Yves Person

Last updated

Yves Person (12 October 1925 - 17 November 1982) was an influential French Africanist and historian. [1] [2]

Contents

Biography

Born in 1925, Yves person received an education in history from the Sorbonne, Fula and Mandinka languages from the Ecole des Langues Orientales and ethnology from the Musée de l’Homme. Between 1948 and 1961 he served in the French Colonial administration in Dahomey, Guinea and Ivory Coast, then collected oral histories in Ivory Coast for two years to create post-independence history textbooks. [3]

He taught at the University of Dakar and the University of Montreal before finishing his career as professor of contemporary African history at the Sorbonne beginning in 1971. He was a pioneer in the use of native oral histories in academic research. [4]

Selected publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dyula language</span> Mande language spoken in West Africa

Dyula is a language of the Mande language family spoken mainly in Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and Mali, and also in some other countries, including Ghana, Guinea and Guinea-Bissau. It is one of the Manding languages and is most closely related to Bambara, being mutually intelligible with Bambara as well as Malinke. It is a trade language in West Africa and is spoken by millions of people, either as a first or second language. Similar to the other Mande languages, it uses tones. It may be written in the Latin, Arabic or N'Ko scripts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Senegal</span> Aspect of history

The history of Senegal is commonly divided into a number of periods, encompassing the prehistoric era, the precolonial period, colonialism, and the contemporary era.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ivory Coast</span> Country in West Africa

Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is the port city of Abidjan. It borders Guinea to the northwest, Liberia to the west, Mali to the northwest, Burkina Faso to the northeast, Ghana to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south. Its official language is French, and indigenous languages are also widely used, including Bété, Baoulé, Dioula, Dan, Anyin, and Cebaara Senufo. In total, there are around 78 different languages spoken in Ivory Coast. The country has a religiously diverse population, including numerous followers of Christianity, Islam and indigenous faiths such as Animism.

The Dyula are a Mande ethnic group inhabiting several West African countries, including Mali, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Burkina Faso.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samori Ture</span> Emperor of the Wassoulou Empire

Samory Toure, also known as Samori Toure, Samory Touré, or Almamy Samore Lafiya Toure, was a Muslim cleric, a military strategist, and the founder and leader of the Wassoulou Empire, an Islamic empire that was in present-day north and south-eastern Guinea and included part of north-eastern Sierra Leone, part of Mali, part of northern Côte d'Ivoire and part of southern Burkina Faso. Samori Ture was a deeply religious Muslim of the Maliki jurisprudence of Sunni Islam.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kankan</span> Sub-prefecture and town in Kankan Region, Guinea

Kankan is the largest city in Guinea in land area, and the third largest in population, with a population of 198,013 people as of 2020. The city is located in eastern Guinea about 555 kilometres east of the national capital Conakry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wassoulou Empire</span> 1878-1898 empire in West Africa

The Wassoulou empire, sometimes referred to as the Mandinka Empire, was a short lived West African state that existed from roughly 1878 until 1898, although dates vary from source to source. It spanned from what is now southwestern Mali and upper Guinea, with its capital in Bissandugu; it expanded further south and east into northern Ghana and Ivory Coast before its downfall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gyaman</span> Former Akan state, ca. 1450–1963.

Gyaman was a medieval Akan people state, located in what is now the Bono region of Ghana and Ivory Coast. Gyaman was founded by the Bono people, a branch of the Akan, in the late 15th century. The Bono then proceeded to conquer the Kulangos, Nafanas, Ligbis, and other ethnic groups of the area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bondoukou</span> Place in Zanzan, Ivory Coast

Bondoukou is a city in northeastern Ivory Coast, 420 km northeast of Abidjan. It is the seat of both Zanzan District and Gontougo Region. It is also a commune and the seat of and a sub-prefecture of Bondoukou Department.

The Kong Empire (1710–1898), also known as the Wattara Empire or Ouattara Empire for its founder, was a pre-colonial African Muslim state centered in northeastern Ivory Coast that also encompassed much of present-day Burkina Faso. It was founded by Dyula immigrants from the declining Mali Empire. It established a largely decentralized commercial empire based upon linkages by merchant houses protecting trade routes throughout the region. Kong rose to prominence in the 1800s as a key commercial center and center of Islamic studies. In 1898, Samori Ture attacked the city and burnt it down. Although the city was rebuilt, the Kong empire had dissipated and the French took control over the area.

Sofa is a Mandinka term for slave soldiers who served in the army of the Mali Empire. Sofas would also fight, in varying capacities, in the armies of later Mandé states such as the Bamana and Wassoulou empires.

Sheikh Al-Hajj Salim Suwari was a 13th-century West African Soninke karamogo who focused on the responsibilities of Muslim minorities residing in a non-Muslim society. He formulated an important theological rationale for peaceful coexistence with the non-Muslim ruling classes called the Suwarian tradition, which survives to this day despite the pressures of modernism.

