88–93. [47], It is held by Keita et al. Ferocious, warlike nature with spirit of survival. He had two of the most highly respected scientists as his mentors one of which was Frederic Joliot-Curie, the 1935 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics. By 1962 Diop's party working on the ideas enumerated in Black Africa: the economic and cultural basis for a federated state became a serious threat to the regime of then President Léopold Senghor. Diop, Cheik Anta, translated by Mercer Cook (1974). Literature emphasizes novel tales, fables and comedy. They show close cultural links between Nubia and Ancient Egypt, though the relationship had been acknowledged for years. The entire region shows a basic unity based on both the Nile and Sahara, and cannot be arbitrarily diced up into pre-assigned racial zones. Seligman's views on direct diffusion from Egypt are not generally supported to-day,[61] but were current when Diop started to write and may explain his wish to show that Egyptian and Black Africa culture had a common source, rather than that Egyptian influence was one way. Diop is known for various groundbreaking work, and he is the foremost proponent of the view that the ancient Egyptian civilisation was founded by Black Africans. [34] Diop also wrote a chapter entitled "Origin of the ancient Egyptians", in the UNESCO General History of Africa. The profundity of Diop’s Two Cradle Theory of Civilization or the Diopan Theory as it is referred to among scholars, has had a great impact on historians world-wide. Ancient Egyptians such as the Badarians show greater statistical affinities to tropical African types and are not identical to Europeans. [113] Santiago Juan-Navarro a professor at Florida International University has described Diop as having "undertaken the task of supporting this Afrocentric view of history from an equally radical and 'mythic' point of view". He specified that he used the terms "negro", "black", "white" and "race" as "immediate givens" in the Bergsonian sense, and went on to suggest operational definitions of these terms. Brown and Armelagos, op. He holds that the range of peoples and phenotypes under the designation "negre" included those with a wide range of physical variability, from light brown skin and aquiline noses to jet black skin and frizzy hair, well within the diversity of peoples of the Nilotic region. are typically misrepresented and framed in these stereotypical terms, so as to quickly dismiss his work and avoid engaging it point by point. Some scholars draw heavily from Diop's groundbreaking work,[4] while others in the Western academic world do not accept his theories. He established and was the director of the radiocarbon laboratory at the IFAN (Institut Fondamental de l'Afrique Noire). Idea of peace, justice, goodness and optimism. Diop's family was part of the Mouride brotherhood, the only independent Muslim fraternity in Africa according to Diop. Eventually, he was able to translate parts of Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity into his ethnic language. Research in this area challenges the groupings used as (a) not reflecting today's genetic diversity in Africa, or (b) an inconsistent way to determine the racial characteristics of the Ancient Egyptians. Initially, Cheikh Anta Diop began his education at a traditional Islamic institution in his home territory; Senegal. biological] mixture of the ancient Egyptian population, but nobody has yet defined what is meant by the term 'Negroid', nor has any explanation been proffered as to how this Negroid element, by mingling with a Mediterranean component often present in smaller proportions, could be assimilated into a purely Caucasoid race. Importantly it included not only francophone Africans, but English-speaking ones as well. Known as the Diopan Theory, this theory promotes the concept that severe climatic and environmental differences impact biological and cultural changes in early human beings, thereby resulting in the loss of pigmentation. [10] He obtained the colonial equivalent of the metropolitan French baccalauréat in Senegal before moving to Paris to study for a degree.[11]. [7][8] According to Marnie Hughes-Warrington, Diop's works were criticised by leading French Africanists, but they (and later critics) noted the value of his works for the generation of a "politically useful mythology", that would promote African unity. APAM had been set up in 1936 by people on the political left wing to bring culture to wider audiences. The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality by Cheikh Anta Diop, Mercer Cook (Translator/Editor) Cheikh Anta Diop, "Evolution of the Negro world". Diop, Cheik Anta. in 1956, and “ Comparative Study of Political and Social Systems of Europe and Africa, from Antiquity to the Formation of Modern States in 1957. Greenberg, Joseph H. (1949), "Studies in African Linguistic Classification: I. The new Egyptological ideology , born at the opportune moment, reinforced the theoretical bases of imperialist ideology. In 1946, at the age of 23, Diop went to Paris to study. “It can be said that, until the fifteenth century, Black Africa never lost its civilisation” In other words, not until the arrival of the white europeans. 