André Raponda Walker

Infobox Person
name = André Raponda Walker


image_size = 200px
caption = in 1898.
birth_name =
birth_date = 19 July 1871 [http://www.gabonforever.com/Andre%20Raponda.htm Biography of Raponda Walker] , GabonForver, accessed 11 August 2008]
birth_place =
death_date = 1968
death_place = Libreville
death_cause =
resting_place =
resting_place_coordinates =
residence =
nationality =Gabonese
other_names =
known_for = Recording the culture of Gabon
education =
employer =
occupation = Priest
title =
term =
predecessor =
successor =
party =
boards =
spouse =
children =
parents = Princesse Agnorogoulè Ikoutou and Robert Bruce N. Walker
relatives =
religion = Roman Catholic


website =
footnotes =

André Raponda Walker (1871–1968) was a Gabonese author, ethnographer, Catholic priest, and missionary. Walker wrote extensively about Gabonese language and culture. [http://www2.unil.ch/lefaitmissionnaire/Intro_19_final.pdf LFM: Social Sciences and Missions] , Page 12, December 2006, accessed 11 August 2008]

Biography

Raponda-Walker was born to a Mpongwe mother, Princesse Agnorogoulè Ikoutou, nièce of King Louis Dowé, [http://rapondawalker.free.fr/QUI%20EST%20RAPONDA%20WALKER.htm Biography of Raponds Walker] , accessed 11 August 2008] and Robert Bruce Napoleon Walker, a British merchant in Gabon, and member of the Anthropological Society. Robert Walker was a significant contributor of African artifacts to British Museums, in particular, his collection of African shields. [http://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/Kent/shieweap/shfldcol.html#anchor2739720 19th century Field Collecting] , Oxford University, accessed 1 August 2008]

The young boy spent a year in England around his fourth birthday but returned to Gabon in 1876 and started at the school of Sainte Marie in 1877.

He was ordained in 23 July 1899 [http://www.scarecrowpress.com/Chapters/Index.shtml?SKU=0810849186&Site=scarecrowpress&Title=Historical%20Dictionary%20of%20Gabon&FileType=PDF Historical Dictionary of Gabon] , Gardiner and Yates, 2006, accessed 11 August 2008] and his first assignment was at Notre-Dame des Trois-Epis in Ngounié in southern Gabon.

He was the first person from Gabon to be ordained as a Catholic priest. He served at several locations in Gabon where he learnt a number of local languages and created dictionaries and lexicographies. These works are still used today.

From about 1930, Monsignor Walker was one of the few missionaries still studying and documenting Gabonese anthropology, as many foreign researchers had returned to their countries of origin. Walker used interviews to gather the oral traditions of his country using his knowledge of about twelve Gabonese languages. He gathered histories of the Gabonese estuary, the N'Gounie River valley and coastal areas.

Raponda-Walker retired in 1947 at Libreville. He had been stationed at a number of locations in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, including Sindara, Libreville, Boutika (Guinée Equatoriale), Donguila, Lambaréné, Saint-Martin (near Mouila) et au Fernan-Vaz.

Andre lived to see his country independent. Most of Raponda-Walker's work was published in the last few years of his life, after editing by Marcel Soret, a French ethnologist. The work contributed to a systematic project to record Gabonese culture led by Hubert Deschamps.

Legacy

Walker is well regarded in his country. His image appeared on one of the nation's postage stamps in 1981. He also has a school named in his honour, Collège et Lycée Raponda Walker . [ [http://rapondawalker.free.fr/ College Lycee Raponda-Walker] , accessed 11 August 2008]

Works

* Dictionnaire mpongwè-français, suivi d'éléments de grammaire, Metz, 1934.
* Essai de grammaire tsogo, Brazzaville, 1937.
* Notes d'Histoire du Gabon, 1960.
* Dictionnaire français-mpongwè, 1961.
* Les Plantes utiles du Gabon (with Roger Sillans), Paris, Le Chevalier, 1961, 614 p. (Coll. Encyclopédie biologique, 56).
* Rites et croyances des peuples du Gabon (with Roger Sillans), 1962.
* Contes gabonais, 1967.

References