Norman Kaplan: All Shall Be Afforded Dignity

An exhibition of artworks marking 30 years since the end of apartheid will see linocuts and cartoons by South African illustrator and cartoonist Norman Kaplan on display in the Enterprise Centre on the UEA campus from 30 September – 18 October.  

Norman Kaplan was born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa in 1947 and studied at the local Technical College School of Art. In 1977 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. 
 
On display at the Enterprise Centre were several linocuts by Kaplan including ‘All Shall be Afforded Dignity’, which was produced to celebrate the new constitution of a new democratic South Africa in 1996, which is also engraved in the window of South Africa’s Constitutional Court. There were also cartoons, designs and drawings Kaplan created in the UK as a contribution to the liberation and struggle.  
 
Many of these 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.  

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. This version of the exhibition which was on display at UEA has been curated by JMCAnderson, an Artist, Community Curator and Facilitator based in Norfolk and produced in collaboration with CreativeUEA.