... Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar. [98], Such tropical elements were thus in place from the earliest beginnings of Egyptian civilization, not isolated somewhere South behind the Saharan barrier. 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. [62] Greenberg’s complete reclassification of the non-intrusive languages of Africa into four families and many sub-families placed Wolof in the West Atlantic sub-family of the Niger-Congo languages family,[63][64] and he rejected earlier attempts to argue that the languages of negro Africa comprise a genetic unity and derived from dialects spoken around Egypt from 1000 B.C. 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. Extrait de la conférence de Cheikh Anta Diop à Niamey en 1984 Addeddate 2009-03-18 15:02:09 Color color Identifier Diop_Niamey_5 Sound sound Year 1984 . This research has examined the ancient Badarian group, finding not only cultural and material linkages with those further south but physical correlations as well, including a southern modal cranial metric phentoype indicative of the Tropical African in the well-known Badarian group. Tourneux (2010), "L'argument linguistique chez Cheikh Anta Diop et ses disciples", pp. He was keenly aware of the difficulties that such a scientific effort would entail and warned that "It was particularly necessary to avoid the pitfall of facility. as is grouping the complexity of human cultures into two camps. [99], As regards living peoples, the pattern of complexity repeats itself, calling into question the merging and splitting methods of Jensen, et al. First, that all political prisoners be released, and, secondly, that discussions be opened on government ideas and programs, not on the distribution of government posts. Ferocious, warlike nature with spirit of survival. UNESCO, (1978). Diop contributed an article to the journal: "Quand pourra-t-on parler d'une renaissance africaine" (When we will be able to speak of an African Renaissance?). [78] Diop has endorsed the work of Obenga. Robert O. Collins, a former historical professor at University of California, Santa Barbara, and James M. Burns, a professor in history at Clemson University, have both referred to Diop's writings of Ancient Egypt and his theories, entailing to it as "revisionist". [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. Adhérez a notre projet éducatif! This has shown that most of human genetic variation (some 85–90%) occurs within localized population groups, and that race only can account for 6–10% of the variation. This symposium generated a lively debate about, but no consensus on, Diop's theories. Diop, Cheik Anta. "Apportionment of Racial Diversity"; Keita and Kittles, "The Persistence...", op. Role Project Intakes ; Full Partner : Médiation interculturelle : identités, mobilités, conflits: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 This research has examined the ancient Badarian group, finding not only cultural and material linkages with those further south but physical correlations as well, including a southern modal cranial metric phentoype indicative of the Tropical African in the well-known Badarian group. Genetic studies have disproved these notions. [76] Diop devoted most of his study to the structural resemblances between one modern African language, Wolof, and Ancient Egyptian,[77] adding some references to other modern languages. [50] Modern physical anthropologists also question splitting of peoples into racial zones. Quoted in Shomarka Keita, "Communications". Brown and Armelagos, op. This article was sourced from Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. Idea of peace, justice, goodness and optimism. Diop insisted on a broad interpretation similar to that used in classifying European populations as white. Extrait de la conférence de Cheikh Anta Diop à Niamey by Kheperu n Kemet. He is now resting at Caytou. The party was shortly thereafter banned for opposing Senghor's efforts to consolidate power in his own hands. Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar. From 1956, he taught physics and chemistry in two Paris lycees as an assistant master, before moving to the College de France. Dakar, Senegal. In a 2004 study, 58 native inhabitants from upper Egypt were sampled for mtDNA. La conférence de Cheikh Anta Diop à Niamey en 1984 Addeddate 2009-03-18 14:15:45 Color color Identifier Diop_Niamey_4 Sound sound Year 1984 . ESCP Business School - Paris. Tourneax (2010), "L'argument linguistique chez Cheikh Anta Diop et ses disciples", pp. Many cultures the world over show similar developments and a mixture of traits. ix-x) to Obenga. Demba Sy, Papa, "L'itinéraire Politique de Cheikh Anta Diop". F. J. Yurco, "Were the ancient Egyptians black or white?". [35] Critics of this study in turn hold that it achieves its results by manipulation of data clusters and analysis categories, casting a wide net to achieve generic, general statistical similarities with populations such as Europeans and Indians. He also stated that opponents were hypocritical in stating that the race of Egyptians was not important to define, but they did not hesitate to introduce race under new guises. (1978). The phenotype is a reality, physical appearance is a reality. 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.[85]. Diodorus , Siculus . In his "Evolution of the Negro World" in Présence Africaine (1964), Diop castigated European scholars who posited a separate evolution of various types of humankind and denied the African origin of homo sapiens.[35]. [74] Obenga expressly rejected Greenberg’s division of most African languages into the Niger-Congo, Nilo-Saharan and Afroasiatic families, treating all African languages except the Khoisan languages and Berber as a single unit, négro-africain. 