The Siamou language, also known as Seme (Sɛmɛ), is a language spoken mainly in Burkina Faso. It is part of the Kru languages or unclassified within the proposed Niger–Congo languages. It is also spoken in Ivory Coast and Mali, and could likely be a language isolate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kabadougou Kingdom</span> Ivorian kingdom (1848–1980)

The Kabadougou Kingdom was a Malinké warrior kingdom situated in north-west Côte d'Ivoire centered on the town of Odienné and bordered the Kingdom of Worodougou. It was ruled by the Touré dynasty, whose founder centered the society around slavery. The dynasty in an alliance with Samori Ture fought French colonization until 1898.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parfait-Louis Monteil</span>

Parfait-Louis Monteil was a French colonial military officer and explorer who made an epic journey in West Africa between 1890 and 1892, travelling east from Senegal to Lake Chad, and then north across the Sahara to Tripoli.

Christian Lattier (1925–1978) was an Ivorian sculptor born in Grand Lahou, Côte d'Ivoire.

Father Henry Gravrand was a French Catholic missionary to Africa and an anthropologist who has written extensively on Serer religion and culture. He was one of the leading pioneers of interfaith dialog and believed that African religion was the "'first covenant between God and man". His works about the Serer people are cited by other historians and scholars writing on Serer history, religion and culture, for instance Martin A. Klein, Charles Becker, Alioune Sarr, Marguerite Dupire, Issa Laye Thiaw, etc. Papa Massène Sene argues that his approach lacks scientific rigor and include fundamental linguistic and historical errors. Alioune Sarr noted that Gravrand reported an oral tradition describing what he called the "Battle of Troubang", a dynastic war between the two maternal royal houses of Ñaanco and the Guelowar, an off-shot and relatives of the Ñaanco maternal dynasty of Kaabu, in modern-day Guinea Bissau. According to Charles Becker, Gravrand is confusing a description of the 1867 Battle of Kansala.

On 4 August 1983 a coup d'état was launched in the Republic of Upper Volta in an event sometimes referred to as the August revolution or Burkinabé revolution. It was carried out by radical elements of the army led by Thomas Sankara and Blaise Compaoré, against the regime of Major Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo. Ouédraogo had been brought to power in a 1982 coup with the Conseil de Salut du Peuple (CSP), a body composed of military officials of different ideological backgrounds. The CSP chose Sankara as Prime Minister of Upper Volta in January 1983. As his tenure progressed, Ouédraogo found himself unable to reconcile the conservative and radical factions of the CSP, whose disagreements were leading to a political stalemate. On 16 May he purged his government of pro-Libyan and anti-French elements, disbanded the CSP, and had Sankara and several other important officials arrested. This move sparked discontent among Sankara's supporters. Sankara was eventually released while one officer, Compaoré, began to organise military resistance to the government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ivorian nationality law</span>

Ivorian nationality law is regulated by the Constitution of Ivory Coast, as amended; the Ivorian Nationality Code, and its revisions; and various international agreements to which the country is a signatory. These laws determine who is, or is eligible to be, a national of Ivory Coast. The legal means to acquire nationality, formal legal membership in a nation, differ from the domestic relationship of rights and obligations between a national and the nation, known as citizenship. Nationality describes the relationship of an individual to the state under international law, whereas citizenship is the domestic relationship of an individual within the nation. Ivorian nationality is typically obtained under the principle of jus soli, i.e. by birth in Ivory Coast, or jus sanguinis, i.e. by birth in Ivory Coast or abroad to parents with Ivorian nationality. It can be granted to persons with an affiliation to the country, or to a permanent resident who has lived in the country for a given period of time through naturalization.

The Battles of Woyowoyanko are two military engagements that were fought near the Woyowoyanko river in April 1883, during the wars between France and the Wassulu Empire of Samori Ture in West Africa.

References

  1. Hargreaves, John D. (1983) Obituary: Yves Person, 1925-1982, African Affairs, Apr., vol. 82, no. 327, p. 281-283
  2. Lemarchand, René and Myron J Echenberg (1983) Yves Person (1925-1982) Canadian Journal of African Studies, 1983, vol. 17, no. 1, p. 5-7
  3. Bat, Jean-Pierre (3 February 2016). "Une révolution Dyula : Person, historien de Samori". Liberation. Retrieved 16 July 2023.
  4. "Yves Person l'Africain de Plestin". Le Telegramme. 31 October 2014. Retrieved 16 July 2023.
  5. Jones D.H. (1977) Samori's Revolution Review of: Samori: Une Révolution Dyula, tome iii by Yves Person, Journal of African History,vol. 18, no. 2, p. 309-311