2024-01-20 15:58:01
The “Ker Seex Anta Joob” sign (the house of Cheikh Anta Diop in Wolof) stands on the pediment of a single-storey house in the Fann district of Dakar. It was in this official accommodation, a few meters from the Cheikh-Anta-Diop University (Ucad) where he taught, that the renowned Senegalese scholar and Egyptologist lived from September 1960 to February 1986. There, he developed his work on the rehabilitation of black African civilizations in History. Under discussion for years, the project to make it a museum was announced by Prime Minister Amadou Ba on December 29, 2023 on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the scientist’s birth.
“This date was an opportunity to reflect on his legacy and how to rehabilitate his work,” explains Aminata Niang Diène, vice-rector of Ucad who will manage this heritage, an integral part of the history of Senegal. A biographical museum but not only. “We want to think of this place as a cultural, research and training institution to consolidate and perpetuate the legacy of Professor Diop by encouraging the sharing of knowledge and research,” develops the academic who hopes to open in April. The creation of an Egyptology institute is also under consideration.
Rehabilitating black African civilizations
At the age of 23, when the Senegalese student comes to continue his studies in a double course in France, he is marked by the Eurocentric vision of History “decreeing that Africans have no civilization”. “This idea being unbearable to him, he will devote himself to the rectification and rehabilitation of black African history and of the African,” develops Aboubacry Moussa Lam, historian and Egyptologist, university assistant to Cheikh Anta Diop from 1982 to 1986.
The researcher strives to prove that ancient Egypt, the cradle of humanity, was a Negro-African civilization by “cultural, linguistic kinship and social structures”, supports Mbaye Thiam, historian and archivist at Ucad, but also because of black skin color. Presented in the book Negro nations and culture (1954), Cheikh Anta Diop’s thesis was not validated until 1960.
In this colonial period, his theories gave rise to lively controversies which “take an ideological and identity turn”, underlines Mbaye Thiam. So ” he only received an honorable mention for his thesis to prevent him from teaching and spreading his ideas » reports Aboubacry Moussa Lam. Returning to Dakar at independence, this scholar created the first African radiocarbon laboratory at the University of Dakar. Although his influence is undeniable, his theories continue to be contested by certain scientists.
Pan-Africanism and heritage
“Cheikh Anta Diop contributed to the development of African consciousness and the decolonization of the narrative of History”, underlines Aboubacry Moussa Lam. Anti-colonialist humanist, opponent of Léopold Sédar Senghor and Abdou Diouf, Anta Diop also played a major role in the democratization of Senegalese political life. A convinced Pan-Africanist, he called for the creation of a federal African state, certain that only the political unity of the continent would allow its development.
A reference for pan-Africanist activists around the world, Anta Diop remains little read in Senegal and his works are not studied in the school curriculum. “It is important to revalorize its work so as not to lose this rich heritage,” insists Aminata Niang Diène. Beyond the anniversary date, the vice-rector underlines that “the museum occurs in a general movement of reappropriation and valorization of heritage on the continent, encouraged by demands for the restitution of works of art”. In recent years, museums have multiplied in Senegal: after the Museum of Black Civilizations (2018) and the house museum of the sculptor Ousmane Sow (2018), the Gorée memorial is currently being built.
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A great Senegalese thinker
Cheikh Anta Diop was born on December 29, 1923 in Ceytou and died on February 7, 1986 in Dakar.
The scientist has published two major works:Negro nations and culture. From Egyptian Negro antiquity to the cultural problems of Africa (1954) et Civilization or barbarism (nineteen eighty one). In 1970, he participated in the Unesco project to write theGeneral history of Africa.
The University of Dakar, the first university in French-speaking Africa, was renamed Cheikh-Anta-Diop University in 1987.
The museum project is inspired by the Nelson Mandela Museum in Soweto, South Africa. Léopold Sedar Senghor’s house in Dakar was also converted into a museum in 2014.
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