Afro-Asian solidarities: Lotus and its afterlives exhibition

Co-created with students, Afro-Asian solidarities: Lotus and its afterlives focuses on the anti-colonial writers and artists of the Afro-Asian Writers Association and their journal Lotus published in Arabic, English and French from Cairo and Beirut (1960s-1980s).

The exhibition is a result of a collaborative cross-departmental project between academics and students in the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures and the Department of International Development.

Building on our interdisciplinary expertise we foreground the importance of this neglected body of cultural production from the Global South, stressing its centrality in the making of contemporary global politics and world literature.

We examine how archives of anticolonial cultural production can help us question colonial structures and racialised discrimination, and how they can help imagine a more inclusive pedagogy.

The project was possible through funding from the KCL Race Equity & Inclusive Education Fund (REIEF).

Exhibition Team

• Malak Abdelkhalek, MA Comparative Literature, 2020-21
• Sudi Ali, BA Comparative Literature, 2020-23
• Toka Alhamzawey, Graphic Designer
• Noha Choudhury, BA English, 2019-22
• Salma Duqah, BA International Development, 2019-22
• Dr Sara Marzagora, Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures
• Dr Rafeef Ziadah, Department of International Development