Obituaries : Abdel-Rahman el-Sharkawy; Activist, Writer
Abdel-Rahman el-Sharkawy, a leading Egyptian novelist, poet and columnist who also was secretary-general of the Afro-Asian Peoples’ Solidarity Organization, has died.
He was 67 and died Tuesday of an apparent heart attack at his home, three days after his return from Moscow, where he attended a conference on Afro-Asian solidarity.
Since 1985, he had been chairman of the Cairo-based secretariat of the Afro-Asian group, a loose alliance of Third World nations established in the mid-1950s. Its secretary traditionally has been an Egyptian.
Prize for Literature
An author of more than two dozen literary and religious books, el-Sharkawy was a recipient of the state prize for literature, Egypt’s highest literary honor.
He authored several novels, verse plays and books about Egypt’s fight for independence, the Algerian struggle against French occupation and early Muslim saints.
He also was an innovative poet who came to international attention after publishing a poem entitled “From an Egyptian Father to President Truman” in the 1950s.
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