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. This seemed to apply in matters both of evolution and gene pool makeup. Alan R. Templeton, "Human Races: A Genetic and Evolutionary Perspective". Obenga, Théophile (1992), "Le 'chamito-sémitique' n'existe pas". sup de co dakar. When IFAN was transferred to Cheikh Anta Diop University in 1960, the building at Place Soweto near the National Assembly of … Diop attempted to demonstrate that the African peoples shared certain commonalities, including language roots and other cultural elements like regicide, circumcision, totems, etc. Portrait de Cheikh Anta Diop - Duration: 2 ... Droit Libre TV 122,668 views. Tourneax, Henri (2010), "L'argument linguistique chez Cheikh Anta Diop et ses disciples", pp. plus-circle Add Review. This modern research also confirms older analyses, (Arkell and Ucko 1956, Shaw 1976, Falkenburger 1947, Strouhal 1971, Blanc 1964, et al.,[112]). cit. He examined various fields of artistic creation, with a discussion of African languages, which, he said, would be the sources of regeneration in African culture. United … 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. This same modern scholarship however in turn challenges aspects of Diop's work, particularly his notions of a worldwide black phenotype. He acknowledged the existence of "mixed" peoples over the course of African history, writing that Egyptians and Jews were the product of crossbreeding. I attach no more importance to these questions than they actually deserve in modern twentieth-century societies."[101]. 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. 40 talking about this. This modern research also confirms older analyses, (Arkell and Ucko 1956, Shaw 1976, Falkenburger 1947, Strouhal 1971, Blanc 1964, et al.,[102]). 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. He declared that the peoples of the region were all Africans, and decried the "bizarre and dangerous myths" of previously biased scholarship, "marred by a confusion of race, language, and culture and by an accompanying racism. Cheikh Anta Diop, "Evolution of the Negro world". The Niger-Congo Family". The first, "Le Bloc des Masses Sénégalaises" (BMS), was formed in 1961. Ngom, Gilbert (1993), "La parenté génétique entre l’egyptien pharaonique et des langues négro-africaines moderns: L’exemple du duala". 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. 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. Pragmatique du discours et Analyse des discours à la... See more See less. Cheikh Anta Diop was born on December 29, 1923 in Diourbel, Senegal. They contend the test is inappropriate to apply to ancient Egyptian mummies, due to the effects of embalming and deterioration over time. Diop strongly refused to enter into any negotiations until two conditions were met. Diop, Cheik Anta, translated by Mercer Cook (1974). Importantly it included not only francophone Africans, but English-speaking ones as well. [28] Diop's work has posed important questions about the cultural bias inherent in scientific research. 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. AFRICAN SPIRITUALITY See more of Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar on Facebook. 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. Diop's first work translated into English, The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality, was published in 1974. This argument remains a hallmark of Diop's contribution. His research has become under-regarded because he did not accept this academic discipline. They consider the Egyptians as (a) simply another Nile valley population or (b) part of a continuum of population gradation or variation among humans that is based on indigenous development, rather than using racial clusters or the concept of admixtures. Log In. [90] Tourneux's main criticisms are that many words in the lists used to make comparisons may have been loaned from unrelated languages (including modern Arabic), many of the claimed resemblances are far-fetched and that, when Diop transliterated Wolof words on the principles applied to Ancient Egyptian writings, he distorted them.[91]. Diop said that he "acquired proficiency in such diverse disciplines as rationalism, dialectics, modern scientific techniques, prehistoric archeology and so on." Ryan A. These concepts are laid out in Diop's Towards the African Renaissance: Essays in Culture and Development, 1946–1960,[63] and The Cultural Unity of Black Africa: The Domains of Patriarchy and of Matriarchy in Classical Antiquity,,[64][65] These concepts can be summarized as follows: Zones of Confluence: Meeting or mingling area for the two cradles above, Most anthropologists see commonalities in African culture but only in a very broad, generic sense, intimately linked with economic systems, etc. He obtained his doctorate in 1960. 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). He also stated that opponents were hypocritical in stating that the race of Egyptians was not important to define, but they did not hesitate to introduce race under new guises. Mitochondrial DNA sequence diversity in a sedentar... S. O. Y. Keita, "Royal incest and Diffusion in Africa", National Democratic Rally (Senegal) Politicians, WorldHeritage articles needing clarification from August 2015, Articles lacking reliable references from August 2015, Articles with unsourced statements from February 2009, National Democratic Rally (Senegal) politicians. Diop's family was part of the Mouride brotherhood, the only independent Muslim fraternity in Africa according to Diop. [47], It is held by Keita et al. [48] Some modern studies use DNA to define racial classifications, while others condemn this practice as selective filling of pre-defined, stereotypical categories. Tugdual Denis VP Sales chez bakerly Miami-Fort Lauderdale Area. Craniometric Affinities Considered With Other Data", S. O. Y. Keita. 