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Emile Eugène André Dervain (1928–2010) was a Martinican-Ivorian playwright, lawyer and judge.


Life

Émile Eugène André Dervain was born on February 4, 1928, in Saint-Esprit in central
Martinique Martinique ( ; or ; Kalinago language, Kalinago: or ) is an island in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It was previously known as Iguanacaera which translates to iguana island in Carib language, Kariʼn ...
. He married a woman from the west of the
Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire and officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital city of Yamoussoukro is located in the centre of the country, while its largest List of ci ...
, and was naturalized as Ivorian in 1967.Adou Bouatenin
Dervain's Negritude: the writing of the negation of self and the writing of the other
''Romanica Olomucensia'', Vol. 29, No. 2 (2017), pp.177-86.
Dervain's ''Saran ou la Reine scélérate'' (1968) was a historical play set in the early nineteenth century, in Da Monzon's semi-legendary rule over the kingdom of Ségou, and drawing on oral epic tradition. A prologue invoked classical precedent: Dervain's 1969 one-act play ''Abra Pokou'' was based on Queen Pokou, the mythical founder of the
Baoulé people The Baule or Baoulé (Baoulé language, Baule: ''Baule'' a.u.le awle are an Akan people, Akan people and one of the largest ethnicities in Ivory Coast. The Baoulé are traditionally farmers who live in the centre of Ivory Coast, in a F ...
of the Ivory Coast. Trained as a lawyer, Dervain became a barrister at the Court of First Instance in Abidjan. From 1986 to 1988 he was president of the Bar Association in Abidjan. Dervain went on to serve as judge, prosecutor and investigating judge at the Court of First Instance. He was also President of the Côte d'Ivoire section of
Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...
, and a member of the Academy of Sciences, Arts, African Cultures and African Diasporas (ASCAD).


Works

* ''Saran: ou, La reine scélérate & La langue et le scorpion; pièces en trois et quatre actes'' aran: or, the villainous queen and The tongue and the scorpion: plays in three or four acts Yaoundé, Éditions Clé, 1968. * ''Abra Pokou; pièce en un acte'' ueen Pokou: a play in one act Yaoundé: Éditions CLE, 1969. * ''Termites: théâtre''. Paris: P.J. Oswald, 1976. * ''Une vie lisse et cruelle: poèmes'' smooth and cruel life: poems Abidjan: Edilis, 1999.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dervain, Eugene 1928 births 2010 deaths French emigrants to Ivory Coast 20th-century Ivorian lawyers Ivorian judges Ivorian dramatists and playwrights 21st-century Ivorian lawyers