Written by Kasturi Pindar, Bodleian Libraries intern, Summer 2023
Content warning: some of the posters shown in this blog post contain images of violence that may be upsetting.
Thirty years ago, between 26-29 April 1994, the first democratic elections of South Africa were held. These elections followed a decades-long struggle against apartheid that saw protests, uprisings, relentless campaigning, and international condemnation and boycotts. The global anti-apartheid movement was one of the largest social movements to ever exist, with campaigning taking place in countries around the world. In Britain, the movement began in 1959 as the Boycott Movement, encouraging British consumers to boycott South African goods. March 1960 saw the movement run a ‘boycott month’ with the backing of the Labour Party, the Liberal Party and the Trades Union Congress.
On March 21st 1960, 69 people were killed and 180 were injured after police opened fire on people protesting apartheid pass laws outside a police station in the Black township of Sharpeville, in southern Transvaal. In the period of unrest following the Sharpeville massacre, the African National Congress (ANC) and Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) were banned and went underground, whilst in Britain, the Boycott Movement transformed itself into the Anti-Apartheid Movement. The new Anti-Apartheid Movement no longer focused solely on boycotting South African goods, but called for the complete isolation of apartheid South Africa. Nonetheless, the use of boycotting would remain an important tactic, and was particularly revived in the 1980s.
The archive of the Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM), held in the Bodleian Libraries’ Special Collections, contains a large number of posters produced by the AAM between 1963 and 1994, demonstrating the broad uses of boycotts: of consumer goods, South African sports, and organisations with large operations in South Africa, significantly Barclays and Shell. The AAM deployed a number of tactics in order to attract public attention, inform the public about how apartheid segregated, oppressed and exploited Black South Africans, and what could be done to support the movement. Posters were an important method of public communication for the AAM, and demonstrate some of the messaging used by the campaign group.
Many posters used bold lettering and simple, eye-catching colours. In many posters, just two or three colours were used. The Anti-Apartheid Movement logo—the letters ‘A’ and ‘A’ printed black on white and white on black on the yin and yang—featured on all of their posters. This poster, from around 1976, with white text on a black background demonstrates the use of simple, eye-catching design with a clear message.
MSS. AAM 2512/1/9
The poster below is similar in its simplicity: black and white with a short, clear message. This was produced for the Boycott Apartheid 89 campaign, which called for ‘people’s sanctions’ in response to Margaret Thatcher’s undermining of international sanctions in the mid-1980s. The image of men on a military jeep was used in many materials from this campaign, from posters and brochures, to badges and t-shirts. It also featured on the boycott bandwagon, a converted double decker bus that toured Britain as a travelling exhibition and video cinema. In the poster, the image of the jeep contrasts sharply with the men making a clenched fist salute, a symbol associated with political solidarity, revolutionary social movements, and Black power. In black and white, these two simple images make an impactful statement and effectively convey the struggle for justice against forces of oppression.
MSS. AAM 2512/1/75
Other posters, such as this ‘Look before you buy’ poster from 1977 used more complex images and colour to convey direct instructions to consumers. In the poster, common South African goods, such as tins of pilchards sold by Del Monte and Puffin are highlighted as products to avoid. On some of the packaging labels, images of the 1976 Soweto uprising are superimposed. One image shows schoolboy Zolilie Hector Pieterson being carried by activist Mbuyisa Makhubo, having been shot and killed at age 12 during the uprising. The photograph was taken by Sam Nzima one year prior to the poster’s creation and was a widely-circulated, influential image. Looking at this poster, the viewer begins to associate South African produce with images depicting the violence enacted by apartheid.
