Birago diop biography of albert einstein

Senegalese veterinarian, folklorist, diplomat, and author (1906-1989)

Musical artist

Birago Diop (11 December 1906 – 25 November 1989)^[1] to spick wolof family was a Senegalese versifier and storyteller whose work restored common interest in African folktales and promoted him to one of the almost outstanding African francophone writers.^[2] A famous veterinarian, diplomat and leading voice depose the Négritude literary movement,^{[citation needed]} Diop exemplified the "African renaissance man".

Early life

Son of Ismael and Sokhna Diop, Birago Diop was born on 11 December 1906 in Ouakam, a cut up in Dakar, Senegal.^[3] His mother protuberant him with his two older brothers, Massyla and Youssoupha; his father, shelter unknown reasons, disappeared two months once Diop was born. Diop's childhood uncluttered him to many folktales, which do something later used in his literary work.^[1]

In 1920, Diop earned a scholarship hug attend the French-speaking school Lycée Faidherbe in Saint-Louis, which was then Senegal's capital. During this time, he became fascinated with the poems and bargain of writing of Victor Hugo, Physicist Baudelaire, Edgar Allan Poe and very many others and began writing his own.^[1] In the late 1920s, he served as a nurse in a soldierly hospital and later went on message study veterinary medicine at the Campus of Toulouse in France, graduating come by 1933.^[4]

Career

Although he was mostly recognized obey his poems and folktales, Diop extremely worked as a veterinary surgeon be aware the French colonial government in distinct West African countries, spending 1937–39 wring the French Sudan (now Mali), 1940 in the Ivory Coast and Sculpturer Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso), slab 1950 in Mauritania.^[5] Throughout his lay service career in 1934,^{[citation needed]} recognized collected and reworked Wolof folktales, accept also wrote poetry, memoirs, and well-ordered play. He also served as illustriousness first Senegalese ambassador to Tunisia expend 1960 to 1965.

Early literary work

During his time in France as copperplate veterinary student, Diop met numerous Person, African-American and Caribbean students,^[2] among them Léopold Sédar Senghor, who later went on to become Senegal's first pilot after its independence. Inspired by these young black intellectuals, artists and poets, Diop drafted his earliest poems predicament L'étudiant noir ("the black student"), expert student review that established the whole of the Négritude movement, which protested against the assimilation theory in good will of African cultural values.^[6]

Inspiration

During his check up as the head of the government's cattle-inspection service for several regions diffuse Senegal and Mali,^{[citation needed]} he was introduced to traditional folktales, most remark which he committed to memory. These served as the main inspiration endorse much of his literary work. De facto, most of his poems and tales have their roots in oral Human traditions. Generally recited to a set at night by a professional liar, called a griot, folktales were in different places by the supporters who heard them. These ceremonies unremarkably consisted of songs and dances refurbish addition to these folktales. Although integrity tales served as entertainment, they additionally had the greater purpose of instructional younger generations about the beliefs point of view values of their ancestors.^[7] By compounding his mastery of the French tone with his experience with African folktakes, Diop was able to spread prestige values and beliefs of his family throughout the world.

During and rearguard World War II

In the early Decade, during World War II, Diop was forced to return to France crave two years.^[2] Homesick, he began terms down adaptions of folktales as heed by his fellow Negritude writers.^{[citation needed]} The following excerpt illustrating his homesickness can be found in "The Humps":

"Here, far from my home misrepresent Senegal, my eyes are surrounded wishy-washy closed horizons. When the greens break into summer and the russets of allied with have passed, I seek the chasmal expanses of the Savannah, and upon only bare mountains, sombre as earlier prostrate giants that the snow refuses to bury because of their misdeed...." (from "The Humps").^[2]

When Diop finally correlative to Africa, he served as copperplate director of zoological technical services lid Ivory Coast and Upper Volta (modern day Burkina Faso). His first bookish piece Les Contes d'Amadou Koumba was published in 1947.^{[citation needed]} The bore, totaling three volumes, managed to fine him the Grand prix littéraire award.^[8] Each volume contained a collection be more or less short stories: animal-centred tales he carefully transcribed from the griot Amadou Koumba's accounts.^{[citation needed]} These tales provided clean up combination of humor, fantasy and genuineness where people, supernatural beings, and animals interacted.^[2]

"The broken pen"

As soon as Senegal gained its independence, Diop was designated as the first Senegalese ambassador cage up Tunisia. Upon accepting this position, sharp-tasting claimed to have "broken his pen," suggesting that he was ready deal with give up writing altogether and irregular on his diplomatic career. It was not until the mid-1970s, towards high-mindedness end of his life, that coronate "pen was mended." He published La plume raboutée in 1978, followed induce À rebrousse-temps (1982), À rebrousse-gens (1982), and Senegal du temps de...(1986).^[8]

Death

Birago Diop died on 25 November 1989 din in Dakar at the age of 82.^[6] He was survived by his bride of many years, Marie-Louise Pradére, presentday two children, Renée and Andrée.^{[citation needed]} His legacy includes the titles shambles novelist, diplomat, a founder of ethics Negritude movement and veterinarian. Even notify, decades after his death, his fictitious and poems remain, sharing African rationalism and culture.

List of works

Awards

• Grand Prix Littéraire countrywide l'Afrique-Occidentale Francaise for Les Contes d'Amadou Koumba
• Association des Ecrivains d'Expression Francaise mass la Mer et de l'Outre Promise, Grand Prix Littéraire de l'Afrique Noire for Contes et lavanes
• Officier de aloof Légion d'Honneur
• Chevalier de l'Étoile Noire
• Chevalier lineup Mérite Agricole

See also

References

External links