Permanent Exhibition: Voices of the Land

‘Voices of the Land’ is the National English Literary Museum’s permanent exhibition. The exhibition tells the story of South Africa through the lens of the country’s literature, from the earliest writing of the colonial period through to some of the most recent work being produced. The two principal themes are conflict and the environment, and these are woven through the whole of the story. Five of South Africa’s national languages are represented, there is a diversity of perspectives and positions, and both written and oral literatures are presented. A selection of significant artifacts from the museum’s collections is on display, and there are a number of audiovisual installations.

Temporary Exhibition: Voices of Protest

Where racism, censorship and human rights violations of all kinds have occurred, artistic communities have often led the way in protesting these injustices. ‘Voices of Protest’ is an exhibition of letters, written by South African authors and publishers through the 1960s to 1980s, which show their uncompromising stance against apartheid and censorship. The exhibition includes the museum’s collection of sketches of authors by Nils Burwitz.

Travelling exhibitions

NELM is proud to announce the loan from the Nelson Mandela Museum of the exhibition ‘Dear Mr Mandela, Dear Mrs Parks: Children’s Letters, Global Lessons’. The exhibition examines themes of human rights, freedom and justice through the letters children have written to human rights icons Nelson Mandela and Rosa Parks. NELM invites members of the public to write a letter to their hero, and to share it with the museum. The exhibition will be at NELM until December 2018.