Business Day

Naming and shaming the faith-based contenders

This is the third and final instalment of my election month series on political party logos. Next week, we’ll return to the actual arts world, containing actual artists who produce actual art. Thank goodness, you may say.

But whether we like it or not, as citizens of this democracy we have a duty to familiaris­e ourselves with the unsightly images being printed on millions of ballot papers (the logos I mean, not the faces of the party leaders). Also, it’s fun to point out how silly they look (again, the logos, not the faces).

There are a couple of logos that I find aesthetica­lly pleasing

— and this gives me an opportunit­y to make it clear that the correlatio­n between the clumsiness of the logo and the ineptitude of the party is not perfect. Take Al Jama-ah, for instance, which has a visual brand that benefits from the beauty of the Arabic script. Unfortunat­ely, its political brand is inversely valued. The party, a notorious would-be coalition kingmaker, has produced not one but two of the worst mayors in the history of Johannesbu­rg.

Then there are the “safe” logos — the ones that mitigate bad logo risk by using only letters. Happily, this is what the Organic Humanity Movement (OHM) settled on after briefly dallying with a picture of a multicolou­red dung beetle pushing its little ball through a laurel wreath. I will refrain from making the obvious point.

Indeed, there is no need, because the jokes write themselves. Caught between anarchism, libertaria­nism and anti-globalist conspiracy theories, OHM bills itself as a party that will end the political party system. Lest you think that its acronym inclines the party towards peaceful chants, there is no “shanti shanti shanti” here. Borrowing from the playbook of the American lunatic right, this OHM likes guns — lots of guns.

One thing that party founder Lauren Evanthia Bernardo does not like is sex education. Perhaps she is hoping to buddy up after the elections with the more mainstream anti-statist puritans in the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP).

These are the guys who hate the gays, the spartans who stand for spanking (children of course, no consenting adults would be allowed to spank or be spanked if the ACDP was in power), the holy rollers who hawk ivermectin.

There isn’t a human right out there that the ACDP won’t trample if an obscure verse in the Old Testament can be interprete­d to find fault with it. Heck, it doesn’t even need to be in the Bible. Women’s reproducti­ve rights? Out the window. Palestinia­ns’ right to life? An expendable luxury. Fair legal process? No thanks, we’d rather bring back stoning or, better yet, crucifixio­n.

The ACDP logo is a crucifix with arrows — aimed, I estimate, at the position that would have been occupied by a crucified man’s knees. This seems only appropriat­e, as the party basically aligns itself with the Roman authoritie­s, who were so threatened by Christ’s message of love and freedom that they wanted him dead.

According to the gospels, the soldiers attending the crucifixio­n broke the legs of the men flanking Jesus on Golgotha. It seems a suitable representa­tion of what the ACDP thinks of the “sinners” so cherished by the Saviour.

Another party with religious overtones in its branding is the Freedom Front Plus (FF+), which kindly explains on its website that

“jubilant person the”figure , symbolisin­g on the bottom right of its logo is a the party’s “Christian faith”.

The FF+ has come a long way since the heady days of Constand Viljoen, when its logo was — like the apartheid flag — proudly “oranje, blanje, blou”. Today it is awash in green, permitting the party to hint at an eco-agenda.

Unfortunat­ely, the green “jubilant” figure appears to be the only person of colour that the FF+VF cares about.

Faith-based political organisati­ons are generally a bad bet, mostly because they misunderst­and the principles behind the separation of church and state, but also because — like their logos — they can’t be relied on to represent “their” faith accurately.