Diop, David

Diop, David 

Born July 9, 1927; died 1960. Senegalese poet and publicist.

Diop wrote in French. Beginning in 1959 he was an educator in the Republic of Guinea. His early poetry, harsh and laconic, told of the African’s sufferings under the yoke of colonization and called for resistance. In his 1956 collection Hammerblows the anticolonial theme is more broadly expressed; Diop stigmatizes the colonialists and the treachery of the “apostates” and comes out in favor of a free Africa and brotherhood between the peoples of Asia and Africa. Diop used folk song devices in his contemporary political poetry, including repetitions and parallelisms. He was killed in an airplane accident.

WORKS

Golosa afrikanskikh poetov. [Moscow, 1968.]
“K diskussii o natsional’noi poezii.” Literatura stran Afriki, 2nd collection. Moscow, 1966.
Senghor Sedar, L. Anthologie de la nouvelle poésie negre et malgache. Paris, 1948. (Contains examples of his poetry.)
In Russian translation:
V ritmakh tam-tama. Introductory article by E. L. Gal’perina. Moscow, 1961. (Contains examples of his poetry.)

REFERENCES

Mpondo, S. “D. Diop.” Presence africaine, no. 75, 1970.
Potekhina, G. I. Ocherki sovremennoi literatury Zapadnoi Afriki. Moscow, 1968.