Medu Art Ensemble

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Medu Art Ensemble (1979 - 1985) was a multiracial, Pan-African, and anti-colonial collective of cultural activists based in Gaborone, Botswana during the height of the anti-apartheid resistance movement during the late twentieth century. The collective formed originally in 1979^[1] and was formed to give voice to South Africa’s apartheid policy of racial segregation (1948-1994) and liberation struggles in neighboring countries Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, and Zimbabwe.^[2] The group was formed after the 1976 Soweto Uprising, when many South African activists were forced into exile. The group was composed of over 60 musicians, performance artists, visual artists, researchers, writers, and poets. Most of the members were South African, but some were from the United States of America, Canada, Cuba, Brazil, Sweden, and Botswana. As a "non-aligned" group, Medu worked with artists from various racial, social, political, and cultural backgrounds. Medu’s members, or “cultural workers” as they preferred to be called, eventually organized and relocated to Gaborone, Botswana in 1978.^[3] They felt that the term "cultural workers" was far more fitting to their mission rather than referring to themselves as artists because the such a pursuit was regarded as something trivial and therefore inherently elitist and white.^[4] With the support of the African National Congress (ANC), in Gaborone, Medu officially registered as a cultural organization with the Botswanan government. Medu means “roots” in the Northern Sotho language Sepedi, and describes the collective's underground operations (in defiance of the apartheid government's ban on oppositional political parties and organizations). The collective’s cultural work was divided into six units; Publications and Research, Graphic Arts and Design, Music, Theatre, Photography, and Film.

In Gaborone, Medu organized concerts, conducted art and creative writing workshops, produced films, organized public health campaigns, and mounted exhibitions among other activities. The collective also produced agitational newsletters and political posters, both of which sought to simultaneously bolster regional solidarity, critique the injustices of the apartheid state, and promote black consciousness. One of Medu's flagship events was the 1982 Culture and Resistance Festival and Symposium, which brought thousands of activists, cultural workers, and ordinary people together (from across Africa, the Americas, and Europe) for a week of concerts, exhibitions, talks, workshops and other forms of radical cultural programing. This massive undertaking brought greater attention to Medu's activism, heightening in particular the apartheid government's scrutiny of collective's work. Medu disbanded in 1985, following the South African Defence Force's murderous Raid on Gaborone, which resulted in the death of twelve people, including Medu members Mike Hamlyn, Thamsanga Mnyele, George Phahle, and Lindi Phahle.