Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the 1st International Congress of Black Writers and Artists

The 2006 commemorative event is jointly initiated, planned and sponsored by Wole Soyinka, a Goodwill Ambassador to UNESCO , Laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature and President of the African Community of Culture, and Henry Louis Gates, Jr, director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University. The celebrations will take place September 19^th-22^nd at the Sorbonne University and UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France.

The symposium will feature personalities including Richard Wright, Aime Cesaire, and professors of African and African American Studies at prestigious US universities. They will discuss and compare approaches to the cultural and political expressions of contemporary Black writers and artists. The congress will address the question of the relevance of culture in the context of globalization and the development of racialized conflicts.

With its patronage, UNESCO is officially bringing its technical and financial support for this event mainly through the Division of Cultural Policies and Intercultural Dialogue and the Africa Department.

Event Schedule
Registration Form

Poster of the Congress© Succession Picasso 2006