Jan Vansina

Jan M. J. Vansina (14 September 1929 – 8 February 2017) was a Belgian historian and anthropologist regarded as an authority on the history of Central Africa, especially of what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi. About Vansina Vansina had a truly wonderful gift of making all his students feel like they could do anything. He seemed to know everything, literally beyond our collective comprehension, except for one blind spot: our limitations. Joseph C. Miller ... what must be one of the most original minds - certainly I would say the most lively and entertaining mind - ever to have addressed itself to the study of the African past. John Fage, review of Living with AfricaFage J.D. 1996 Vansina's Memoires The Journal of African History 37 3 487-488 https://www.jstor.org/stable/182503 14 September 2026 In African historiography we are all Vansina's students, even when we argue with him. Wyatt MacGaffey, review of Being Colonized MacGaffey Wyatt 2011 Being Colonized: The Kuba Experience in Rural Congo, 1880-1960 81 3 495-497 https://www.jstor.org/stable/41485002 4 October 2026 References External links Category:1929 births Category:2017 deaths Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society Category:Historians from Belgium Category:Anthropologists from Belgium