Cheikh Anta Diop Creator of: THE AFRICAN ORIGIN OF CIVILIZATION MYTH OR REALITY Date: January 1st 2007

Product Description: Laymen and scholars alike will welcome the publication of this one volume translation of the major sections of C.A. Diop’s two books, Nations Negres et Culture and Anteriorite des Civilizations Negres, which have profoundly influenced thinking about Africa around the world. It was largely because of these works that, at the World Festival of the Arts held in Dakar in 1966, Dr. Diop shared with the late W.E.B. DuBois an award as the writer who had exerted the greatest influence on Negro thought in the 20th century. THE AFRICAN ORIGIN OF CIVILIZATION: Myth or Reality, edited and translated by Mercer Cook and prepared with the author’s cooperation, presents Dr. Diop’s main thesis–that historical, archeological and anthropological evidence supports the theory that the civilization of ancient Egypt, the first that history records, was actually Negroid in origin. The present volume contains over fifty illustrations, many of them newly selected for this book, which further document Dr. Diop’s theories. The author has written a new preface and conclusion for this edition, which also includes a preface by Mercer Cook, an index, bibliography, biographical notes on the authors and authorities cited, and a glossary of archeological terms used in the book. Knowledge Insights: Cheikh Anta Diop, regarded by many as the modern `pharaoh' of African studies, was born in Diourbel, Senegal on December 29, 1923 and joined the ancestors on February 7, 1986. At the age of twenty-three, he journeyed to Paris, France to continue advanced studies in physics. His initial doctoral dissertation submitted at the University of Paris, Sorbonne in 1951, based on the premise that Egypt of the pharaohs was an African civilization--was rejected. Regardless, this dissertation was published by Presence Africaine under the title Nations Negres et Culture in 1955 and won him international acclaim. Nations Negres et Culture is both a reassessment of the African past and a challenge to Western scholarship on Africa. He refutes the myth of Egypt as a white nation and shows its southern African origins. It is his intention to prove that, through Egyptian civilization, Africa had made the oldest and one of the most significant contributions to world culture. Two additional attempts to have his doctorate granted were turned back until 1960 when he entered his defense session with an array of sociologists, anthropologists and historians and successfully carried his argument. In 1966, the First World Black Festival of Arts and Culture held in Dakar, Senegal honored Dr. Diop and Dr. W.E.B. DuBois as the scholars who exerted the greatest influence on African thought in twentieth century. In 1974, a milestone occurred in the English-speaking world when the African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality was finally published. It was also in 1974 that Diop and Theophile Obenga collectively and soundly reaffirmed the African origin of pharaonic Egyptian civilization at a UNESCO sponsored symposium in Cairo, Egypt. In 1981, Diop's last major work, Civilization or Barbarism: An Authentic Anthropology was published. Diop went back to Senegal and continued writing. A radiocarbon laboratory was established with the University of Dakar (which was later named Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar after his death), and Diop was made its head. Dr Diop is the author of many titles including: The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality, Civilization or Barbarism: An Authentic Anthropology, Precolonial Black Africa, Black Africa: The Economic and Cultural Basis for a Federated State, The Cultural Unity of Black Africa: The Domains of Patriarchy and of Matriarchy in Classical Antiquity, Towards the African Renaissance: Essays in African Culture and Development, 1946-1960, The Peopling of Ancient Egypt & the Deciphering of the Meroitic Script. Dr. Diop sat on numerous international scientific committees and achieved recognition as one of the leading historians, Egyptologists, linguists and anthropologists in the world. He traveled widely, lectured incessantly and was cited and quoted voluminously. Knowledge Staff Review: The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality is a one-volume translation of the major sections of the first and last of the books by Cheikh Anta Diop, Nations Negres et Culture and Anteriorite des Civilisations Negres. These two works have challenged and changed the direction of attitudes about the place of African people in history in scholarly circles around the world. The book presents Dr. Diop's main thesis that historical, archaeological and anthropological evidence supports the theory that the civilization of ancient Egypt, the first that history records, was actually Negroid in origin. Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop deals with how Western historians, for the last five hundred years wrote or rewrote history glorifying the people of European extraction and distorted the history of the rest of the world. This is a major work by a major African historian. A brilliant work! Cheikh Anta Diop provides a well documented, balanced, intelligent writing that refutes the mis-information perpetuated by too many Western scholars. His delivery of information and historical fact enables the reader to formulate a viable understanding of the true origins and racial make-up African peoples. This book is easy to read, addresses the falsification of history and provides solid foundation upon which to continue ones studies of African history.

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