Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #114081 in Books
• Published on: 1991-04-01
• Original language: French
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781556520488
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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From Library Journal
This last work of the well-known Senegalese scholar (1923-86) is a summation and expansion of his two previous volumes-- Precolonial Black Africa (1987) and The African Origin of Civilization (1974)--and offers a refined statement of his life's work, to prove the primacy of African culture by proving that ancient Egypt was a black society, first in many cultural achievements later claimed by the following Indo-Aryan cultures. To this end, Diop discusses the paleontology, sociology, anthropology, and intellectual history of the ancient Egyptians set against contemporaneous cultures and also the modern Wolofs. This is a fascinating and frustrating volume. The organization is patchy; one central section seems to have gone off-course into an apology for Marxist political theory; the translation stumbles badly, especially in the early chapters; and one feels that history is being stretched (a la Velikovsky) on the author's Procrustean bed of African genesis. But Diop's erudition is patent, his place in African letters is secure, and his major works should certainly be available. For academic and large public collections.
-Jo-Ann D. Suleiman, SANAD Support Technologies, Rockville, Md.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

About the Author

Customer Reviews

A masterpiece of scholarship
Diop demonstrates his multidisciplinary genius in this book. His scientific approach leaves no stone unturned, even when dealing with linguistics. He addresses so many topics, from the origins of civilisation to political and social organisation in ancient states. I especially treasure the chapters on Africa's contribution to humanity in sciences and philosophy. A real eye-opener. Mostly French speaking authors are referenced and critiqued though. It's a shame there aren't more African scholars following Diop's lines of research.

An interesting perspective on the origins of civilization
I'd suggest this book to anyone who is reading recent books on the origins of civilization. What I liked about it is that Diop was bringing a wealth of research that was otherwise inaccessible to me to the this issue--and I found that I could connect this history to that of Europe and Britain using other resources that I have. the issue I have with is is that some of the work struck me as oriented to handling one set of politically motivated forms of anthropology that he found objectionable-but he didn't consider the work of a lot of other major authors (i.e. the work of Lewis Spence on connections between North Africa and Ancient Britain). I thought Diops criticisms of Gimubutus were especially interesting.

No wonder there is Racism!!!!
Reading this book, by a profound author by the name of Cheikh Anta Diop, as well as other great books by other great authors, leads one to understand why there is racism, for example Diop talks about life and how it started in Africa, beginning with Australopithecus,Homo habilis, Homo erectus, Homo Sabiens Sapiens then the Grimaldi Negro and the migration to Europe, you see Caucasians have only been in existence for about 20,00 years, and during Diops time they were denying that, and saying that Europe was the origin of life, and it was so racist during that time, that Anthropologist and Archaeologist got together and totally fabricated and created fake fossils better know as the "Piltdown Man, and even if you don't but this book do a engine search on that name (www.yahoo.com or www.google.com) and you will read about how hard racist tried to cover up the origin of history, the book also talks about how Arabs,Chinese,Latinos,Japanese, etc... came into existence, I wont spoil the beans for you but this is by far one of the best books that I have ever read, Diop does a good job with refuting racist philosophers, and one more note it is time for people to stop believing in His-Story and read real History, because you saw how they are still trying to depict Jesus like an European, and it clearly states in Rev 1:14,15 that he had woolly hair and bronze feet, so you see racism is still here Brothers and Sisters.