Découverte d’une culture africaine et fantasmes d’un missionnaire. Le Dictionnaire français-kirundi du Père Van der Burgt (1903) entre ethnographie, exégèse biblique et orientalisme

One of the first exogenous looks on the Great Lakes region of Africa came from a missionary in Burundi, the Dutch White Father Van der Burgt. He published in 1903 a French‑Kirundi encyclopaedic dictionary, which left a lasting influence on that countries scholarship. This book was both based on fiel...

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Main Author: Jean-Pierre Chrétien
Format: Article
Language:deu
Published: Institut des Mondes Africains 2010-04-01
Series:Afriques
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/afriques/363
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author Jean-Pierre Chrétien
author_facet Jean-Pierre Chrétien
author_sort Jean-Pierre Chrétien
collection DOAJ
description One of the first exogenous looks on the Great Lakes region of Africa came from a missionary in Burundi, the Dutch White Father Van der Burgt. He published in 1903 a French‑Kirundi encyclopaedic dictionary, which left a lasting influence on that countries scholarship. This book was both based on fieldwork and poorly‑controlled ethnographic, historical and biblical scholarship. It expressed a peculiar racial obsession : the quest for the Oriental origins of African populations and particularly the inclusion of the Tutsi category into a Hamito‑Semitic stock. Van der Burgt was even influenced by esoteric forms of orientalism, which drove his thoughts as far as India, Polynesia, or the revelations of the German mystic Catherine Emmerich. The Burundese culture was thus trapped by this imagination born out of the European libraries and it was described as the result of degeneration, based on the myth of the curse of Ham.
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publisher Institut des Mondes Africains
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series Afriques
spelling doaj-art-8bd544d3a8404139b0e71a641e08b9552025-01-09T13:03:07ZdeuInstitut des Mondes AfricainsAfriques2108-67962010-04-01110.4000/afriques.363Découverte d’une culture africaine et fantasmes d’un missionnaire. Le Dictionnaire français-kirundi du Père Van der Burgt (1903) entre ethnographie, exégèse biblique et orientalismeJean-Pierre ChrétienOne of the first exogenous looks on the Great Lakes region of Africa came from a missionary in Burundi, the Dutch White Father Van der Burgt. He published in 1903 a French‑Kirundi encyclopaedic dictionary, which left a lasting influence on that countries scholarship. This book was both based on fieldwork and poorly‑controlled ethnographic, historical and biblical scholarship. It expressed a peculiar racial obsession : the quest for the Oriental origins of African populations and particularly the inclusion of the Tutsi category into a Hamito‑Semitic stock. Van der Burgt was even influenced by esoteric forms of orientalism, which drove his thoughts as far as India, Polynesia, or the revelations of the German mystic Catherine Emmerich. The Burundese culture was thus trapped by this imagination born out of the European libraries and it was described as the result of degeneration, based on the myth of the curse of Ham.https://journals.openedition.org/afriques/363BurundiWhite FathersHamitic theoriesraceorientalismcolonisation
spellingShingle Jean-Pierre Chrétien
Découverte d’une culture africaine et fantasmes d’un missionnaire. Le Dictionnaire français-kirundi du Père Van der Burgt (1903) entre ethnographie, exégèse biblique et orientalisme
Afriques
Burundi
White Fathers
Hamitic theories
race
orientalism
colonisation
title Découverte d’une culture africaine et fantasmes d’un missionnaire. Le Dictionnaire français-kirundi du Père Van der Burgt (1903) entre ethnographie, exégèse biblique et orientalisme
title_full Découverte d’une culture africaine et fantasmes d’un missionnaire. Le Dictionnaire français-kirundi du Père Van der Burgt (1903) entre ethnographie, exégèse biblique et orientalisme
title_fullStr Découverte d’une culture africaine et fantasmes d’un missionnaire. Le Dictionnaire français-kirundi du Père Van der Burgt (1903) entre ethnographie, exégèse biblique et orientalisme
title_full_unstemmed Découverte d’une culture africaine et fantasmes d’un missionnaire. Le Dictionnaire français-kirundi du Père Van der Burgt (1903) entre ethnographie, exégèse biblique et orientalisme
title_short Découverte d’une culture africaine et fantasmes d’un missionnaire. Le Dictionnaire français-kirundi du Père Van der Burgt (1903) entre ethnographie, exégèse biblique et orientalisme
title_sort decouverte d une culture africaine et fantasmes d un missionnaire le dictionnaire francais kirundi du pere van der burgt 1903 entre ethnographie exegese biblique et orientalisme
topic Burundi
White Fathers
Hamitic theories
race
orientalism
colonisation
url https://journals.openedition.org/afriques/363
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