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.[1]

Life

Amon d'Aby started work in the government archives in 1937, rising to become their director.[2]

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.[1] 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plays attacked some traditional social practices (e.g. matriarchy in Kwao Adjoba, or clan parasitism in Entraves) as outdated in a modern society.[3]

Amon d'Aby also edited collections of folk tales, and published several cultural and sociological studies of the Côte d'Ivoire.[1]

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
  1. Wangar Wa Nyateũ-Waigwa, in Simon Gikandi, ed., Encyclopedia of African Literature. Routledge; 2002. ISBN 978-0-415-23019-3
  2. Anthony Graham-White, The drama of black Africa, 1974, p. 75.
  3. Albert S. Gérard, European-language writing in sub-Saharan Africa, Volume 1, p. 138.

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


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