Cheikh Anta Diop is important because of his contributions to the Scientific foundations for an Afrocentric view on the origins of Civilization from the era of African Antiquity based on his work in books such as The African Origins Of Civilization: Myth Or Reality, in which Cheikh Anta Diop makes the argument that the origins of world Civilization can be found in the Black Ancient Egyptian Nile Valley Civilization of Kemet.
Cheikh Anta Diop, was a Senegalese Scholar who despite being recognised for the Thesis that the origins of Civilization can be traced to a Black Ancient Egypt, was also a Physicist who studied at the Curie Laboratory in Paris.
The Important Contributions Of Cheikh Anta Diop
Cheikh Anta Diop also made in important contribution to Science by translating parts of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity into his indigenous Wolof language. In addition to Physics, Diop also conducted research on African History, Egyptology, Linguistics, Anthropology, Economics as well as Sociology all of which informed Diop’s important ideas on the African Origins of Civilization.
Diop’s Thesis that the origins of Civilization are in Black Africa ran contrary to the popular view that the roots of modern Civilization are in Ancient Greece.
According to Cheikh Anta Diop, it is only logical that Civilization began in Africa since standard Anthropology and The Theory Of Evolution both accept that the Human race itself began in Africa.
Diop’s other important insight is that proof the origins of Civilization are in Africa is supported by eyewitness accounts from Ancient Greeks like Herodotus who acknowledged that Greek Knowledge was obtained out of a Black Egypt inhabited by a people with Black Skin and Woolly hair whom the Greeks referred to as the Colchians and Ethiopians which translated means those with burnt faces.
Cheikh Anta Diop made another contribution to the study of Civilization by challenging the description of Ancient Egyptians as a “dark red” or “Mediterranean” race when he demonstrated that many individuals throughout Africa such as the Masai of Kenya are of a reddish-brown Skin complexion.
Perhaps the greatest reason why we should consider Cheikh Anta Diop important is because he Scientific analysed the Melanin content of Egyptian Mummies and his investigations revealed that Egyptian Mummy Skin contained dark Melanin pigment similar to that of Sub-Saharan Africans which also supported Cheikh Anta Diop’s Thesis that the origins of Civilization lie in Ancient Egypt which was a Black Civilization.
Conclusion
There are main reason why Cheikh Anta Diop is important is because his Thesis on the African Origins of Civilization in the Nile Valley in Pre-Colonial Africa is based on Scientific evidence that the Ancient Egyptian Nile Valley Civilization of Kemet which influenced Greek and Western Civilization was Black.
Cheikh Anta Diop has since passed away but Diop’s important contribution to the study of Ancient Egypt and the contributions of Black people to world Civilization remain important and may one day serve as the basis for the African Renaissance he intended to see.
