Medu Art Ensemble
Medu Art Ensemble (1979 - 1985) was a multiracial, Pan-African, and anti-colonial collective of cultural activists based in Gaborone, Botswana during the height of the anti-apartheid resistance movement during the late twentieth century.
Medu means “roots” in the Northern Sotho language Sepedi, and describes the collective's underground operations (in defiance of the apartheid government's ban on oppositional political parties and organizations).
The collective also produced agitational newsletters and political posters, both of which sought to simultaneously bolster regional solidarity, critique the injustices of the apartheid state, and promote black consciousness.
Members of the collective included Gwen Ansell, Theresa Devant, Sergio-Albio González, Jonas Gwangwa, Basil Jones, Michael Kahn, Heinz Klug, Keorapetse Kgositsile, Adrian Kohler, Mandla Langa, Hugh Masekela, Gordon Metz, Thamsanqa Mnyele, Judy Seidman, Mongane Wally Serote, Pethu Serote, and Tim Williams, among many others.
[5] Evidently this position of belief changed and was adapted to fit the ideal of a future South Africa that would be home to all men regardless of race and white people were allowed to join and as such it helped gain international funding for the Ensemble.
Theorists such as Frantz Fanon, Mao Zedong, and Bertolt Brecht, with African writers such as Wole Soyinka and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o furthered the group's cultural thinking.
The iconography found across the collective's posters partakes of an international socialist and revolutionary lexicon of broken chains, clenched fists, upraised arms, and heroic depictions of activists and freedom fighters.
Operating both contemporaneously with and after Medu, these collectives also issued posters to inform and galvanize their compatriots, countering the disinformation campaigns and ideologies promulgated by the apartheid government.
Members of the Graphic Arts Movement included Thami Mnyele, Miles Pelo, Heinz Klug, Judy Seidman, Gordon Metz Albio and Theresa Gonzales, Philip Segola, and Lentswe Mokgatle.
Posters intended for South African audiences forcefully scrutinized the pernicious mechanism and brutality of apartheid through bold imagery and slogans, commemorated activists and events, while others promoted the various cultural activities Medu's Film, Photography, Theatre, and Music units organized in Gaborone.
[9] The posters were typically produced through dialogue among Medu's participants, with individuals or groups of members contributing to different designs before presenting proposals to the entire collective for approval.
Today the Medu posters serve as a rich source, they provide information that has little to no documentation elsewhere as South Africa's harsh censorship laws forbid such intelligence to be shared in the country.
The Medu Ensemble were not the first ones to discover the advantages of the capital, the Afrikaans couple Marius and Jeanette Schoon had set the works in place in 1977 when they founded bases there for the anti-apartheid movement.
Events from the conference included Art Toward Social Development curated by David Koloane and Emile Maurice, consisting of paintings, photography, live music, poetry, and theater performances.
Medu and ANC member Dikobe wa Mogale Ben Martins opened the symposium with the speech, ‘The Necessity of Art for National Liberation’.
"[12] The Medu Art Ensemble's ties with the African National Congress (ANC) and the Umkhonto We Sizwe (MK) its paramilitary wing are a contentious issue.
