---
title: Biafra famine-relief banner above a post office counter, Utrecht
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/biafra-famine-appeal-utrecht-post-office-1968/
description: Press photograph of a hand-lettered paper banner hung above a post-office counter where customers queue and pay.
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

**Content note:** Brush drawing of an emaciated, naked child-like figure on a famine-relief banner, 1968. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![Biafra famine-relief banner above a post office counter, Utrecht](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/biafra-famine-appeal-utrecht-post-office-1968.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/biafra-famine-appeal-utrecht-post-office-1968.jpg)

# Biafra famine-relief banner above a post office counter, Utrecht

Press photograph of a hand-lettered paper banner hung above a post-office counter where customers queue and pay. Black capitals read 'Geef iets meer dan u dacht.... Zijn leven is in uw macht' (Give something more than you thought.... His life is in your power); at lower left a brush drawing shows a naked, skeletal figure crawling on all fours. The tell is the staged imminent death of one person, with the passer-by's payment at the counter named as the only thing between him and it.

## Text on the object

Original (Dutch) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
GEEF IETS MEER DAN U DACHT....
ZIJN LEVEN IS IN UW MACHT
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
Give something more than you thought.... His life is in your power
```

Hand-lettered black capitals on a white paper banner. Machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader. The counter number plates '9' and '8' are visible but are not part of the banner text.

[← Pražané! (Praguers!): leaflet from the first days of the 1968 occupation](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/prazane-leaflet-prague-1968/) [TASS announcement 'Occupation Progress', Moscow radio, 22 Aug 1968 (FBIS transcript) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/tass-occupation-progress-radio-moscow-1968/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Miniature of Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, Les Passages d'outremer (BnF Fr. 5594, fol. 19r)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passages-doutremer-council-of-clermont-colombe-1474/) (France · 1474 · Testimonial, Fear appeal). Content note: Medieval religious imagery and a French text describing alleged killings and captivity of eastern Christians, as used to argue for the First Crusade; the text is shown as written.
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (Holy Roman Empire · 1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Proclamation de Sonthonax en créole, Cap-Français (Proclamation of Commissioner Sonthonax in Creole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sonthonax-proclamation-creole-1793/) (France · Aug 29, 1793 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating). Content note: Colonial-era proclamation on slavery and emancipation in Saint-Domingue; speaks of slaves, whips and 'Nègues' in period terms.
- [Gazette of the United States, "The Jeffersoniad" no. VIII, 14 August 1800](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gazette-us-jeffersoniad-1800/) (United States · Aug 14, 1800 · Name-calling, Fear appeal)
- [Brolej Žemajčiaj! (Brothers Samogitians!): hand-painted broken-cross poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/brolej-zemajciaj-broken-cross-1862/) (Russian Empire · 1862 · Fear appeal, Transfer)
- [豬叫取胎圖 (Picture of the Pig Sect Extracting a Foetus), from Reverently Obeying the Sacred Edict: A Complete Picture Gallery to Repel Heterodoxy](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/pig-cry-taking-foetus-hunan-1891/) (Qing China · 1891 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Colour woodblock caricature depicting foreign Christians as members of a 'pig' sect and showing them cutting a foetus from a woman; violence against a woman and derision of Christianity.