Daniel P. Biebuyck papers
place: label: Place
content: Belgian Congo
label: Place
content: Africa
culture: label: Culture
content: Bembe (Congolese (Brazzaville) people)
label: Culture
content: Lega (African people)
label: Culture
content: Nyanga
setName: label: See more items in
content: Daniel P. Biebuyck papers
abstract: label: Summary
content: Daniel P. Biebuyck was a leading figure in the field of African anthropology. He conducted extensive field work among communities in the then Belgian Congo researching language, social structure, sociopolitics, art, and mythology. The collection mainly consists of materials related to Biebuyck's work with Bembe, Lega, and Nyanga communities, land tenure, and object studies on African art.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Daniel P. Biebuyck, born in 1925 in Deinze, Belgium, is considered a leading figure in African anthropology for his work with communities in the then Belgian Congo and later the Democratic Republic of the Congo, including the Bembe, Lega, and Nyanga peoples. Biebuyck began his academic career at Ghent State University in Belgium, where he studied law, classics, and anthropology. He earned his Master's in Classical Philology from Ghent in 1948 before doing postgraduate studies on social anthropology and Bantu linguistics at the University College London for a year. Biebuyck's research focused on African social structure, language, art, sociopoltics, and mythologies. He earned his PhD from Ghent in 1954 for his research on Bembe social structure. 

Biebuyck conducted a vast amount of fieldwork during the early stages of his career, much of which was sponsored and funded by the Institut pour la Recherche Scientifique en Afrique centrale (IRSAC), from 1949-1961. This was during a tense political time of transition from the Belgian control of the Congo to the territory's independence, creating the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1960. His initial position as a research fellow funded by the IRSAC from 1949-1952 focused on Zyoba and Bembe communities. Biebuyck continued to work under the IRSAC until 1961, conducting fieldwork with over forty communities in the Congo, mainly the Bembe, Zyoba, Lega, and Nyanga peoples. Of particular note is Biebuyck's work from 1957-1961 as one of a three-member commission studying Belgian Congo land tenure sponsored by the IRSAC and the Gouvernement Général of Belgian Congo, Léopoldville. During this project, Biebuyck studied relationships between land tenure, sociopolitical structures, and administrative interferences. Additionally, during his fieldwork in the 1950s, Biebuyck made sound recordings of musical and cultural ceremonies with communities such as the Lega Bwami association and the Nyanga peoples. 

Biebuyck was also heavily involved in museum related work and the study of African art, starting with the study of the Central African collections at the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren, Belgium in 1947. He continued to work with the Royal Museum's collections throughout his career and donated ethnographic materials collected from his fieldwork to their collections. Additionally, Biebuyck did consultation work for the Fowler Museum at the University of California, Los Angeles (1963) and for the Smithsonian Institution (1965). He was also the first Curator of African collections at the newly created Laboratory of Ethnic Arts and Technology at UCLA (1965-1966). 

Teaching was central to Biebuyck's career and he held positions at various universities from 1953-1995. Before moving to the United States, Biebuyck held teaching positions at the école Coloniale, Brussels (1953-1954), Liège University (1956-1958), the University of Lovanium (1957-1961), and London University, University College (1960). Once in the United States, he began teaching at the University of Delaware in 1961 where he eventually retired as the H. Rodney Sharp Professor of Anthropology and the Humanities in 1989. Additionally, during this time Biebuyck also held teaching positions at the University of California, Los Angeles (1964-1966), Yale University (1968-1970, 1976-1977) and New York University (1971-1972). After retiring from the University of Delaware, he worked as the Arthur Golding Eminent Scholar in African Art at the University of Southern Florida from 1993-1995.


Biebuyck received numerous grants and honors for his research on African art, language, social structure, land tenure, sociopolitics, and mythologies, such as the Laureate of the Concours Annuel of the Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences (1955), the Rockefeller Foundation Humanities Fellowship (1979-1980), and the Conover-Porter Award from the African Studies Association (1988). 

Daniel Biebuyck passed away at the age of 94 on December 31, 2019, in Newton, Massachusetts. 

