Stamps, Nationalism and Political Transition

425 Pages·2022·71.193 MB·English

by  Stanley D Brunn

Stamps, Nationalism and Political
Transition
This book explores how states in political transition use stamps to promote a new
visual nationalism.
Stamps as products of the state provide small pieces of information about a
state’s heritage, culture, economies, and place in the world. These depictions
change over time, reflecting political and cultural changes and developments. The
volume explores the transition times in more than a dozen countries from Africa,
Latin America, Asia, and Europe. Specifically addressed are the stamp topics,
issues, and themes in the years before and after such major changes occurred, for
example, from a European colony to political independence or from a dictatorship
to democracy. The authors compare the personalities, histories, and cultural
representations “before” the transition period and how the state used the “after”
event to define or redefine its place on the world political map. The final three
chapters consider international themes on many stamp issues, one being stamps
with Disney cartoon characters, another on “themeless” Forever stamps, and the
third on states celebrating women and their accomplishments.
This volume has wide interdisciplinary relevance and should prove of particular
interest to those studying geopolitics, political transition, visual nationalism, soft
power, and visual representations of decolonializing.
Stanley D. Brunn is Professor Emeritus, Department of Geography, University
of Kentucky, Lexington, USA.

Stamps, Nationalism and
Political Transition

Edited by Stanley D. Brunn
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2023 selection and editorial matter, Stanley D. Brunn; individual
chapters, the contributors
The right of Stanley D. Brunn to be identified as the author of the editorial
material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted
in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 9780367501204 (hbk)
ISBN: 9780367501211 (pbk)
ISBN: 9781003048886 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003048886
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
List of figures viii
List of tables xvii
List of contributors xix
Foreword xxiii
List of abbreviations xxiv
Introduction: stamps as symbols of visual nationalism 1
STANLEY D. BRUNN
1 Images, semiotics and political transitions: case studies of
the first issues from eight nations 5
JAMES H. GRAYSON
2 Using China’s stamp issues to document economic and
political changes 23
JUNCHENG DAI AND STANLEY D. BRUNN
3 Post-liberation Korea—the first postage stamps: a
comparative semiotic study of nation-building in North
Korea and South Korea 42
JAMES H. GRAYSON
4 From the Netherlands East Indies to Indonesia: a philatelic
iconography of political upheaval 59
TON DIETZ, OT LOUW, AND ARIE ZONJEE
5 Kazakhstan’s first 25 years of postage stamps: highlighting
nature, nationalism, and selective Soviet memory 74
KRISTOPHER D. WHITE
vi Contents
6 Imaging political turmoil through postage stamps in the
heart of Africa: Congo/Zaire 1950–1971 from colonialism to
national identity 89
TON DIETZ AND PATIENCE KABAMBA
7 Couriers of change: the semiotics of Senegalese postage
stamps 106
KAREN S. BARTON
8 “Non!” visible: how Guinée stamped its political leadership
on Africa’s decolonization, 1958–1962 126
JAN JANSEN
9 Three marked transitions in Ethiopia’s stamp issues: 1960s
to present 139
ELYAS ABDULAHI MAHMOUED AND HABTAMU GIRMA DEMIESSIE
10 Transitions in postage stamp iconography: from apartheid
to democracy in South Africa 159
MANFRED SPOCTER
11 From UN-mandated territory to independent Namibia 173
STEPHEN RULE
12 Mauritius and its politics on stamps, 1958–1977 191
TON DIETZ
13 History as stamped by postage stamps: Poland’s transitions
in the twentieth century 201
AGNIESZKA ŚWIĘTEK
14 Estonia on stamps: abrupt and smooth periods of political
transition 220
JUSSI S. JAUHIAINEN AND TAAVI PAE
15 The breakup of Yugoslavia: territorial disintegration and
political transition documented through images on stamps,
1986–2010 236
ANTON GOSAR
Contents vii
16 Postage stamps as political transition and integration: the
case of North Cyprus Europa stamps between 1975 and
1998 254
DILAN ÇIFTÇI
17 Stamps of the Palestinian Authority: asserting national
identity while under occupation, 1994–2019 276
CALVIN H. ALLEN, JR.
