Poster Collection

The Poster Collection currently holds around 3,000 posters from and about Africa. The majority of the posters were produced during the last four decades.
 

Emphases

Namibia provides the geographic focus of the collection. Other countries in southern Africa such as Angola, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe are also well represented. There are additionally a small selection of recent posters from west Africa (e.g. Nigeria and Burkina Faso) as well as some older posters from other parts of the continent (e.g. Eritrea and Western Sahara).
 
Poster to promote the sugar season 1977/78 by the Uniäo Nacional Dos Trabalhadores Angolanos (UNTA), Luanda, Angola, designer unknown, 69,5 x 49,5 cm, 1977
Poster to promote the sugar season 1977/78 by the Uniäo Nacional Dos Trabalhadores Angolanos (UNTA), Luanda, Angola, designer unknown, 69,5 x 49,5 cm, 1977
The thematic range of the posters is broad. It covers the liberation struggle, the solidarity and anti-apartheid movements, the exile period, postcolonial politics and elections, 'nation building', campaigns for education, health and HIV/AIDS, the marketing of consumer products, and music and sport (e.g. football) events.
 
Most of the posters have been catalogued and digitalised and can be viewed via an online catalogue and keyword register.
 
A catalogue about the posters, "African Posters", with images and bibliographic details of 900 posters in the collection was published in 2004. 
 
Researchers visiting the BAB may work with slides or photographic prints. The original posters can be viewed only in exceptional cases.
 
 
Contact
Giorgio Miescher, gm(at)baslerafrika.ch
 
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