Colin Turnbull

http://www.colinturnbull.com/


http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/pqrst/turnbull_colin.html

Colin Turnbull was an Englishman born in London who studied philosophy, politics and music. He was an important intellectual figure during the 60s and 70s and he studied anthropology at Oxford university, he then specialized in the African field, he got interested in this field when he traveled to East Africa, the Congo, the Sudan and Egypt on a motorcycle trip in 1951, that was when he first met the Pygmies. Then in 1954 he returned to Africa to investigate and record the native music and then he went again to study the Pygmie life in more depth. Turnbull made around 6 long trips to the Congo. During these trips he met an African who would later on be his partner. His African partner’s name was Joe Towels and they were partners for 30 years. They lived in New York and rural Virginia but in 1988 Joe Towels died of AIDS. After Towels death, Turnbull went into a deep depression and went to the Dalai Lama’s eldest brother to become a Buddhist monk afterwards he ended up giving away all the money he had and taught music, fieldwork, farming and writing until his own death in 1994 caused by AIDS as well.