Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1983 (Accumulation)
Level of description
Subseries
Extent and medium
36 pages
Context area
Name of creator
Administrative history
The Medu Art Ensemble was formed by South Africa exiles in Gaborone, Botswana, in 1978. The organisation produced a wealth of creative work across all major art-forms; the roup further played a key role in shaping aesthetic and cultural theory and praxis within Africanist and liberation struggles. On June 14 1985, the South African Defence Force attacked the homes of Medu members and other activists in Gaborone, killing 12 people; Medu as an organisation ceased to exist.
Repository
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
This is the first issue of 1983. This edition, the first since the Culture and Resistance Conference, aims to prioritise the work of local artists. The edition consists of Medu Art Ensemble interviewing John Selolwane, a guitarist for the band Kgalagadi in Botswana, who has a wide experience of playing music in various parts of Africa. John Donne's poem, "After Maseru", follows the Maseru Raid on 9 December 1982 where 42 people suspected of being activists and members of the ANC were killed. Donne gives a sense of the ignorance and apathy of many South Africans to this gruesome massacre by the Apartheid government. There is also a review of the photographic exhibition "Art Towards Social Development" by Tim Williams. He showceses photographs that capture the "cultural reality of Apartheid" and "the vulerability of South African fascism". A second photographic exhibition "Portrait of people", a graphic record of the South African liberation struggle, is reviewed in this issue. It is explained that history of the people is incomplete without pictorial records of the people who made that history. Another interesting piece is an article about culture and resistance in South Africa by Keorapetse Kgositsile. The author explains that the determination and commitment to life which is reflected in arts and cultural resistance is not as new a development in South Africa as some people might think. Front page graphic by Mike Kahn on silkscreen print.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Conditions governing reproduction
Permission to publish must be obtained from the Medu Art Ensemble Project.
Language of material
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Publication note
Newsletter has a cover page, unnumbered table of content and four unnumbered illustration pages.