diasporicroots: Cheikh Anta Diop (29 December 1923 - 7 February 1986) Senegalese anthropologist and
diasporicroots: Cheikh Anta Diop (29 December 1923 - 7 February 1986) Senegalese anthropologist and radiocarbon physicist Cheikh Anta Diop is hailed as one of the greatest African historians. Diop was studying physics for a doctorate in Paris in 1951 when he caused quite a stir at the university because of his Ph.D. thesis on the black African origins of ancient Egypt was rejected as unsuitable by his assessors. Not being easily discouraged, Diop boldly labored for nine more years to make the evidence in his thesis so airtight that, when he resubmitted the thesis again, this time it was grudgingly accepted. Hardened by those struggles and the bias he encountered against the African origin idea, Diop went further and published his thesis under the title Nations Ne'gres et culture , and very soon he became a national defender of the African origins theory. In his native country of Senegal, Diop founded the radiocarbon laboratory at the university of Dakar, became it’s first director, and used this cutting edge technology to continue his research on the ethnic origins of the Egyptian civilization. Diops argument was simple and straightforward: it was possible to know the skin color of an ancient corpse by microscopic analysis of the melanin content in the body. His critics countered by saying it was not fullproof and that possible contamination of the embalming unguents and the deterioration of the corpse over the centuries made the result dubious, but these objections were in turn addressed by Diop. His crowning moment was In 1974 Diop and college Obenga carefully presented their findings to a large number of professional Egyptologist and anthropologists at the people of ancient Egypt symposium in Cairo organized by UNESCO World Heritage. They were ignored, the attending Egyptologists had not even bothered to prepare for a proper balanced debate. There biased conviction was so entrenched that they merely listened politely and then ignored the issue at hand. The UNESCO organizers, however were clearly impressed by Diop and commissioned him to write the entry on the origins of the pharaohs in their general history of Africa published in 1981. Lesson to be learned Never give up, Cheikh never gave up, his unflinching resolve and determination led to a rethink of ancient history. He was one of the first Africans to properly challenge traditional history. references: Bauval, R. Brophy, T. (2011) Black Genesis: The Prehistoric Origins of Ancient Egypt. Bear & Company -- source link