17th MArch 2020. [68] He rejected early 20th century theories that confused race and language, such as those advanced by the linguist Carl Meinhof and the anthropologist Charles Gabriel Seligman. As Egyptologist Frank Yurco notes: Diop held that scholarship in his era isolated extreme stereotypes as regards African populations, while ignoring or downplaying data on the ground showing the complex linkages between such populations. Sanders, Edith R. (1969), "The Hamitic Hypothesis; Its Origin and Functions in Time Perspective". [98] Diop by contrast in his African Origin of Civilization,[99] argues against the European stereotypical conception. He died on February 7, 1986 in Dakar, Senegal. Diop was subsequently arrested and thrown in jail where he nearly died. Cheikh Anta Diop was a great Senegalese historian, anthropologist, philosopher, physicist and politician. by Cheikh Anta Diop , Mercer Cook ( 977 ) $8.43. Instead he claims Egypt as an influential part of a "southern cradle" of civilization, an indigenous development based on the Nile Valley. Modern linguistic analysis places the origin of the Afro-Asiatic languages in northeast Africa, and plausibly puts the origin of the Egyptian language in the Nile valley, between the apex of the Delta and the First of the Cataracts of the Nile.[94]. Was the European invasion and subsequent occupation of the most lucrative African regions an advent of civilization or barbarism? 2019 The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality . This is the most apt introduction to Cheikh Anta Diop; Anthropologist, Egyptologist, Historian, Physicist, Politician, Writer.Born into a prestigious French Senegalese Muslim family on December 2, 1923, Diop was one of the few privileged Black African who had the option of pursuing whatever occupation he chose. [59] Under this approach, racial categories such as "Blacks" or "Caucasoids" are discarded in favor of localized populations showing a range of physical variation. The present of aquiline features for example, may not be necessarily a result of race mixture with Caucasoids, but simply another local population variant in situ. or earlier.[74]. While Diop holds that the Greeks learned from a superior Egyptian civilization, he does not argue that Greek culture is simply a derivative of Egypt. Diop attempted to demonstrate that the African peoples shared certain commonalities, including language roots and other cultural elements like regicide, circumcision, totems, etc. [12], According to Diop's own account, his education in Paris included History, Egyptology, Physics, Linguistics, Anthropology, Economics, and Sociology. [110] Diop also argued for indigenous variants already in situ as opposed to massive insertions of Hamites, Mediterraneans, Semites or Cascasoids into ancient groupings. [108], Our results suggest that the Gurna population has conserved the trace of an ancestral genetic structure from an ancestral East African population, characterized by a high M1 haplogroup frequency. Though Diop is sometimes referred to as an Afrocentrist, he predates the concept and thus was not himself an Afrocentric scholar. Diop also acknowledged that the ancient Egyptians absorbed "foreign" genes at various times in their history (the Hyksos for example) but held that this admixture did not change their essential ethnicity. His interpretation of anthropological data (such as the role of matriarchy) and archeological data led him to conclude that Egyptian culture was a Black African culture. Gentle, idealistic, peaceful nature with a spirit of justice. One of Diop's most controversial issues centers on the definition of who is a true Black person. In their bid to take over their identity, white people have pillaged, raided, raped scalped the Africans of everything they had barring the one thing they wanted most and could not have: Their dark, beautiful, rich in melanin skin and superior strength.It was Diop’s mission to return Africa to its former glorious state, a power to be reckoned with in world economy, to revive the African Culture so that the people would walk with heads held high as the proud unapologetic Black Race they once were. [33] His forceful assertions that the original population of the Nile Delta was black and that Egyptians remained black-skinned until Egypt lost its independence, "was criticized by many participants". Education: Universitéde Paris, Litt.D., 1960. He was a well known African historian, who authored many books on African and world history, and dispelled the myth… Cheikh Anta Diop (29 December 1923 – 7 February 1986) was a Senegalese historian, anthropologist, physicist, and politician who studied the human race’s origins and pre-colonial African culture. A majority of academics disavow the term black for the Egyptians, but there is no consensus on substitute terminology. Prince Dika-Akwa nya Bonambéla (ed.) To say that a Shillouk, a Dinka, or a Nouer is a Caucasoid is for an African as devoid of sense and scientific interest as would be, to a European, an attitude that maintained that a Greek or a Latin were not of the same race, Critics of Diop cite a 1993 study that found the ancient Egyptians to be more related to North African, Somali, European, Nubian and, more remotely, Indian populations, than to Sub-Saharan Africans. Seller: My Books Store, Tallahassee, FL, U.S.A. In protest at the refusal of the Senghor administration to release political prisoners, Diop remained largely absent from the political scene from 1966 to 1975. Cheikh Anta Diop View in Apple Books. He obtained his doctorate in 1960. Similarly, the Dynastic Race Theory of Egypt asserted that a mass migration of Caucasoid peoples was needed to create the Egyptian kingships, as slower-witted Negro tribes were incapable. Cheikh Anta Diop was a great Senegalese historian, anthropologist, philosopher, physicist and politician. The African origin of civilization: myth or reality. [43], Diop held that despite the Sahara, the