Janheinz Jahn

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Janheinz Jahn (born July 23, 1918 in Frankfurt am Main ; † October 20, 1973 in Messel , Darmstadt-Dieburg district ) was a German writer and influential mediator of literature from sub-Saharan Africa in Germany.

Life

Janheinz Jahn studied drama and Arabic studies in Munich in the 1930s and then two years of Italian art history in Perugia . In 1939 he was drafted into the Wehrmacht, but was able to work as a front theater actor and tourist guide for soldiers during the war . Until 1946 he was a British prisoner of war and worked there as an interpreter .

After the war he worked as a freelance writer and speaker. In 1949 he published Diwan from Al-Andalus , a collection of adaptations of works by Hispano-Arabic poets from the 10th to 13th centuries.

In 1951 Jahn met the poet and later Senegalese President Léopold Sédar Senghor in Frankfurt am Main. Since then he has devoted himself to the collection of literature of the Négritude and other African literature in European languages, which he called "Neo-African" and made known through bibliographies, translations and essays. From 1966 to 1968 he was General Secretary of the German PEN Club. Senghor appointed him Honorary Consul of Senegal .

Jahn's wife committed suicide in 1968 and also took one of their two children with her to die. In the following years Jahn lived in partnership with the literary scholar Ulla Schild (1938-1998).

Janheinz Jahn died of a heart attack in his house in Messel in October 1973.

Honors

In 1970 he received the Johann Heinrich Voss Prize for Translation from the German Academy for Language and Poetry .

estate

His personal estate today belongs to the Department of African Studies at the Humboldt University in Berlin . The Jahn library for African literatures is located at the Institute for Ethnology and African Studies at the University of Mainz . It was looked after by Ulla Schild until 1998 and is based on Janheinz Jahn's book collection.

Fonts (selection)

As an author

  • Divan from Al-Andalus. Adaptations of Hispano-Arabic poetry . Schleber, Kassel 1949.
    • New edition under the title Andalusian love divan. Adaptations of Hispano-Arabic poetry . Klemm, Freiburg i. Br. 1955.
  • Muntu. Outlines of Neo-African Culture . Diederichs, Düsseldorf 1958 (philosophical and cognitive concepts in African and Afro-American cultures, translated into many languages, were considered in the USA to be a “black bible”).
  • Through African doors. Experiences and encounters in West Africa . Diederichs, Düsseldorf 1960 (travel report).
  • West African impressions . Peter-Presse, Darmstadt 1962.
  • History of Neo-African Literature. An introduction . Diederichs, Düsseldorf 1966.

As a translator and editor

  • Black Orpheus. Modern poetry of African peoples of both hemispheres . Hanser, Munich 1954 (an anthology of modern African and Afro-American poetry with 49 poems by 28 authors from 12 African countries, a total of 161 poems by 82 authors).
    • Black Orpheus. Modern poetry of African peoples of both hemispheres. New collection . Hanser, Munich 1964 (expanded new edition with 110 poems by 60 authors from 23 African countries, a total of 256 poems by 133 authors).
  • Aimé Césaire : sun daggers. Poetry from the Antilles . Rothe, Heidelberg 1956.
  • Black ballad. Modern African narrators from both hemispheres . Diederichs, Düsseldorf 1957.
  • Negro Spirituals . Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1960.
  • Young Africa. Tales by young African authors . Desch, Munich 1963.
  • Africa tells. Storyteller south of the Sahara. 19 stories . Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1963.
  • We called them savages. Overseas encounters then and now. From old and new travelogues . Ehrenwirth, Munich 1964.
  • The neo-African literature. Complete bibliography of neo-African literature . Diederichs, Düsseldorf 1965.
  • Jubilee day in Jamaica. West Indies in Tales of Its Best Contemporary Writers . Erdmann, Herrenalb 1965.
    • New edition under the title West Indies. The literature of the Caribbean island world (Series Modern Narrators of the World , Vol. 13). Erdmann, Tübingen 1974.
  • Léopold Sédar Senghor: Négritude and Humanism . Diederichs, Düsseldorf 1967.
  • Aimé Césaire: To Africa. Poems . Hanser, Munich 1968.
  • Life in Kumansenu and other stories from West Africa is sweet . Erdmann, Tübingen 1971.
    • New edition under the title West Africa (series Modern Narrators of the World , Vol. 31). Erdmann, Tübingen 1975.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Short biography of Ulla Schild
personal data
SURNAME Jahn, Janheinz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer, editor and translator of neo-African literature
DATE OF BIRTH July 23, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH 20th October 1973
Place of death Messel