Dr. Jan Knappert (January 14, 1927,

Heemstede Heemstede () is a town and a municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is the fourth richest municipality of the Netherlands. History Heemstede formed around the Castle ''Heemstede'' that was built overlooking th ...

– May 30, 2005,

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Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

) was a well-known expert on the Swahili language. He was also an

Esperantist An Esperantist ( eo, esperantisto) 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 Esperan ...

, and he wrote an

Esperanto Esperanto ( or ) is the world's most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Created by the Warsaw-based ophthalmologist L. L. Zamenhof in 1887, it was intended to be a universal second language for international communi ...

-Swahili dictionary. 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 An epic poem, or simply 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. ...

. He also translated the Finnish

national epic A national epic is an epic poem or a literary work of epic scope which seeks 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 with a ...

, ''The

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

'', into Swahili. Knappert taught in

Leuven Leuven (, ) or Louvain (, , ; german: link=no, Löwen ) 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. Th ...

and

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

School of Oriental and African Studies SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) 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 are ...

(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) is a public university in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. It was established in 1961 as an affiliate college of the University of London. The university became an affiliate of the University of East Africa (UEA) in 1 ...

, 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 know ...

, 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 A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...

, 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:

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. * 1977: ''het Epos van Heraklios. Uit het Swahili vertaald in het oorspronkelijke metrum''. Amsterdam: Meulenhoff (Dutch translation in the original

meter The metre ( British spelling) or meter ( American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its pr ...

). * 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 Amon Saba Saakana, formerly known as Sebastian Clarke, is a Trinidad-born writer, journalist, lecturer, filmmaker and publisher, who migrated to Britain in 1965. In the 1970s he founded the publishing imprint Karnak House in London. As an author, ...

. * 1990: ''African Mythology''. London: The Aquarian Press. * 1991: ''Indian Mythology; an Encyclopedia of Myth and Legend''. London:

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News C ...

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

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

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

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 Linguists from the Netherlands Dutch Esperantists People from Heemstede Leiden University alumni Academic staff of the Université catholique de Louvain Academics of SOAS University of London 20th-century linguists