Cheikh Anta Diop

Diop as a university student in Paris in the late 1940s (Source: Wikimedia Commons, Public domain) Cheikh Anta Diop (29 December 1923 – 7 February 1986) was a Senegalese anthropologist. Born in 1923, he begun his education at a Quranic school. Later on, he traveled to Paris to study philosophy, art, chemistry, and nuclear physics. He helped edit several publications and also wrote several theses during his time in Paris. He had many controversial ideas, some of which were expounded in his book ‘Nations négres et culture.’ In it he proposed that the Ancient Egyptians, so long revered by the Europeans, were the same black people that the European powers had colonized, using his own self-asserted experience in Egyptology to support his thesis.
(Source: Wikipedia accessed on 12 December 2024).

In modern times, his theory is still the subject of debate: Nationalist Egyptians, as well as people who see Diop as having neglected the rules of scientific integrity, see his work as racist and ahistorical. However, some of the proponents of Afrocentricity (an academic theory that seeks to view events in Africa primarily from the perspective of Africans, instead of the perspective of Europeans and other non-Africans) and black emancipation movements see his ideas as inspiring. Despite the fact that his theories are contested, they have played an important role in shaping the debate about Africa throughout history, and helped the emancipation of African intellectuals. Because of Diop’s historical importance, the University of Dakar was re-named Cheikh Anta Diop University after him.

The library of the ASCL has several books in its collection written by him in various languages (which goes on to show how his ideas influenced thinking not just in Senegal and France, but in other places as well), including:

There are many publications about Cheikh Anta Diop within the ASCL collection. In ‘Le pénsee politique de Cheikh Anta Diop (written by José Do-Nascimento)’, for instance, the author talks about how Cheikh Anta Diop anticipated the problems African nations would possibly face after decolonization and his political ideas to fix those problems. In ‘Cheikh Anta Diop: l’humaine derriére le savant (written by Aoua Bocar Ly-Tall)’, the author talks about the person behind the books and theories, based on the contacts the author had with the Senegalese philosopher. He is also included in the book ‘Contemporary African Philosophers: A Critical Appraisal’, written by Wilfred Lajul, among well-known philosophers like Kwame Nkrumah, Franz Fanon, and Kwame Anthony Appiah.

His ideas are still important to many people. Africans are still using the legacy of Ancient Egypt to emancipate themselves in the modern age, where, in some cases, they are still seen as being less influential when it comes to historical achievements. More in general, in these times of polarization, the idea of common ancestral links of both Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa with Ancient Egypt helps against processes of ‘othering’. Therefore, reading and re-reading his work is still valuable in this day and age.

(This Library Weekly was produced by student intern Issa Niang.)