Afro-Asian writers' organization

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The Afro-Asian Writers Organization (AASO) (ger .: Afro-Asian Writers' Assiciation , AAWA) was an association of African and Asian writers, founded in 1958 and existed until the 1,991th

aims

The aim of the association was to promote the literatures of Asia and Africa, to make them better known worldwide and to free them from colonial and neo-colonial influences. She supported her members z. B. through translations and lecture tours.

During the Cold War , the AASO appeared neutral, but it was actually closely linked to and financially dependent on the cultural policy of the Soviet Union . The USSR tried to influence third world societies by sponsoring literature and to make them independent of the major publishers in the Western world.

history

In October 1958, organized by the Organization for Afro-Asian People's Solidarity (AAPSO), the first conference of Afro-Asian writers took place in Tashkent , at which the AASO was founded. The 90-year-old WEB Du Bois was among the 140 participants from 36 countries . With the invitation from the African American, the organizers wanted to be open to western culture. Other conferences took place:

The organization established a coordination office based in Colombo , and RD Senanayake became the organization's first general secretary. As a result of the Sino-Soviet quarrel , the office was relocated to Cairo in 1962, and the Egyptian Yusuf Al-Sibai was elected Secretary General in order to remove the AASO from China's influence. Al-Sibai was a supporter of the Egyptian President Anwar as-Sadat . Because of its policy of understanding with Israel, Al-Sibai fell victim to an attack by a Palestinian faction during an AAPSO conference in Cyprus in 1978. The coordination office in Cairo was closed and at the AASO conference in Luanda the South African Alex La Guma , who lived in Cuban exile, was elected as Al-Sebai's successor. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 also meant the final end of the AASO.

Participants in the conferences

In addition to the authors already mentioned, the participants in the congress included B. Mao Dun (PR China), Nazim Hikmet (Turkey), Guo Moruo (PR China), Mulk Raj Anand (India), Ngugi wa Thiongo (Kenya), Sembene Ousmane (Senegal), Tschingis Aitmatov (Kyrgyz SSR), Chinua Achebe (Nigeria), Mahmud Darwisch (Palestine), Pramoedya Ananta Toer (Indonesia), Mário Pinto de Andrade (Angola) and Marcelino dos Santos (Mozambique).

magazine

The AASO published the English-language magazine The Call in the early 1960s and a quarterly publication from March 1968 to 1991, which was initially called Afro-Asian Writings and from 1970 was called Lotus . She appeared in English, French and Arabic and has published short stories, poems, essays and reviews. The editorial office was initially located in Cairo. In 1978, after the coordination office in Cairo was closed (see History section) and in connection with the conclusion of the Camp David Agreement by Egypt and Israel, she was moved to Beirut (where she was headed by the Pakistani author Faiz Ahmed Faiz ), later to Tunis and finally to Moscow.

price

In addition, the AASO awarded a literature prize, also called Lotus . Some of the winners were:

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ronald Reibert: Afro-Asiatic Writers' Organization In: Herbert Greiner-Mai (ed.): Small dictionary of world literature . VEB Bibliographisches Institut Leipzig 1983. p. 23.
  2. ↑ Kyle Haddad-Fonda: Afro-Asian Writers' Conferences (1958-1979) , published on BlackPast.org
  3. ↑ Nida Ghouse: Lotus Notes: Part One , published on MadaMasr on May 14, 2014.
  4. ↑ Nida Ghouse: Lotus Notes: Part Two B , published on Madamasr on July 15, 2014.
  5. ^ NYU Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia
  6. ↑ Rossen Djagalov: The Afro-Asian Writers Association and Soviet involvement with Africa . published November 2, 2017 by the African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS).