Birago Diop
Encyclopedia
Birago Ishmael Diop was a Senegal
Senegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...

ese poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

 and storyteller
Storytelling
Storytelling is the conveying of events in words, images and sounds, often by improvisation or embellishment. Stories or narratives have been shared in every culture as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation and in order to instill moral values...

, active as a writer in the Négritude
Négritude
Négritude is a literary and ideological movement, developed by francophone black intellectuals, writers, and politiciansin France in the 1930s by a group that included the future Senegalese President Léopold Sédar Senghor, Martinican poet Aimé Césaire, and the Guianan Léon Damas.The Négritude...

 movement in the 1930s, as well as a veterinarian
Veterinarian
A veterinary physician, colloquially called a vet, shortened from veterinarian or veterinary surgeon , is a professional who treats disease, disorder and injury in animals....

 and diplomat.

Biography

He was born in Ouakam, a small village near Dakar. In 1920 he went to study at Lycée Faidherbe in Saint-Louis
Saint-Louis, Senegal
Saint-Louis, or Ndar as it is called in Wolof, is the capital of Senegal's Saint-Louis Region. Located in the northwest of Senegal, near the mouth of the Senegal River, and 320 km north of Senegal's capital city Dakar, it has a population officially estimated at 176,000 in 2005. Saint-Louis...

, and later on he went to study veterinary medicine
Veterinary medicine
Veterinary Medicine is the branch of science that deals with the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease, disorder and injury in non-human animals...

 at the University of Toulouse
University of Toulouse
The Université de Toulouse is a consortium of French universities, grandes écoles and other institutions of higher education and research, named after one of the earliest universities established in Europe in 1229, and including the successor universities to that earlier university...

, and worked as a veterinary surgeon
Surgery
Surgery is an ancient medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, or to help improve bodily function or appearance.An act of performing surgery may be called a surgical...

 for the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 colonial
Colony
In politics and history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their inception....

 government in several West Africa
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...

n countries. Throughout his civil service career, he collected and reworked Wolof
Wolof people
The Wolof are an ethnic group found in Senegal, The Gambia, and Mauritania.In Senegal, the Wolof form an ethnic plurality with about 43.3% of the population are Wolofs...

 folktales, and also wrote poetry, memoirs, and a play. He served as first Senegalese ambassador to Tunisia
Tunisia
Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...

 from 1960 to 1964.

Works

  • Narrative
    • Tales of Amadou Koumba
      Tales of Amadou Koumba
      Tales of Amadou Koumba or Les Contes d'Amadou Koumba is a collection of tales from Senegal, transcribed by Birago Diop from the accounts of the griot Amadou, son of Kumba. It was published for the first time in 1947....

      (Les contes d'Amadou Koumba, 1947, tr. 1966)
    • New Tales of Amadou Koumba (Les nouveaux contes d'Amadou Koumba, 1958)
    • Tales and Commentaries (Contes et Lavanes, 1963)
    • Contes d'Awa (1977)
  • Poetry
    • Lures and Glimmers (Leurres et Lueurs, 1960)
  • Drama
    • L'os de Mor Lam (1977)
  • Memoirs
    • La Plume raboutée (1978)
    • A rebrousse-temps (1982)
    • A rebrousse-gens (1985)
    • Du temps de... (1986)
    • Et les yeux pour me dire (1989)

External links

Birago Diop
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