Qey Shibir: How Political Identities contributed to the Red Terror
The central theme of this poster is how political identification affected thousands of lives during the Qey Shibir (explaining why approximately 1.2 million Ethiopians died of famine in the 1980s), nearly eliminating an entire generation because of political identification.
Colours
The colours used in this poster are mainly red and yellow. I finally decided on making the background colour a lighter tint of read to be more eye catching as a bright and dark tones will be too distracting for readers. This is to ensure that readers who may have difficulties in paying attention to words do not feel confused or lost while reading it. All the texts are a light shade of yellow to provide a contrast to the slightly harsh shades of red, the yellow was also intentional because of my Dyslexia/ Iren syndrome. Hence it will be easier for me to read my own work for and inconsistencies (I also forget to change the yellow to an appropriate colour). I made the Deaths facts a darker red compared to the background colour to stand out more slightly, while also calling attention to intriguing information that occurred during the Qey Shibir that the reader may be interested in.
Images
This poster includes 7 pictures although some are displayed as translucent, all images can convey a brief image as to who they are and what each political affiliation stands for. I chose the EPRP to have a faded imagine of their political hand box, because the central imagine does not fully portray the political importance/ identity to the audience. Whereas the picture of Mengistu Haile Mariam has Ethiopia’s flag under communist. I felt like this was important because Ethiopia’s flag had gone through many renderings, furthermore by placing the Ethiopian flag behind his picture I am committing on his “Ethiopia First” propaganda, which I believe is a common phrase Individuals with authority use to catch those with diluted attention. I placed a picture capturing a few of the victims because, a large sum of numbers and facts cannot completely convey the humanity of the victims. on top of the death facts section there is a dead body with a note wedge into his trousers, this is because death had be flaunted publicly and continuously, hence the collection service were unable to collect all the dead bodies littered on the streets. I intended to use this picture as a reference to information within the text as well as showing visual learners the ultimate outcome of Ethiopians being the wrong political identity.
Challenges
Challenges were a present factor within this poster. Collecting pictures during the Red Terror was especially hard as many pictures were lost in time. Furthermore, placing the necessary information on the poster was crucial, as information that does not limit the finite space on the poster is a difficult task. I also tried to be respectful to the victims and their family due to the horrendous violence committed during the Qey Shibir.
