Vintage Propaganda posters, Political cartoons, and Postcards

[Hey Johnny Bravo]

It was actually my area of study for my MA, particularly the Francophone countries. The whole place got fucked, but the French and Belgians absolutely fucking raw-dogged half a continent (especially the Belgians, I mean goddamn). Several of these are Soviet or European in origin, but they all have a really unique style to them that I personally love.

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Fuck yeah! You got any that are African-made or was your thesis specific to Euro origin propaganda?

 

[Bothriolepis]

You got any that are African-made or was your thesis specific to Euro origin propaganda?

Oh, no. I didn't mean that it was actually  that specific to the topic of this thread. I focused on the role that ethnic hatred played in Post-Colonial conflicts in the region in general, not just propaganda from it, although that would have been a very interesting area to study now that I think about it. I actually did do a paper on the use of radio during the Rwandan Genocide, but my Master's thesis was on the role of a particular country's political geography during the Colonial period in stoking the fires of civil war afterward (it's too specific to say much more than that, since I can't imagine very many people have written on the same topic and it could probably be located online if someone wanted to dig for it, but I will say that it's why I had one of those images lying around; I'm still fascinated by that country's history, since I spent probably over a week of time reading about it, cumulatively).

There are a lot of posters on this website, though, several of which are African in origin. Some are from separatist militias, others are from people organizing for non-violent political change, and if I'm remembering right there are actually a few from public health programs aimed at combating tropical diseases, although those could have been a part of some other archive I've seen and just kind of blended with this one in my memory.

 

[Hey Johnny Bravo]

Oh, no. I didn't mean that it was actually  that specific to the topic of this thread. I focused on the role that ethnic hatred played in Post-Colonial conflicts in the region in general, not just propaganda from it, although that would have been a very interesting area to study now that I think about it. I actually did do a paper on the use of radio during the Rwandan Genocide, but my Master's thesis was on the role of a particular country's political geography during the Colonial period in stoking the fires of civil war afterward (it's too specific to say much more than that, since I can't imagine very many people have written on the same topic and it could probably be located online if someone wanted to dig for it, but I will say that it's why I had one of those images lying around; I'm still fascinated by that country's history, since I spent probably over a week of time reading about it, cumulatively).

There are a lot of posters on this website, though, several of which are African in origin. Some are from separatist militias, others are from people organizing for non-violent political change, and if I'm remembering right there are actually a few from public health programs aimed at combating tropical diseases, although those could have been a part of some other archive I've seen and just kind of blended with this one in my memory.


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This is awesome, thank you. Africa war kino is another hobby of mine. I sorta wish I could read your thesis, too.

 

[Bothriolepis]

This is awesome, thank you. Africa war kino is another hobby of mine. I sorta wish I could read your thesis, too.

I don't think it would give away too much just to say that it was about Central African Republic and focused pretty heavily on the Anti-Balaka. One of those things that can either be fascinating or a form of masochism to read about, depending on your level of interest in the history and politics of a region whose past is so convoluted that I had another guy in my graduating class joke that I should have studied quantum physics because it would have been easier.

I focused on the history of science for my undergrad degree and physical chemistry is, completely unironically, quite a bit easier. Electrons are absolute bullshit particles and I hate them after what they put me through, but at least I didn't have to learn how to read French only to find out that half my primary sources were actually written in Sango. Also, molecular orbitals never attempted to decapitate anyone by twisting their head off at the neck with their bare hands, although I can't quite remember if that was the CAR civil war or the Lord's Resistance Army dicking around in the Eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It might have been both.

Either way, I ended up using it and the September 11th terrorist Materpiscis attacks in an argument with a member of my class who was obsessed with the idea that Neo-Realism can explain everything if you try hard enough to fit square pegs in round holes. I may or may not have been informed by the facilitator for that class that I needed to find examples better explained by Constructivism that didn't involve the murder of children or World Trade Center jumpers if I wanted to defend my statements. The Investiture Crisis in the Holy Roman Empire might be more socially acceptable evidence, but it just doesn't have the same emotional oomph as a good old-fashioned attrocity

 

[AnOminous]

It was actually my area of study for my MA, particularly the Francophone countries. The whole place got fucked, but the French and Belgians absolutely fucking raw-dogged half a continent (especially the Belgians, I mean goddamn). Several of these are Soviet or European in origin, but they all have a really unique style to them that I personally love.

The Belgians were absolutely miserable bastards, genocidal maniacs, and while I am generally skeptical of claims that things Africans do can be blamed on colonialism, the horrendous Rwandan genocide was set into motion by repulsive things the Belgians did on purpose, and what Leopold II did in Congo was as bad as anything Hitler or the Turks were accused of doing.

Honestly, man, fuck fucking Belgians. They were worse than Nazis.

I actually did do a paper on the use of radio during the Rwandan Genocide, but my Master's thesis was on the role of a particular country's political geography during the Colonial period in stoking the fires of civil war afterward (it's too specific to say much more than that, since I can't imagine very many people have written on the same topic and it could probably be located online if someone wanted to dig for it, but I will say that it's why I had one of those images lying around; I'm still fascinated by that country's history, since I spent probably over a week of time reading about it, cumulatively).

Ever read Dallaire's book Shake Hands With the Devil about his experience as a peacekeeper? Yeah I know he's Canadian and even from Quebec but god did that dude get fucked. He had the job of "keeping peace" between people chopping up their neighbors with machetes and had absolutely zero support. He tried to kill himself after the experience.

The whole Rwandan thing was an utterly avoidable atrocity that could have been stopped had the West given a single shit about it. It wouldn't have even taken a military operation, just disruption.

