Ανθολογία Λουκή Ακρίτα

Το Κέντρο Διασποράς, με έδρα το Λονδίνο και με ψυχή του τη Δρα Μαρία Ρούσσου, ασχολείται με την καταγραφή και αρχειοθέτηση του Απόδημου Ελληνισμού και των έργων του. Ένας τομέας του είναι ο εκδοτικός, με την επωνυμία Βιβλία Διασποράς (Diaspora Books). Μέσω της δραστηριότητας αυτής έχουν εκδοθεί τις τελευταίες δεκαετίες αρκετά και μάλιστα πρωτότυπα έργα. Με χαρά μου αναφέρω και την έκδοση του δικού μου βιβλίου για τον Ελληνισμό της Νότιας Ουαλίας (Κάρδιφ 1993).

Το πιο πρόσφατο βιβλίο που κυκλοφόρησαν τα Βιβλία Διασποράς είναι ο τόμος του σπουδαίου Ελληνοκύπριου συγγραφέα, δημοσιογράφου, πολιτικού και κοινωνικού ακτιβιστή Λουκή Ακρίτα. Τίτλος του τόμου στ’ αγγλικά: «Loukis Akritas of the Diaspora and the Metropolis, 1909-1965, An Anthology of works»!

To Kέντρο Διασποράς εξέδωσε μια ανακοίνωση, σχετική με την εν λόγω έκδοση, η οποία έχει ως εξής:

This is a publication, about an important Greek Cypriot writer, journalist, politician and social activist who flourished in Athens, the Metropolis of Hellenism, after a hard life to start with. Akritas, although in another Greek speaking city, felt he was in their eyes ‘a rejected migrant’; he lived under hard conditions but in the end he managed to establish himself as a writer, journalist and politician; at the time of his death as Under-Secretary of State for Education in the George Papandreou Senior government.

The book is offered in electronic form in English (because Amazon does not publish in Greek); we hope it will be widely available and easily accessed and enjoyed, by the younger generations of the Greek and other Diasporas who are more familiar with new technologies. The content of this book, in its major part, is addressing issues of work and unemployment, e.g. the novel “Young Man Seeks Position: Good References...” written in 1935, translated in 1993 by Diaspora Books; these are very contemporary issues now in 2013, and important worries that the younger generations all over the world are facing. A kindle book, available on their computer day in day out, makes it easier to switch to reading it and making the best out of it.

Diaspora Books has published so far nine titles in English, Greek or bilingual form (Greek-English). All these books aimed to raise interest in all generations of Greek and Greek Cypriot Diaspora as well as amongst the general English speaking world, those who felt the need to be informed about the Greek Diaspora. The younger generations of Greek Diaspora were always at the centre of our work as we believe they are the hope for continuity in Diaspora conditions.  In fact, Loukis Akritas is one of the few writers of the Greek Metropolis who acknowledged so early, in the ‘50s and ‘60s, the existence and importance of the Greek Diaspora for the Greek nation. In his important speech at Mesolongi in 1964, he said: There are also the two millions of the Diaspora, who are slowly but steadily losing their bond with their homeland.  It is the Hellenism of Northern Epirus, which is vanishing steadily under a yoke of totalitarianism.  It is about the Older Greek Communities, the flourishing Diaspora of the Balkans, those in Turkey, and in Egypt.  It is finally, the Cypriot Hellenism another bastion of the Nation, situated in the bosom of Asia and Africa.

His worry about these Diasporas around the World, ‘...vanishing’ is another indication of why Loukis belongs both to the Metropolis of Hellenism but also to its Diaspora, and why he has a role to play to fulfil the need of putting  more and more effort, as the years go by, to support the younger generations of Greek Diaspora to keep up with their roots and their multiple identities; this publication is one more contribution towards the need to enrich themselves with cultural links towards their Greek speaking motherlands.

The present publication is an anthology, of Akritas’s own literary works, accompanied by literary criticism from eminent Greek authors and academics like Nikiforos Vrettakos and Ioannis Taifakos. We repeat here that this is not an academic publication (with notes, references and an index) but an easy reading in an electronic form, easily available to younger generations and anybody else with access to kindle publications.