C.A Diop (Cheikh Anta Diop) the Afro centrists historian and his prospect on Africa
Introduction
Cheikh Anta Diop (1823-1986) was a historian and anthropologist whose works focused on the study of the origins of the human race and the African culture during the pre-colonial period. C.A Diop is considered to have made significant contributions towards the concept of Afro centrism, with a specific focus on the theory that ancient Egyptians were Black Africans, and that ancient Egyptian civilization was Black Civilization (Curtis 47). Egypt is a core focus in the study of African history during the pre-colonial period. According to studies by C.A Diop, not only early Egyptians were of African origin but the entire dynastic era during the course of the country’s history. In the present debate to ascertain the African foundations of the Egyptian civilization, C.A Diop is affirms his position regarding the Black African origins in ancient Egypt basing on gathered evidence presented in his works (Gray 74). When defending the significance of work in understanding African history, Diop stated that the history of black African will continue being unclear and cannot be documented clearly unless African historians link it with the history of ancient Egypt. There is considerable evidence that the ancient Egypt can be considered an instance of African civilization.
In order to scientifically establish the origins of African civilization and linking with the history of ancient Egypt, Diop makes use of solid-range methodologies to connect African history with ancient Egypt. Diop based arguments basing on the analysis of the epidermis of the mummies that belonged to the Egyptian Kings in order to verify the melanin content. Diop also uses accurate osteological measurements with regard to the relevant aspects of anatomy to verify his theories (Russell 89). Other methodologies deployed by Dr. Diop include comparing the blood types of the West Africans and upper Egyptians, conducting detailed linguistic analysis of Afro-Egyptians and validation of unique Afro-Egyptian cultural attributes. In addition, documents relating to racial orientations used by the early Africans and the biblical references outline the ethnicity, race and cultural orientations of the Egyptians and the use of early writings done by the Roman and Greek travelers that are used to offer descriptions concerning the physical attributes of ancient Egyptians (Stein and Rowe 125). This is sufficient evidence that connects the history of African civilization with the ancient Egyptian civilization.
In The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality (1974), Diop offers archeological and anthropological evidence in support of his theories that the Pharaohs of the ancient Egypt were Black Africans. Despite the fact that there are diverse viewpoints relating Diop’s theories on African history, it is arguably evident that his studies posed significant questions relating to instances of cultural bias in his scientific research (Tyldesley 148). According to Diop, a universal cultural continuity among the Africans was significant compared to the variations in development of diverse ethnic orientations as evident in different African language and cultures over the course of its history. The significance of ancient civilizations is noted by Diop when referring to the works of ancient authors like Strabo and Herodotus. For instance, Herodotus contemplated arguing that the Colchian populations were related to the ancient Egyptians basing on the account that the Colchians had black hair that was curly (Nabudere 6). Therefore, Diop exploited those arguments in support of his theory that the physical characteristics of the ancient Egyptians were notably similar to the present day Black Africans in terms of their color of the skin and type of hair (Walker 16). The interpretation of diverse anthropological and archeological evidence like the significant role of matriarchy resulted to the conclusion that the ancient Egyptian culture is similar to the Black African culture of the present day. With regard to linguistics, Diop cited that the relationship that exists between the Wolof language of the modern day West Africa to the early Egyptian language (Russell 36).
