BY RAUNA MWETULUNDILA

This dissertation is a rhetorical and humorous study of Dudley’s political cartoons. This thesis explored the use of rhetoric and humour in 25 Dudley’s political cartoons that were printed in 2012. All political cartoons were extracted from The Namibian newspaper. This was a qualitative study. Qualitative research design was chosen because of the descriptive nature of this study. This method is also good in gaining in-depth understanding and a clear description of the characteristics of the political cartoons used in this study. Criterion sampling was used to select all political cartoons that qualify to be part of this study. The study used semiotic and content analysis to sort out the content of the cartoons. Semiotic analysis was chosen because cartoons can be decoded well if an audience has background knowledge of the context in which the cartoon is based. The cartoons were analysed for rhetoric and humour using both visually and language based elements. The analysis of this thesis has employed Aristotle’s rhetorical proofs of persuasion: ethos, patho