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All Shall Be Afforded Dignity! brings together lino prints and political cartoons by Norman Kaplan, in an exhibition co-produced by The Anti-Apartheid Legacy Centre, Action for Southern Africa and the Anti-Apartheid Movement Archives. Please join us to celebrate the opening of this exhibition opening and to reflect on the need to protect our human right to dignity. The Portico Library will be joined by Norman Kaplan’s sister in law Jenny Morgan and Caroline Kamana from The Liliesleaf Trust UK, which is building Britain’s first anti-apartheid museum, the Anti-Apartheid Legacy Centre

‘All Shall Be Afforded Dignity!’ is organised around the work (of the same name) that artist Norman Kaplan made in 1996 in response to a call for art to respond to the ‘home’ of the Constitution of newly democratic South Africa. His lino-cut, All shall Be Afforded Dignity, was awarded the first prize honour to be engraved and permanently displayed in the South African Constitutional Court.

These prints are displayed alongside three books from the nineteenth and early twentieth century on Southern Africa in the Portico Library’s collection. We are asking visitors to consider the legacy of imperialism, conquest and romanticised visions of Africa, as depicted in Olive Schreiner’s Life on an African Farm. Supporting this touring exhibition is part of our Reunited Programme of experiment events and pilot activities to explore potential exhibition themes and the legacies of themes in our historic collection. This exhibition will play an important role in thinking about how we critically reflect on and make more people aware of our historic collection.