Dear Brother Cornelius:
Thank you very much for the loaded historic anecdote, and for drawing our attention to the Second African Writers' Conference in Stockholm in 1986, from which was published the book, Criticism And Ideology: Second African Writers Conference, Stockholm, 1986, edited by Kirsten Holst Petersen and with a very powerful and detailed introductory essay by former Stockholm-based Dagens-Nyheter newspaper Editor-in-Chief Per Wastberg, who now chairs the Nobel Committee that awards the Nobel Literature Prize in his country's capital (Stockholm). The title of the book, published by The Scandinavian Institute of African Studies at Uppsala as part of its Seminar Proceedings Number (#) 26, emanated from the theme, "Criticism And Ideology".
Since I lived and studied at University of Stockholm (or Stockholms Universitet), I was also very much aware of the First African Writers' Conference in Stockholm in 1967, which had the theme of "The Writer in Modern Africa". After that conference, Mr. Wastberg (pronounced "Versberg") produced an earlier useful book out of the proceedings, which was titled The Writer in Modern Africa, which was co-published in 1969 by two publishers, the Scandinavian Institute of African Studies at Uppsala and the New York-based Africana Publishing Corporation.
Interestingly, it was the plan for holding the 1967 African writers' conference in Stockholm -- instead of being held on the African continent -- that was vehemently opposed and criticized by two top African writers. That opposition and some subsequent open unfavorable comments about Sweden became very costly for the two African writers, who obviously did so well as authors that they, indeed, had their eyes and designs on the Nobel Literature Prize.
In fact, the 1967 African writers' conference in Stockholm --just like its 1986 sequel -- was co-sponsored by several Scandinavia-based organizations, including the well-organized Swedish Institute (Svenska Institutet), which often served as the "eyes and "ears" of the Swedish government of the day. Interestingly, one of the top leaders of the Swedish Institute, who became a very good friend of my Kenyan Journalist colleague and myself, was Mr. Arild Berglof, through whom several of us received generous but competitive Swedish Institute annual fellowships or grants to re-visit Scandinavia to do research. Arild, as he was simply known, painfully disclosed that the two top African writers were not only opposed to the 1967 African writers' conference being held in Stockholm, but that they also ridiculed their country (Sweden) by saying something like: "We need not hold such an important first African writers' conference in Sweden. After all, your country is not an English-speaking country." Arild, in all seriousness, further disclosed that some Swedish intellectuals (including writers), at the time, vowed that those two African writers opposing the holding of the prestigious conference in Stockholm (whose names he boldly mentioned) should never dream of winning the Nobel Literature Prize! Has the threat been carried out? Some of us -- very familiar with the incident when it initially happened -- know the answer, which ahs been very sad, perplexing but unfortunate!
Anyway, Brother Cornelius, many thanks for posting the useful information on the 1986 African writers' conference in Stockholm, a posting that brought some of us back to historic memory lane, in my case for me to remember that unfortunate threat. I am, indeed, happy to be still alive to discuss some of these interesting and intriguing scenarios in my upcoming intellectual memoirs, which will be published not in the distant future (even if I die today or tomorrow)!
A.B. Assensoh.
Sent: Saturday, August 30, 2014 5:41 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Going back in time: African Writers Conference in Stockholm, 1986
Inevitably, much has changed, inevitably (tradition) much remains the same:
Criticism and Ideology:” Second African Writers’ Conference in Stockholm, 1986
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