Women Unite Against Apartheid 

Women Unite Against Apartheid is a 1981 offset lithograph produced by Thamsanqa “Thami” Mnyele in collaboration with members of the Medu Art Ensemble, including Michael Kahn and Tim Williams. Created during a period of intensified resistance, the work reflects how visual culture operated within the anti-apartheid movement itself, rather than from an external perspective.

Medu functioned as a collective of “cultural workers” committed to supporting liberation through art. Based in exile in Botswana after 1978, the group produced posters, publications, and exhibitions that could circulate across Southern Africa despite the restrictions of the apartheid state. Within this context, authorship was shared, and works were created for use in political organizing rather than individual recognition.

The poster centers women as active participants in the struggle. Composed through photomontage, it brings together multiple images of women and references International Women’s Day, situating the work within a longer history of women’s resistance in South Africa. Rather than representing a single figure, the image emphasizes collective presence and participation.

Mnyele’s life underscores the conditions under which this work was produced. Forced into exile in 1979 due to increasing repression of political artists, he continued his practice in Botswana as part of the Medu Art Ensemble, and was later killed in 1985 during a South African military raid targeting anti-apartheid activists. These conditions reflect a broader pattern under apartheid, where even nonviolent forms of resistance were treated as threats. Cultural production, like protest and organizing, existed within this system and carried similar risks.

Including this work in the People’s Graphic Design Archive expands how this history is understood. While the poster is widely recognized, its collective authorship and conditions of production are often less foregrounded. Archiving it in this context brings those elements into focus, shifting attention from the image alone to the networks of artists and activists that produced it.