James owns a house in a suburb just outside of town.
Chima lives in self-made hut in a rural area refugee camp.
James owns a house in a suburb just outside of town.
Chima lives in self-made hut in a rural area refugee camp.
James’ wife Janet is a stay at home mother who does not need to work to help support the family.

Chima’s wife Uwimana works 50 hours a week to help support the family.
James’ son alex is currently enrolled in a private school and will someday attend a four year university.Chima’s son Gahiji will be enlisted in the Hutu militia during his adolescence.

Due to advances in American healthcare, James will live a long healthy life and live to see old age.
Because of pour healthcare, Chima will only live to see his 30’s.


The idea behind Mike and Chima was to critique a serious subject like poverty using a very playful medium. I used children’s book style illustrations as a form of satire to show the injustice between the lives of an average Rwandan man versus the life of the average American man. The concept was originally meant to be in a pop-up book format but seemed to work more effectively in a basic book layout.