For more information on Daniel Biebuyck and his research, see: https://danielbiebuyck.com
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 41.07 Linear feet
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1888-2004
label: Date
content: bulk 1948-1960
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: National Anthropological Archives
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NAA.2022-27
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: This collection is arranged into 10 series: 1) Land tenure and the IRSAC, 1945-1972, undated; 2) Bembe, 1948-1999, undated; 3) Lega, 1924-1991, undated; 4) Nyanga, 1949-2004, undated; 5) Object studies, 1931-2004, undated; 6) Field photographs, 1926-1960, undated; 7) Sound recordings, 1960-1972, undated; 8) Writings, 1949-2004, undated; 9) Teaching materials, 1953-1994, undated; and 10) Maps, 1888-1972, undated.
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: Materials in the Daniel P. Biebuyck papers were received by the NAA in boxes mostly arranged by topic. The collection was rehoused into acid free folders and boxes. The arrangements of and within series were created by the archivist. Much of Biebuyck's material was already arranged in folders or separated in bags with labels. Original folder titles were retained and the original labels on separated materials were used for folder titles. Originally loose material grouped by the archivist or folders without original titles are denoted by bracketed titles. Some content written on original folders was illegible or was unable to be translated from its original language; these folders were photocopied and placed inside the new folders. Biebuyck would often title folders with "DB", this refers to his name.

Photographs and slides were rehoused in acid free envelopes or archival sleeves. Some of the photographic material originally housed in photograph albums were removed and put in new folders but were kept in their original order. Some photocopies were made of fragile album pages and are located with them for reference. Index cards in series 2, 3, and 4 were originally grouped by rubber bands or bags in no clear order or reason for separation. The index cards were rehoused, and original groupings are now separated by paper dividers in their new boxes.

Processed by Lea Sellon, October 2024
bibliography: label: Selected Bibliography
content: 1956.  -- Bibliographie sur la Tenure et les Problèmes Fonciers -- . Léopoldville: Gouvernement Général, 1956.

1958. with J. Bolle, E. Schaefer, H. Brandt, and H. Sielman  -- Les Seigneurs de la Forêt -- . Brussels: êtablissements Malvaux, 1958.

1969. with Kahombo Mateene  -- The Mwindo Epic from the Banyanga -- . Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1969.

1973.  -- Lega Culture: Art, Initiation, and Moral Philosophy among a Central African People -- . Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1973.

1984. with Nelly Van den Abbeele  -- The Power of Headdresses: A Cross-Cultural Study of Forms and Functions -- . Ghent, Belgium: Snoeck-Ducaju & Zoon, 1984.

1987. with Brunhilde Biebuyck  -- We Test Those Whom We Marry: An Analysis of Thirty-Six Nyanga Tales -- . Budapest: African Research Program, Loránd Eötvös University, 1987.

2002.  -- Lega: Ethics and Beauty in the Heart of Africa -- . Ghent, Belgium: Snoeck-Ducaju & Zoon, 2002.

2013.  -- Sherungu Muriro, Mémoires d'un Nyanga -- . Paris: Geuthner, 2013.
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The Daniel P. Biebuyck papers document Biebuyck's fieldwork in the then Belgian Congo and later Democratic Republic of the Congo. Much of the material is also associated with Biebuyck's land tenure research. Additionally, there is a large amount of material related to Biebuyck's African art research and his study of museum objects. Of particular interest is his documentation of objects in the collections of the Belgium Royal Museum for Central Africa, some of which were collected in the field and donated to the museum by Biebuyck.

This collection also includes a large number of index cards with research notes on various Bembe, Lega, and Nyanga languages. His linguistic research is also documented through sound recordings. A notable part of this collection is Biebuyck's work with his Nyanga interlocutor, Sherungu, whose autobiography and stories were translated into multiple languages. Biebuyck was fluent in Dutch, French, German, and English, and through his fieldwork he also learned to speak the Bantu languages of Swahili, Bembe, Lega, and Nyanga. This knowledge of language is reflected throughout his archives. 

Much of the material in this collection is in Dutch, French, Swahili, or other Bantu languages; most of his teaching materials and some translations are in English but a fluency in some of the above languages is needed to read most of Biebuyck's papers. 

This collection includes field notes, index cards, journals, manuscript material, research articles, teaching material, correspondence, sound recordings, photographs, slides, and maps. 

Please note that the contents of the collection and the language and terminology used reflect the context and culture of the time of its creation. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology and considered offensive today. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution or National Anthropological Archives, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.