Jan Vansina Explained

Jan Vansina
Birth Date:	14 September 1929
Birth Place:	Antwerp, Belgium
Death Place:	Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.
Fields:	African history
Workplaces:	University of Wisconsin–Madison
Alma Mater:	Catholic University of Leuven
Doctoral Students:	David Newbury

Jan M. J. Vansina (14 September 1929 – 8 February 2017)^[1] was a Belgian historian and anthropologist regarded as an authority on the history of Central Africa, especially of what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi. He was a major innovator in the historical methodology of oral tradition. As a professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, he taught several generations of students and, according to a biographer, "set the pace in African historical studies from the 1950s into the 1990s."^[2]

Biography

Vansina was first trained as a medievalist 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. 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."^[3]

Vansina obtained his doctorate in history from the Catholic University of Leuven in 1957. After his retirement in 1994,^{[4] [5]} he became a professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and lived in Madison, Wisconsin. Vansina died of lung cancer in Madison.^[4]

Vansina assisted Alex Haley (the author of the 1976 novel ) in deciphering several African words that had been handed down from Haley's ancestors, determining that they were of Mandinka origin.^{[6] [7]}

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.
• 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.

Further reading

• Harms, Robert W. ed. Paths toward the past: African historical essays in honor of Jan Vansina (African Studies Assn, 1994).
• 483088 . . Interview with Jan Vansina . Spring 1995 . Neil L. . Whitehead . Neil L. Whitehead . 42 . 2 . 303–316 . 10.2307/483088 . 163695408 .
• Book: Vellut . Jean-Luc . Ndaywel E Nziem . Isidore . Afrique centrale ancienne : Histoire et culture : En partage avec Jan Vansina . 2021 . Harmattan . Paris . 978-2-343-21603-4 . 9–26 . Jan Vansina (1929-2017): Un itinéraire rebelle et pionnier.
• Book: Mabiala Mantuba-Ngoma . Pamphile . Ndaywel E Nziem . Isidore . Afrique centrale ancienne : Histoire et culture : En partage avec Jan Vansina . 2021 . Harmattan . Paris . 978-2-343-21603-4 . 253–76 . Vansina et la valorisation des traditions orales.
• Wagner . Michele D. . Jan Vansina (14 September 1929 – 8 February 2017) . History in Africa . 2017 . 44 . 5–9. 10.1017/hia.2017.8 . 164818679 . free .

See also

• List of kingdoms in Africa throughout history and its Comparison section

External links

• "History Facing the Present: An Interview with Jan Vansina", by Karel Arnaut and Hein Vanhee (November 2001)
• "Jan Vansina on the Belgian Historiography of Africa: Around the Agenda of a Bombing Raid", by Jean-Luc Vellut
• Archive Jan Vansina, Royal Museum for Central Africa

Notes and References

1. Web site: Trailblazing African History Scholar Jan Vansina Passes Away . 13 February 2017 .
2. Joseph C. Miller, "Vansina, Jan," in Book: Kelly Boyd.. Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing, vol 2.. 1999. Taylor & Francis. 1252–53. 9781884964336.
3. 10.1086/204698. Cognitive Archaeology and Imaginary History at Great Zimbabwe. 1998. Beach. David. David Beach (historian). Current Anthropology. 39. 47–72. 143970768.
4. News: UW Professor Transformed the Study of African History . Wisconsin State Journal . 16 February 2017 . A4 . . 13 March 2020.
5. Web site: Deceased Fellows. British Academy .
6. News: UW Professor Guided Alex Haley to 'Roots' . Wisconsin State Journal . 27 February 1979 . 17 . . 14 March 2020.
7. Web site: Searching for Roots . 2003 . Every Generation . https://web.archive.org/web/20070402050715/http://www.everygeneration.co.uk/Roots/searching_for_roots2.htm . 2 April 2007 . dead . 2017-02-15 .