Lotus (magazine)

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.

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

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. "Lotus: Afro-Asian Writings" (in French). Global Journals Portal. Retrieved 24 October 2021.
  2. Nesrine Chahine (2017). Marketplaces of The Modern: Egypt As Marketplace In TwentiethCentury Anglo-Egyptian Literature (PhD thesis). University of Pennsylvania. p. 116.
  3. 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. 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. Nida Ghouse (October 2016). "Lotus Notes". ARTMargins. 5 (3). doi:10.1162/ARTM_a_00159.
  8. 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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