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The Mandela Controversy Continues

by Katie Zavadski

Everyone wants to claim the late Nelson Mandela as a friend, but not everyone is willing to go as far as Kenyan senator Mike Sonko. The attention-seeking senator thought no one would notice that he, ahem, altered a photo of arguably the most talked about man on earth this week to include himself. Or more accurately, that he cropped Mandela out of an existing photo, and dropped him into one with a background of tropical trees and a swimming pool. "A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination," Sonko wrote in the photo description.

Mandela died last Thursday at age 95, and is of course best known for fighting against apartheid in South Africa. The events after his death have sparked a number of other controversies as well. In one, the sign language interpreter hired for his funeral appeared to be a fraud, and then claimed to be suffering a schizophrenic episode. In another, President Barack Obama shook hands with Cuban leader Raul Castro. But none of them have been quite as absurd as this Photoshop fail.

Sonko didn't even try very hard. The original photo was one of Mandela with boxer Muhammad Ali, a blurry, old shot that was taken when Sonko was just a kid. The new one looks like a cut-and-paste job, with Sonko's clear, minimally-pixelated head clearly coming from a modern photo.

Even more embarrassing is the fact that someone called Sonko out for not actually being that tall. Really. Come on, Sonko. Who do you think you are, Bono? Not everyone can rock platform shoes for a few extra inches and get away with it. "[H]e was taller than you. [A]ll the same, Good creativity," wrote one commenter, who got more than 20 likes.

The senator is apparently better known for his style than for his Photoshop skills. When he previously served as a member of parliament, he was removed from for refusing to take off his sunglasses and to tone down his jewelry. Clearly, that reprimand didn't stop him, and neither will this faux pas. Sonko has already posted dozens of other photos. Stay classy, Mike.

Image: Mike Sonko/Facebook