Jan Knappert (January 14, 1927,

Heemstede Heemstede () is a town and a municipality in the Western Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. In 2021, it had a population of 27,545. Located just south of the city of Haarlem on the border with South Holland, it is one of the richest ...

– May 30, 2005,

Hilversum Hilversum () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland, Netherlands. Located in the heart of the Gooi, it is ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

) was a well-known expert on the

Swahili language Swahili, also known as as it is referred to endonym and exonym, in the Swahili language, is a Bantu languages, Bantu language originally spoken by the Swahili people, who are found primarily in Tanzania, Kenya, and Mozambique (along the East Af ...

. He was also an

Esperantist An Esperantist () is a person who speaks, reads or writes Esperanto. According to the Declaration of Boulogne, a document agreed upon at the first World Esperanto Congress in 1905, an Esperantist is someone who speaks Esperanto and uses it for ...

, and he wrote an

Esperanto Esperanto (, ) is the world's most widely spoken Constructed language, constructed international auxiliary language. Created by L. L. Zamenhof in 1887 to be 'the International Language' (), it is intended to be a universal second language for ...

-Swahili

dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged Alphabetical order, alphabetically (or by Semitic root, consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical-and-stroke sorting, radical an ...

Life and career

Knappert translated many literary and historical works from Swahili; including ''

Utendi wa Tambuka ''Utend̠i wa Tambuka'', also known as ''Utenzi wa Tambuk''aThe symbol ''d̠'' is a transliteration of the Arabic for the Swahili sound ''dh'' (). Often this sound is written simply ''z'', hence the different spellings. ("The Story of Tambuka") ...

'' ("The Epic of Heraklios"), a very early Swahili

epic poem In poetry, an epic is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants. With regard to ...

. He also translated the Finnish

national epic A national epic is an epic poem or a literary work of epic scope which seeks to or is believed to capture and express the essence or spirit of a particular nation—not necessarily a nation state, but at least an ethnic or linguistic group wi ...

, ''The

Kalevala The ''Kalevala'' () is a 19th-century compilation of epic poetry, compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Karelian and Finnish oral folklore and mythology, telling a story about the Creation of the Earth, describing the controversies and retaliatory ...

'', into Swahili. Knappert taught in

Leuven Leuven (, , ), also called Louvain (, , ), is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipalit ...

and

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, as well as several African universities. He also participated in several Esperanto conventions in the 1970s, such as TEJO. Knappert was Lecturer of Bantu Languages at the

School of Oriental and African Studies The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS University of London; ) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury area ...

(SOAS), specializing in Swahili traditional and religious literature. He wrote extensively about the manuscripts he collected and deposited in the SOAS Archives. His most important contributions include ''Four Centuries of Swahili Verses'' (1979), ''Swahili Islamic Poetry'' (1971), ''Epic Poetry in Swahili and other African Languages'', (1983), ''A Survey of Swahili Islamic Epic Sagas'' (1999). He also resided at the

University of Dar es Salaam The University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) (Swahili: ''Chuo Kikuu cha Dar es Salaam'') is a public university located in Ubungo District, Dar es Salaam Region, Tanzania. It was established in 1961 as an affiliate college of the University of London. ...

, where he became Secretary of the East African Swahili Committee as well as editor of the journal of the same committee, after the death of W. H. Whiteley, in the 1970s. At SOAS, he worked with the great Africanists

Malcolm Guthrie Malcolm Guthrie (10 February 1903 – 22 November 1972) was an English linguist who specialized in Bantu languages. Guthrie was a foremost professor of Bantu languages at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. He is ...

, A. N. Tucker, B. W. Andrzejewski, Gordon Innes, and Ronald Snoxall. In addition to the study of Swahili, Dr Knappert also holds a degree in Sanskrit with Indian history, Hinduism and Buddhism, a degree in Semitic languages with Hebrew, Arabic and Islam, and a Master in Austronesian studies, with Malay, Tagalog, Hawaiian and Malagasy. After teaching at SOAS for a number of years, he moved to Belgium to lecture. After this he retired from the University of Louvain, Belgium, to devote himself entirely to writing. He fathered seven children and was grandfather to eight.

Partial bibliography

* 1958: ''Het Epos Van Heraklios'' (Dutch edition and literal translation; dissertation at Leiden University) * 1969: "The Utenzi wa Katirifu or Ghazwa ya Sesebani", ''Afrika und Übersee'', Band LII, 3–4, 81–104. * 1970: ''Myths and Legends of the Swahili''. London: Heinemann. * 1977: ''het Epos van Heraklios. Uit het Swahili vertaald in het oorspronkelijke metrum''. Amsterdam: Meulenhoff (Dutch translation in the original

meter The metre (or meter in US spelling; symbol: m) is the base unit of length in the International System of Units (SI). Since 2019, the metre has been defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of of ...

). * 1977: ''Myths and Legends of Indonesia''. Singapore: Heinemann Educational Books (Asia) Ltd. * 1986: ''Kings, Gods and Spirits from African Mythology''. London: Eurobook Ltd. * 1989: ''The A-Z of African Proverbs'' London: Karnak House. * 1990: ''African Mythology''. London: The Aquarian Press. * 1991: ''Indian Mythology; an Encyclopedia of Myth and Legend''. London:

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...

. * 1995: ''Pacific Mythology; an Encyclopedia of Myth and Legend''. London:

. * 2001: ''The Book of African Fables''. New York:

Edwin Mellen Press The Edwin Mellen Press, sometimes stylised as Mellen Press, is an academic publisher. It was founded in 1972 by theology professor Herbert Richardson (publisher), Herbert W. Richardson. It has been involved in a number of notable legal and acad ...

. * 2003: ''The A-Z of African Love Songs''. London: Karnak House. * 2005: ''Swahili Culture Book I and II''. New York: Edwin Mellen Press.

References

External links

Jan Knappert
at Mellon Press. * Digitised items from the Knappert collection, held by SOAS archives can be viewed onlin
here
{{DEFAULTSORT:Knappert, Jan 1927 births 2005 deaths Dutch Esperantists People from Heemstede Leiden University alumni Academic staff of the Université catholique de Louvain Academics of SOAS University of London 20th-century Dutch linguists