Book – African Origin of Civilization Myth or Reality by Cheikh Anta Diop

 Introduction

This is one of the most ignored but consequential books for humanity and precisely Africans globally. It isn’t taught in most African universities. Its subject strike at the heart of what it means to be human, African being and African existence for all time. The motivation for this book published in 1955 is a single subject – the conclusion by Caucasians/European elite/institutions 500 years ago that Africans are not human beings. The ugly effects of that notion continue to resonate today. 2 historical perspectives are important – until recently most Europeans (from colonial horror) see Africans as less and unequal. In the United States even in the 1960s, Africans were denied full recognition as humans. So this book among other things is a combined intellectual and spiritual demolition exercise to refute and recover from evidence; African history, civilizations and dignity. The author, Cheikh Anta Diop is an African giant and a Senegalese intellectual with specialisation in over 4 disciplines including chemistry, nuclear physics, history and anthropology. A Senegalese university is named after him. So let us get insight from the summary.

Summary

Prior to a reading this book one must be attentive to basic housekeeping including (a) accept as normal that timelines go back to remote antiquity extending 20,000+ years, (b) European invasion of Africa 500 year ago and ongoing super-exploitation depend on superior weapons and disrespect for life, (c) dehumanisation of Africans and other indigenous peoples by Europeans is deliberate, conditioned, strategic and existential. 

The author addressed 3 questions – Do Africans have a history? Is Ancient Egypt African .i.e. indigenous Black? Did indigenous (Black) Africans build/develop the first human civilization? At this point it is critical to state that reading this book should be more of a spiritual journey than a fulfilling a historical curiosity. You must be ready to accept your vulnerabilities by unlearning and relearning. 

Using archaeological, archival and historical records from multiple sources including available carbon-dating results on artifacts, Diop set to work. He diligently dismantled and overthrew prior European epistemic impositions, unscientific debasements and intellectual inauthenticity invested to eliminate indigenous Africans (Blacks) from humankind by attributing ancient Egyptian grandeur to white-pigmented peoples of non-African origin.

He traced ancient black ancestry before the first Pharoah Menes (3000s BC) and also connected Egyptian origin to Osiris and Isis as real African ancestors. His hypothesis of African history and African civilizations by indigenous black peoples aligned with earlier conclusions by Volney, Emile Amelineau and Edouard Naville. He also located Anu as the first blacks to occupy Egypt (kymt), and they came from Nubia in modern Sudan. Kymt in ancient Egyptian means black.  Hence the phrase Black Africa or Black African is onomatopoeic. A full-bodied tautology!  

One of the most important (minority) positions in favour of black indigenous origin of ancient Egypt in European scholarship was Emile Amelineau whom Diop quoted thus, “Egyptian civilization is not Asiatic, but of African origin, of negroid origin, however paradoxical this may seem. We are not accustomed, in fact, to endow the Black or related races with too much intelligence, or even with enough intelligence to make the first discoveries necessary for civilization. Yet, there is not a single tribe inhabiting the African interior that has not possessed and does not still possess at least one of those first discoveries.”

He argued the case of absent evidence of ancient light-pigmented foreigners from Europe and Asia building civilizations in Africa because they built none in their original lands. Moreover he drilled down the lack of evidence of any civilization originating on the Nile delta rather showed how all evidence point to population movements from the African interior including Nubia, Ethiopia and the South. Herodotus declared as much in his Histories. He stressed that the so-called cradles of civilizations are unscientific innovations by Europeans. He concluded that there is only one human race whose origin is Africa hence the primacy of indigenous African, Black and negroid civilizations.

Diop used different themes to reference evidence from history, culture, religion, anthropology, language and geography. From legends, paintings, records, books and calendar he confirmed that Osiris and Isis were genuine human persons from upper Egypt (Nubia, Ethiopia and South interior). Book of the Dead and Texts of the Pyramids were interpreted. He highlighted Africans’ development of first effective calendar which took dedicated astronomical observations for millennia prior to its first roll out in 4236 BC.

From anthropology he laid out the role of totems which is the collective affinity or community relationships to specific animals. Hieroglyphic animals interestingly are denoted by only species found in the African interior.  Furthermore he affirmed that circumcision is indigenous to Africa as part of religious rituals for land-based civilization. He discerned how Old Testament biblical data correlated the initial non-African male circumcisions with their marriages to African women. Even today many non-African Christians don’t practice male circumcision and wherever it is practiced reinforce priority of previous African connection, sojourn or encounter with culture. Migration records show that biblical Canaan was populated by Africans. Other sources show archaeological excavations in modern Iran of African peoples and near the Arctic Circle in Greenland.   

This book is too important to ignore despite its age. While some of the content is dated considering contemporary research the central thesis remains unchanged as well as his findings. Diop argued persuasively that ancient Egyptian civilization with her advanced knowledge and sophisticated engineering was built by indigenous black Africans whose origin is Nubia and southern interior of Africa. The first pyramids were built in the south. As Diop declared that civilizations apriori “existed in Black lands well before any historical contacts with Europeans” before waves of migration came later from outside. These ancient civilizations laid the foundation for social organisation/stratification (matriarchy), kingship (vitalistic prerogative), cosmology (with existence a melding of being plus force), religion (Black Madonna, 30 -day fasting, 7-day daily prayers facing the cardinal points) and etc. There is more to this book for genuine seekers particularly Africans whose ancient histories are lost but more tragically suffer currently from strategic loss of civilizational operating system. 

Conclusion

What Diop embarked upon with his colleagues as a righteous scientific reversal of intergenerational humiliation is now vindicated by relevant and consistent scientific evidence. It is a scientific fact that human life started in Africa, specifically homo sapiens sapiens originated in Africa with dark skin, broad nose, thick lips and curly hair. Other human migrations left from Africa in different waves. It is also a scientific fact that only one DNA exist for all human being hence there is only one human race.  Contrary arguments are regressive innovations for epistemic, genocidal and imperialistic designs. Lastly, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History unwittingly but with maturity validated Cheikh Anta Diop’s ground-breaking initiative to restore Africans to their rightful historical dignity and primacy of civilizational integrity. This is the undeniable, unavoidable and uncomfortable truth of human being and human existence. 

This book is highly recommended. Happy Reading.

Life is beautiful!