Welcome to Lusaka, pothole centre of the world, the huge billboard on the outskirts of the Zambian capital screams.

Beneath it, harried motorists grit their teeth and hold on for dear life as their vehicles bounce and veer dangerously on the dilapidated road leading to the central business district.

Welcome to the world of Trevor Ford, Zambia's most prolific cartoonist and, for the average politician at least, he is life's recurring nightmare.

For over a decade, this shy, self-effacing man has kept newspaper readers chuckling and public figures seething with his irreverent interpretation of Zambia's political and social life.

Ford, or 'Yuss', to use the pen name he prefers to be known by, has been a central figure on the media scene since 1991, when calls for a reversion to plural politics reached a crescendo and the weekly Post , Zambia's first private newspaper, was established.

His first cartoon in the Post saw the newspaper being sued for libel by the chief executive of the Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines (ZCCM), the state-run mining conglomerate that was responsible for around 80 percent of the country's foreign receipts.

The ZCCM chief, Francis Kaunda, saw himself in a cartoon the newspaper had carried to accompany a news report alleging that some senior company executives had been milking the conglomerate of millions of dollars in a long and elaborate scam. That case was resolved out of court, but Ford's subsequent work has ruffled the feathers of successive administrations many a time.

Pet subject

His pet subject is the corrupt or incompetent public official, who is almost always portrayed as a pot-bellied buffoon engaged in conspicuous consumption in an environment of general deprivation.

''Here he is, madam, physically fine,'' a midwife says as she hands a newly born baby to its exhausted mother in a typical 'Yuss' cartoon. ''However, I must warn you, madam, that he has been born with no brain.''

''No problem,'' responds the exultant mother. ''His father wants him to be a politician when he grows up!''

Ford's work often betrays a frustration with an almost fatalistic tolerance of official excess that Zambians routinely demonstrate.

This frustration was apparent in a cartoon he penned to mark the imprisonment of Lord Jeffery Archer by a British court.

''I feel our brothers in UK have treated Lord Jeffery Archer inhumanely,'' Ford had the then Zambian information minister, Vernon Mwaanga ranting. ''Four years in prison for a politician who has committed perjury? Here in Zambia, a street and a public holiday would have been named in his honour!''

Target of rights crusaders

Not surprisingly, Ford's work has captured the imagination of human rights and development crusaders who seek to project their campaign messages to not-so-literate parts of society; many civil society organisations contract him to spearhead their campaigns.

Last year, for example, Coalition 2001, an umbrella of civic society organisations, formed to monitor the conduct of general elections held in December, used his work extensively in its electoral awareness campaigns.

His work also has been extensively used by other non-governmental organisations to disseminate information about HIV/AIDS, gender equality and conservation in the country's rural and low-income urban areas, where literacy is lowest.

Ford's work also has caught the attention of western donor agencies involved in good governance and human rights programmes. For example, the British Council has for several years now hosted an annual exhibition of 'Yuss' cartoons. The exhibitions have become one of the high points of the capital's arts and entertainment calendar.

More recently, the Royal Netherlands Embassy helped fund a pet project of Fords: the publication of a satirical and education cartoon magazine. 'Yuss At Large', which is published once every two months and combines political commentary with development awareness campaigns, has been well received by readers in Lusaka, where his strongest following lies.

''We think this magazine, which is produced by popular request, is the first of its kind in this part of the world,'' gushes Ford.

Breaking taboos

Despite his growing reach and popularity, however, Ford, a British national who has been resident in Zambia for more than three decades, insists on keeping a low profile to avoid confrontation with the sometimes-fickle authorities.

Media-watchers credit Ford with enhancing press freedom in the country by transcending the limits that self-censorship imposed on media practitioners in the past, and by breaking taboos that stifle self-expression.

''He has been very brave. His criticism has always been very sharp, and sometimes harsh, but I believe it has always been well meant,'' says Sipo Kapumba, information officer of the Zambia Independent Media Association (Zima), a civic society organisation for the development of a pluralistic media.

''Yuss has always been very ethical and his statements have always been within the limits of fair comment. Perhaps that explains why he has never found himself in serious trouble,'' he adds.

That may be true, but Ford is taking no chances. Although he is well known by many people in the capital, he is still reluctant to have his particulars being widely distributed. For example, he declined to have his photograph included in the first edition of 'Yuss At Large' when it was launched in February.

''People have asked me, why no photograph of Yuss? In accordance with the Public Disorder Act, Section 159/A of 1842, it was considered too horrific for public viewing!'' he quips in his preface to magazine.