Died 2007 | ||
François-Joseph Amon d'Aby (1913–2007) was a French-language playwright and essayist in the Côte d'Ivoire.
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Life
Amon d’Aby started work in the government archives in 1937, rising to become their director.
He was a pioneer of Ivorian theatre. He wrote plays for several organizations: Le Théâtre Indigène de la Côte d'Ivoire (TICI), which he founded with Germain Coffi Gadeau in 1938; the Cercle Culturel et Folklorique de la Côte d'Ivoire (CCFCI), which he, Gadeau and Bernard Dadié founded in 1953; and the Jeunesse Ouvrière Chrétienne [Young Christian Workers’ Association] (JOC). Though his earlier plays were based upon Ivorian oral literature, his later plays also borrowed from European traditions. Generally moralizing, his plays attacked some traditional social paractices (e.g. matriarchy in Kwao Adjoba, or clan parasitism in Entraves) as outdated in a modern society.
Amon d'Aby also edited collections of folk tales, and published several cultural and sociological studies of the Côte d'Ivoire.