“Pharaonic Egypt is an African civilisation, developed in Africa by Africans”: what seems obvious today – except, perhaps, for Nicolas Sarkozy and his “monkeys” – has long been passed over in silence, or even openly denied by the Egyptology developed in European laboratories. We owe it to the scientist, historian, anthropologist and politician Cheikh Anta Diop for having given what belongs to Africa back to Africa.
Born almost a century ago on 29 December 1923, in Thieytou, Senegal, the researcher went to Paris to study and provoked a scandal in academic circles by publishing, in 1954, Nations nègres et culture (Negro Nations and Culture), the doctoral thesis for which he had been unable to assemble a jury at the Sorbonne three years earlier, due to a lack of interest from the teachers.
His chapter, ‘Origine des anciens Égyptiens’, which opened Volume II of the General History of Africa (published in 1984 by UNESCO and Jeune Afrique two years before his death, in Dakar, on 7 February 1986), summarised his final conclusions.
*The views of the above article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Africa Speaks 4 Africa or its editorial team.