Catalogue Number
NMLH.2025.26.1
Object Name
poster
Title
'Stop all hangings in Zimbabwe. Support the Zimbabwe liberation struggle. Majority rule now. 10 Years of U.D.I. On 11th November 1965 Ian Smith and the Rhodesian Front seized power in Rhodesia in order to preserve white supremacy.'
Place
Zimbabwe, Rhodesia (previous name), London, UK
People
Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM), Ian Smith, Rhodesian Front (RF)
Events
Zimbabwe apartheid regime 1965-1979, Zimbabwe liberation rally 9/11/1975
Description
A white poster with black text which reads: 'Stop all hangings in Zimbabwe. Support the Zimbabwe liberation struggle. Majority rule now. 10 Years of U.D.I. On 11th November 1965 Ian Smith and the Rhodesian Front seized power in Rhodesia in order to preserve white supremacy' and details of a rally and march to Trafalgar Square. In the bottom left corner is a black and white image of three Black men in suits, fists raised in a gesture of protest.
This poster was designed to advertise a protest organised by the Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM) on 9 November 1975 protesting the tenth anniversary of the Rhodesian Front (RF), a white power organisation opposed to decolonisation and Black majority governance of Rhodesia. The RF took over what is now Zimbabwe when the British withdrew from colonising the country, instituting an apartheid system. Under apartheid only white people could participate in political governance, and a strict system of segregation privileged white people and kept Black people as second class citizens who were kept poor by limiting access to social resources and employment opportunities, and denied access to the political system. Black people were terrorized and anti-apartheid campaigners were subjected to arrest, torture and capital punishment including the death penalty. Following a civil war, the apartheid regime was ended, and the country, renamed Zimbabwe, officially became independent from both British colonial and white minority rule on 18 April 1980.
AAM began in 1959 following an appeal by Black South African organisers for international consumer boycotts of goods grown in apartheid South Africa to try and pressure the South African government with economic consequences for apartheid. While South Africa is the most famous apartheid regime in southern Africa, the AAM also campaigned against apartheid in Zimbabwe and Namibia.
Multimedia
