Medu Art Ensemble archive to be listed in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register

The archive of the Medu Art Ensemble has been nominated for inclusion in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register in 2011.

Medu (sePedi word meaning “roots”) was a group initiated in Botswana for Black artists with an initial embargo on White artists and foreigners. As a cultural organisation for the ANC Medu conducted workshops in Botswana and promoted resistance to Apartheid in South Africa. Although Medu operated from Botswana their focus was the use of culture as a weapon against apartheid. In 1982 Medu hosted the Symposium on Culture and Resistance, one of the most important gatherings of South African and international cultural activists in Gaborone, Botswana, which accompanied by an art exhibition of South African and exiled artists, entitled Art towards Social Development.

 

See Nomination Form, attached below and UNESCO Memory of the World website, for further details.

 

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