Lotus (magazine)

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Lotus
EditorYusuf Sibai
Faiz Ahmad Faiz
CategoriesPolitical magazine
Cultural magazine
FrequencyQuarterly
FounderAfro-Asian Writers' Association
Year founded1968
First issueMarch 1968
Final issue1991
CountryEgypt
Lebanon
Tunisia
German Democratic Republic
Based inCairo
Beirut
Tunis
LanguageArabic
English
French
OCLC269235327

Lotus was a trilingual political and cultural magazine which existed between 1968 and 1991. The magazine with three language editions was published in different countries.

History and profile[]

The first issue of the magazine appeared in March 1968 with the title Afro-Asian Writings.[1][2] The magazine was established by the Afro-Asian Writers' Association.[3][4] Its goal was to support the Afro-Asian solidarity and nonalignment which had been stated in the Bandung Conference in 1955.[5] It was published on a quarterly basis and had three editions: Arabic, English, and French.[1] Of them the first one was initially headquartered in Cairo.[6] The other two were published in the German Democratic Republic.[7][8] The magazine was financed by Egypt, the Soviet Union and the German Democratic Republic.[7] In 1970 the magazine was renamed as Lotus with the subtitle Afro-Asian Writings.[1]

The first issue of the magazine featured an article by Léopold Sédar Senghor and Yusuf Sibai, founding editor of the magazine, which was about the meaning of the African identity.[9] On 18 February 1978 Yusuf Sibai was assassinated in Nicosia, Cyprus,[10] and Pakistani writer Faiz Ahmad Faiz assumed the post.[3][8] He remained as the editor of the Lotus until his death in 1984.[8]

The headquarters of the Arabic edition was in Cairo until October 1978, but was moved to Beirut following the sign of the Camp David Accords.[7] In Beirut the Union of Palestinian Writers published the magazine which remained there until the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982.[7] Then the magazine together with the Palestine Liberation Organization moved to Tunis, Tunisia, but soon after was relocated to Cairo.[3][7] Contributors were from different countries, including Palestine, Lebanon, Egypt, Pakistan, Algeria, Sudan, Senegal, South Africa, Japan, India, Mongolia and the Soviet Union: Mahmoud Darwish, Ghassan Kanafani, Adunis, Edward El Kharrat, Mulk Raj Anand, Ousmane Sembène, Alex La Guma, Hiroshi Noma, Anatoly Sofronov, Ahmed Sékou Touré and Agostinho Neto.[3] The English and French editions of the magazine disappeared in the mid-1980s.[5] The Arabic edition of Lotus folded in 1991.[1]

The contributors of Lotus considered the 20 century as a period of the new colonialism which made use of the commodification of culture accompanied by the expansion of the global marketplace.[2] They opposed the economic imperialism which had penetrated into the cultural sphere.[2]

Some issues of the Arabic edition have been archived at American University of Beirut.[3]

In 2016 a magazine with the same title was launched by the Association of African, Asian and Latin American Writers in Lebanon.[1]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d e "Lotus: Afro-Asian Writings" (in French). Global Journals Portal. Retrieved 24 October 2021.
  2. ^ a b c Nesrine Chahine (2017). Marketplaces of The Modern: Egypt As Marketplace In TwentiethCentury Anglo-Egyptian Literature (PhD thesis). University of Pennsylvania. p. 116. Archived from the original on 7 December 2021.
  3. ^ a b c d e Firoze Manji (3 March 2014). "The Rise and Significance of Lotus". CODESRIA. Archived from the original on 9 June 2021. Retrieved 24 October 2021.
  4. ^ Jens Hanssen; Hicham Safieddine (Spring 2016). "Lebanon's al-Akhbar and Radical Press Culture: Toward an Intellectual History of the Contemporary Arab Left". The Arab Studies Journal. 24 (1): 196. JSTOR 44746852.
  5. ^ a b Monica Popescu (2020). At Penpoint. African Literatures, Postcolonial Studies, and the Cold War. Durham; London: Duke University Press. p. 48. doi:10.1515/9781478012153. ISBN 978-1-4780-0940-5.
  6. ^ Nida Ghouse (15 June 2014). "Lotus Notes: Part Two A". Mada Masr. Retrieved 24 October 2021.
  7. ^ a b c d e Nida Ghouse (October 2016). "Lotus Notes". ARTMargins. 5 (3). doi:10.1162/ARTM_a_00159.
  8. ^ a b c Sumayya Kassamali (31 May 2016). ""You Had No Address"". Caravan Magazine. Retrieved 24 October 2021.
  9. ^ Sophia Azeb (Fall 2019). "Crossing the Saharan Boundary: Lotus and the Legibility of Africanness". Research in African Literatures. 50 (3). doi:10.2979/reseafrilite.50.3.08.
  10. ^ "Youssef El Sebai". State Information Service. 20 July 2009. Archived from the original on 24 October 2021. Retrieved 24 October 2021.
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