CV
Name
Place of birth, date
Nationality
e-mail
Jan Jansen
Utrecht, February 19, 1962
Dutch
jansenj@fsw.leidenuniv.nl
PhD
November 15, 1995 Universiteit Leiden, title dissertation: De Draaiende Put - een studie naar de relatie
tussen het Sunjata-epos en de samenleving in de Haut-Niger (Mali). Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Peter L.
Geschiere, Prof. Dr. Jarich G. Oosten and Prof. Dr. Walter E.A. van Beek.
Research appointments
1991 - 1995
Junior researcher at the Research School CNWS, Universiteit Leiden
(4 year contract).
1996 - 1998
Postdoc researcher at the Institute of Cultural and Social Studies,
Universiteit Leiden (2 year contract).
1999 - 2004
Research fellow of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and
Sciences (5 year contract) (office at Universiteit Leiden).
2004 - present
Lecturer at the Institute of Cultural and Social Studies, Universiteit
Leiden).
Co-Promotor
• Marloes Janson, 2002, The Best Hand is the Hand that Always Gives – Griottes and their
Profession in Eastern Gambia. Leiden University.
• Amber Gemmeke, 2008, Marabout Women in Dakar – Creating Trust in a Rural Urban Space.
Leiden University.
• Simon Toulou Abah, 2008, Devenir griot professionnel: education formelle ou informelle? Analyse des
enseignements langagiers dans la perspective de la transposition didactique. Université de Genève.
• Lianne Holten, 2013, Mothers Medicine and Morality in Rural Mali – An Ethnographic Study of
Therapy Management of Pregnancy and Children’s Illness Episodes. Universiteit van Amsterdam.
ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS JAN JANSEN, 1989-present
INTEGRITY STATEMENT
Through my scientific work I express the intellectual challenge to improve myself as a
researcher as well as the urgency to make my informants’ voices available not only to
academic colleagues, but also to audiences in (Francophone) West Africa. In this process I
produce a wide variety of academic texts. I have produced over one hundred academic
documents in my academic career. To me, more than half of these documents:
- have not gone through a rigorous peer review process,
- or are work in process, such as conference papers,
- or are so-called professional publications, such as book reviews, contributions to
encyclopedias, and contributions to newsletters,
- or are texts rewritten for new audiences that ressemble (textually and/or
conceptually) publications from the list below.
When I apply a sincere self-review, thus meeting current standards for academic integrity and
authenticity, I have to remove publications classified in the four categories mentioned above.
The list below is the result. All the publications in this list have been published as a staff
member of the Institute of Cultural Anthropology, except five: in 1994 and 1995 I was a PhD
student at Leiden University, and in 1989 I was a student at Utrecht University.
ARTICLES IN PEER REVIEWED JOURNALS
“When Marrying a Muslim - The Social Code of the Political Elites in the pre-1850
Western Sudan,” (under revision).
“In Defense of Mali’s Gold – The Political and Military Organization of the
Upper Niger, c. 1650- c. 1850” (accepted by Journal of West African History).
(with Sabine Luning and Cristiana Panella) “The Mise en Valeur of the Gold Mines in
the Haut-Niger, 1916-1939,” French Colonial History 15 (2014), 67-86.
“‘Copy Debts’? Towards a Cultural Model for Researchers’ Accountability in an Age
of Web Democracy,” Oral Tradition 27-2 (2012), 351-362.
“Éducation arithmétique sous forme d’apprentissage. La géomancie dans les Monts
Mandingues,” Cahiers d’Etudes africaines 51-1 (2011), 9-49.
“The Intimacy of Belonging: Literacy and the Experience of Sunjata in Mali,” History
in Africa 38 (2011), 103-122.
“Framing Divination: A Mande Divination Expert and the Occult Economy,” Africa
79-1 (2009), 110-127.
“From Guild to Rotary: Hunters’ Associations and Mali’s Search for a Civil Society,”
International Review of Social History 53-16 (2008), 249-270.
“Community versus Network - On the Commodification of Cows in the Mande
Mountains (Mali-Guinea),” Journal des Anthropologues 90/91 (2002), 121-144.
“A Critical Note on ‘the Epic of Samori Toure,’” History in Africa 29 (2002), 219229.
“The Sunjata Epic - The Ultimate Version,” Research in African Literatures 31-1
(2001), 14-46.
“Masking Sunjata – A Hermeneutic Critique,” History in Africa 27 (2000), 131-141.
(with Walter E.A. van Beek) “La mission Griaule à Kangaba (Mali),” Cahiers
d’Etudes africaines 158 (2000), 363-376.
“Hot Issues - The 1997 Kamabolon Ceremony in Kangaba (Mali),” International
Journal of African Historical Studies 31-2 (1998), 253-278.
