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FREEDOMWAYS               THIRD QUARTER 1972 

an Afro-Asian writers' movement. A Soviet Preparatory Committee comprising writers from various Soviet national republics was set up in February 1958 to pave the way for the Tashkent Conference. The Uzbek writer Sharaf Rashidov was elected chairman of the committee.
The Soviet Preparatory Committee outlined a program which envisaged the following:
Measures to acquaint the Soviet public with the literature and art of Asian and African countries on a broad scale.
Broad popularization of Soviet literature and, first and foremost, works by writers from the Asian part of the USSR in foreign countries among workers of art and literature.
Conferences of orientalists and specialists in Afro-Asian art and literature and also newspaper and literary magazine editors to discuss ways and means of disseminating in the USSR the best works by Asian and African writers.
A full-scale meeting of the Preparatory Committee jointly with representatives from publishing houses, literary magazines, newspapers and the radio to discuss preparations for the Conference.
The organization of a big book exhibition in Tashkent which would illustrate works by Soviet authors and also books by Asian and African writers.
The Soviet Preparatory Committee also kept writers' and cultural organizations in Asia and Africa informed of the progress made in preparing for the Tashkent Conference and invited them to join in preparations for the Conference in their respective countries.
The letters received by the Committee in that period speak of the great interest foreign writers took in the idea of the conference.
"All Africans welcome the idea of convening the Tashkent Conference.... African writers are concerned with many problems but the crucial issue is the unity of the African peoples in the struggle for freedom and national independence," wrote Allen Diop, editor-in-chief of the magazine Presence Africain published in Paris.
The letter sent in by the Ceylonese Preparatory Committee said in part: "On behalf of the writers of Ceylon our Preparatory Committee sends its fraternal greetings to all the participants in the Tashkent Afro-Asian Writers' Conference. We believe that when a history of the literary rejuvenation of independent Asia and Africa is written, this international meeting held under the fraternal and glorious flag of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic will be treated as a great and memorable event."

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AFRO-ASIAN WRITERS                 AMINOV

But there were other letters too: "Greetings to the Conference from blood-stained Famagusta. Unfortunately I am unable to attend the Conference since I was refused a passport. Please protest on my behalf to the government of Cyprus." Signed Ahilleas Ioannu, Cypriot writer.
An Afro-Asian Preparatory Committee for the Conference was set up in Tashkent at the end of August, 1958. On the committee were representatives of Algeria, Burma, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Cameroon, China, Mongolia, Egypt, the USSR, Thailand, Ceylon and Japan. Also present at several meetings of the Committee was Alioune Diop, secretary general of the African Cultural Society who arrived from Paris. The Uzbek writer Sharaf Rashidov was elected chairman of the Committee while Gopal Holdar of India, Benjamin Matip of the Cameroon, Konstantin Chugunov of the USSR and D. K. P. Beneragama of Ceylon were elected its secretaries.
During the five weeks of its existence the Afro-Asian Preparatory Committee performed a great deal of work and, among other things, arrived at the final draft of the agenda for the Conference:
1. Development of literatures in various countries of Asia and Africa and their part in the struggle against colonialism for freedom and world peace.
2. The culture of Asian and African peoples and their links with Western culture.
During discussions of various aspects of the first point on the agenda it was decided to raise before the working commissions of the Conference the following problems:
Development of children's literature and its educational value. 
Contribution of women writers to literature.
Development of drama writing in Asia and Africa.
Ties between the radio, the cinema, the theatre and literature. 
Development of friendly contacts between the writers of Asia and Africa.
The above-mentioned draft agenda was approved by all the members of the Committee and circulated among all the writers of the participant countries.
The Tashkent Conference was attended by 204 writers from 37 countries of Asia and Africa and there were 22 guest delegates from 13 countries of Europe and America. Sessions were held from the 7th to the 13th of October, 1958. The Conference received 54 messages of greetings including those from the heads of government of the USSR, China, India, the United Arab Republic, Algeria,

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