MSS. AAM 2512/1/21
Other posters discouraging shoppers from buying South African products use similar methods. In a poster from 1989, imagery of ‘strange fruit’ of the American South, from Billie Holiday’s song of the same name, is adopted. The face of P. W. Botha, then executive State President of South Africa, is drawn onto the trunk of a tree from which a man hangs. The lyrics of Holiday’s song are printed at the bottom of the poster. Shoppers are advised not to ‘buy the fruit of apartheid’ and a list of brands to avoid is given, including Outspan, Del Monte, and John West. In another poster, an illustrated tin of food is covered in images of skulls, protestors, and boys and girls shouting—all South African schoolchildren during the 1976 Soweto uprising. The label on the tin reads ‘product of apartheid South Africa’. The ANC is represented by a tin opener, with its sharp end pointed at the tin, signalling that the ANC would end apartheid and liberate South Africa.
MSS. AAM 2512/1/70
MSS. AAM 2512/1/118
In other posters, the AAM actively appropriated the branding of the products and organisations to be boycotted. The red font and blue-striped branding of 1980s Tesco is adopted in one poster calling for a boycott of the store’s apartheid goods, giving the poster the appearance of a Tesco carrier bag. In another from the 1980s, the yellow and red logo of Shell is used, calling for Shell to leave South Africa and Namibia. Mimicking well-known branding and logos in such a way may have been eye-catching for the general public, and certainly worked to associate these well-known companies with apartheid. Such campaigns and their accompanying posters were certainly effective: by the mid-1980s, around a quarter of British people said they were boycotting South African products.
MSS. AAM 2512/1/114
MSS. AAM 2512/1/131
Another poster from the 1980s adopts the sea-blue branding and eagle logo used by Barclays bank at the time. The poster features an image of a bank card with ‘Boerclaybank’ printed across the top, a play on the word Boer, connoting the bank’s use by white South Africans. Where the card number would appear on a real bank card, statistics related to deaths as a result of apartheid are printed, such as ‘Total number killed since September 1984’. Also printed on the card is the Barclays logo of a spread eagle. Usually featuring three crowns across its wings and body, one of the crowns is replaced with a whip, signifying the violence and control of apartheid. This poster was published by the National Union of Students in conjunction with the AAM, and was displayed in student unions around the country, contributing to a significant drop in Barclays’ share of student accounts. The bank eventually withdrew from South Africa in 1986.
MSS. AAM 2512/1/128
Other posters took a more informative approach, educating the public as to how apartheid harmed Black South Africans in order to persuade them to participate in consumer boycotts or campaigns. This poster from the 1980s contains much more text than the average AAM poster. It informs viewers about working conditions for Black women in South Africa, including in agriculture, the textile industry, and as wives of men forced into migrant labour in diamond and uranium mines. The poster emphasises the harsh working and living conditions for Black women and children in South Africa, calling for Britons to ‘support women of Namibia and South Africa’. As such, the poster particularly appeals to British women to show solidarity with South African women. The AAM logo is adapted: rather than containing two As, the yin and yang are overlaid with the female sign.
MSS. AAM 2512/1/113
Finally, the AAM also called for Britons to boycott South African sports. For example, in 1969-70, the AAM and Stop the Seventy Tour (STST) organised direct action against the Springbok rugby tour of Britain. Pressure applied during the rugby tour in 1969, and ahead of the South African cricket tour the following year, resulted in the successful cancellation of the 1970 cricket tour. Posters in the archive of the AAM demonstrate that in addition to direct action such as demonstrations and protest, the AAM called for a widespread boycott of the all-white South African teams. The poster below, which is printed on thick board, shows the kinds of messages and imagery used to discourage Britons from supporting South African teams visiting Britain.
MSS. AAM 2512/1/16
The posters above are a small representation of the posters held in the archive of the AAM at the Bodleian Libraries’ Special Collections. They demonstrate the wide range of public campaigns undertaken by the organisation and the many ways in which they communicated with the public: from simple messaging on monochrome backgrounds, to posters with clear directions, imagery of apartheid, or informational materials. Whilst the use of boycott formed just one of the tactics used by the AAM, it is an excellent example of how the movement worked to engage broad swathes of the British public in the international struggle against apartheid. Thirty years on from the first democratic elections in South Africa, let us commemorate the solidarity and support shown by nations around the world in the struggle for justice.
