François-Joseph Amon d'Aby
François-Joseph Amon d'Aby (17 July 1913 – 10 January 2007) was a French-language playwright and essayist in the Côte d'Ivoire.Wangar Wa Nyateũ-Waigwa, in Simon Gikandi, ed., Encyclopedia of African Literature. Routledge; 2002. {{ISBN|978-0-415-23019-3}}
Life
Amon d'Aby started work in the government archives in 1937, rising to become their director.Anthony Graham-White, The drama of black Africa, 1974, p. 75.
He was a pioneer of Ivorian theatre. He wrote plays for several organizations: Le Théâtre Indigène de la Côte d'Ivoire, which he founded with Germain Coffi Gadeau in 1938; the Cercle Culturel et Folklorique de la Côte d'Ivoire, which he, Gadeau and Bernard Dadié founded in 1953; and the Jeunesse Ouvrière Chrétienne [Young Christian Workers' Association]. Though his earlier plays were based upon Ivorian oral literature, his later plays also borrowed from European traditions. Generally moralizing, his plays attacked some traditional social practices (e.g. matriarchy in Kwao Adjoba, or clan parasitism in Entraves) as outdated in a modern society.Albert S. Gérard, European-language writing in sub-Saharan Africa, Volume 1, p. 138.
Amon d'Aby also edited collections of folk tales, and published several cultural and sociological studies of the Côte d'Ivoire.
Works
- La Côte d'Ivoire dans la cité africaine, 1951
- Le problème des chefferies traditionnelles en Côte d'Ivoire, 1958
- Croyances religieuses et coutumes juridiques des Agni de la côte d'Ivoire, 1960
- (ed.) Le théatre populaire en République de Côte d'Ivoire : oeuvres choisies, 1966
- La mare aux crocodiles: contes et légendes populaires de Côte d'Ivoire, 1973
- Proverbes populaires de Côte d'Ivoire, 1984
- Le murmure du roi: recueil de dix contes, 1984
;Plays
- Kwao Adjoba. ou Procès du régime matriarchal en Basse Côte d'Ivoire [Kwao Adjoba, or the trial of the Matriarchal System of Lower Ivory Coast], 1953
- Entrave [Shackles], 1955
- La Couronne aux Enchères [The Auction Ring], 1956
References
{{reflist}}
Further reading
- Bonneau, Richard (1973) "Jean-François Amon d'Aby, dramaturge ivoirien" [Jean-François Amon d'Aby, Ivorean Dramatist], L'Afrique Littéraire 27:10–20
- Bonneau, Richard (1973) "La couronne aux encheres, de Francois-Joseph Amon d'Aby." Eburnea. 61: 38-3
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Amon Daby, Francois-Joseph}}
Category:Ivorian dramatists and playwrights
Category:French male dramatists and playwrights
Category:Ivorian writers in French
Category:20th-century dramatists and playwrights
Category:French male essayists
Category:20th-century male writers
Category:20th-century essayists
{{IvoryCoast-writer-stub}}