Jan Vansina (14 September 1929 – 8 February 2017) was a
Belgian historian and anthropologist regarded as an authority on the history of
Central Africa
Central Africa is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries according to different definitions. Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Co ...
, especially of what is now the
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...
,
Rwanda
Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...
, and
Burundi
Burundi (, ), officially the Republic of Burundi ( rn, Repuburika y’Uburundi ; Swahili: ''Jamuhuri ya Burundi''; French: ''République du Burundi'' ), is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley at the junction between the African Gr ...
. He was a major innovator in the historical methodology of
oral history
Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people wh ...
. As a professor at the
University of Wisconsin–Madison
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...
, he taught several generations of students and, according to a biographer, "set the pace in African historical studies from the 1950s into the 1990s."
Biography
Vansina was first trained as a
medievalist
The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star.
Computer scientists and mathematicians often v ...
and
ethnographer but became known as one of the most prominent Africanist scholars. In his work, he focused on the history of African societies prior to European contact, and is widely regarded as the foremost authority on the history of the peoples of
Central Africa
Central Africa is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries according to different definitions. Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Co ...
. He published widely on the subject, including a landmark text on the factual interpretation oral history. On Vansina, historian
David Beach writes, "In 1985, Jan Vansina's ''Oral Tradition as History'' provided a worldwide theoretical framework on oral tradition that rendered nearly all of its predecessors obsolete."
Vansina obtained his doctorate in history from the
Catholic University of Leuven
University of Leuven or University of Louvain (french: Université de Louvain, link=no; nl, Universiteit Leuven, link=no) may refer to:
* Old University of Leuven (1425–1797)
* State University of Leuven (1817–1835)
* Catholic University of L ...
in 1957. After his retirement in 1994,
[ ] he became a professor emeritus at the
University of Wisconsin–Madison
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...
and lived in
Madison, Wisconsin
Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th ...
. Vansina died of lung cancer in Madison.
Vansina assisted
Alex Haley
Alexander Murray Palmer Haley (August 11, 1921 – February 10, 1992) was an American writer and the author of the 1976 book '' Roots: The Saga of an American Family.'' ABC adapted the book as a television miniseries of the same name and ...
(the author of the 1976 novel ''
Roots: The Saga of an American Family'') in deciphering several African words that had been handed down from Haley's ancestors, determining that they were of
Mandinka Mandinka, Mandika, Mandinkha, Mandinko, or Mandingo may refer to:
Media
* ''Mandingo'' (novel), a bestselling novel published in 1957
* ''Mandingo'' (film), a 1975 film based on the eponymous 1957 novel
* ''Mandingo (play)'', a play by Jack Kir ...
origin.
Selected works
*Vansina, Jan (1965). ''Oral Tradition. A Study in Historical Methodology'' (Translated from the French by H. M. Wright). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
*Vansina, Jan (1966). ''Kingdoms of the Savanna''. Madison:
University of Wisconsin Press
The University of Wisconsin Press (sometimes abbreviated as UW Press) is a non-profit university press publishing peer-reviewed books and journals. It publishes work by scholars from the global academic community; works of fiction, memoir and ...
.
*Vansina, Jan (1978). ''The Children of Woot. A History of the Kuba Peoples''. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
*Vansina, Jan (1985). ''Oral Tradition as History''. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
*Vansina, Jan (1990). ''Paths in the Rainforests''. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press.
*Vansina, Jan (1994). ''Living With Africa''. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press.
*Vansina, Jan (2004). ''Antecedents to Modern Rwanda: The Nyiginya Kingdom'' (Translated from the French by the author). Africa and the Diaspora series. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
*Vansina, Jan (2004). ''How Societies Are Born: Governance in West Central Africa Before 1600''. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.
*Vansina, Jan (2010). ''Being Colonized: The Kuba Experience in Rural Congo, 1880–1960''. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
*Vansina, Jan (2014). ''Through the Day, through the Night. A Flemish Belgian Boyhood and World War II''. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
References
Further reading
* Harms, Robert W. ed. ''Paths toward the past: African historical essays in honor of Jan Vansina'' (African Studies Assn, 1994).
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External links
"History Facing the Present: An Interview with Jan Vansina" by Karel Arnaut and Hein Vanhee (November 2001)
by Jean-Luc Vellut
*
ttps://archives.africamuseum.be/agents/people/333 Archive Jan Vansina Royal Museum for Central Africa
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vansina, Jan
1929 births
2017 deaths
Historians of Africa
Writers from Antwerp
Writers from Madison, Wisconsin
University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty
Belgian anthropologists
Belgian Africanists
Catholic University of Leuven (1834–1968) alumni
Historians of Rwanda
Historians of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Corresponding Fellows of the British Academy
20th-century Belgian historians
21st-century Belgian historians