(BROADSIDE). (NAMIBIA - HUMAN RIGHTS). Free the SWAPO 100.

Human Rights during the Namibian War of Independence

(BROADSIDE). (NAMIBIA - HUMAN RIGHTS). Free the SWAPO 100. (N.p.: n.p., 1980s) Single sheet, printed on one side only. (210 x 147 mm.)   Printed in blue, red, and green, with photographic reproductions of 16 detainees. Back covered with three strips of original adhesive backing; top two strips seem to have been replaced with waxed paper. Several creases where previously folded, a little discoloration due to adhesive, but still in very good condition. 

An unrecorded broadside advocating for the release of Namibia's "SWAPO 100," with images of some of the detainees.

Bearing the colors of the Namibian flag and featuring some of the names and faces of the people held prisoner by South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO), this small broadside is powerful visual testimony of an appalling human rights scandal during the country’s war for independence.

Organized by the International Society for Human Rights, the "Free the SWAPO 100" campaign was created to advocate for the release of detainees allegedly being held and tortured by SWAPO during the 1980s. At the time, Namibia (then called South West Africa) was under South African rule, and SWAPO was leading the struggle for independence. The group accused some of its own members of espionage on behalf of the South African regime, and sent hundreds (by some estimates, thousands) of these alleged "spies" to detention camps, where they were brutally mistreated, tortured, and killed. Survivors of the prison camps were released in 1989, and Namibia went on to gain independence in 1990 with SWAPO as the ruling party.

This broadside appears to be unrecorded. We find no records in OCLC or on the market. (1027)

Further Reading: Williams, "Exile History: An Ethnography of the SWAPO Camps and the Namibian Nation" (thesis for University of Michigan).