PAN AFRICAN WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION (PAWA)
The Conference of African Ministers of Education and Culture, meeting in Coutonou, Benin, in 1991, made a resolution to the effect that an International African Writers’ Day be celebrated in all African countries and in the International community each year, on 7th November, the birthday of PAWA. This will afford the African people a moment of pause within which to reflect on the contribution of African Writers to the development of the continent.
The Pan African Writers Association (PAWA), a leading Pan African Cultural Institution accorded full Diplomatic Status by the Government of Ghana in 1992, is made up of the 52 National Writers Associations on the continent, and seeks to contribute its quota to moral, cultural and intellectual renaissance in Africa. Indeed, it is to play the role of being an important voice of the African, while seeking to restore to our people, confidence in themselves as African and reinforcing the vision for a Common African Home.
Since its formation, PAWA has either participated in or organised many worthwhile initiatives, conferences, seminars and the like. The Association has also launched a number of interesting initiatives.
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The aims and objectives of the Association are among others -
- to provide a forum for all writers of Africa and those of African origin;
- to seek and vigorously defend freedom of expression for all Africans and the material and
spiritual interests of African writers and their association;
- to encourage the inclusion of African literary works in the curriculum of educational institutions and
- to promote African languages and the translation of African literature into African languages.
The others are:
- to promote peace and understanding in Africa and the world through literature
- to establish a continental African Publishing house
- to provide wider avenues for the publishing of African literature
- to establish a Pan African Journal
- to ensure the protection of the works of
African writers through the appropriate copyright laws and agencies
- to institute continental literary awards
and
- to organise programmes to promote Pan
African literary excellence. |