Secret Maps – Exploring Mapping as Resistance
Venue: The British Library, London
Dates: 24 October 2025 – 18 January 2026
Overview
We are proud to be a Community Partner for the British Library’s major exhibition Secret Maps, which explores how mapping has been used as both a tool of power and a means of resistance. The exhibition examines how maps have been used to control land, people and knowledge – and how communities and individuals have reclaimed space, identity and truth through counter-mapping and acts of creative resistance.
About the Exhibition
Secret Maps journeys across three themes:
• Official Secrets – maps of Empire, invasion and occupation
• Secrets in Society – political secrecy, protest movements and liberation struggles
• Off the Grid – counter-mapping and reclaiming erased histories
Drawing from the British Library’s vast collections, the exhibition brings together imperial cartography, protest ephemera, and contemporary creative works that challenge how history is mapped and remembered.
AALC’s Contribution
The Anti-Apartheid Legacy Centre, staff and community members, contributed to the exhibition’s research and development through workshops, engagement with collections and dialogues exploring how mapping can expose injustice and resist systems of inequality – from apartheid pass laws and racial zoning to contemporary struggles over land and displacement.
As part of the collaboration, the British Library commissioned Chocolate Films to produce three short films co-developed with community partners from across the UK. AALC proudly co-developed two of these:
Film 1 – Apartheid Mapping and Memory
Clip from the short film, co-developed by and featuring Nadia Joseph (AALC Heritage Participation Lead), and AALC community members. Vusi Mathebula and Thami Skosana. This film was developed with input from AALC community member, Jenny Morgan.
Film 2 – Off the Grid
Clip giving a sense of the content of the immersive film experience “Off the Grid”
An immersive film experience blending moving image, sound, and archival materials to explore counter-mapping and the power of lived experience in shaping how histories are remembered.
Co-developed by and featuring:
• Nadia Joseph, Anti-Apartheid Legacy Centre (AALC)
• Vusi Mathebula (AALC Community)
• Thami Skosana (AALC Community)
In collaboration with:
• In*ter*is*land Collective
• UK South Asian Digital Archive
Produced by Chocolate Films
L-R: Thami Skosana, Vusi Mathebula and Nadia Joseph at the launch of Secret Maps at The British Library
“This project has the potential to stir critical conversations and challenge the status quo. I’m honoured to be part of it.” — Vusi Mathebula
Visit the Exhibition
📍 British Library, 96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB
🗓️ Open now until 18 January 2026
