(1906-1989) poet, folklorist
Birago Diop was born into an influential family in Dakar, Senegal. His father died prematurely leaving him to be raised by his mother’s family. He attended high school in the old capital before going to France to earn his degree as a veterinarian at the University of Toulouse. In Paris, Diop met many of the founders of negritude, an intellectual and artistic movement that was begun in Paris by black students from the French colonies. The movement celebrated a global African identity, while taking a political stance against colonialism and assimilation. Diop met his compatriot Leopold Sedar senghor, a founder of Negritude, who influenced him to write about African cultural values. Diop used his own cultural background as a resource, recounting the stories he was told as a child. In addition, his experience as a veterinarian allowed him to travel throughout remote areas of French West Africa, giving him access to the rural life and values of traditional Africa.
He is most famous for his work Tales ofAmadou Koumba (1966), an award-winning collection of folk tales that he translated from Wolof, the most prevalent indigenous language in Senegal. He is noted for maintaining its rhythm, imagery, and subtleties in his transcription of these stories and for giving the French world access to these ethnic treasures.
In his poetry, Diop concentrated on the mystical elements in African culture. He released a poetry anthology called Lures and Glimmers (1960) that captures the spiritual belief system of many African religions. In 1960, Senghor, the president of Senegal at the time, appointed Diop ambassador to Tunisia. Today, Birago Diop is considered a central contributor of traditional ethnic resources to the Negritude movement.
Works about Birago Diop
Gibbs, James. “The Animal Trickster as Political Satirist and Social Dissident.” In Edris Makward et al. The Growth of African Literature. Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press, 1998.
Tollerson. Mythology and Cosmology in the Narratives of Bernard Dadie and Birago Diop. Washington, D.C.: Three Continents Press, 1984.
