'FREEDOM'. [Anti-Apartheid Poster]. National Committee on Apartheid. [1978].>>Striking unrecorded political silk-screen poster<<

Poster with the words 'From the turbulence of war and struggle shall it come. FREEDOM!' and with 'National Committee on Apartheid to mark the International Year for Action against Apartheid' at the bottom. The black map of Africa, outlined in yellow, is held up by two besceeching upper arms and hands - the iron chains have become unshackled  from the golden padlock - on a background of the rays of a dawning sun, symbolising resistance to the South African system of racial segregation known as apartheid. 765 x 515 mm. Original silk screen-printed poster in six vivid colours and iconic design reminiscent of anti-slavery, abolitionist imagery. Short closed tear near the top right hand corner; corners slightly creased. Otherwise in very good condition. 

African grassroots community structures of the 1980s used posters, banners, leaflets, T-shirts, lapel badges, flags, stickers and graffiti in their fight to loosen the grip of apartheid ideas. By the end of that decade, the major source of poster production appears to have been university campuses. Student politics in the 1960s, especially among whites, reflected aspects of the militancy of campuses in Europe and the U. S.A., which included the use of political posters. While distribution of these posters was mostly restricted to the campuses, their subject matter often dealt with major national issues. One of the only known collections of these posters was destroyed in a mysterious fire which gutted a floor of the students' union building at Wits University in the early 1980s.

The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed the year begining on 21 March 1978 as the International Anti-Apartheid Year - Nelson Mandela had been sentenced to life imprisonment in 1962 but secret talks between him and Government representatives did not start until the early 1980s. The National Committee Against Apartheid (NACAP) was founded by the Nigerian government sometimes in the 1960s with branches all over Nigeria. Its principal aim, among others, was to disseminate the evils of the apartheid regime to all Nigerians beginning from primary schools, market women etc. Through NACAP, hundreds of South Africans resident in Nigeria went to school free of charge and workers contributed financially to the liberation of South Africa. NACAP was also responsible for advising the government on major policy decisions concerning the then apartheid regime. NACAP had alliances with the labor movement, student groups, progressive elements within the country and other grassroots organizations. (Source: Akpan H. Ekpo, a former member of NACAP). Apartheid was ended by negotiations between 1990 and 1993 by the African national Congress.

No examples in commerce, and not found in institutional collections.