Catalogue Number
NMLH.2024.60.4
Object Name
poster
Title
'Land-Rover South Africa. "No other vehicle ever produced can claim the international admiration and fame that surround the Land-Rover; overseas military authorities, in particular, continue to rely on this famous cross-country vehicle despite
ever-increasing competition from motor manufacturers worldwide." British Leyland Press Release, Aldershot 1976. Leyland Vehicles. Nothing can stop us now.'
Place
South Africa, UK
People
Leyland Vehicles, Land-Rover
Events
South African apartheid era
Description
A black and white poster, designed to look like an advertisement for Leyland Vehicles Land-Rover, but with the main image being one of four armed white soldiers assaulting a shirtless unarmed black man. He is sprawled on the ground behind a Land-Rover truck, which has an open back door. Another Black man can be seen inside the truck, which has barred windows indicating its use as a prison or military car. Text on the poster reads: 'Land-Rover South Africa. "No other vehicle ever produced can claim the international admiration and fame that surround the Land-Rover; overseas military authorities, in particular, continue to rely on this famous cross-country vehicle despite ever-increasing competition from motor manufacturers worldwide." British Leyland Press Release, Aldershot 1976. Leyland Vehicles. Nothing can stop us now.'
This poster was created to raise awareness of Leyland Vehicles Land-Rovers being used by the South African government during the Apartheid era. In the UK, the anti-apartheid movement was organising boycotts of businesses with ties to the apartheid government. The intention of this poster may have been to create pressure from customers to force Leyland and Land-Rover to stop selling to the apartheid government.
The South African apartheid system was a governing system of white minority rule in a Black majority country. Black people were restricted from living in certain areas, from taking (usually well paid) jobs, had their political parties banned, and were subject to police brutality and policed disproportionately compared to white South Africans. Mixed race relationships were also criminalised, in an attempt to completely prevent mixing of the races. The apartheid system ended in the early 1990s, and in the first free election in 1994, Nelson Mandela from the African National Congress was elected President. Under apartheid, the ANC had been banned, and Mandela had been deemed a terrorist and held as a political prisoner for 27 years.
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