Report From The 73rd International PEN Congress In Dakar
Jul 25 2007
SPREADING HUMAN VALUES ACROSS THE WORLD THROUGH THE WORD
By Arthur Edgar E. Smith
Senior Lecturer of English, Fourah Bay College
I was amongst 200 delegates from over 70 countries participating in the 73rd International PEN Congress held in the prestigious Meridian Hotel in the historic city of Dakar under the theme ‘The Word, The World and Human Values’. The Congress was opened officially by Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade in a very colourful occasion where he announced dramatic increases in government funding for the arts, providing for a new publishing house, literary prizes amongst many others. It closed on July 11th calling for ending insult and defamatory laws worldwide and committing itself to supporting and protecting languages that are under threat worldwide. International PEN celebrated and applauded the wealth and diversity of its’ members’ work particularly so, that of African PEN members and writers. But it deplored the prevalence of insult and defamation laws across Africa and resolved to continue protecting and defending the freedom to write in all corners of the world.
The extreme situation for Iraqi writers, many being forced into hiding or exile, was also highlighted. The U.S. Government was therefore urged to take greater responsibility for the resulting upsurge in refugees and provide more for their protection and resettlement.
The International PEN President Jiri Grusa expressed pleasure in meeting in Africa particularly so in the cultural and literary city of Dakar which has been home to such immense literary figures as late President Leopold Sedar Senghor, internationally renowned as a poet as well as former Vice President of International PEN. As first President of Senegal Senghor left a rich heritage and respect for African culture and writing in Senegal. Other notable Senegalese writers include the recently dead Sembene Ousmane and Mariama Bah were remembered. Welcoming, hearty and hospitable, Senegal is a crossroads of ethnicities, rich cultures and traditions drawn from the Wolofs, Pulaars, Soninke, Dilas, Lebous, Sereres from Sine and the Mandingos. Such wealth of human spirit and culture was experienced everywhere especially when delegates as well as participants were accorded the opportunity of sailing by ferry to the well preserved, picturesque and habited island of Goree where memories of the greatest dehumanization of man was perpetrated in the name of human commerce. As Jiri Grusa put it, Goree is a stark reminder of such violations of human beings and the need to remain ever vigilant and bonded in the spirit of brotherhood and sisterhood to combat the tyranny that would deny the humanity of another human being. Equal pleasure was expressed by all in receiving three new centres, the Afar-speaking, the Iraqi and the Jordanian into the PEN family. Literature whose world-wide dissemination is one of the principle pursuits of PEN International, the PEN International President said, is geared to decipher the puzzle of life and to make our world somehow more inhabitable. Authors, he went on, are like good teachers with much influence as they can explain our world and inspire us through their explanations. The very power of the word is the tension between things and their names, he said. As our happiness in life depends on our ability to properly combine emotions and facts, he emphasized, good literature symbolizes reality, regardless of the language in which it was written, thus presenting the balance between names and frames. The problem he posed is that of how to confront the widening discrepancy between names and frames.
Apart from the detailed discussions on the preoccupations of the various committees much interest was generated by the four sessions on the sub-themes revolving on African Literature. These included: ‘The role of contemporary African Literature in intercultural dialogue,’ ‘Literature and the oral tradition’ and ‘Writers and the creation of Peace’ Though the discussions were as lively and informed as the papers were, it would have been much more balanced if a more representative panel from both Anglophone and Francophone Africa had been made. Because of this lapse the analysis and conclusions of the panels were mostly restricted to Francophone West African texts only. Though I must confess that it was most enlightening as I became aware of more of those authors than I would have ordinarily come to know.
Programmatic work with 15 active African PEN centres were also consolidated with the guaranteeing of funding from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency for the next five years. As the centres had agreed at a regional meeting in Ghana, their priorities would be learning and community access, focused towards a continued engagement with reading and writing to bring about social change and empower groups who can be excluded from the world of ideas and civil society.
The evenings of the 1-week event were marked by receptions given by the Mayor of Dakar, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Culture, and cultural performances by the Ballets Africaines and other dance ensembles at various locations like Theatre Sorenan. Poetry readings and buffets were also hosted at the luxuriant and expansive lawns at the the Ministry of Culture. But the highpoint of the cultural programme was ‘Freedom’ a night of African Literature hosted by Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina celebrating some of the established and emerging voices in Africa which included Jack Mapanje (Malawi), Maliya Mzyece-Sililo (Zambia), Binyavanga Wainaina (Kenya) and Ekbal Baraka (Egypt) who read from their works and discussed. the rich variety of African writing today. These and more should be published in the forthcoming autumn online edition of PEN International Magazine devoted wholely to Africa. Trust Africa, the co-organizer of this event hopes to begin collaborating with African centres through encouraging and supporting activity and writing facilitated by International PEN. It funded five delegates to attend the Congress. Trust Africa, a new African foundation promoting peace, economic development and social justice in one of the sessions explained its formation, objectives and opened the floor for wider discussion of its prospects and future in promoting African writings.
