2018 Cheikh Anta Diop International Conference
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WWW.DIOPIANINSTITUTE.ORG WWW.DIOPIANINSTITUTE.ORG 2 2018 Cheikh Anta Diop International Conference FRIDAY & SUNDAY, OCTOBER 12-13 African American Museum of Philadelphia 701 Arch St, Philadelphia, PA 19106 PRESENTED BY: EXECUTIVE COUNCIL Dr. Katherine Bankole-Medina, Coppin State University Dr. Latoyia Bailey, School District of Philadelphia Dr. Ifetayo Flannery, San Francisco State University Dr. Marquita Gammage, University of California, Northridge Raven Moses, Temple University Dr. Jennifer Williams, Loyola Marymount University Dr. Doñela Wright, San Francisco State University Stephanie Yarbough, Temple University VOLUNTEERS Claire Vilain, Temple University Tristan Samuels, Temple University Tarik Richardson, Temple University Ife Changa, Osholene Oshobugie, University of Toronto WWW.DIOPIANINSTITUTE.ORG 3 2018 Cheikh Anta Diop International Conference MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Dear Colleagues, I would like to welcome you to the 30th Annual Cheikh Anta Diop International Conference. We are celebrating a significant milestone of our convening, and we declare boldly that we are still here, seeking truth, generating knowledge, fostering community, and standing in dignity. The Diopian Institute for Scholarly Advancement (DISA) is devoted to praxis and theory of the Afrocentric Intellectual tradition. Our commitment is to expand Cheikh Anta Diop's invocation of using all the techniques and tools at our disposal, as well as, dialoguing exhaustively as a community about our work, in order to broaden, clarify, and solidify Africana ideas and experiences. This year, we chose the theme, "30 Years Later: Afrocentric Scholarship in Praxis at the Cheikh Anta Diop Conference," to be a critical reflection of not only the types of Afrocentric scholarship we produce, but an interrogation of how it is implemented in the world. To be part of an institution that has survived 30 years is a reminder that we have journeyed far, but we will not retire. We are remarkable group of those selflessly dedicated to the welfare and future of African people across time and space. DISA extends this opportunity annually so that all peoples committed to this work may reflect, reexamine, rework, and reassess if the tools and knowledges we have generated thus far are the most truthful, complex, straight-forward, reproducible, valid, innovative, and applicable techniques, philosophies, and information. Ever year, we solicit papers from an international cadre of scholars to update, reframe, modernize, and re-engage African global intellectual legacies. Every year, the Diop Conference has brought together a community of noteworthy scholars, artists, educators, and activists to discuss, debate, and collaborate on concepts and projects that inspire and empower African people worldwide. Ever year, we are honored with presenters who serve as exemplars of Afrocentric scholarship because they aim to restore harmony and integrity in the lives of African people. Over the last few months, the Executive Council has taken time to reflect on our role to our community. What we determined is that we have to grow as our community has grown. We have to adapt to the winds of change, while maintaining our mission. We have to have victorious consciousness and stand confidently as the avante-garde of Afrocentric scholarship and praxis. WWW.DIOPIANINSTITUTE.ORG 4 2018 Cheikh Anta Diop International Conference MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR When we say we must move forward, we must actively move forward… In fulfilling our commitment, our goal for the next few years is to plant seeds of ideologies, cultivate our community, and generate new spaces of intellectual honing. We hope you support us in our endeavors. Furthermore, I ask that our participants support us by joining in our pledge to growth. We ask that when you leave the event, you leave with a plan to recommit to African peoples’ social development. Support, join, and create new organizations. Write. Create art. Ask what the community needs. Generate data. Publish widely and broadly. Use technologies that are efficient and effective. Edit and support journals. Organize conferences, workshops, seminars. Fund institutions and individuals. Provide resources, support and wisdom. Live fully as African people. Period. Cheikh Anta Diop speaks powerfully about his aims for the future, We must continue. We must have a heightened awareness of the nature of the work to be done, of the effort to be undertaken. I believe this is the most important thing. To know what has to be done has nothing to do with the brevity of human life. To solve problems by organizing the work because it is not possible, in the space of one human life to solve all the problems posed by our cultural birth. But I believe that now the African peoples throughout the world are sufficiently aware and sensitive to the task to be undertaken and that is a great step. What is important is the organization of the work. As I have often said, we must be very severe with ourselves. We must be armed to the teeth with science to