“The Younger Brother and the Stranger: In Search of a Status Discourse for Mande,”
Cahiers d’Etudes africaines 144 (1996), 659-688.
“The Representation of Status in Mande: Did the Mali Empire Still Exist in the
Nineteenth Century?” History in Africa 23 (1996), 87-109.
“Politics and Political Discourse: Was Mande Already a Segmentary Society in the
Middle Ages?” History in Africa 23 (1996), 121-128.
(with Ralph A. Austen) “History, Oral Transmission and Structure in Ibn Khaldun’s
Chronology of Mali Rulers,” History in Africa 23 (1996), 17-28.
“Vroegmiddeleeuwse strafwonderen als bron van kennis over een orale samenleving,”
Archief voor de Geschiedenis van de Katholieke Kerk in Nederland 31-2 (1989), 163-191.
MONOGRAPHS
De lessen van Namagan Kante – Zanddivinatie in de Mande-bergen (Mali-Guinée
(Amsterdam: Aksant, 2007).
Epopée Histoire Société – Le cas de Soundjata (Mali-Guinée) (Paris: Karthala, 2001
[French edition of 1995 dissertation]).
The Griot’s Craft – An Essay on Oral Tradition and Diplomacy (Műnster/Hamburg:
Lit Verlag, 2000).
De draaiende put - Een studie naar de relatie tussen het Sunjata-epos en de
samenleving in de Haut-Niger (Mali) (Leiden: Research School CNWS, 1995 [PhD
dissertation, published as monograph]).
CRITICAL TEXT EDITIONS OF ORAL SOURCES
(with Mountaga Diarra) Entretiens avec Bala Kanté – Une chronique du Manding du
XXème siècle (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2006).
Les secrets du Manding - Les récits du sanctuaire Kamabolon de Kangaba (Mali)
(Leiden: CNWS, 2002).
(source collection edited with Seydou Camara) La Geste de Nankoman - Textes sur la
fondation de Naréna (Mali) (Leiden: Research School CNWS, 1999).
(with Esger Duintjer and Boubacar Tamboura) L’Épopée de Sunjara, d’après Lansine
Diabate de Kela (Leiden: Research School CNWS, 1995).
EDITED VOLUMES
(with Daniela Merolla and Kamal Naït-Zerrad) Multimedia Research and
Documentation of Oral Genres in Africa-The Step Forward (Münster: Lit Verlag, 2012).
(with Sabine Luning and Erik de Maaker) Traditions on the Move – Essays in Honor
of Jarich G. Oosten (Amsterdam: Rozenberg, 2009).
(with Stephen P. Belcher and Mohamed N’Daou) Mande Mansa – Essays in Honor of
David C. Conrad (Műnster/Hamburg: Lit Verlag, 2008).
(with Henk Maier) Epic Adventures - Heroic Narrative in the Oral Performance
Traditions of Four Continents (Műnster/Hamburg: Lit Verlag, 2004)
.
(with Clemens Zobel) The Younger Brother in Mande - Kinship and Politics in West
Africa (Leiden: Research School CNWS, 1996).
CHAPTERS IN BOOKS (excluded are all contributions to co-edited volumes)
“L’administration coloniale et la ‘mise en valeur’ de l’or du Naréna,” in: Daouda N.
Keïta (ed.) Le combat pour Naréna – La vie de Massadan Balla Keïta (1895-1969) (Bamako:
Éditions Donko-ba, 2014), (circa 25 pages).
(with Brahima Camara) “A Heroic Performance by Siramori Diabate,” in: Thomas A.
Hale and Aissata G. Sidikou (eds.) Women’s Songs and Singing in West Africa: New
Perspectives (Bloomington/Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2013), 136-150.
“When Style Matters - Literacy in an ‘Illegible’ Place in Rural Mali,” in: Wolter S.
van Egmond and Wilfred H. Soldt (eds.) Theory and Practice of Knowledge Transfer-Studies
in School Education in the Ancient Near East and Beyond (Leiden: Nederlands Instituut voor
het Nabije Oosten, 2012), 59-68.
“The Sosobala in Guinea ‐ Transnational Management of Intangible Heritage at a
(Too) Far Away Location,” World Heritage and Tourism: Managing for the Global and the
Local (Laval: Presses de l’Université Laval, 2011), 657-667.
“What Gold Mining Means for the Malinke, and How it Was Misunderstood by the
French Colonial Administration,” in: Cristiana Panella (ed.), Worlds of Debts;
Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Gold Mining in West Africa (Amsterdam: Rozenberg
Publishers, 2010), 95-110.
“Three Contesting Agendas tot Canonize the Sunjata Epic in Mali and Beyond,” in:
Stella Linn, Maarten Mous and Marianne Vogel (eds.) Transculturation and Interculturality:
Africa and the West (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang Verlag, 2008), 47-58.
