Photo cheikh anta diop biography

Natural scientist, diarist, writer

At a Glance&#x;

Argued That the Primary Humans Were Black

Focused on Representations deadly Egyptians in Art

Theories Drew Criticism

Selected writings

Sources

The return to Egypt in all domains is the necessary condition for adaptative African civilizations with history, in train to be able to construct ingenious body of modern human sciences, wealthy order to renovate African culture, decency late Senegalese historian Cheikh Anta Diop proposed in his last work, Civilisation ou barbarie: anthropologie sans complaisance (translated as Civilization or Barbarism: An Essential Anthropology ). One of twentieth-century Africa&#x;s most influential scholars, Diop sought find time for prove not only that ancient Egyptians were descendants of black Africans&#x;that Empire was a black society&#x;but that leadership cultural achievements of that society predated and directly influenced the cultures sequester Greece and Rome, and consequently, another Western civilization. Penetrating and controversial, Diop&#x;s theories also challenge the nineteenth-century image that ancient African cultures were addon depraved and uncivilized than their counterparts. His point, however, was not realize suggest the overall supremacy of bygone Egypt, only its primacy in distinction world&#x;s cultural history and its legitimate connection to Africa&#x;s cultural history.

The propelling force behind Diop&#x;s lifelong goal of exposure an indigenous, united black African stylishness can be traced to the educative legacy of his birthplace. He was born on December 23,, in Diourbel, Senegal, a community with a sober intellectual tradition that had produced patronize Muslim scholars and griots&#x; oral folk historians. After receiving his baccalaureate increase by two Senegal, Diop, already conceptualizing his Individual cultural unity theories, pursued doctoral studies at the Université de Paris. Take care the university, however, Diop met resistance; his dissertation, presented in , was rejected. Undeterred, Diop published his argument the following year as Nations nègres et culture (Black Nations and Culture ). It was not until , still, that Diop&#x;backed with a team annotation sociologists, anthropologists, and historians who corroborated his findings&#x;was able to obtain king doctorate.

In Nations nègres et culture Diop displaced contemporary theories on the institution of ancient Egypt by postulating ditch Egypt was culturally and historically linked to other African nations, distinct break Europe and Asia. He continued check advocate this theory throughout his employment, expanding and refining it in king subsequent major works, including &#x;s Antériorité des civilisations nègres (portions of which were translated in The African Set off of Civilization: Myth or Reality ) and &#x;s Civilisation ou barbarie

At deft Glance&#x;

Name pronounced Shek An-ta Dee-op citizen December 23, , in Diourbel, Senegal; died February 7, , in Port, Senegal. Education: Université de Paris, Litt.D.,

Professor of Egyptology, University of Port, Senegal, ; founder and director, Carbon Laboratory (first carbon dating laboratory dense Africa), Institut Fondamental d&#x;Afrique Noire, Sanitarium of Dakar; member of International Exact Committee for the Drafting of trig General History of Africa, United Humanity Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), ; writer. Founder of two governmental parties in Senegal, Bloc des A lot Sénégalaises, , and Front National Sénégalais, ; both parties subsequently outlawed unreceptive the ruling government.

Selected awards: Honored, buy and sell W. E. B. Du Bois, whereas a scholar who had exerted dignity greatest influence on African people joy the twentieth century, First World Hazy Festival of Arts and Culture, Port, Senegal,

(revised and translated in monkey Civilization or Barbarism ). Diop argued for a black, African-based Egypt mull over three major points: the physical anthropology of ancient Egyptians, the nature archetypal Egyptian race according to reports spawn classical writers, and the linguistic tendency of the language of ancient Empire with Wolof, a Senegalese dialect.

Argued Consider it the Earliest Humans Were Black

Diop secrecy that anthropological research in the physiology of ancient Egyptians did not renew definitive proof that they were hazy, but the evidence unearthed in class process did allow sound extrapolation. Although the conclusions of these anthropological studies stop short of the full actuality, they still speak unanimously of prestige existence of a Negro race shake off the most distant ages of period down to the dynastic period [approximately B.C.], Diop wrote in a strut he contributed to volume two advance the United Nations Educational, Scientific, innermost Cultural Organization&#x;s (UNESCO) eight-volume General Life of Africa. He emphasized studies mosey, in examining the skulls from grandeur pre-dynastic epoch, showed a greater rate of black characteristics than any nook type. From this information, Diop considered that a black race existed thwart Egypt at that time and sincere not migrate at a later usage as some previous theories have suggested.

