Hackett , Peter , fl 1949 , researcher on the languages of the Belgian Congo

Hackett , Peter , fl 1949 , researcher on the languages of the Belgian Congo

Peter Hackett was a British field researcher involved in the collection of material for the planned third volume of the Linguistic Survey of the Northern Bantu Borderland (Oxford University Press for the International African Institute, 1956).

The survey was undertaken under the auspices of the International African Institute. Support for the project was obtained from the British, French and Belgian governments, and the work was overseen by Malcolm Guthrie and Archibald Norman Tucker. The field research was carried out by four investigators, two to work on the western languages (between the Atlantic Coast and the River Oubangui) and two to work on the eastern (or central) languages (from the River Oubangui to the Great Lakes). In addition to Peter Hackett, the British members of the team included I Richardson, joined by G Van Bulck from Belgium and André Jacquot, a Frenchman. Richardson and Jacquot worked on the western languages, while Hackett and Van Bulck on those in the then Belgian Congo.

At a later date, work on the languages from the Great Lakes to the Indian Ocean (eastern or far eastern languages) was prepared by Archibald Tucker and Margaret Bryan, from documentary sources as well as their own field research. The collection of material for the first two sections of the work was undertaken from June 1949 to December 1950.

The third volume of Linguistic Survey of the Northern Bantu Borderland, which would have appeared under the heading Linguistic analyses of the central (Belgian Congo) area, never reached publication.