REFERENCES
Primary
Anti-Apartheid Movement, ‘Boycott Apartheid. Support the ANC for the Liberation of South Africa.’ (n.d.), Oxford, Bodleian Library, Archive of the Anti-Apartheid Movement, MSS. AAM 2512/1/118
Anti-Apartheid Movement, ‘Boycott Apartheid 89’ (1989), Oxford, Bodleian Library, Archive of the Anti-Apartheid Movement, MSS. AAM 2512/1/75
Anti-Apartheid Movement, ‘Boycott Products of Apartheid. Support Women of Namibia and South Africa’ (n.d.), Oxford, Bodleian Library, Archive of the Anti-Apartheid Movement, MSS. AAM 2512/1/113
Anti-Apartheid Movement, ‘Don’t Buy Tesco’s Apartheid Goods’ (1988), Oxford, Bodleian Library, Archive of the Anti-Apartheid Movement, MSS. AAM 2512/1/114
Anti-Apartheid Movement, ‘If you could see their national sport, you might be less keen to see their cricket!’ (1970), Oxford, Bodleian Library, Archive of the Anti-Apartheid Movement, MSS. AAM 2512/1/16
Anti-Apartheid Movement, ‘Look Before you Buy. Boycott the Products of Apartheid’ (1977), Oxford, Bodleian Library, Archive of the Anti-Apartheid Movement, MSS. AAM 2512/1/21
Anti-Apartheid Movement, ‘Shell out of Namibia and South Africa. No fuel for Apartheid.’ (c. 1980s), Oxford, Bodleian Library, Archive of the Anti-Apartheid Movement, MSS. AAM 2512/1/131
Anti-Apartheid Movement, ‘Strange Fruit. Don’t Buy the Fruit of Apartheid’ (1989), Oxford, Bodleian Library, Archive of the Anti-Apartheid Movement, MSS. AAM 2512/1/70
Anti-Apartheid Movement, ‘The Anti-Apartheid Movement says “Support the African Liberation Struggle”‘, Oxford, Bodleian Library, Archive of the Anti-Apartheid Movement, MSS. AAM 2512/1/9
Anti-Apartheid Movement, ‘The Survival Kit for Apartheid. Boycott Barclays’ (n.d.), Oxford, Bodleian Library, Archive of the Anti-Apartheid Movement, MSS. AAM 2512/1/128
Secondary
‘Boycott South African Goods’, Forward to Freedom https://www.aamarchives.org/campaigns/boycott.html (accessed 4 September 2023)
‘Don’t Scrum with a Racist Bum’, Forward to Freedom https://www.aamarchives.org/campaigns/sport.html (accessed 11 September 2023)
John, Nerys, ‘The Campaign against British Bank Involvement in Apartheid South Africa’, African Affairs 99/396 (2000), pp. 415-433
‘po042. Support the African Liberation Struggle’, Forward to Freedom http://tinyurl.com/bdefaewx (accessed 4 September 2023)
‘po052. Look before you buy. Boycott the products of apartheid’, Forward to Freedom https://www.aamarchives.org/archive/history/boycott-movement/po052-look-before-you-buy-boycott-the-products-of-apartheid.html (accessed 8 September 2023)
‘po080. ‘Boerclaybank’, Forward to Freedom https://www.aamarchives.org/archive/campaigns/barclays-and-shell/po080-boerclaybank.html (accessed 8 September 2023)
Stout, James, ‘The history of the raised fist, a global symbol of fighting oppression’, National Geographic (2020) https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/history-of-raised-fist-global-symbol-fighting-oppression (accessed 4 September 2023)
Teaching History With 100 Objects, ‘Anti-Apartheid Badge’, The British Museum http://www.teachinghistory100.org/objects/about_the_object/anti_apartheid_badge (accessed 4 September 2023)