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| Semester | fall semester 2018 |
| Course frequency | Every fall sem. |
| Lecturers | Giorgio Miescher (giorgio.miescher@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | A poster is a medium of visual communication. A poster wants to catch the viewer’s attention and to sell a product, an event or an ideology. Being just a piece of printed paper posters communicate their message in an abbreviated form by using a few pictorial elements and/or some text. In the course of the 20th century posters played an important role in political propaganda especially in times of intense political struggles. Posters became a powerful weapon to denounce the opponent and to mobilise for one’s own cause. For opposition groups posters, easy to produce and distribute, were often the only available mass medium. Many of these posters testify to a powerful conjunction of art and resistance. Formal colonialism in Southern Africa only came to an end with the first general elections in South Africa in 1994. The decades before 1994 were marked by a long struggle for independence and self-determination against white minority rule. This struggle, fought with both military and political means, involved and heavily affected all countries of Southern Africa, next to South Africa notably Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Mozambique. Posters played an important role in these struggles, with various liberation movements and civil resistance organisations using this visual medium to achieve their goals in and beyond Southern Africa. The course introduces the work with posters using the poster collection of the Basler Afrika Bibliographien, which is one of the biggest collections of African posters. The participants acquire the methodological tools to do poster work and explore the potential of posters for history in general and the liberation history of Southern African in particular. In doing so we will critically engage with the visual propaganda of the struggle decades as well as with their legacy for today. |
| Course application | Participants should have participated in the previous course in 50565 "Posters, Protest and Politics: Art and Resistance in Southern Africa 1960s to 19809s" in the spring semester 2018. There might be the otpion of excemptions for students who have not participated in the previous course. In such a case, please contact Giorgio Miescher vie email. |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | No specific media used |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
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No dates available. Please contact the lecturer.
| Modules |
Electives Bachelor History: Recommendations (Bachelor's degree subject: History) Modul Areas: aussereuropäisch (Master's degree program: European History (Start of studies before 01.08.2018)) Modul Profil: Geschichte Afrikas (Master's degree program: European History (Start of studies before 01.08.2018)) Modul Profil: Moderne (Master's degree program: European History (Start of studies before 01.08.2018)) Modul: Areas: Afrika (Master's degree program: European History in Global Perspective) Modul: Ethnographien (Bachelor's degree subject: Anthropology) Modul: Fields: Governance and Politics (Master's degree program: African Studies) Modul: Fields: Knowledge Production and Transfer (Master's degree program: African Studies) Modul: Fields: Media and Imagination (Master's degree program: African Studies) Modul: Interdisciplinary and Applied African Studies (Master's degree program: African Studies) Module: Projects and Processes of Urbanization (Master's degree program: Critical Urbanisms) Wahlbereich Master Geschichte: Empfehlungen (Master's degree subject: History) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
| Scale | Pass / Fail |
| Repeated registration | as often as necessary |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Zentrum für Afrikastudien |