Cheikh Anta Diop Quotes on Knowledge
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. This page collects quotes attributed to Cheikh Anta Diop on the topic of knowledge, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
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Attributed to Cheikh Anta Diop:
“African history must be rewritten by Africans themselves.”
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Attributed to Cheikh Anta Diop:
“Knowledge of the past is the precondition for liberation.”
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Attributed to Cheikh Anta Diop:
“Science is not the property of any single civilization.”
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“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 -
“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