65–92. Such tropical elements were thus in place from the earliest beginnings of Egyptian civilization, not isolated somewhere South behind the Saharan barrier.          Political / Social. Tourneax (2010), "L'argument linguistique chez Cheikh Anta Diop et ses disciples", pp. "Apportionment of Racial Diversity"; Keita and Kittles, "The Persistence...", op. Diop took an innovative approach in his linguistic researches published in 1977, outlining his hypothesis of the unity of indigenous African languages beginning with the Ancient Egyptian language. 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. J. D. Walker, "The Misrepresentation of Diop's Views". Keita and Rick A. Kittles, "The Persistence of Racial Thinking and the Myth of Racial Divergence". 65-92. 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. 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. There is a contradiction here: all the anthropologists agree in stressing the sizable proportion of the Negroid element—almost a third and sometimes more—in the ethnic [i.e. 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. [18], Diop believed that the political struggle for African independence would not succeed without acknowledging the civilizing role of the African, dating from ancient Egypt. Selectively lumping such peoples into arbitrary Mediterranean, Middle Eastern or Caucasoid categories because they do not meet the narrow definition of a "true" type, or selectively defining certain traits like aquiline features as Eurasian or Caucasoid, ignores the complexity of the DNA data on the ground. "[17], In his 1954 thesis, Diop argued that ancient Egypt had been populated by Black people. There are common patterns such as circumcision, matriarchy etc., but whether these are part of a unique, gentler, more positive "Southern cradle" of peoples, versus a more grasping, patriarchal-flavored "Northern cradle" are considered problematic by many scholars, as is grouping the complexity of human cultures into two camps. [4] Cheikh Anta Diop University (formerly known as the University of Dakar), in Dakar, Senegal, is named after him. (1970-1972), Égyptien ancien et négro-africain, pp. While acknowledging the common genetic inheritance of all humankind and common evolutionary threads, Diop identified a black phenotype, stretching from India, to Australia to Africa, with physical similarities in terms of dark skin and a number of other characteristics. [2] His work was greatly controversial and throughout his career, Diop argued that there was a shared cultural continuity across African peoples that was more important than the varied development of different ethnic groups shown by differences among languages and cultures over time. [6], Cultural anthropology, Archaeology, Social anthropology, Sociology, History, Portugal, World War II, Tianjin, Spain, Goa, Sudan, Egypt, South Africa, Algeria, Morocco, Serer people, Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau, Dakar, Serer religion, Egypt, Near East, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Roman Empire, Ancient Egyptian religion, Africa, Pan-Africanism, Politics, American Civil War, Discrimination, Senegal, World Bank, Benin, History, United States, African diaspora, Education, Afrocentrism, Sierra Leone, Arab, Republic of the Congo, Pan-Africanism, Languages of Africa, San Francisco State University, Brazzaville, Pan-Africanism, Literature, Wole Soyinka, Unesco, Pablo Picasso. Greenberg, Joseph H. (1950), "Studies in African Linguistic Classification: IV. [28][29] In the July 1973 paper entitled "La pigmentation des anciens Égyptiens. However, from the 1930s archaeologists and historians re-discovered such past African achievements as Great Zimbabwe, and from the 1940s linguists started to demonstrate the flaws in the hypothesis. They contend the test is inappropriate to apply to ancient Egyptian mummies, due to the effects of embalming and deterioration over time. Partageons nos connaissances pour la propagation de la Pensée de Cheikh Anta Diop pour l'unité et le Développement de l'Afrique. 8-12. He held that this was both hypocrisy and bad scholarship, that ignored the wide range of indigenous variability of African peoples. Before Diop, the general view, following Charles Seligman[51] on the influence of Egypt on Black Africa was that elements of Egyptian religious thought, customs and technology diffused along four trade routes: up the White Nile; along the North African coast past Tunis to West Africa; up the Blue Nile and along the foothills of Abyssinia to the Great Lakes and through Darfur and along the southern edge of the Sahara. Paul T. Nicholson, "Out of the Mummy's Shadow". 7 February 1986. He gained his first degree (licence) in philosophy in 1948, then enrolled in the Faculty of Sciences, receiving two diplomas in chemistry in 1950. 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. Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar. Hamito-Semitic". In summary, modern anthropological and DNA scholarship repeats and confirms many of the criticisms made by Diop as regards to arbitrary classifications and splitting of African peoples, and confirms the genetic linkages of Nile Valley peoples with other African groups, including East Africa, the Sahara, and the Sudan. No videos yet! Diop's first work translated into English, The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality, was published in 1974. Died. All Greenberg’s African Language papers were republished The Languages of Africa (1966), Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Forgot account? Publication date 1984 Usage Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Topics kemet,uhem mesut,cheikh anta diop Language French. Barbujani, et al., "Patterns of Human Diversity, within and among Continents, Inferred from Biallelic DNA Polymorphisms". World Heritage Encyclopedia content is assembled from numerous content providers, Open Access Publishing, and in compliance with The Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR), Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., Public Library of Science, The Encyclopedia of Life, Open Book Publishers (OBP), PubMed, U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and USA.gov, which sources content from all federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial government publication portals (.gov, .mil, .edu). Prince Dika-Akwa nya Bonambéla (ed.) [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. The party was shortly thereafter banned for opposing Senghor's efforts to consolidate power in his own hands. First, that all political prisoners be released, and, secondly, that discussions be opened on government ideas and programs, not on the distribution of government posts. 