Cheikh Anta Diop Quotes
Cheikh Anta Diop was a Senegalese historian, anthropologist, physicist, and political philosopher who argued for the African origin of ancient Egyptian civilization and for the cultural unity of black Africa. His doctoral thesis, eventually published as Negro Nations and Culture, and his subsequent works contended that the recovery of an accurate African past is the precondition for African intellectual and political liberation. The quotes below are attributed to Cheikh Anta Diop, organized by topic.
Browse Cheikh Anta Diop by topic
Cheikh Anta Diop on Freedom
-
“Already during the Middle Ages, the memory of a Negro Egypt that had civilized the world had been blurred by ignorance of the antique tradition hidden in libraries or buried under ruins. It would become even more obscure during those four centuries of slavery.”
p. 24
Cheikh Anta Diop on Knowledge
-
Attributed to Cheikh Anta Diop:
“Knowledge of the past is the precondition for liberation.”
-
Attributed to Cheikh Anta Diop:
“Science is not the property of any single civilization.”
-
“Civilization or Barbarism: An Authentic Anthropology”
The negation of the history and intellectual accomplishments of Black Africans was cultural, mental murder, which preceded and paved the way for their genocide here and there in the world. -
“Ancient Egypt was a Negro civilization.”
p. xiv -
“Pythagorean mathematics, the theory of the four elements of Thales of Miletus, Epicurean materialism, Platonic idealism, Judaism, Islam, and modern science are rooted in Egyptian cosmogony and science.”
p. xiv -
“Contrary to the legend, the Negro king was not, and had never been, a despot with unlimited powers. ... His mission was to serve the people wisely and his authority depended on his respect for the established constitution.”
p. 23
Cheikh Anta Diop on Nature
-
“The negation of the history and intellectual accomplishments of Black Africans was cultural, mental murder, which preceded and paved the way for their genocide here and there in the world.”
Civilization or Barbarism: An Authentic Anthropology -
“The ancient Egyptians were Negroes. The moral fruit of their civilization is to be counted among the assets of the Black world.”
p. xiv -
“Instead of presenting itself to history as an insolvent debtor, that Black world is the very initiator of the "western" civilization flaunted before our eyes today.”
p. xiv -
“The Europeans looked down on the Black world and condescended to touch nothing but its riches.”
p. 24
Cheikh Anta Diop on Politics
-
Attributed to Cheikh Anta Diop:
“African history must be rewritten by Africans themselves.”
-
Attributed to Cheikh Anta Diop:
“Egypt was a black African civilization, and her achievements belong to the African heritage.”
-
Attributed to Cheikh Anta Diop:
“The cultural unity of black Africa is the basis of any genuine African renaissance.”