Daniel Biebuyck

Daniel P. Biebuyck (born 1925) is a leading authority on central African art with pioneering contributions to contextual African art studies, oral literature (mainly epic narratives), and the sociopolitical structure of numerous groups in DRC. See his website: https://danielbiebuyck.com/

Biebuyck was born in 1925 in Deinze, Belgium. He studied classical philology, law and cultural anthropology, and African art at Ghent State University, and social anthropology and Bantu Linguistics at University College London, LSE, SOAS. Under the auspices of the Institut pour la Recherche Scientifique en Afrique central (IRSAC), he was involved in field research from 1949–1961 among ethnic groups in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He studied the Lega, Bembe, Zyoba and Nyanga peoples.Biebuyck was repeatedly initiated to the various grades of the Bwmai initiation of the Lega, Pembe, and Nyiundu peoples. Most of what is known about the Lega (general culture, Bwami association, and artworks) is due to his field studies between 1951 and 1953, in 1954 and in 1957, and his subsequent publications. As a member of the land tenure commission for the Belgian Congo (1957–1961), he conducted brief field research among over 40 different populations where he studied questions pertaining to the relationships between sociopolitical structures, administrative interferences, and land tenure.

In 1989, Biebuyck retired from the University of Delaware as H. Rodney Sharp Professor of Anthropology and the Humanities. As professor, adjunct or visiting professor, he taught at the following universities: University of Delaware, Lovanium University, Liège University, London University, University of California at Los Angeles, Yale University, New York University, University of Southern Florida: Golding Distinguished Professor of African art.

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