Diop also based his arguments by criticizing previous literature on Africa, which resulted to a condemnation of his studies due to cultural bias, in particular, Diop noted European bias on preceding scholarship with respect to Africa. This evident in his Nations Negres et Culture (1954) and Evolution of the Negro World. Diop claimed that previous literature on Africa of the 19th century and the initial half of the 20th century laid emphasis on a racist perspective of the Black Africans. This viewpoint was considered controversial during the period between the 1950s and 1970s, whereby African scholarship was under the influence of scientific racism as noted by Carleton Coon, who made use of racial rankings relating to superiority and inferiority. Coon concluded that the Black African culture are limited within the African region found in the southern Sahara and classified some Africans with advanced civilizations associated with Caucasian clusters. Basing on this viewpoint, the Hamitic Hypothesis argued that the most advanced cultural development in African could be attributed to incursions by unexplained Caucasoid Hamites (Gray 48). On a similar account, the Dynastic Race Theory of Egypt held the viewpoint that a migration of the Caucasoid people in large numbers was needed to establish the ancient Egyptian kingships. This is mainly because the Negro tribes in ancient Egypt were slow and lacked the capability of holding such positions to steer ancient Egyptian civilization. Genetic research has disapproved the viewpoints held by the hypothesis (Diop 3d). During 2004, an analysis of DNA research supported the criticism held by Diop regarding previous literature on the cultural advancements of the Black Africans (Diop 154a). The review established that early European researchers aimed at making Black Africans appear like a special case, which is somewhat distinguished from the rest of the global population in terms of flow and mix. This was applicable in issues relating to evolution and genetic pool make up of the Black Africans in comparison to the rest of the world. The DNA review also established that there were numerous flaws in early European research because the researchers appeared to have changed their categories and methods in order to conclude that Black Africans was a special case. It can be inferred that the criticisms by Diop on preceding African literature contributed significantly towards the strengthening of his theory of Ancient Egyptians being Black Africans (Diop 74b). According to Diop, the early Egyptian civilization is an important contributor to the onset of early civilization in Greece and some parts in Europe, arguing that Egyptian civilization is one of the moral fruits of African civilization (Diop 40d)).
Diop persistently held the viewpoint that Black Africans could not be constrained to a population that resided in the south of Sahara. This is because of the variations in the physical characteristics of the Africans in terms of the color of skin, type of hair, height and facial orientation. In the Evolution of the Negro World (1964), Diop criticized the early European scholars who argued that there were different evolutions for the diverse types of humanity and refuted the origin of Africans to Homo sapiens. Criticisms directed at Diop’s theory are based on a study conducted during 1993 that established that early Egyptians were more associated with the North Africans, Somalis, Europeans and Nubians compared to Africans found in the southern Sahara (Tyldesley 78). According to Diop, Somalis, Nubians, Ethiopians and Egyptians constitute an African population in the Nilotic Zone, which included people from Sudan and the remaining parts of Sahara. Diop maintained that cultural, genetic and material relationships cannot be established basing on racial clusters. Critics of the study held the viewpoint that it manipulated data clusters and analysis categories in order attain generic similarities between the ancient Egyptians and Europeans and Indians (Tyldesley 145). The case of Black Africans is narrowed down to a population, which is confined within the southern Sahara, and excludes other associated populations such as Somalis, Nubians and Ethiopians. Diop’s theory on the variations of the physical characteristics within the African population also received support by scholars who have attempted to map human genes by modern analysis on human DNA. It has been established that significant human genetic variation of about 85-90% is observed within localized populations, and that racial differences can only account for about 6-10% of variations (Tyldesley 158).
In conclusion, Diop’s theories can be argued to enhance the comprehension of African history. Basing on the evidence that Diop uses and the critics of the European bias on the early literature on Africans, it is arguably evident that early Egypt was a perfect idealization of African civilization. This eliminates the need to deploy racial hierarchy on ancient Egyptians.
Works cited
Curtis, Alexander. Cheikh Anta Diop: an African scientist : an axiomatic overview of his teachings and thoughts. Washington: ECA Associates, 1984.
Diop, Cheikh. “The Evolution of the Negro World.” Présence Africaine 51.5 (1964): 5-15.
Diop, Cheikh. African Origins of Civilization – Myth or Reality. Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 1974.
Diop, Cheikh. Nations negres et culture. Paris: Presence africaine, 1955.
Diop, Cheikh. Pan-African History. Paris: Presence africaine, 2003.
Gray, Chris. Conceptions of History in the Works of Cheikh Anta Diop and Theophile Obenga. New York: Karnak House, 1989.
Nabudere, Dani Wadada. “Cheikh Anta Diop: The social sciences, humanities, physical and natural sciences and transdisciplinarity.” International Journal of African Renaissance Studies 2.1 (2007): 6.
Russell, Schuh. “The Use and Misuse of language in the study of African history.” Ufahamu (1997): 123.
Shavit, Yaacov. History in Black. African-Americans in Search of an Ancient Past. New York: Frank Cass Publishers, 2001.
Stein, Phillip and Bruce Rowe. Physical Anthropology. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002.
Tyldesley, Joyce. “Cleopatra, Last Queen of Egypt. New York: Profile Books, 2008. Walker, John. “The Misrepresentation of Diop’s Views.” Journal of Black Studies 21.1 (1995): 102-110.