reconquer our cultural inheritance. This is the task which awaits the future generation. As long as I live, I will assist in the formation of interdisciplinary teams for the pursuit of this task. – Diop, 1985. On behalf of the Executive Council, I thank you for joining us, in our commitment to growth in days of both plenty and dearth. The continued success of the conference depends on our commitment to the work and to each other. Let us continue. Ankh. Wedja. Seneb. Jennifer Williams,PhD; Executive Director, DISA WWW.DIOPIANINSTITUTE.ORG 5 2018 Cheikh Anta Diop International Conference The History of the Cheikh Anta Diop International Conference The Cheikh Anta Diop International Conference was initiated by Molefi K. Asante to coincide with the introduction of the first doctoral program in African American Studies at Temple University. The conference was called in October, 1988, and featured many of the new students who had enrolled in the Department of African American Studies at Temple. The Cheikh Anta Diop Conference had three objectives: 1) introduction of the new discipline, 2) professional and collegial networking among students and faculty in Black Studies, and 3) advancement of disciplinary knowledge around the Afrocentric idea. Named for the brilliant Senegalese scholar, Cheikh Anta Diop, who single- handedly revised the text on African antiquity by writing several books exposing the methods Europeans had employed to falsify African history, the conference assumed a leadership role in the projection of Afrocentric consciousness. From the beginning, the CAD Conference was defined as an instrument where space for intellectual growth could be created and sustained in an environment of free discourse. Diop had been the inspiration for the conference because, in his two important works translated into English—The African Origin of Civilization and Civilization or Barbarism—he had demonstrated the advantages of sound scholarship over shoddy work. His research methods were multidimensional and his expertise was sharp, always projecting a measure of African intellectual integrity in pursuit of truth. The conference has attracted participants from Africa, Asia, North and South America, Europe and Australia and was affiliated with Temple University until 1996, when it became affiliated with the Association for Kemetic Nubian Heritage (ANKH). In 2008 The Diopian Institute for Scholarly Advancement took over underwriting the conference and is now responsible for the organization, personnel, and programming. Considered by professionals in the field of Black Studies as one of the key conferences each year, the Cheikh Anta Diop International Conference has achieved the singular status of most preferred professional conference in African American Studies. * Adapted from Garvey Musmunu’s entry in Encyclopedia of Black Studies WWW.DIOPIANINSTITUTE.ORG 6 2018 Cheikh Anta Diop International Conference Cheikh Anta Diop Per Aa of African Studies Cheikh Anta Diop, one of the major world scholars, was born near Diourbel, Senegal on December 29, 1923. At the age of twenty- three, he went to Paris, France to continue advanced studies in physics. Within a very short time, however, he was drawn deeper into studies relating to the African origins of humanity and civilization. Becoming more and more active in the African student movements and demanding the independence of French colonial possessions, he became convinced that only by reexamining and restoring Africa's distorted, maligned, and obscured place in world history could the physical and psychological shackles of colonialism be lifted from all African people. His initial doctoral dissertation submitted at the University of Paris, Sorbonne in 1951, based on the premise that Egypt of the pharaohs was an African civilization was rejected by his committee. Nevertheless, Alioune Diop, publisher of Presence Africaine, determined to publish under the title Nations Negres et Culture in 1955 and it won him international acclaim. Two additional attempts to have his doctorate granted were turned back until 1960 when he entered his defense session with an array of sociologists, anthropologists and historians and successfully carried his argument. After nearly a decade of effort, Diop won his battle for the doctorate. By this time, Diop had other intellectual works -- the Cultural Unity of Black Africa and Precolonial Black Africa, as a result of his studies. During his student days, Cheikh Anta Diop was an avid political activist. From 1950 to 1953 he was the Secretary-General of the Rassemblement Democratique Africain (RDA) and helped establish the first Pan-African Student Congress in Paris in 1951. He also participated in the First World Congress of Black Writers and Artists held in Paris in 1956 and the second such Congress held in Rome in 1959. Upon returning to Senegal in 1960, Diop continued his research and established a radiocarbon laboratory in Dakar. In 1966, the First World Black Festival of Arts and Culture held in Dakar, Senegal honored Dr. Diop and Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois as the scholars who exerted the greatest influence on African thought in twentieth century.