François-Victor Equilbecq

François-Victor Équilbecq was a French author born in 1872 and died in 1917. He is chiefly known for writing about the customs, legends, and folklore of French West Africa.

His best-known work, Essai sur la littérature merveilleuse des noirs, suivi de Contes indigènes de l'Ouest africain français, combines literary study with collected tales. He also wrote La légende de Samba Guélâdio Diêgui, prince du Foûta, showing his strong interest in preserving and presenting West African narrative traditions for French-language readers.

Because the surviving biographical record appears limited, he is remembered less for personal details than for the books he left behind. For modern readers, his work can be valuable both as a source of traditional stories and as a historical example of how African oral literature was documented during the colonial era.