<I>SOWETO</I>
date: label: Date
content: 1983
name: label: Created by
content: Adger W. Cowans, American, born 1936
label: Subject of
content: AfriCOBRA, founded 1968
notes: label: Caption
content: Adger Cowans is a member of AfriCOBRA (African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists), a collective dedicated to creating positive and culturally relevant art for African Americans and other Africans in the diaspora. In 1977 the group created and exhibited a series of artworks in protest of the 1976 massacre of hundreds of high school students in Soweto, South Africa. Police officers attacked the students while they peacefully protested the mandatory replacement of native tongues with Afrikaans and English as the primary instructional languages.
label: Caption
content: In 1980 Cowans created SOWETO, an etching made after his original 1977 painting of the same name. He incorporated the phrase “SO WE TO” to represent the unified struggle of human beings, over time and place, against the forces of racism and oppression.
label: Description
content: A black and white print made from a copper plate etching. The print is of an abstracted face rendered through a multitude of finely etched diagonal and horizontal black lines. The eyes are depicted by thin slits, the nose is depicted by a vertical line with two oval-shaped nostrils, and the mouth is depicted by an "o" shape. Along the bottom edge of the image, below the figure's chin, letters in Serif-style font spell [ SO WE TO]. Below the image, the artist has hand-written the edition number at left, the print titled in the middle, and his signature and date on the right.
place: label: Place depicted
content: Soweto, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa, Africa
topic: label: Topic
content: African American
label: Topic
content: Africa
label: Topic
content: Art
label: Topic
content: Resistance
label: Topic
content: Violence
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection
label: Classification
content: Visual Arts
label: Movement
content: Anti-apartheid movements
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Object number
content: 2013.146.1
objectType: label: Type
content: etchings
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: © Adger Cowans
label: Restrictions & Rights
content: Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: printing ink on rag paper
label: Dimensions
content: H x W (Sheet): 44 1/4 × 29 7/8 in. (112.4 × 75.9 cm)
label: Dimensions
content: H x W (Image): 30 1/8 × 22 1/2 in. (76.5 × 57.2 cm)
label: Dimensions
content: H x W (Impression): 33 1/8 × 23 7/8 in. (84.1 × 60.6 cm)