PEN International which jealously guards its reputation as a non-political organization with Category A Consultative status at UNESCO and the United Nations, spent much time in choosing a suitable venue in South America that would not compromise its reputation nor pose too serious risks or send approving signals for repressive regimes. PEN International will therefore continue its regional focus work in Latin America where the next Congress should be held in 2008 specifically in Bogota, Colombia, instead of Mexico as earlier proposed.
Central to PEN’s work is freedom of expression which it has been vigorously pursuing as well as defending in all corners of the globe. This was reflected in 12 resolutions passed condemning the imprisonment of writers in China, Iran, Uzbekistan, Eritrea, Cuba and Vietnam, killings of journalists in Mexico and Afghanistan and the forced closure of a television station in Venezuela. PEN International has throughout the year been defending Russian PEN from closure by the government, initiating dialogue for peace in the Middle East and assisting threatened writers to resettle in safer countries.
Two courageous writers, each of whom played a vibrant role in promoting free expression in their countries, Anna Politkovskaya, the Russian investigative journalist and writer who was assassinated at her Moscow home in October and Hrant Dink, the Armenian Turkish editor working for reconciliation between the two communities who was killed at his office in Istanbul in January had their lives and works remembered. So too were other writers who have continued to be harassed and threatened due to opinions they expressed in their writing. Notable amongst these was Salman Rushdie whose recent knighthood has sparked a resurgence of threats against him. Focus was given to Turkey as well where the issue of insult and defamation laws have been used to silent dissent.
Many Centres had during the course of the year been protesting the killing of the special correspondent for Novaya Gazetta, Anna Politkoeskaya, who had been known and supported by the members of International PEN for her pioneering reporting and in particular her commitment to the people of Chechnya. Unflinching in her narration of contemporary Russia, her books include A Dirty War, Putin’s Russia and the book she completed shortly before her death, A Russian Diary. PEN members have been marking her death with remembrances including vigils, tributes and events.
PEN International Secretary the American writer, Joanne Leedom-Ackerman, noted that this was the second time in its 86-year history that International PEN was holding its Congress in Africa which reflects PEN’s growth there over the last decade actively engaging in promoting literature, defending freedom of expression and reaching out to youths with literature.
Taking over from Joanne as International Secretary is the Norwegian writer and human rights activist Eugene Schoulgin who saw his elevation as a great honour. Expressing his belief that International PEN has an extremely important role to play in the world today, he pledged his ambition ‘to make our voice louder and clearer, to promote literature from every continent. Two new Vice-Presidents, Canadian writer, Margaret Atwood, and Niels Barford, were also elected joining a long line of other distinguished writers including Nadime Gordimer, Toni Morrison and Boris A. Novak occupying that position. Eric Lax of Pen Centre USA got elected as International Treasurer along with four new members of the Board amongst whom was Mike Butscher from Sierra Leone Pen Centre. Mike expressed great pride in being elected to such a prestigious Board of writers and pledged himself to strive to uphold and intensify the ideals of PEN particularly in Africa and extend the networking amongst centres already started in Africa to other parts of the globe. These words were translated into immediate action with the twinning of Sierra Leone Pen Centre with Pen Centre USA just a day after. Sierra Leone Pen Centre has in the past received significant support from Pen USA in terms of material as well as logistical support including the construction of a website for the centre.
Established in 1921, with English writer John Galsworthy as its first president, this worldwide association of writers today boasts of 144 centres in 101 countries all promoting literature, defending freedom of expression largely through four committees- Writers in Prison, Translation and Linguistics Rights, Writers for Peace and Women Writers – and the Writers in Exile Network.
The Writers in Prison committee works on behalf of persecuted writers worldwide monitoring cases of writers who have been imprisoned, tortured, threatened, attacked and killed for the peaceful practice of their profession. It campaigns to end these attacks and opposes suppression of freedom of expression wherever it occurs.
The Translation and Linguistic Rights Committee has from 1978 been working to promote the world’s linguistic and cultural differences, the translation of contemporary literature and the promotion of the Universal Declaration of Linguistics Rights. Last year its multilingual E-Collection of poetry, fiction and essays expanded to include a total of 20 authors from 14 countries across the world.
The writers for Peace Committee founded in 1984 at the height of the Cold War is still dedicated to promoting the cause of peace and celebrates Writers for Peace Day each year on 3rd March. Its annual meeting in Bled last year featured papers and contributions discussing the themes of Globalization of the World- Marginalization of Literature?-The Role of PEN in the Contemporary World, and Freedom of Expression as a Means Against Terrorism.
From 1991 the Women Writers Committee has been working to promote women’s writing and publishing and to encourage women to know, translate and popularize one another’s work
The Writers in Exile Network formed in 1999 establishes placement opportunities for exiled, immigrant and refugee writers at universities, colleges and learning centres around the world in collaboration with other organizations.
Among early PEN members were Joseph Conrad, George Bernard Shaw and H.G. Wells and from European Centres Anatole France, Paul Valery and Thomas Mann. PEN membership has also embraced many Nobel Prize winners and other eminent writers from all over the world. Henrich Boll, Arthur Miller, Mario Vargas Llosa and Gyorgy Konrad form part of the long list of previous PEN Presidents.
