/ARTS WEEKLY/LITERATURE-GERMANY: Politics Hangs over Books Festival

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Clive Freeman

BERLIN, Oct 11 2004 (IPS) - The 4th International Literary Festival ended in Berlin at the weekend (Oct 2). For 12 days,150 writers and poets from 46 countries participated in more than 350 book readings, poetry recitals and literary debates staged in a variety of different venues, including theatres, cafes, schools, libraries, cemeteries and city prisons.

Berlin’s International Literary Festival, which was first inaugurated in 200l, has developed into one of Europe’s biggest in recent years. Authors from Africa, Asia, Latin America and Middle East countries descended on the city in force for this year’s event, providing in the process an often critical insight into the state of literature in their respective countries.

With a report on her home country, South Africa, and its quest for reconciliation and truth evaluation following the end of apartheid, writer Antjie Krog opened the Berlin Festival. Asked if more South Africa black writers were gaining recognition now, she said: "Yes, and they are writing in a very interesting way as well as exploring new ways of telling a story and publishing books."

She added: "One could say the political revolution has finished and now we have a cultural revolution – even though there’s not much government funding for culture these days."

South African writer Zakes Mda agreed. "There is a literary production in South Africa, especially in the ‘novel’ form, more than we have ever seen before in the history of our country," he said.

"I’ve been amazed to find more than 3,000 people turning up for poetry reading festivals in Johannesburg," he said. "It’s often standing room only." Most of the poetry heard was in English, but "once in a while" at local festivals there would be poets reading in an African language.

Indian writers M.T.Vasudevan Nair and Alka Saraogi were also active participants in Berlin. Nair, 71, who read excerpts from his books to audiences at the spectacular Sony Centre complex, and the city’s Hebbel Theatre said it was not German literature alone which drew him to Berlin. "You meet writers here from China, in fact from all over. That is the great thing for me."

Calcutta-born Alka Saraogi, 44, who won the Sahitya Academy Award in 200l for her debut 1998 novel ‘Kali-Katha vaya Baipas’ said writers in India could rely on a rich and diverse literary tradition dating back thousands of years. But today they were often seeking new ways of developing their skills. "The world has changed, due to globalisation, the Internet, mobile phones and so on. But still our writers want to evolve in a uniquely Indian way," she said.

There was a distinctly political edge to the 2004 Literary Festival, which was reflected by some writers’ continuing preoccupation with events in Iraq.

Prominent among them in Berlin was the veteran writer-commentator Gore Vidal, who is a powerful critic of President George W. Bush. Asked for his view of the Iraq conflict at a festival news conference he threw his arms into the air in despair, saying: "It’s an unholy mess. We went in with only one plan, that was to gain control of the country, which has the second largest oil reserves in that part of the world," he said.

Gore Vidal, 79, spent much of his time in the German capital promoting his book ‘The Forgetful Nation’ which is hugely critical of Bush and his vice-president Dick Cheney. He told journalists the Bush administration was a totalitarian regime "which felt it could do anything in the name of fighting terrorists." Most Americans, he said, knew their government was lying.

He slammed President Bush for continually referring to America being at war. "We’re not at war. There is no war except the one he is waging against two weak countries (Iraq and Afghanistan)." British Prime Minister Tony Blair also took stick from Vidal. "U.S. administrations have never taken England seriously. They say there’s a special alliance and then ignore it."

Bush and Blair apart, the UN and the "international community" also came under fire from writers in Berlin.

Retired Canadian army general Romeo Dallaire who served as a commander of a UN force in Rwanda in 1993-94 when tens of thousands of people were killed in tribal clashes, warned that more acts of genocide would occur if the international community failed to take determined action to prevent such horror occurring.

Washington-based John Prendergast, who recently returned from a series of trips to rebel-held regions of Darfur in western Sudan and to neighbouring refugee camps in Tschad spoke in Berlin of new levels of hypocrisy being reached when U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell designated events in Sudan as "genocide" last month.

"On that very same day, in fact that same morning he (Powell) called the events in Darfur genocide, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations was introducing a resolution to the United Nations that was absolutely toothless. It was meaningless and did not live up to the kind of serious charge that the Secretary of State had made," he said.

Prendergast, author of several books on Africa and a former special adviser to the U.S. State Department, said that even though the "active phase" of the ethnic cleansing campaign had been completed and three major communities in western Sudan "wiped from the face of the earth" there was still much that could be done to protect civilian life there.

Consistent with the political flavour were the 2nd Lettre Ulysses Awards for the "Art of Reportage", aimed at drawing international attention to outstanding achievements of reportage literature. This time around the 11-member international jury caused a major surprise by awarding the 50,000 euro prize to the Chinese couple Chen Guidi and Wu Chuntao for their controversial survey of Chinese peasants.

Their book ‘A Survey of Chinese Peasants’ which took them over three years to write, is an expose of the inequality and injustice forced upon the Chinese peasantry. Compiled with courage in the face of enormous personal risk, the book became a bestseller after its publication in China in 2003 when several million copies were sold, before it was withdrawn from sale in government bookshops following an official directive.

The second prize of 30,000 euro was awarded to Tracey Kidder of the United States for the book ‘Mountains Beyond Mountains’ which depicts the life work of Dr. Paul Farmer, an American doctor dedicated to fighting global health problems. Kidder accompanied the renowned anthropologist and physician on recent trips to Haiti, Peru and Russia and witnessed the doctor’s efforts to develop alternative health structures under conditions of great poverty.

The third prize of 20,000 euro went to Danield Bergner also of the United States for his account of Sierra Leone’s civil war.