Dieudonné Gnammankou (born 1963) is a

Benin Benin ( , ; french: Bénin , ff, Benen), officially the Republic of Benin (french: République du Bénin), and formerly Dahomey, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the nort ...

ese

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

and

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...

. Gnammankou was born in 1963 in Cote d'Ivoire. He studied in the former

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

, earning a Master of Arts degree (Russian Philology and Litterature, Russian Language and Litterature Teacher) and a degree of Russian-French translator in 1990 from the

Patrice Lumumba University The Peoples' Friendship University of Russia (russian: Российский университет дружбы народов), also known as RUDN University and, until 1992, Patrice Lumumba University in honor of the hero Patrice Lumumba, is a ...

/People's Friendship University in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

(he is listed among the 20 Notable Alumni since 1960)

; and in France, obtaining a Diplôme d'Etudes Approfondies, DEA, in Paris National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO-Langues O) in 1991. He earned a PhD in History and Civilizations in 2000 at the Paris School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, EHESS. Gnammankou's work has centered on

African studies African studies is the study of Africa, especially the continent's cultures and societies (as opposed to its geology, geography, zoology, etc.). The field includes the study of Africa's history (pre-colonial, colonial, post-colonial), demography ...

and the history of the African Diaspora. In 1996, he published a seminal biography of the Russian military leader

Abram Petrovich Gannibal Abram Petrovich Gannibal, also Hannibal or Ganibal, or Abram Hannibal or Abram Petrov ( ru , Абра́м Петро́вич Ганниба́л; c. 1696 – 14 May 1781), was a Russian military engineer, general-in-chief, and nobleman of Africa ...

. The Russian translation coincided with the 1999 bicentennial anniversary of the birth of the writer

Alexander Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn, ...

, Gannibal's great-grandson. Gnammankou's research established that Gannibal was born in

Logone-Birni Logone-Birni is a town and commune in Cameroon. The town lies on the left (west) bank of the Logone River which at this point forms the state boundary between Cameroon and Chad. It is the capital of the Kotoko people, whose two other principal c ...

Central Africa Central Africa is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries according to different definitions. Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo ...

, in an area bordering Lake Chad, nowadays

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

. "Mr. Gnammankou’s thesis caused something of a stir in Russia, where Pushkin has the status of a god. Roots in black Africa, Mr. Gnammankou suspects, seemed less acceptable than roots in the ancient Christian kingdom of Ethiopia. Nonetheless, his book on Gannibal was translated into Russian in 1999 and was judged the best book on Pushkin that year at the Moscow Book Fair. In 2000, a documentary about Gannibal shown on Russian television included scenes shot in Logone, as well as an interview with Mr. Gnammankou." New-York Times, By Serge Schmemann, Nov. 12, 2010.

Major works

* * * (Original in Swahili language, Swahili 1896) * (Translated into English)

References

1963 births Living people Beninese historians Peoples' Friendship University of Russia alumni Beninese expatriates in the Soviet Union 20th-century Beninese writers 21st-century Beninese writers Beninese male writers Male non-fiction writers Beninese translators 20th-century historians 20th-century translators 20th-century male writers 21st-century historians 21st-century translators 21st-century male writers {{Benin-writer-stub