Gumilev, N.S.

Keywords

List of most relevant works associated with Africa

Vverkh po Nilu [Up the Nile], “Sirius”, 1907, 3

Printsessa Zara [The princess Zara], “Russkaia mysl’”, 1908, 8

Cuzhoe nebo [Foreign sky], Sankt-Peterburg 1912

Afrikanskii dnevnik [African diary] [1913]

Umer li Menelik? [Is Menelik dead?], “Niva”, 1914, 5

Afrikanskaia okhota [African hunt], pril. k zhur. “Niva”, 1916, 8

Mik, Sankt-Peterburg 1918

Shater [The tent], Sankt-Peterburg 1921, 1922

Overview

Nikolai Gumilev, one of the founders of Russian Acmeism, travelled to Africa four times: while the first time he visited Egypt (1908), in the subsequent journeys he travelled to Ethiopia (1909-1910; 1910-1911; 1913). The last of these trips was actually organised by the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of Saint Petersburg (Kunstkamera), and was aimed at collecting ethnographic material and taking photos to document the local way of life. Gumilev’s collection is still held by the Kunstkamera. Strongly fascinated by Africa even before his four visits there, Gumilev dedicated to the continent poems, articles, short stories, as well as the travel notes recounting his 1913 trip, which were published only in recent times. Materials regarding this trip are published by the Kunstkamera in a dedicated website (https://gumilev.kunstkamera.ru/), alongside information on a 2008 Kunstkamera expedition, which followed Gumilev’s route.

References

“Gumilev, Nikolai Stepanovich”, in Russkie pisateli. 1800-1917. Biograficheskii slovar’, t. 1, ed. by P. Nikolaev, Moskva 1990, p. 235-237;

A. Davidson, Muza stranstvii Nikolaia Gumileva, Moskva 1992;

A. Davidson, Nikolai Gumilev v Abissinii, “Novaia i noveishaia istoriia”, 2001, 6, p. 137-148;

G. Walker, Songs of Africa: The Native Voice in Four Poems by Nikolai Gumilev, “Ulbandus Review”, 2003, 7, p. 73-106;

E. Chach, N.S. Gumilev i A.K. Bulatovich: Puteshestviia v Efiopiiu v kontekste serebrianogo veka, in Orientalizm-Oksidentalizm. Iazyki kul’tur i iazyki ikh opisaniia, ed. by E. Steiner, Moskva 2012, p. 226-240.

A.F.