbreak, these flaws are becoming apparent. The people of Liberia’s mistrust for their own government is important to consider when analyzing the national response to the outbreak, for it has played a role in the citizen’s response.
Lumeh continues to criticize the response of Liberia’s citizens to the Ebola epidemic in this cartoon, created October 7th. This addresses the response of the people to flee the country and also implies a history of public response to leave the country when an epidemic or endemic becomes severe. This reaction to leave the country is arguably a contribution to the spread of the virus to other countries, such as Nigeria and the United States, which was addressed in the previous cartoon.
Note: “I hold your foot” is a unique Liberian phrase that means, “I beg of you” (Schneider, 2009).