Dispatches from Havana: The Cold War, Afro-Asian Solidarities, and Culture Wars in Pakistan

This article traces the journey of Abdullah Malik, a noted writer, journalist, and communist from Pakistan, to the Cultural Congress of Havana in 1968. Through Malik's account, this paper ties the Havana Congress with larger debates around culture, socialism, and freedom in Pakistan during the Cold War. In doing so, this article documents the significance of international conferences and congresses for progressives given the tense battle of ideas in Pakistan. In that sense, the Havana Congress was not simply an isolated event organized at the behest of Cuba's revolutionary government. Instead, it was emblematic of a post-Bandung world in which debates over culture, politics, and the future of the Third World were central to the worldview and imagination of progressive intellectuals, writers, artists, and poets.