David Van Reybrouck | |
|---|---|
 David Van Reybrouck | |
| Born | (1971-09-11)11 September 1971 (age 54) |
| Occupation | Author |
David Grégoire Van Reybrouck (born 11 September 1971, inBruges) is a Belgiancultural historian,archaeologist and author. He writes historical fiction, literary non-fiction, novels, poetry, plays and academic texts. He has received several awards for his works, which includeCongo: The Epic History of a People andRevolusi.
Van Reybrouck was born into a family offlorists,bookbinders and artists. His father, a farmer's son, spent five years in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as a railway engineer immediately after independence. He holds a doctorate fromLeiden University.
Van Reybrouck's first book,De Plaag (in English: The Plague), was a cross between a travelogue and a literary whodunnit set inpost-apartheid South Africa. It received several awards, including the prize for the best Flemish debut in 2002 and a shortlist nomination for theGouden Uil, one of the leading literary prizes in the Low Countries. It was translated into Afrikaans, French and Hungarian. A longtime op-ed writer for the Flemish national newspaperDe Morgen, Van Reybrouck has co-edited a volume on thefederal future of Belgium (What Belgium Stands For: a Scenario, 2007) and a pamphlet,Pleidooi voor populisme (A Plea for Populism, 2008), which was met with controversy. The latter won the Netherlands' most distinguished essay prize.
His bookCongo. Een geschiedenis (in English:Congo: The Epic History of a People) was published in 2010. It is based on his ten journeys through theDemocratic Republic of the Congo and the use of libraries and archives. He has interviewed hundreds of individuals, with a particular predilection for so-called "ordinary people", precisely because their lives and choices are so often extraordinary[citation needed]. The book portrays slavery and colonialism, resistance and survival. It includes archival material, interviews and personal observations.Congo. Een geschiedenis has been translated into English, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Swedish, Danish and Finnish. Van Reybrouck has also been actively involved in organising literary workshops for Congolese playwrights inKinshasa andGoma.
In 2016 he published the English language version ofAgainst Elections: The Case for Democracy where he advocates for adeliberative democracy based onsortition.[1]
In 2020 he publishedRevolusi which applies to Indonesia the method he used inCongo - a combination of interviews with Indonesian Nationalists andgenocide perpetrators that live in complete impunity. It discusses the events that led to the start of Indonesia's military dictatorship, with historical interpretation.
In 2022 he publishedDe kolonisatie van de toekomst (in English:The Colonization of the Future), where he argues that we should not only focus on the injustices of past colonialism but also on today's injustices impacting present and future generations.[2]
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This article is wholly or partly based on material fromDutch Wikipedia
