Our Sophisticated Weapon

Posters of the Mozambican Revolution The Africa Centre, London 6 August - 4 September 2022 Brunei Gallery, SOAS 15 October - 11 December 2021

The sophisticated weapon is guaranteeing all citizens the right to study, culture, health, justice, progress... The sophisticated weapon is the people’s right to create their own history, by directing their own destiny... the sophisticated weapon is…the alternative of civilisation that our society now represents.


Samora Machel, President of Mozambique, August 1982

SOAS and The Africa Centre present, for the first time in the UK, an exhibition of the political posters produced during the early years of Mozambique’s independence.Having overthrown Portuguese rule in 1975, the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) looked to the arts for tools to build the new nation on ideals of socialism and internationalism. Working anonymously for the government’s new Department of Propaganda and Publicity, a team of artists including José Freire (1930-1998), João Craveirinha Jr (b 1947) and Manuel Ruas (b 1953) were tasked with creating and disseminating an image of the ‘new man’ through murals, print journals and screen-printed posters. The result was a pivotal moment for graphic design in postcolonial Africa.

This exhibition brings together 25 of these posters, shown for the first time outside Mozambique. The posters chart the primary aims of the post-revolutionary nation, as they sought to establish a new society of unity and resilience in the wake of colonial rule. Campaigns included memorialisation of the heroes of the liberation struggle; declarations of solidarity with the socialist world and ongoing anti-colonial struggles; and directives for the future of culture, production and women in the new society. Together, the posters offer fascinating insight into Frelimo’s vision for a utopian future, pitched as their ultimate weapon in the ideological battles of the time.

Along with contextual archival material, the show also features 1978-9 audio recordings of songs and poems from a communal village in Nampula Province, courtesy of the British Library Sound Archive, and five specially commissioned audio works by Mozambican musician and producer TRKZ (Ailton Matavela). Working with archival recordings of revolutionary songs and speeches from the late 1970s, TRKZ re-visits the messages of the time, remixing and reassessing their importance for the present. The exhibition will be accompanied by a 48-page colour catalogue, featuring interviews with the surviving artists and their associates.

Artworks

Frelimo, 3rd February 1976, One Single People
3rd February 1975, Rovuma - Maputo
1975, 25th of June 1975, Independence of Mozambique
25th June 1976, One Year of Independence / Generalised Political and Organisational Offensive on the Production Front
Mozambique 25th June 1978, Year of Restructuring the Party, Third Year of Independence
Fourth Year of Independence / People’s Republic of Mozambique / 25th June 1979 / Year of Consolidation of Our Conquests
Day of Mozambican Heroes, February 3rd 1978
Day of Mozambican Heroes February 3rd 1979
September 25th Day of the FPLM Day of the Revolution, To Defend the Homeland is to Consolidate Our Conquests, 1964 – 25th September – 1979, 15th Anniversary of the Beginning of the Armed Struggle for National Liberation
Welcome Nyerere
1st of May World Day of the Worker
May 1st, Day of the Worker. May 1st was always and will continue to be a manifestation of the struggle of the working classes and their internationalist character
1st May, Day of the Worker
1st May, Day of the Worker
25th of June 1977, 2nd Year of Independence, Win the Battle of Production, Long Live the Third Congress, Long Live Frelimo, Vanguard Party of the Mozambican People
The End of Hunger is in Our Hands / 16th October World Food Day
Let Us Harvest All the Cashew Nuts, To Harvest the Nuts is to Develop Mozambique
Let the creativity of each individual become the creativity of all so that from all a new culture is born, Dance, Cultural Offensive of the Working Classes
Soviet Film Week, National Film Institute, Ministry of Information, People’s Republic of Mozambique
Week of solidarity with the people and the Revolutionary Democratic Front of El Salvador in their anti-imperialist struggle, Maputo 15-19 December 80, People’s Republic of Mozambique
Frelimo, Macomia 26th to 30th Nov 1975, National Meeting of the Department of Information and Propaganda
25 September/Mozambique Revolution Day/Frelimo
1975 25th September People’s Forces for the Liberation of Mozambique
Unity, Work, Vigilance, 1975 Frelimo 1975 Year of Independence
7th April 1972 First Anniversary of the Death of Comrade Josina Machel/Mozambican Woman Combatant/The flowers which fall from the tree come to prepare the soil so that new and more beautiful flowers may grow in the following season/Your Life Continues in those who Continue the Revolution
The Liberation of the Mozambican Woman is a Necessity of the Revolution, a Guarantee of its Continuity, and a Condition of its Triumph. Frelimo 1976. 7th April, Day of the Mozambican Woman
OMM 2nd Conference, Maputo. Mozambican woman: let us free ourselves by increasing knowledge in productive work, energising the class struggle, making the revolution.
7th April 1978, Engage women in the principal task – building the material and ideological base for the construction of socialist society
Three-colour offset lithograph, DNPP, Maputo

Sound

TRKZ (Ailton Matavela)

Hinos Revoluçionarios (Revolutionary Hymns) 2021

Five specially commissioned audio tracks, with sampled archival recordings of revolutionary songs and speeches from the late 1970s.

Catalogue

Our Sophisticated Weapon Catalogue

Our Sophisticated Weapon was curated by Polly Savage and Richard Gray, and supported by SOAS.

All images remain copyright of the artist or artist's estate - please do not reproduce without permission.

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