NORMAN KAPLAN: ALL SHALL BE AFFORDED DIGNITY

All Shall be Afforded Dignity

Norman Kaplan, a white South-African of Russian-Jewish descent, was born in Gqeberha in 1947, then known as Port Elizabeth. In 1977, after studying at the local Technical College School of Art, he left for London where he lived in exile for 14 years, working as a graphic designer and filmmaker whilst producing works that protested apartheid. Several linocuts by Kaplan will be on display at the Enterprise Centre, including the titular ‘All Shall be Afforded Dignity’, which was produced to celebrate the new constitution of a new democratic South Africa in 1996, and which is engraved in the window of South Africa’s Constitutional Court. Also on show will be satirical cartoons, designs and drawings Kaplan created in the UK as a contribution to the liberation struggle.  

Many of Kaplan’s works were published anonymously in journals and newspapers such as Sechaba, the monthly mouthpiece of the African National Congress, The African Communist, the South African Communist Party’s quarterly journal, and its newspaper Umsebenzi. These publications were distributed clandestinely in apartheid South Africa, passed from hand to hand and deemed ‘dangerous and subversive’ by an apartheid-era judge. Kaplan’s cartoons, viewed alongside his lino-prints, invite visitors to the exhibition to explore and re-engage with the spirit and values of the liberation struggle 30 years on. 

Apartheid was a system of entrenched racial segregation that was the law of the land in South Africa from 1948 to 1994, after nearly three centuries of colonial rule by Dutch and British settlers. The Anti-Apartheid Movement Archive summarises the atrocious conditions for people of colour during Apartheid: “Under apartheid, all productive land was allocated to whites, while Africans were relegated to overcrowded and barren ‘homelands’. Black workers in designated white areas were subjected to stringent pass laws which severely limited their freedom of movement and received wages below subsistence levels. Health and education facilities were segregated, with those for blacks being vastly inferior to those for whites. Repressive laws allowed for indefinite detention without trial, and the state systematically practiced torture; the apartheid system was maintained through fear and coercion."

Anti-Apartheid Legacy: Centre of Memory and Learning

This entrenched system was challenged throughout its existence - both within South Africa and around the world, predominantly by South Africa’s African, Indian, and mixed-heritage communities. Indeed, the international anti-apartheid was one of the most significant, and ultimately successful, human rights struggles of the twentieth century.

In recent years, UEA has been involved in several projects exploring the history and legacy of the anti-apartheid movement in Britain, including several collaborations with the Liliesleaf Trust UK, who are currently working to build the Anti-Apartheid Legacy: Centre of Memory and Learning dedicated to the anti-apartheid struggle on the former site of the exiled African National Congress’ offices in London.

The exhibition will also explore the history and impact of the anti-apartheid movement in the UK and is part of a national programme of events to commemorate 30 years since the end of apartheid. The exhibition will be accompanied by talks, performances, and workshops with local school children in Norwich across the month of September and October.   

A Space for Reflection and Remembrance

'Norman Kaplan: All Shall be Afforded Dignity' has been created by the Anti-Apartheid Movement Archives, Action for Southern Africa, and the Anti-Apartheid Legacy: Centre of Memory & Learning in collaboration with Nicholas Grant, Associate Professor of International History at UEA.

The version of the exhibition on display at UEA has been curated by JMC Anderson, an Artist, Community Curator and Facilitator based in Norfolk and produced in collaboration with CreativeUEA.  

It is part of a UK-wide commemorative programme, All Shall Be Afforded Dignity! which marks 30 years of South Africa's liberation. It is organised by Action for South Africa and Anti-Apartheid Legacy; with the Anti-Apartheid Movement Archives and ACTSA Scotland, in partnership with the South African High Commission in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

“The road to 1994 was long, painful, but traveled in solidarity. In 2024, we can reflect on the lessons learned and review how we can continue together to build the South Africa and the world we all want to see. Kaplan’s work engages us with head and heart and shows the power of art to inspire action, build solidarity, and to call to account injustices wherever they are found.”

His Excellency Jeremiah Kingsley Mamabolo, South African High Commissioner to the UK and Northern Ireland

'Norman Kaplan: All Shall be Afforded Dignity' is at the Enterprise Centre, University of East Anglia,
Norwich Research Park, Norwich,
NR4 7TJ

Free admission

Monday - Friday
9:30 - 16:30

30 September - 18 October 2024