Pharaoh Of African History

FOR OVER THIRTY years Cheikh Anta Diop (1923-1986), the 'pharaoh' of African history. made a profound contribution to its reconstruction. These two recently published books testify to the continuing influence of the works and ideas of this multitalented Senegalese scholar on the thinking of black people in Africa and outside. In the Cultural Unity, Diop presents his groundbreaking 'two cradles' theory of the origins of human society: one in Europe, the "Northern cradle', and the other in Africa, the 'Southern cradle'. Diop criticises the intellectual dominance of Europeans Bachofen, Morgan and Eagle, who maintained that all societies went through the same stages of social organisation, particularly that of the family.

In their view, matriarchy (a system where women are in ascendancy) was an intermediate and lesser stage of family development, and patriarchy (a society dominated by men) was the natural and mature end of family and societal development, This view led to the assumption of the superiority of white people, since patriarchy is more typically European and matriarchy more typically African.

Diop repudiates, this notion of 'universal! stages of development, presenting his own 'two cradles, theory. He proposes that. "Instead of a universal transition from matriarchy to patriarchy, humanity has always been divided into two geographically district 'cradles*, one of which was favourable to the flourishing of matriarchy and the other to that of patriarchy, and that these two systems encountered one another and even disputed with each other as different human societies, that in certain places they were superimposed on each other or even existed side by side."

Diop shows that the societies and institutions of the two cradles developed along different lines because of the material conditions of climate and environment. Using comparative linguistics, mythology, oral tradition, and the observations of ancient historians, he advances his theory that instead of a universal tradition, there is a categorical dualism that divides the societies in the two 'cradles' and in the 'zones of confluence.' These 'zones of influence,' according to Diop, are areas in which the two cradles encountered each other, namely Arabia, Byzantium, Indus Valley, Mesopotamia and Phoenicia.

Through a full-scale critique of Norther cradle societies - Germany, Greece, Rome, Scythia and Crete - Diop convincingly show how their material conditions produced patriarchy, a nomadic culture, cremation, individualism, xenophobia and pessimism, and valued war, violence, crime and conquest. Southern cradle societies - Ethiopia, Libya, Egypt and the rest of black Africa - responded to their environment by producing matriarchy, an agar-lan and sedentary culture, burial, collective welfare, xenophobia, optimism and the ideals of peace, tranquillity, justice and goodness. He also demonstrates the contrast between the two systems approach to religion, the notion of the state, royalty, literature and worldview.

Throughout The Cultural Unity, Diop contradicts outside observers by bringing out the common elements in African culture and arguing for a fundamental cultural unity and social solidarity throughout black Africa.

In the second book, Conceptions of History, the first examination in English of the historical and linguistic work of Diop and his disciple Théophile Obenga, Chris Gray looks at their methodology and pan-African objectives. Their project is the reconnection of the black civilisation of ancient Egypt to its African roots Gray shows how these two francophone African scholars focus on the synthesis within African history and culture in order to 'retrieve' the African historical identity and group consciousness, which is the foundation of a potential multinational federated state of Africa.

This historical project, Gray shows, is in direct opposition to Western Africanist historians, who view things from the exterior and are irresistibly inclined to break the fundamental unity of African culture in what Diop calls explosive micro-analysis" of petty details.

Gray opens his study by placing Diop and Obenga in a historical and intellectual context. He briefly discusses Diop's background in Senegal before emphasising his academic struggles at the University of Paris in the 1940s and 1950s and the subsequent development of his historical arguments. These arguments were fully developed in three separate PhD theses, the first two of which were rejected by the university examining board for being unfounded' and too confrontational. Diop's courageous first thesis arguing the African origin of ancient Egyptian civilisation, and its nurturing of ancient Greece, the mother of European civilisation, ran counter to two centuries of European teaching about the origin of civilisation.

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Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does Diop'srejected thesis was published in 1955 as Nations Nègres et Culture, and won hir international recognition. His two other theses furnished his second and third books, The Cultural Unity of Black African (1959) and Precolonial Black Africa (1960). In these Diop made his mark in the fields of Egyptology and African historiography in general. In 1966, for example, the World Festival of Arts in Dakar, Senegal, honoured Diop, along with the late W.E.B. du Bois, as the scholars 'who exerted the greatest influence' on black thought in the 20th century.

Gray also mentions in the opening chapter the important Unesco-sponsored international conference on "The Peopling of Ancient Egypt, held in Cairo in January 1974. Of the 20 experts on ancient Egypt who participated in the Cairo symposium Diop and Obenga emerged triumphant. The final report from the symposium stated that few of the communications were comparable with the painstakingly researched contributions of Diop and Obenga and consequently there was "a real lack of balance in the discussions." This international symposium gave these two African scholars an opportunity to advance their arguments that ancient Egypt was linguistically, culturally and racially an African civilisation.

Perhaps the two most important chapters of Conception of History are the Final two, which deal respectively with Diop's legacy in Africa, Europe and the US, and with Diop's and Obenga's use of historical linguistics as a main component of their arguments.

Gray outlines Diop's linguistic writings, which he states are centred on three main issues: the ability of an African language (Diop uses Wolof) to assimilate abstract scientific and mathematical concepts; the argument for a genetic linguistic relationship between Wolof and ancient Egyptian; and between Wolof and other moder African languages. After sum-marising Diop's comparative linguistic work, Gray focuses on Obenga's effort to refine some of the technical aspects of Diop's linguistic arguments.

Gray concludes his book by emphasising his desire to see a dialogue between the school of African historiography, represented by Diop and Obenga, and western historians, who have all but remained silent to the major intellectual challenge posed by Diop and Obenga. Indeed, Gray's greatest contribution is to delineate the differences in the two traditions, as well as provide a summary of the main historical concerns of Diop and Obenga

Conceptions of History are only an initial step in the work that has yet to be done to bring forth the full legacy of the undisputed 'pharaoh' of African history, Cheikh Anta Diop, and the important contributions of disciples, such Théophile Obenga.

Word by Manu Ampin