WHAT IS AFRIEUROTEXT?
AFRIEUROTEXT: Cultural Association with its own specialist bookstore, specializing in Africa and its diasporas
The non-profit cultural association AFRIEUROTEXT (AFRIcan and EUROpean TEXTualities) sees itself as a literary, cultural and art-critical forum aimed at bringing literary, non-literary, artistic, and cultural (everyday) works, phenomena, and texts from the African and European continents, as well as texts related to Africa, into discussion. It strives to present these works to a wide Austrian and European audience, to expose them to those works, considering both their contexts of origin and their symbolic meanings. Texts from African Literature provide an in-depth look into past, present and future issues, (meta)narratives, mythologies, cosmogonies, themes and concerns of African societies and can contribute to a differentiated view of African conditions. The same applies to texts from European literatures. Accordingly, AFRIEUROTEXT understands itself as a sustainable platform for knowledge expansion and exchange, aiming to contribute to a differentiated view of African and European conditions, thereby fostering a culture of mutual respect and peace.
AFRIEUROTEXT is also present and very active on the African continent (namely in Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon) with a vocational training school, where we create jobs, open up prospects and sustainably improve living conditions through targeted (women’s) vocational training. This is our vision and social responsibility on the African continent. AFRIEUROTEXT is therefore very grateful to every institution or actor in Austrian/European or international civil society who can and wants to help implement this vision..
Driven by a passion for literature, culture, art and science, always and constantly working on constructive, productive and peaceful dialogue.
AFRIEUROTEXT focuses not only on literary, cultural, and artistic critical questions but also places importance on discussing issues of global and local asymmetries, cultural differences, and interdependencies in a dialogical and nuanced manner. Literary and non-literary texts are discussed in this context because they represent dimensions of intellectual and everyday discourse about our world and provide valuable insights into ourselves and our shared environment. Literary and non-literary cultural and artistic texts connect our world in diverse ways, emphasizing what unites us rather than what divides us. The acronym AFRIEUROTEXT paradigmatically reflects its focus on the connections, the commonalities, and the non-monolithic aspects of cultures, as well as the textual and contrapuntal spaces of encounter.
AFRIEUROTEXT is a space open to both the Black Austrian community and the broader Austrian civil society – a networking place where social cohesion and educational participation are promoted and encouraged through our projects and events. When it comes to the issue of looted art from Africa, we are leading the dialogue between the Austrian federal museums and the African diaspora in Austria and are committed to the active inclusion and involvement of PoC experts in this exchange. Because the African diaspora in general and the Black Austrian community (related to the Austrian cultural and political context) holds part of the key to solving the complexity of the restitution issue (See our Kitong Kiass 3RRR symposium series)..
CONCEPT
The concept behind AFRIEUROTEXT is based on a deconstructive concept of text. The term or word “text” is understood – beyond the written or spoken word – in a broader sense as a reference to the relations, contingencies and contiguities of everyday life and in everyday life, a reference to the textual or web-like dimensions of everyday life as well as to everyday subjective/objective strategies of (survival/surviving).
GOALS AND SERVICES FOR THE CIVIL SOCIETY
- contribute to a differentiated and inclusive educational policy
- intercultural exchange of experience and knowledge
- Literature advice africa-europa related, local and global, additional literature spectrum for students, researchers an those interested in Africa
- Advice and preparation for trips to Africa
- Orientation assistance in the city of Vienna for students (study, authorities, housing, work, art, culture and communities)
- Empowerment. Anti-racism and anti-discrimination work
- sustainable expansion of knowledge and horizons
- foster the transformational power of differentiated thinking and action
- contribution to peaceful coexistence and thereby to an increase in the quality of life
- focus on the non-monolithic nature of cultures
- foster a culture of mutual respect
- focus on textual or contrapuntal spaces of encounter
- challenge local and global asymmetries and look for solutions
- empower powerless and marginalised people
- foster vocational training
Leading Motive: Together for a culture of exchange, dialogue, peace and differentiated thinking and action.