Writer | Researcher | Educator | Creative | 💪🏽 equality & diversity, gender & sexuality, psychoanalysis & trauma, postcolonial literary & cultural studies, visual culture & digital media
🇨🇾 An anti-British colonial sentiment has lingered in the Greek-Cypriot unconscious since Cyprus’s British colonial rule. This was made clear to me a few years ago by an administrator in the Ministry of Culture when I contacted his department about opportunities for Anglophone Cypriot writers. I had raised the issue of the government not providing funding for translating works by Anglophone Cypriot writers in other languages just as it is done for works written in Greek. I also asked if Anglophone Cypriot works could be included for consideration of a State Literature Prize. I was told that English is not an official language of the Republic of Cyprus and we are no longer a British colony. I was also told that Anglophones have many more opportunities abroad. Sure (and huge competition) but for a State Prize? This may sound harsh but it is a reality: Anglophone Cypriot writers are turned away from their own country and told to look elsewhere for support; they are not welcomed as contributing to the literature scene on the island; and they are not considered pure enough Cypriots to represent the island abroad. I hope one day this outlook will change. In the meanwhile, we persist supporting our own community the best we can. 🌿 🍂 October is Global Diversity Awareness Month. 🍂 🌿 Consider sharing a time or a story with me here when you did not feel included/respected in your community. Do this so that we can raise awareness of our differences and the exclusion that these differences can occasionally bring. #discrimination #diversity #Cyprus #government #dobetter #literature #poetry