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. See S.O.Y. Égyptien ancien et négro-africain, Cahiers Ferdinand de Saussure, No. He was general secretary of the RDA students in Paris from 1950 to 1953. The RDA students continued to be highly active in politicizing the anti-colonial struggle and popularized the slogan "National independence from the Sahara to the Cape, and from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic. Diop showed above all that European archaeologists before and after the decolonization had understated and continued to understate the extent and possibility of Black civilizations. Not Now. [45] A 2004 review of DNA research in African Archaeological Review supports some of Diop's criticisms. Mame Yassine Sarr. Article Id: 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. [12][13], In 1948 Diop edited with Madeleine Rousseau, a professor of art history, a special edition of the journal Musée vivant, published by the Association populaire des amis des musées (APAM). 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]. [93] In trying to remove Berber and Semitic languages from Greenberg's Afroasiatic family and ignoring real differences between African language groups, Diop and his collaborators have created an artificial language group. One approach that has bridged the gap between Diop and his critics is the non-racial bio-evolutionary approach. 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. Diop also claimed to be "the only Black African of his generation to have received training as an Egyptologist" and "more importantly" he "applied this encyclopedic knowledge to his researches on African history. ; Hiernaux, J. Reviews … In 1949, Diop registered a proposed title for a Doctor of Letters thesis, "The Cultural Future of African thought," under the direction of Professor Gaston Bachelard. Obenga, Théophile. [citation needed], The Swiss archaeologist Charles Bonnet's discoveries at the site of Kerma shed some light on the theories of Diop. His discoveries and deductions have shown the world the true accomplishments of African history, effectively put an end to the debate over who the original people of Egypt were, established a ‘two cradle theory of civilization, and pioneered techniques of scientific … Click on "Watch later" to put videos here. Diop argued that there was a shared cultural continuity across African peoples that was more important than the varied development of different ethnic groups shown by differences among languages and cultures over time. Diop focuses on Africa, not Greece. [32], The Swiss archaeologist Charles Bonnet's discoveries at the site of Kerma shed some light on the theories of Diop. He acknowledged the existence of "mixed" peoples over the course of Egyptian history but also argued for indigeous variants already in situ as opposed to massive insertions of Hamites, Mediterraneans, Semites or Cascasoids into ancient groupings. 80-82. [62] His thought is thus not the "Stolen Legacy" argument of writers such as George James or the "Black Athena" notions of Martin Bernal. [24] This critical work constitutes a rational study of not only Africa's cultural, historic and geographic unity, but of Africa's potential for energy development and industrialization. Diop disputed sweeping definitions of mixed races in relation to African populations, particularly when associated with the Nile Valley. Finally, Schur argued that, if the human species originated in Africa and it created human language, then all human languages have an African origin and are therefore related. In his "Evolution of the Negro World" in Présence Africaine (1964), Diop castigated European scholars who posited a separate evolution of various types of humankind and denied the African origin of homo sapiens. Idea of peace, justice, goodness and optimism. Mixed-race theories have also been challenged by contemporary scholars in relation to African genetic diversity. Keita and Kittles (1997); Keita (2005); Keita, "Further studies of crania"; Hiernaux J. He established and was the director of the radiocarbon laboratory at the IFAN (Institut Fondamental de l'Afrique Noire). While acknowledging the common genetic inheritance of all humankind and common evolutionary threads, Diop identified a black phenotype, stretching from India, to Australia to Africa, with physical similarities in terms of dark skin and a number of other characteristics. One of the attractions of the capital of Senegal is the main campus of UCAD. "[45] Trigger's conclusions were supported by Egyptologist Frank Yurco, who viewed the Egyptians, Nubians, Ethiopians, Somalians, etc. These researchers hold that they too often rely on a stereotypical conception of pure or distinct races that then go on to intermingle. ( Traduite en français par M . At the same time, the statistical net is cast much more narrowly in the case of 'blacks', carefully defining them as an extreme type south of the Sahara and excluding related populations like Somalians, Nubians and Ethiopians,[38] as well as the ancient Badarians, a key indigenous group.