Interview with Yann Lussiez, April 25, 2023

Interview Summary

Dr. Yann Lussiez served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Central African Republic (CAR) from 1992-96. He worked with local NGOs developing educational videos for an HIV-AIDS awareness campaign and supported development of the country’s first HIV-AIDS counseling center. In his third year, he worked as an ecotourist volunteer creating educational videos in Dzangha-Sangha National Park; and in his fourth year, filming forest elephant behavior for researchers in the Dzanga Bai. He discusses attitudes toward him as a French immigrant in the US and as a Frenchman in a former French colony. He shares his motivation to join the Peace Corps, high attrition among PCVs, his decision to return to the CAR after a medical evacuation, and ultimately having to flee the CAR because of political violence. He discusses photographing Bayaka Pygmies and working on a book with Louis Sarno; his travels; and the impact service had on his world outlook.

Interview Keyword

Peace Corps (US) Central African Republic (Country of Service) Health Education (Peace Corps program) HIV/AIDS awareness, Ecotourism (Peace Corps program) 1992-6 (years of service) post colonialism (historical context) labor strikes and political violence (historical context) Russian influence (historical context) Bafousam, Cameroon (training site) Bangui (capital and largest city in the CAR) Bossangoa (town in the northern part of the CAR where he lived) Sango (language spoken in the CAR) Dzanga-Sangha National Park (a park in the Bayanga Rainforest created with PCV leadership where he worked with the World Wildlife Fund) Andrea Turkalo (RPCV and forest elephant researcher) the Wildlife Conservation Society Elephant Research (organization with whom he worked in the Dzanga Bai) Louis Sarno (noted musicologist with whom he worked on the book “Bayaka, Music of the Babenzele Pygmies.”

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Interview Usage

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