genetic, physical and cultural elements of indigenous African peoples were both in place and always flowed in and out of Egypt, noting transmission routes via Nubia and the Sudan, and the earlier fertility of the Sahara. Ancient Egyptian and the négro-africain languages such as Wolof are related, but any common origin may be very remote and their relation may not be close. Demba Sy, Papa, "L'itinéraire Politique de Cheikh Anta Diop". Without highlighting this aspect of his life the article is fundamentally incomplete. Cheikh Anta Diop was imprisoned at least twice in his homeland as his political views were considered too radical. The peoples of Egypt, the Sudan, and much of East African Ethiopia and Somalia are now generally regarded as a Nilotic continuity, with widely ranging physical features (complexions light to dark, various hair and craniofacial types) but with powerful common cultural traits, including cattle pastoralist traditions (Trigger 1978; Bard, Snowden, this volume). "[100] This outlook was unlike many of the contemporary white writers he questioned. "Apportionment of Racial Diversity"; Keita and Kittles, "The Persistence...", op. He held that this was both hypocrisy and bad scholarship, that ignored the wide range of indigenous variability of African peoples. It is a hazard of the evolution. ix–x) to Obenga. UNESCO, (1978). Keita and Rick A. Kittles, "The Persistence of Racial Thinking and the Myth of Racial Divergence". [25], After the B.M.S. Instead he views the Greeks as forming part of a "northern cradle", distinctively growing out of certain climatic and cultural conditions. Sainey Faye Cheikh Anta Diop was one of the greatest thinkers of the twentieth century. [105] Modern critics of the racial clustering approach coming after Diop echo this objection, using data from the oldest Nile Valley groupings as well as current peoples. It could seem to tempting to delude the masses engaged in a struggle for national independence by taking liberties with scientific truth, by unveiling a mythical, embellished past. In a 2004 study, 58 native inhabitants from upper Egypt were sampled for mtDNA. The first, "Le Bloc des Masses Sénégalaises" (BMS), was formed in 1961. He re-registered two new theses titles: The Areas of Matriarchy and Patriarchy in Ancient Times. This seems to have done the trick as he eventually obtained his Doctor of Letters degree in History in 1960; a degree which is equivalent to a doctorate (PhD) in Europe. His research has become under-regarded because he did not accept this academic discipline. [98], Diop also appeared to express doubts about the concept of race. (1970–1972), Égyptien ancien et négro-africain, pp. Arbitrarily classifying Maasai, Ethiopians, Shillouk, Nubians, etc., as Caucasian is thus problematic, since all these peoples are northeast African populations and show normal variation well within the 85–90% specified by DNA analysis. Diop consistently held that Africans could not be pigeonholed into a rigid type that existed somewhere south of the Sahara, but they varied widely in skin color, facial shape, hair type, height, and a number of additional factors, just like other human populations. Genetic studies have disproved these notions. [citation needed], The Swiss archaeologist Charles Bonnet's discoveries at the site of Kerma shed some light on the theories of Diop. [19] Under his leadership the first post-war pan-African student congress was organized in 1951. [57] Some modern studies use DNA to define racial classifications, while others condemn this practice as selective filling of pre-defined, stereotypical categories.[58]. [9], Born in Thieytou, Diourbel Region, Senegal, Diop belonged to an aristocratic Muslim Wolof family in Senegal where he was educated in a traditional Islamic school. Diop strongly refused to enter into any negotiations until two conditions were met. The authorities were in fear that he would disrupt the government and force a constitutional change which was not acceptable to the ruling regime at that time. He proposed that African culture should be rebuilt on the basis of ancient Egypt, in the same way that European culture was built upon the legacies of ancient Greece and Rome. Contact seller Seller Rating: Condition: good. Cheikh Anta Diop (29 December 1923 – 7 February 1986) was a Senegalese historian, anthropologist, physicist, and politician who studied the human race's origins and pre-colonial African culture. Edited and Translated by Mercer Cook. [40], A book chapter by archeologist Kevin MacDonald, published in 2004, argued that there is little basis for positing a close connection between Dynastic Egypt and the African interior. This argument remains a hallmark of Diop's contribution. "[54] Trigger's conclusions were supported by Egyptologist Frank Yurco, who viewed the Egyptians, Nubians, Ethiopians, Somalians, etc. See S.O.Y. This same modern scholarship however in turn challenges aspects of Diop's work, particularly his notions of a worldwide black phenotype. Diop also laid claims to be proficient in the areas of rationalism, dialectics, archaeology and modern scientific techniques. These researchers hold that they too often rely on a stereotypical conception of pure or distinct races that then go on to intermingle. 