18 Cuba: the evolution of revolutionary stamps 290
CHARLES O. COLLINS
19 Local political upheaval and global cultural appropriation:
the postage stamps of Grenada, 1974–1988 312
THOMAS L. BELL AND JAMES SENN
20 Cartooning islands for fun and profit: the proliferation of
Disney stamps 331
WILLIAM SILVESTER
21 Reading contemporary America through Forever stamp
themes: a visual analysis and interpretation 350
DONNA GILBREATH
22 Feminine philately: global unevenness in celebrating women
on stamps 359
STANLEY D. BRUNN
Bibliography 384
Index 392
Figures
1.1 Stamps of India 8
1.2 Stamp of Ghana 9
1.3 Stamps of Nigeria 11
1.4 Stamps of Manchukuo 13
1.5 Stamps of Katanga 14
1.6 Stamp of Rhodesia 15
1.7 Stamps of the Italian Social Republic 17
1.8 Stamps of Ciskei 19
2.1 Number of stamps issued in China, by year, 1949–2011 30
2.2 Sets of stamps issued in China, by year, 1949–2011 30
2.3 Twenty-five themes of Chinese stamps, 1949–2011 31
2.4 Stamp themes in China in three major periods, 1949–2011 32
2.5 Chinese stamp themes, 1949–2011 33
2.6 Representative stamps from China, 1966–1969 34
2.7 Representative stamps from China, 1970–1973 35
2.8 Representative stamps from China, 1974–1976 36
2.9 Representative stamps from China, 1978–1980 36
2.10 Representative stamps from China, 1998–2001 37
2.11 Representative stamps from China, 2002–2005 38
3.1 Stamps of southern Korea issued in 1946 (Period 1) 45
3.2 Stamps of northern Korea issued in 1946 (Period 1) 48
3.3 Stamps of the Republic of Korea (Period 2) 49
3.4 Stamps of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
(Period 2) 50
3.5 Stamps of the Republic of Korea (Period 3) 52
3.6 Stamps of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
(Period 3) 53
3.7 Stamps from the Republic of Korea (Period 4) 55
3.8 Stamps of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
(Period 4) 56
4.1 Expansion of Dutch rule in the Netherlands East Indies 60
4.2 Stamps of the Netherlands East Indies 60
4.3 Stamps issued by the independent Indonesian authorities
between 1945 and 1949 and used in Java and Sumatra 61
Figures ix
4.4 Left: Letter sent from Batavia (the colonial name for Jakarta
or Djakarta) to Australia, July 28, 1946, with three stamps
of Queen Wilhelmina issued in 1945 and 1946 (NVPH 309,
310, 312). Right: Dutch stamps with propaganda markers,
November 1946 (NVPH Netherlands 334, 2x); Pelita, 1948
(NVPH 333) 62
4.5 Top left: Freedom for the Repoeblik Indonesia. Bottom left:
Stamp showing a house of the Toraja in Sulawesi (NVPH
383). Right: Letter from a Dutch person working for a rubber
company in Kisaran to the United States with a mixed usage
of NVPH 314 (2x) of 1945 (Nederlandsch Indie) and the
Indonesia stamps of 1948 (NVPH 352 x2 and 357) 63
4.6 Minangkabau house with RIS overprint (NVPH Republiek van
de Verenigde Staten van Indonesië 17, 1950/SG Indonesia 593)
and five years of Independence 1945–1950, the first stamp of
the (Unified) Republic of Indonesia (SG 602). The Dutch place
names changed from Batavia to Jakarta/Djakarta, and from
Buitenzorg to Bogor 63
4.7 Indonesian postage stamps after 1949 (SG 659, 632, 725, 696
and 692) 64
4.8 The Permesta stamps of the PRRI (Pemerintah Revolusioner
Republik Indonesia, or Revolutionary Government of the
Republic of Indonesia) and separate stamps for the islands of
Riau and Lingga, which then used the currency of Singapore 65
4.9 Local Papua images on stamps of Nederlands Nieuw Guinea
(NVPH 51); disaster support in Netherlands New Guinea for
the Netherlands (NVPH 23); and support in Indonesia for its
own disasters (SG 666 x4, and 668) 65
4.10 Left: 1962: UNTEA overprint on Nieuw Guinea stamp with
Queen Juliana of 1950 (NVPH UNTEA 19). Right: Stamps of
Netherlands New Guinea on an airmail sheet, 1954 (NVPH 26
and 30, plus imprinted airmail sheet stamp) 66
4.11 No longer Netherlands New Guinea but Irian Jaya as
part of Indonesia, 1963 (SG West Irian 6, and 26; SG Indonesia
944 and 962) 66
4.12 Stamps issued by exiles of the ‘Republik Maluku Selatan’ in
the Netherlands and bogus stamps sold by New York stamp
dealer Stolow 67
4.13 Indonesia’s radicalism on stamps: 1961 68
4.14 One hundred and 150 years of postage stamps: 1964
(SG 1013) and 2014 69
4.15 Islam on postal stamps of Indonesia, the world’s most
populous Islamic country: 1962 (SG 902) and 1965
(SG 1027–1030) 69
4.16 Human rights in 1968 (SG 1184) and President Suharto in
1974 (SG 1377) 69