Archive · Bangladesh · 2006—2008

Prize-winning cartoons: the early anti-corruption years.

Before ARiF’s work travelled internationally, these cartoons established a direct visual language for confronting corruption, misuse of public resources, and everyday abuses of power.

This collection brings together six surviving images connected to four award moments in Bangladesh. Some are complete cartoons; others are comic strips or related works from the same competition entry. They are presented here as an archive of the drawing practice that shaped ARiF’s early public voice.

2007

First Prize

Anti-Corruption Cartoon Competition · Star Insight, The Daily Star, Bangladesh

Award-winning cartoon showing corruption as a damaged tree whose smiling canopy hides decay — The first-prize cartoon presents corruption as a hollowed-out tree sustained by money and false appearances.

2006

Third Prize

Anti-Corruption Cartoon Competition, Group B · Transparency International Bangladesh

Award-winning cartoon depicting Bangladesh as a tree being consumed by corruption — A distressed tree labelled Bangladesh is eaten from within, turning systemic corruption into an immediate visual metaphor.

2008

Special Mention

Anti-Corruption Cartoon Competition, Group B · Transparency International Bangladesh

Cartoon of a cow labelled corruption imagining itself consuming a healthy tree — Corruption is drawn as a restrained cow still dreaming of consuming public life.

Cartoon of a police officer guarding torn sacks of public resources while rats carry the contents away — A companion drawing from the 2008 competition turns the loss of public resources into a scene of absurd, visible leakage.

2006

Third Place

Alpin Pin Hunt Cartoon Competition · Alpin, Prothom Alo, Bangladesh

Bengali comic page satirising mobile-phone culture and everyday social behaviour — “Mobile phone culture” — a full-page Bengali comic built from a sequence of everyday encounters.

Bengali newspaper comic strip titled Award for Everybody — “Award for Everybody” — a related newspaper strip from ARiF’s early satirical work.

Why these drawings still matter

The awards recognised more than technique. They marked the emergence of a cartoonist willing to translate institutional problems into images that ordinary readers could grasp at a glance. That principle—clarity without surrendering complexity—continues across ARiF’s editorial work, exhibitions, and independent publishing.

View the original 2008 archive