Denis-Constant Martin

Denis-Constant Martin (1947-)[1] is a French political anthropologist and musicologist.

Biography

A graduate of the Institut d'études politiques de Paris and the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, he has two doctorates, both under the guidance of Georges Balandier. From 1969 to 2008, he was research director at the Centre de recherches internationales [fr]. A researcher at the "Centre d'étude d'Afrique noire[2] at Bordeaux University. He also teaches political anthropology at the Institut d'études Politiques de Bordeaux and has given courses in the music departments of the Paris 8 University, as well as universities in South Africa, Algeria, the United States and Kenya. In 1980 he founded and directed the Institut de Recherches en Afrique in Kenya.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

He has written extensively about music and performance in Cape Town over the years, including important works on the Cape Town Coon Carnival.

Besides numerous articles on music and culture in SAouthern Africa and elsewhere, his books have included a number of studies of musical performances and theatrical events in a Southern Africa, notably the musical and carnival traditions in Cape Town. Among the books are Coon Carnival, New Year in Cape Town, Past and Present (David Philip Publishers, 1999), Sounding the Cape: Music, identity and politics in South Africa (African Minds, 2013) and Cape Town Harmonies: Memory, Humour & Resilience (with Armelle Gaulier, African Minds, 2016).