Maurice Delafosse
Maurice Delafosse (December 20, 1870 – November 13, 1926) was a French ethnographer and colonial official who also worked in the field of the languages of Africa. In a review of his daughter's biography of him he was described as "one of the most outstanding French colonial administrators and ethnologists of his time."[1] Delafosse had disagreements with the French government over the administration of French Africa, and, as a result, was "more or less banned from the colonies" for a large part of his life.[2]
Delafosse was born December 20, 1870 in the village of Sancergues in central France. He was the son of René Françoise Célestin Delafosse and Elise Marie Bidault. He had five siblings.
Delafosse is known for his contributions to West African history and African languages. He began his study of Arabic in 1890 at the École des langues orientales with the renowned orientalist, Octave Houdas. He traveled to Algeria in 1891 with the Frères armés du Sahara, a Catholic organization concerned with combating the Trans-Saharan slave trade. Shortly afterwards, he spent one year in the French military as a zouave, second class, before returning to his formal studies at the École de langues orientales. After receiving his diploma, he was appointed as an assistant to Indigenous Affairs in the new French colony of Côte d'Ivoire.[3]
Selected publications
- Hubert, Lucien; Delafosse, Maurice (1894), Tombouctou, son histoire, sa conquête (in French), Paris: Guillaumin.
- Delafosse, Maurice (1894), Manuel dahoméen : grammaire, chrestomathie, dictionnaire français-dahoméen et dahoméen-français (in French), Paris: E. Leroux.
- Delafosse, Maurice (1897), Essai sur le peuple et la langue sara (bassin du Tchad) (in French), Paris: J. André. Also available from the Internet Archive here.
- Delafosse, Maurice (1899), Les Vaï: leur langue et leur système d'écriture (in French), Paris: Masson. Also available from the Internet Archive here.
- Delafosse, Maurice (1901), Essai de manuel pratique de la langue mandé ou mandingue : étude grammaticale du dialecte dyoula, vocabulaire français-dyoula... étude comparée des principaux dialectes mandé (in French), Paris: E. Leroux. Also available from the Internet Archive here.
- Delafosse, Maurice (1901), Manuel de langue haoussa ou Chrestomathie haoussa ; précédé d'un abrégé de grammaire et suivi d'un vocabulaire (in French), Paris: J. Maisonneuve.
- Delafosse, Maurice (1904), Vocabulaires comparatifs de plus de 60 langues ou dialectes parlés à la Côte d'Ivoire et dans les régions limitrophes (in French), Paris: E. Leroux. Also available from the Internet Archive here.
- Delafosse, Maurice (1908), Les frontières de la Côte d'Ivoire, de la Côte d'Or, et du Soudan, Paris: Masson. Also available from the Open Library.
- Delafosse, Maurice (1912), Haut-Sénégal-Niger: Le Pays, les Peuples, les Langues; l'Histoire; les Civilizations. 3 Vols (in French), Paris: Émile Larose. Gallica: Volume 1, Le Pays, les Peuples, les Langues; Volume 2, L'Histoire; Volume 3, Les Civilisations.
- Houdas, Octave; Delafosse, Maurice, eds. (1913), Tarikh el-fettach par Mahmoūd Kāti et l'un de ses petit fils (2 Vols.), Paris: Ernest Leroux. Volume 1 is the Arabic text, Volume 2 is a translation into French. Reprinted by Maisonneuve in 1964 and 1981. The French text is also available from Aluka but requires a subscription.
- Delafosse, Maurice (1916), "La question de Ghana et la Mission Bonnel de Mézières", Annuaire et Mémoires du Comité d'Etudes historiques et scientifique de l'AOF (in French): 40–61
- Delafosse, Maurice (1922), Les Noires de l'Afrique (in French), Paris: Payot. Also available from the Internet Archive here.
- Delafosse, Maurice (1922), L'âme nègre (in French), Paris: Payot.
- Delafosse, Maurice (1927), Les Nègres (in French), Paris: Rieder.
- Delafosse, Maurice (1928), "La Numération chez les Nègres", Africa: Journal of the International African Institute (in French), 1 (3): 387–390, JSTOR 1155640.
References
- ^ Cohen, William B. (1978), "Review of: Maurice Delafosse, le Berrichon Conquis par l'Afrique by Louise Delafosse, Paris: Société Française d'Histoire d'Outre-Mer", International Journal of African Historical Studies, 11 (2): 302–305, JSTOR 217447.
- ^ Arnaut, Karel (2000), "Review of: Amselle, Jean-Loup & Sibeud, Emmanuelle, eds. — Maurice Delafosse. Entre orientalisme et ethnographie : l'itinéraire d'un africaniste (1870-1926). Paris, Maisonneuve & Larose, 1998", Cahiers d'Études africaines, 157: 141–143.
- ^ Delafosse, Louise (1976), Maurice Delafosse: le Berrichon conquis par l'Afrique (in French), Paris: Société Française d'Histoire d'Outre-mer, ISBN 2-85970-000-5
Further reading
- Amselle, Jean-Loup; Sibeud, Emmanuelle, eds. (1998), Maurice Delafosse : entre orientalisme et ethnographie : l'itinéraire d'un africaniste, 1870-1926 (in French), Paris: Maisonneuve and Larose, ISBN 2-7068-1356-3
- Cohen, William (1971), Rulers of Empire: the French Colonial Service in Africa, Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press.
- Delafosse, Louise (1976), Maurice Delafosse: le Berrichon conquis par l'Afrique (in French), Paris: Société Française d'Histoire d'Outre-mer, ISBN 2-85970-000-5. A biography by his daughter.
- Hazard, Benoît (1998), "Orientalisme et ethnographie chez Maurice Delafosse", L'Homme (in French), 38 (146): 265–268, doi:10.3406/hom.1998.370469.
- Michel, Marc (1975), "Un programme réformiste en 1919 : Maurice Delafosse et la " politique indigène " en AOF", Cahiers d'études africaines (in French), 15 (58): 313–327, doi:10.3406/cea.1975.2600.
- Wooten, Stephen R. (1993), "Colonial Administration and the Ethnography of the Family in the French Soudan", Cahiers d'études africaines, 33 (131): 419–446, doi:10.3406/cea.1993.1507.
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