The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World

by Vincent Bevins

In early 1963, the countries brought together by the Bandung Conference founded the Afro-Asian Journalist Association at a Jakarta conference. Francisca was asked to serve as an official interpreter at the meeting, and she stayed on as they founded the Afro-Asian Journalist, published by the Lumumba Foundation (named after murdered Congolese leader) in Jakarta. They kept her busy translating pieces from multiple languages and a wide range of countries. The Afro-Asian Journalist published what has been called “socialist cosmopolitan journalism,” and viewed world struggles as one interconnected fight. The magazine was much more eclectic and liberal than many of the world’s actually existing socialist publications; the editors valued cultural pluralism and artistic innovation, publishing anti-imperialist cartoons and features from a wide range of global contributors.5