1971

free all political prisoners - SOLIDARITY WITH THE AFROAMERICAN PEOPLE - AUGUST 18, 1971
Between the 1960s and 1990s, more than fifty designers worked at OSPAAAL. Based in Cuba, they made magazines and posters that were sent around the world. Their aim was to promote radical political ideas. Many of their posters celebrate socialist revolutions and liberation movements from the Global South. They also criticised the foreign policy of the U.S.A. and supported the Black Power movement.

Untitled (Sékou Touré), 1971
Between the 1960s and 1990s, more than fifty designers worked at OSPAAAL (the Organisation of Solidarity with the People of Africa, Asia and Latin America). Based in Cuba, they made magazines and posters that were sent around the world. Their aim was to promote radical political ideas. Many of their posters celebrate socialist revolutions and liberation movements from the Global South. This design is a portrait of Ahmed Sékou Touré, the first President of Guinea after the country gained independence from French colonial rule. On his chest is an outline of the African continent, with Guinea highlighted and a skull over the Guinea-Bissau, which was under Portuguese colonial rule at the time of the poster’s issue.

Untitled, 1971
Between the 1960s and 1990s, more than fifty designers worked at OSPAAAL (the Organisation of Solidarity with the People of Africa, Asia and Latin America). Based in Cuba, they made magazines and posters that were sent around the world. Their aim was to promote radical political ideas. Many of their posters celebrate socialist revolutions and liberation movements from the Global South. Olivio Martínez Viera’s design represents the U.S.A. as a monstrous organism extracting resources from Africa for financial gain.

DISAPPEARANCE OF BEN BARKA - October 29, 1971
Between the 1960s and 1990s, more than fifty designers worked at OSPAAAL (the Organisation of Solidarity with the People of Africa, Asia and Latin America). Based in Cuba, they made magazines and posters that were sent around the world. Their aim was to promote radical political ideas. Many of their posters celebrate socialist revolutions and liberation movements from the Global South. Moroccan politician Mehdi Ben Barka led the preparation of the Tricontinental conference, but was assassinated before it began. Antonio Fernández Mariño represented his mysterious disappearance using photomontage to create a fading, ghostlike portrait.