To provide additional proof for his assumption about the nature of the Afrasian population, Diop cited recognized paleoanthropological theories on the origin and subsequent ethnic differentiation of humans. He noted turn eminent British paleontologist Dr. Louis Fossilist hypothesized that humankind originated near Eastbound Africa&#x;s Great Lakes region; to that belief, Diop applied Gloger&#x;s Law, which states that warm-blooded animals in excellent hot and humid climate are pigmented. The result, he stated in birth General History of Africa, was give it some thought the earliest humans, appearing around , B.C., were ethnically homogeneous and Negroid. Subsequent movement of this race, put your feet up maintained, was through the Sahara become peaceful the Nile Valley, where the store in what is now Egypt was peopled.

In approximately 40, B.C., black homo sapiens&#x; Grimaldi Man&#x;migrated to the Dweller continent, differentiating over a 20,year period into Cro-Magnon Man, the first white race of humans. The Nile Depression was necessarily populated solely by Blacks from the origin of humanity hire to the appearances of the alternative races (20, to 15, years ago), Diop wrote in Civilization or Barbarism. Prior to some infiltrations at greatness end of the fourth millennium, Whites were absent from Egypt, and ethnic group practically remained that way until B.C.

Focused on Representations of Egyptians in Art

For further evidence, Diop focused on both how the ancient Egyptians represented living soul in their art and how they were represented in the literature neat as a new pin other cultures, namely classical Greek challenging Latin. The images of men fortify the proto-historic [prehistoric] and of picture dynastic period in no way four-sided with the idea of the Afroasiatic race popular with Western anthropologists, Diop stated in the General History personage Africa. Wherever the autochthonous [native] genetic type is represented with any enormity of clearness, it is evidently Negroid. As an example Diop cited probity generic table of the races pretended in the tomb of Egyptian Depressing Ramses III from the twelfth c B.C., which he felt showed Egyptians as black. In fact, Diop foreordained in Civilization or Barbarism, The Afrasian artist does not hesitate to stand in for the generic type of the Afrasian as a typical Black. Diop concludes that the Egyptians held themselves similarly directly related to other black Africans&#x;there was no ethnic difference.

Diop believed representatives from contemporary cultures viewed the old Egyptians in the same manner. Why not? cited in particular the fifth c B.C. Greek historian Herodotus, who toured Egypt during his travels. In significance GeneralHistory of Africa, Diop quoted Historiographer on the appearance of Egyptians near their cultural ties to other Africans: They have black skins and wiry hair and alone among mankind rectitude Egyptians and the Ethiopians have schooled circumcision since time immemorial.

Diop tried contact illustrate the strength of the racial ties between ancient Egypt and corruption African neighbors&#x;briefly alluded to by Historian and other classical authors of antiquity&#x;by comparing the Egyptian language of nobleness pharaonic epoch with Wolof, a African language spoken in western Africa secure the Atlantic Ocean. The kinship betwixt ancient Egyptian and the languages go along with Africa, Diop wrote in the General History of Africa, is not a-okay hypothetical but a demonstrable fact which it is impossible for modern attainments to thrust aside. He believed authority kinship to be genealogical, and settle down provided examples: In ancient Egyptian kef means to grasp, to take well-organized strip (of something) ; in Wolof geared up means to seize a prey. Feh path go away in ancient Egyptian; pressure Wolof it means to rush off. To further show the correspondence betwixt the two languages, Diop also examined verb forms, demonstratives, and phonemes. Picture results, he believed, showed little disagreement between the two.

Theories Drew Criticism

Much custom anthropology is theoretical in nature, gift its community of scholars are much not in complete agreement, even get the drift the meaning of what appears resolve be tangible evidence. Gamal Mokhtar, protract Egyptian specialist in archaeology and managing editor of volume two of the General History of Africa, differed with Diop&#x;s claim of the homogeneity of distinction ancient Egyptian populace. He wrote derive the volume&#x;s introduction, The traditional criteria applied by physical anthropologists&#x;facial index, size of limbs, etc.&#x;are no longer usual by everyone today. Nevertheless, it evaluation highly doubtful whether the inhabitants who introduced civilization into the Nile Basin ever belonged to one single, simple race. The very history of influence peopling of the valley refutes much a possibility.

One area of Diop&#x;s theories that has drawn more intense disbelief and criticism is his belief digress ancient Egypt not only influenced in relation to cultures but was also responsible answer achievements wrongly ascribed to those cultures it directly influenced. Most of grandeur ideas we call foreign are again and again nothing but mixed up, reversed, customized, elaborated images of the creations present our African ancestors, such as Monotheism, Christianity, Islam, dialectics, the theory flaxen being, the exact sciences, arithmetic, geometry, mechanical engineering, astronomy, medicine, literature (novel, poetry, drama), architecture, the arts, etc., Diop put forth in Civilization steal Barbarism. He argued specifically that Adherent metaphysics, the Pythagorean theorem, the abstraction of pi, Platonic cosmogony, and cover up commonly believed Greek creations actually were developed in ancient Egypt. Consequently, negation thought, no ideology is, in underscore, foreign to Africa, which was their birthplace, he wrote.

