# South African Resistance Poster

> The posters of the struggle against apartheid, from the exiled Medu Art Ensemble in Gaborone to the community workshops that served the United Democratic Front and the unions in the 1980s. Low-tech silkscreen from hand-cut stencils was chosen on purpose: cheap, quick to teach, workable without electricity and often illegal. One to three flat inks carry heavy hand-lettered slogans, organisation logos, fists, crowds and photographs converted to line.

- Period: 1978–1994
- Where: Sub-Saharan Africa
- Origin: Medu Art Ensemble in exile in Gaborone, Botswana, and community silkscreen workshops in Johannesburg (Screen Training Project), Cape Town (Community Arts Project) and Durban
- Branch: Pictorial & machine age
- Also known as: Anti-apartheid posters, Struggle posters, Medu posters, 1980s community silkscreen posters
- Page: https://stylogeny.com/styles/anti-apartheid-poster/

## Use it with care

The photograph of the dying Hector Pieterson (Sam Nzima, 16 June 1976) and the portraits of detainees and the dead show real people whose families and communities still remember them, and ANC, UDF and COSATU colours and the spear and shield are the marks of living organisations. Use them with context and permission rather than as generic protest styling.

## How it works

- Print short, cheap silkscreen runs from hand-cut or painted stencils in one to three flat inks.
- Give the slogan up to half the sheet in heavy hand-lettered or stencilled capitals.
- Sign with organisation colours and acronyms: ANC black, green and gold; UDF and COSATU red, yellow and black.
- Draw from a shared vocabulary of fists, banners, marching crowds, spear and shield, and portraits of leaders and the fallen.
- Convert photographs to high-contrast line so they survive a hand-pulled screen.
- Let the message come from the community meeting rather than from the individual artist.

## Its design choices

Defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

### Layout & composition
- [Central symmetry](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/central-symmetry/) (characteristic)
- [Isolated object](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/isolated-object/) (occasional)
- [Collage & layering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/collage-and-layering/) (occasional)

### Space & hierarchy
- [Layered information](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/layered-information/) (characteristic)
- [Extreme scale contrast](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/extreme-scale-contrast/) (characteristic)
- [Single focal point](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/single-focal-point/) (characteristic)
- [Horror vacui](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/horror-vacui/) (occasional)

### Typography
- [Hand-lettering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-lettering/) (defining)
- [All caps](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/all-caps/) (defining)
- [Condensed display](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/condensed-display/) (characteristic)
- [Type as image](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/type-as-image/) (characteristic)
- [Stencil](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/stencil/) (occasional)
- [Grotesque & neo-grotesque](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/grotesque-and-neo-grotesque/) (occasional)

### Colour
- [Limited spot colours](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/limited-spot-colours/) (defining)
- [Flat fields](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-fields/) (defining)
- [Light ground](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/light-ground/) (characteristic)
- [Monochrome](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/monochrome/) (occasional)

### Form & shape
- [Stylised figuration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/stylised-figuration/) (characteristic)
- [Naturalistic depiction](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/naturalistic-depiction/) (occasional)

### Surface & texture
- [Flat](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat/) (characteristic)
- [Misregistration & overprint](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/misregistration-and-overprint/) (occasional)

### Ornament
- [Emblems & badges](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/emblems-and-badges/) (defining)
- [Restrained accents](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/restrained-accents/) (characteristic)

### Imagery
- [Treated photography](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/treated-photography/) (characteristic)
- [Line illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/line-illustration/) (characteristic)
- [Typography only](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/typography-only/) (occasional)

### Medium & production
- [Screen printing](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/screen-printing/) (defining)
- [Offset printing](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/offset-printing/) (occasional)
- [Desktop publishing](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/desktop-publishing/) (occasional)

### Tone & intent
- [Agitational & persuasive](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/agitational-and-persuasive/) (defining)
- [Communal & popular](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/communal-and-popular/) (defining)
- [Rebellious & subversive](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rebellious-and-subversive/) (characteristic)
- [Utopian & idealistic](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/utopian-and-idealistic/) (occasional)