2012 Audiobooks See All. [43], But it is only the most gratuitous theory that considers the Dinka, the Nouer and the Masai, among others, to be Caucasoids. It is these relationships which have played a role in history. [16] He said that the Egyptian language and culture had later been spread to West Africa. “….the line of ill-intentional Egyptologist, equipped with a ferocious erudition , have commited their well known crime against science, by becoming guilty of a deliberate falsification of the history of humanity.Supported by the governing powers of all the Western countries , this ideology, based on a moral and intellectual swindle, easily won out over the true scientific current developed by a parallel group of Egyptologist of good will, whose intellectual uprightness and even courage cannot be stressed strongly enough.”This quote from Cheikh Anta Diop summarizes what he believed some Egyptologists have done; distorted the facts of history so that the Black African is not credited with his early scientific and technological achievements. More contemporary critics assert that notions of the Sahara as a dominant barrier in isolating sub-Saharan populations are both flawed and simplistic in broad historical context, given the constant movement of people over time, the fluctuations of climate over time (the Sahara was once very fertile), and the substantial representation of "sub Saharan" traits in the Nile Valley among people like the Badari.[103][104]. Diop, Cheik Anta (1973), in Preface (pp. African, bold, culturally conscious, dedicated, exemplary, fastidious: if one cared to go through the letters of the english language from A to Z, one would be able to find an adjective or adjectival clause to positively describe Dr Cheikh Anta Diop. I attach no more importance to these questions than they actually deserve in modern twentieth-century societies."[101]. African Origin: Cheikh Anta Diop, 1974 Diop worked hard to promote this concept in his fight to revive the pride and uplift the economic and social standards of the African Nation. Those who have followed us in our efforts for more than 20 years know now that this was not the case and that this fear remained unfounded. Cheikh Anta Diop. [3], Diop's work has posed questions about cultural bias in scientific research. The new topics did not relate to ancient Egypt but were concerned with the forms of organisation of African and European societies and how they evolved. 531–32. Cheikh Anta Diop could have chosen to live in luxury, ignoring the disparity in living standards, also the stratification of the people but he chose to get involved. Cheikh Anta Diop was a Capricorn and was born in the G.I. [4] Cheikh Anta Diop University (formerly known as the University of Dakar), in Dakar, Senegal, is named after him. Tourneux (2010), "L'argument linguistique chez Cheikh Anta Diop et ses disciples", pp. This seemed to apply in matters both of evolution and gene pool makeup. Cheikh Anta Diop, The African Origin of Civilization. This ideology was spread with the help of considerable publicity and taught the world over, because it alone had the material and financial means for its own propagation.Thus imperialism, like the prehistoric hunter, first killed the being spiritually and culturally, before trying to eliminate it physically. At a UNESCO colloquium in Athens in 1981, he asserted: "I don't like to use the notion of race (which does not exist)... We must not attach an obsessional importance to it. The special edition of the journal was on the occasion of the centenary of the abolition of slavery in the French colonies and aimed to present an overview of issues in contemporary African culture and society. What if an African ethnologist were to persist in recognizing as white-only the blond, blue-eyed Scandinavians, and systematically refused membership to the remaining Europeans, and Mediterraneans in particular—the French, Italians, Greek, Spanish, and Portuguese? Obenga, Théophile. Please visit our online store to purchase items commemorating the great honorable Cheik Anta Diop and other African Warrior Scholars. He should be considered as one of. Diop dedicated a book about the IFAN radiocarbon laboratory "to the memory of my former professor Frédéric Joliot who welcomed me into his laboratory at the College de France. 97–8. Cheikh Anta Diop was considered to be one of the greatest scholars to emerge in the African world in the twentieth century. Born into a prestigious French Senegalese Muslim family on December 2, 1923, Diop was one of the few privileged Black African who had the option of pursuing whatever occupation he chose. It found that some European researchers had earlier tried to make Africans seem a special case, somehow different from the rest of the world's population flow and mix. Coon used racial rankings of inferiority and superiority, defined "true Blacks" as only those of cultures south of the Sahara, and grouped some Africans with advanced cultures with Caucasian clusters. When alive he was Africa's greatest thinker. "Origine et evolution de l'Homme dans la Pensée de Cheikh Anta Diop: une Analyse Critique". In this book he challenged the authenticity of the European version of Ancient History. He initially enrolled to study higher mathematics, but then enrolled to study philosophy in the Faculty of Arts of the University of Paris. Diop never asserted, as some claim, that all of Africa follows an Egyptian cultural model. Aug 13, 2018 - Explore Dee Pinkston's board "Cheikh Anta Diop", followed by 108 people on Pinterest. [70] Joseph Greenberg rejected Meinhof's and Seligman's views on "Hamite" cultural history, and argued that the term "Hamite" should be completely abandoned, and replaced in linguistics by Afroasiatic languages for the family of five coordinate branches (Semitic, Berber, Ancient Egyptian, Cushitic and Chadic), all of which but the Chadic languages had long been recognised as one group.