“Habitation and Warfare Strategies in 19th Century Mande - A View from the Kafu,”
in: Allen M. Howard and Richard M. Shain (eds.) The Spatial Factor in African History – The
Relationship of the Social, Material and Perceptual (Leiden/Boston: Brill Academic
Publishers, 2005), 261-290.
“Mamadi Bitiki/Mohammed’s Shop – A Mande Narrative on Money and Sexuality,”
in: Stephen Wooten (ed.) Wari Matters: Ethnographic Explorations of Money in the Mande
World (Műnster-Hamburg: LIT Verlag, 2005), 80-92.
“Narratives on Pilgrimages to Mecca: Beauty versus History in Mande Oral
Tradition,” in: Toyin Falola and Christian Jennings (eds.) Sources and Methods in African
History: Spoken, Written, Unearthed (Rochester/Woodbridge: Rochester University Press,
2003), 249-267.
(with Clemens Zobel) “The Guest is a Hot Meal - Questioning Researchers’ Identities
in Mande Studies,” in: Toyin Folola and Christian Jennings (eds.) Africanizing Knowledge African Studies Across the Disciplines (New Brunswick and London: Transaction Publishers,
2002), 375-386.
“An Ethnography of the Epic of Sunjata in Kela,” in: Ralph A. Austen (ed.) In Search
of Sunjata: the Mande Epic as History, Literature and Performance (Bloomington
/Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1999), 297-312.
“The Dynamics of ‘Sunjata’ : Reports about the Past in Kela (Mali),” in: Jarich Oosten
Text and Tales (Leiden: Research School CNWS, 1994), 107-115.
SMALLER CONTRIBUTIONS TO PEER REVIEWED JOURNALS
(with Sasha Goldstein-Sabbah) “Local Preservation, National Demolition,
International Publication: The Ta’rikh Mandinka from Bijini, ca. 1800-2007,” History in
Africa 36 (2009), 438-443.
“Les archives nationales du Mali en transition,” Afrique & Histoire 5 (2006), 185-188.
(with Eric Charry and Seydou Camara) “The Mande Praise Song Kayra (Peace):
Mande Global Perspectives,” Metamorphoses 10-1 (2002), 300-320.
“‘Elle Connaît Tout le Mande’ - A Tribute to the Griotte Siramori Diabate,” Research
in African Literatures 27-4 (1996), 198-216.
AUTHENTIC CONTRIBUTIONS TO FESTSCHRIFTS
“Mangomania? The Significance of Mangoes in the Manding (Mali),” in: Cristiana
Panella (ed.) Lives in Motion, Indeed. Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Social Change in
Honour of Danielle de Lame (Tervuren: Royal Museum for Central Africa, 2012), 341-349.
“Mali by Stamps – An Inquiry into a Country’s Image,” in: Stephen P. Belcher, Jan
Jansen and Mohamed. N’Daou (eds.) Mande Mansa – Essays in Honor of David C. Conrad
(Műnster/Hamburg: LIT Verlag, 2008), 88-100.
“The Exclusive Sunjata,” in: Hedda M. Post (ed.) Libellus Amicorum voor Mineke
Schipper (Leiden: published by the editor), 43-54.
“De ‘Mission Van Beek’ in Mandé,” in: Geert Mommersteeg and Ton Robben (eds.)
Een handvol kolanoten – Antropologische opstellen aangeboden aan Wouter van Beek
(Maastricht: Shaker, 2006), 1-12.
(with Ed van Hoven, Sabine Luning and Berend Timmer) “Autochthony and
Strangerhood in the Mande-Volta Area,” in: Anke van der Kwaak, Rachel Spronk and Karin
Willemse (eds.) From Modern Myths to Global encounters. Belonging and the Dynamics of
Change in Postcolonial Africa (Leiden: CNWS publications, 2005), 127-145.
OTHER SCHOLARLY RELEVANT PUBLICATIONS
Mali: L’Epopée de Soundjata. Verba Africana Series - Video Documentation and
Digital Materials 3 (Leiden: Leiden University, 2010). (DVD)
“Une histoire sans archives est-elle possible? (Et qui la veut quand?),” Ultramarines
26 (2008), 18-25.
Siramori Diabate - Griot Music from Mali #3 (recordings and liner notes by Jan
Jansen) (Leiden: PAN records CD2104, 2002). (Compact Disc)
“Samori Touré et la chute de l’État de Kangaba (1880-1888),” Études Maliennes 53
(2000), 29-45.
Bonya/Respect - Griot Music from Mali II (recordings and liner notes by Jan Jansen)
(Leiden, PAN records CD2059, 1997). (Compact Disc)
An Bè Kelen/We Are One - Griot Music from Mali (recordings and liner notes by Jan
Jansen) (Leiden, PAN-records CD2015, 1994). (Compact disc)