Avoids: Full polychrome, Gradients, Gloss & highlights, Ironic & self-aware, Luxurious & glamorous, Abundant decoration, Ornamented display

Palette: #141414, #007a4d, #f2b51d, #d7261e, #f4f1e8

Typefaces: Hand-cut stencil capitals, Hand-lettered heavy block capitals, Letraset dry-transfer display type, Helvetica (typeset posters of the late 1980s)

Known for: Medu Art Ensemble, Gaborone (1978–85), about ninety posters smuggled into South Africa; Judy Seidman for Medu, You Have Struck a Rock (1981, silkscreen); Thami Mnyele (Medu); Screen Training Project, Johannesburg (from 1983); Community Arts Project, Cape Town; Junction Avenue silkscreen posters for the Fattis & Monis boycott (1979); Poster Book Collective, Images of Defiance: South African Resistance Posters of the 1980s (Ravan Press, 1991)

## Where it comes from, and what it’s close to

- Influenced by: [Cuban Revolutionary Poster (OSPAAAL & ICAIC)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/cuban-poster.md) (1960–1990)
- Influenced by: [Socialist Realist Propaganda Poster](https://stylogeny.com/styles/socialist-realism.md) (1932–1989)
- Alike in its design choices: [Chicano Screenprint Poster](https://stylogeny.com/styles/chicano-poster.md) (1965–present), 76% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Australian Poster Collective Screenprints](https://stylogeny.com/styles/australian-poster-collectives.md) (1971–1994), 70% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Latin American Feminist Protest Graphics (Ni Una Menos and the Green Wave)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/marea-verde-graphics.md) (2015–present), 70% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Puerto Rican Silkscreen Poster (DIVEDCO & ICP)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/puerto-rican-silkscreen-poster.md) (1946–1989), 70% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Chilean Unidad Popular & Nueva Canción Graphics](https://stylogeny.com/styles/chilean-unidad-popular.md) (1967–1973), 69% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [WPA Silkscreen Posters](https://stylogeny.com/styles/wpa-poster.md) (1935–1943), 68% alike

## Real works

- [Forward with the Year of the Women!](https://www.collection-politicalgraphics.org/mwebcgi/mweb.exe?request=record;id=44712;type=101): Thami Mnyele (attributed by Judy Seidman) for the African National Congress, c. 1984, Center for the Study of Political Graphics, Culver City (CSPG 41844)
- [South African Communist Party 1921–1986: 65 Years of Struggle for Freedom, Peace and Socialism](https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1714442/): Unknown, for the South African Communist Party, 1986 (V&A: 1980s), Victoria and Albert Museum, London (E.655-2022)
- [Marching for Our Rights: Lesbian & Gay Pride March, Johannesburg, 10.10.1992](https://www.collection-politicalgraphics.org/mwebcgi/mweb.exe?request=record;id=50325;type=101): Unknown artist, 1992, Center for the Study of Political Graphics, Culver City (CSPG 46593)
- [Culture and Resistance: Symposium and Festival, Gaborone, July 5th–9th](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thami_Mnyele_culture_and_resistance_poster.jpg): Thami Mnyele, Medu Art Ensemble, 1982, Photograph of a surviving print by Judy Seidman (Medu member), 2007, on Wikimedia Commons; holding institution not stated

## Sources

- South African History Archive, 'Making posters in South Africa' (saha.org.za)
- MoMA post, on Judy Seidman and Medu, You Have Struck a Rock (post.moma.org)
- Poster Book Collective, Images of Defiance: South African Resistance Posters of the 1980s (Ravan Press, 1991)

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From Stylogeny (https://stylogeny.com/), an atlas of graphic-design styles by Van Riel Online Services. How it is made: https://stylogeny.com/about/. Cite as: Stylogeny, “South African Resistance Poster”, https://stylogeny.com/styles/anti-apartheid-poster/