Political Posters in Ethiopia and Mozambique: Visual Imagery in a Revolutionary Context

Description

This thesis documents and analyses political posters from Ethiopia and Mozambique. Previous research has considered the political poster as a mass-produced, artistic medium with propagandistic messages, which reached its zenith before the spread of radio and television. However, this view does not take into account the poster art of the Third World, where the situations differ from one country to another. A comparative study of Ethiopian and Mozambican posters shows that an old, rich pictorial tradition, as in Ethiopia, is less likely to incorporate Western revolutionary, socialist iconographical elements and traditions. In Mozambique, on the other hand, colonial experience, urban culture, political awareness and openness to revolutionary, socialist change, have given Western propaganda art sufficient room in which to develop. The book comprises eight chapters. The introduction is followed by a chapter outlining the state of research. In the third chapter, theory, method and choice of source material are discussed. Drawings, photographic images, typographical posters, symbols and emblematic compositions are treated in chapters four to seven. The concluding chapter deals with the nature and role of political posters.