<I>SOWETO</I>
date: label: Date
content: 1980
name: label: Created by
content: Adger W. Cowans, American, born 1936
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 to protest 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, a poster made after an etching based upon his original 1977 painting of the same name. He incorporated the phrase “SO WE TO” to represent the unified struggle of human beings, across time and place, and against the forces of racism and oppression.
label: Description
content: A poster print of an original print by Adger Cowans. The black and white work depicts an abstracted face rendered through a multitude of finely etched diagonal and horizontal black lines. The eyes are depicted by thin slits, the nose by a vertical line with two oval-shaped nostrils, and the mouth an "o" shape. Along the bottom edge of the image, below the figure's chin, black letters against white background spell out [ SO WE TO]. The poster has a white border with wider margins at top and bottom. Below the image, handwritten by the artist in gold colored ink is a circle letter [c] at lower left corner, the title ["SOWETO"] at center, and the artist's signature and date [Adger Cowens- / 80-] at lower right corner. There are no further marks or inscriptions, front or back.
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
label: Exhibition
content: Reckoning: Protest. Defiance. Resilience.
label: On View
content: NMAAHC (1400 Constitution Ave NW), National Mall Location, Culture/Fourth Floor, 4 052
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Adger W. Cowans
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Object number
content: 2014.101
objectType: label: Type
content: photomechanical prints
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: ink on paper
label: Dimensions
content: H x W: 35 1/8 x 23 in. (89.2 x 58.4 cm)