The pure lunacy of it was the whole Hutu/Tutsi thing was almost entirely a Belgian invention, they created a "master race" to control the rest of the country, and then when they left, those people were obviously hated as the puppets of an occupier.

Meanwhile if you put a Hutsi and a Tutsi next to each other you couldn't tell the difference.

Oh this is a propaganda thread. I should post Hutu propaganda but most of it was on radio.

 

[Lt. H. DuBois]

The classic They Shall Not Pass

 

[Bothriolepis]

Ever read Dallaire's book Shake Hands With the Devil about his experience as a peacekeeper? Yeah I know he's Canadian and even from Quebec but god did that dude get fucked. He had the job of "keeping peace" between people chopping up their neighbors with machetes and had absolutely zero support. He tried to kill himself after the experience.

The whole Rwandan thing was an utterly avoidable atrocity that could have been stopped had the West given a single shit about it. It wouldn't have even taken a military operation, just disruption.

I've read a lot about the Rwandan Genocide, but I honestly can't remember if that included Shake Hands with the Devil. I do know that the few peacekeepers assigned to Rwanda got fucked over, though. There was a whole complicated mess of reasons, but most of them seem small in retrospect. If anybody was going to be stationed there then they needed more support than they actually got. Even if the genocide started suddenly, it wasn't unexpected. Anyone who knew anything about the country beyond how to find it out on a map and the fact that the capital was named Kigali could have seen it coming in advance.

How severely Belgium (and, to a lesser extent, Germany) fucked up the territory that of Ruanda-Urumi honestly looks like gentle handling compared to what Belgium and particularly King Leopold II did to their territories in the Congo, though. It really needs to be taught as an example of genocide, though, if only to show that's it's been a reality for centuries and that Hitler wasn't the first sociopath to decide that the world would be better off if they killed out an entire racial/ethnic group. He just made the mistake of committing large-scale genocide in the developed world, rather than using the population of a colony somewhere in the tropics to sate his bloodlust. The fact that Leopold II was still being treated as a decent king who made a few little oopsies in Africa right up into the early 21st century is one of very few things that I find morally shocking.

I hope that Vachel Lindsey was right, and that he is in fact getting his hands cut off down in Hell. If you can get that sort of hate from a guy who titles the first part of his poem about the Congo, "Their Basic Savagery", then you probably deserve to burn at least until your soul's nice and crispy.

 

[Rome's rightful successor]

German cartoon (ca. 1931) mocking Ernst Röhm's homosexuality.

 

[Rome's rightful successor]

German cartoon (1934) mocking Nazis as homosexuals.

 

[Hey Johnny Bravo]

German cartoon (1934) mocking Nazis as homosexuals.
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Ernst Rohm and Horst Wessel didn't help.

 

[Lovely Kin]

Pre-Great Leap Forward Chinese propaganda posters. Besides the occasional Mao portrait, it's quite clear he wasn't shoved in as much.

 

[Rome's rightful successor]

postcard of an Indian education poster
https://x.com/muhlbaum/status/1934499403324338414

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

I'm not sure what ogre gypsy chick represents but I'm all for it

Apologies if someone answered it, but that looks to me like a French revolutionary with a Phrygian cap. It's playing off of Jacobinism.

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C U R S E D SOVIET CORPORATE MEMPHIS

 

[Thiletonomics]

Cross-posting from the Anime/Manga thread, here's a WW2 propaganda film funded by the Imperial Japanese Navy, Momotaro's Sea Eagles:

This is an interesting find, Momotaro's Sea Eagles, a WW2-era propaganda movie funded by the Imperial Japanese Navy:

The animations also look very clean for a 1940's production.

 

[millais]

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Wow, I didn't realize the Turkroach meme dated all the way back to 1914!

This thread rules. Thanks to everyone who posted - I haven't seen some of these. Columbia sure is a looker!

Does anyone happen to have Sub-Saharan African propaganda posters? I am something of a collector of African war kino.

The iconic Rhodesian recruitment poster:


SADF propaganda leaflet intended for Namibian SWAPO rebels, during the Angolan Border War. Truthful warning, as SWAPO rebels had a very low survival rate. As the song goes, "Ain't no place where a terr [terrorist] can run, and hide his head in Ovamboland"

Pre-Great Leap Forward Chinese propaganda posters. Besides the occasional Mao portrait, it's quite clear he wasn't shoved in as much.

I was reading a book about Chinese propaganda posters, and I noticed one very interesting design choice across all kinds of military, political, civil, industrial, and agricultural themed posters. In many posters, you will notice that all the men have a fountain pen clipped into their left tunic pocket. It was never directly referenced in the text of the book, but I surmise that it's a way to show off how the new Communist Chinese society is so much more educated and literate, that even random peasants and conscripts have a need for a pen in their pocket.

 

[Lovely Kin]

The iconic Rhodesian recruitment poster:

Here's another iconic one


Thread tax:
Khmer Republic/Cambodia anti-communist propaganda

Magical Buddha murders communists

 

[Super Mario Brothers]

 

[Rome's rightful successor]

Chicago Tribune, Illinois, September 7, 1913

 

[VisaMallgoth]

Soviet

American

 

[The Last Stand]

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Is that meant to be an anti-intervention cartoon saying America's need to "civilize" brown countries is futile?

Thread tax:

Dr. Seuss, perhaps the most famous cartoonist and illustrator of all time, created a number of cartoons during WWII. In this cartoon, Hitler is preoccupied fighting a bear (the traditional animal representation of Russia) while Uncle Sam has the opportunity to strike his blind side. Seuss has recently come under criticism for the many racist caricatures he created throughout his career.