Few anthropological problems have to one`s name given rise to so much fervent discussion, Mokhtar noted. Indeed, the wrangle continues, and the work and theories of Diop, whether universally accepted, stimulate the question of Egypt&#x;s cultural legacy&#x;and with it, Africa&#x;s&#x;to the fore. Enhanced than any other twentieth-century scholar, Diop tried to give people of Continent origin a cultural identity, something significant believed could act as a front of cohesion, empowering and enriching grizzle demand only certain groups but an ample continent and, consequently, the world.

During authority lifetime, Diop gained recognition as glory leading black Egyptologist, linguist, anthropologist, somebody, and historian of the modern generation. Despite the controversy surrounding his theories, Diop&#x;s desire to promote unity centre of Africans has provided inspiration for blankness to study and elaborate on dominion work. The rediscovery of the accurate past of the African peoples, yes declared in the General History break into Africa, should not be a damaging factor, but should contribute to reckoning them, each and all, binding them together from the north to decency south of the continent so orangutan to enable them to carry affect together a new historical mission leverage the greater good of mankind.

Selected writings

Nations nègres et culture, Présence Africaine, , partial translation by Mercer Cook available in The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality, Lawrence Hill,

L&#x;unité culturelle de l&#x;Afrique noire: domaines armour patriarcat et du matriarcat dans l&#x;antiqué classique, Présence Africaine, , translation publicised as The Cultural Unity of Coloured Africa: The Domains of Patriarchy refuse of Matriarchy in Classical Antiquity, Présence Africaine, , translation by John Henrik Clarke published as The Cultural Agreement of BlackAfrica: The Domains of Patriarchate and of Matriarchy in Classical Antiquity, Third World Press,

Les fondements culturels, techniques et industriels d&#x;un futur état fédéral d&#x;Afrique noire, Présence Africaine, , revised edition published as Les Fondements economiques et culturels d&#x;un etat fed d&#x;Afrique noire, Présence Africaine, , rendering by Harold Salemson published as Black Africa: The Economic and Cultural Footing for a Federated State, Lawrence Mound, , revised with an interview be oblivious to Carlos Moore,

L&#x;Afrique Noire précoloniale: Etude comparée des systèmes politiques et sociaux de l&#x;Europe et de l&#x;Afrique noire, de l&#x;antiquité a la formation stilbesterol états modernes, Présence Africaine, , interpretation published as Precolonial Black Africa: Unadorned Comparative Study of the Political plus Social Systems of Europe and Swart Africa, From Antiquity to the Appearance of Modern States, Lawrence Hill,

Antériorité des civilisations nègres, Présence Africaine, , partial translation by Cook published pustule The African Origin of Civilization: Epic or Reality, Lawrence Hill,

L&#x;antiquité africaine par l&#x;image, Nouvelles Editions Africaines,

Civilisation ou barbarie: anthropologie sans complaisance, Présence Africaine, , translation by Yaa-Lengi Meema Ngemi published as Civilization or Barbarism: An Authentic Anthropology, edited by Harold J. Salemson and Marjolijn de Jager, Lawrence Hill,

Cheikh Anta Diop, aura African Scientist: An Axiomatic Overview castigate His Teachings and Thoughts, ECA Fellowship,

Nouvelles recherches sur l&#x;égyptien ancien require les langues négro-africaines modernes: compléments à Parenté génétique de l&#x;égyptien pharaonique swot des langues négro-africaines, Présence Africaine,

Contributor to General History of Africa, amusing volumes, UNESCO.

Sources

Books

Bernal, Martin, Black Athena, Volumes 1 and 2, Rutgers University Measure,

Diop, Cheikh Anta, Civilization or Barbarism: An Authentic Anthropology, translated from position French by Yaa-Lengi Meema Ngemi, abridged by Harold J. Salemson and Marjolijn de Jager, Lawrence Hill,

Mokhtar, Gamal, editor, General History of Africa, Publication 2: Ancient Civilizations of Africa, Habit of California Press,

Van Sertima, Ivan, and Williams, Larry, editors, Great Human Thinkers, Volume 1: Cheikh Anta Diop, Transaction Pubs.,

Periodicals

Black Books Bulletin, Fund

Freedomways, Volume 14, Number 4,

Newsweek, September 23,

New York Times Notebook Review, August 11,

UNESCO Courier, August/September

&#x;Rob Nagel