different published and unpublished works, Diop successfully overturned racist myths about Phar- aonic Egypt’s alleged white origins. Diop’s schol- arship was complex and covered many disciplines, which he summed up in UNESCO’s General History of Africa about Africa from Afrocentric perspectives.20 While , the first multi-volume encyclopedic series- tainly removed Egypt from Eurocentric myth and not all scholars agree with Diop’s findings, he cer

Martinplaced it firmly Gardiner within Africa. Bernal Martin Gardiner Bernal, who like Diop sought to work against the legacies of European racism, im- perialism, and colonialism, argued that some of the great wisdom of Pharaonic Egypt contributed to the glory of ancient Greek civilization—the Athens of Socrates, his student Plato, and Plato’s student Aris- totle. Using linguistics, ancient manuscripts, and ar- chaeology, Bernal challenged Eurocentric academ- ics to revise their understanding of the relationship between Pharaonic Egypt and Greece.21 Many classi- cists and Egyptologists argued that there had been no substantial Egyptian contribution to Greek civ- ilization. Countering that view, Bernal argued that Cheikh Anta Diop spent much of his life analyzing ancient peoples had noted the connection between the relationship between ancient Egypt and West Egypt and Greece, but during the nineteenth and Africa, especially Senegal. twentieth centuries, Europeans severed that link also contributed to the effort to see African history because of notions of European imperial supremacy through the African experience.19 - idence. Bernal’s arguments were quite provocative, Cheikh Anta Diop inand part pseudo-scientific because he inferred racism, that not his because academic of new oppo ev- Cheikh Anta Diop was born in Senegal and edu- nents supported a racist interpretation. His critics cated in an Islamic school that followed the Murid also challenged his use of linguistics and his inter- teachings of Amadou Bamba. He carried out his pretation of art. advanced academic work at the University of Paris. Like Diop before him, Bernal helped place Egypt Like Martin Bernal, Diop drew upon his deep inter- among the great civilizations of the world, one cre- disciplinary knowledge of history, linguistics, so- ated by Africans. Together with other academics, ciology, archaeology, colonialism, and Egyptology. Diop and Bernal helped to restore respect for Af- Unlike Bernal, Diop also earned degrees in chemis- try and worked in nuclear physics. He spent much of of the African past, and enhanced African contribu- his life analyzing the relationship between ancient tionsrica and to ourits peoples, common recovered humanity. significant Cheikh Anta portions Diop Egypt and West Africa, especially Senegal. His com- and Martin Bernal spent much of their academic patriots thought so highly of him they changed the lives exploring the relationship between humans name of Senegal’s national university, Université de and Africa. Now that it is clear that all humans are Dakar, to Université Cheikh Anta Diop. descendants of Africans who migrated out of Africa Much of Diop’s research was driven by his desire about 70,000 years ago, humanity itself can now be to disprove Eurocentric notions that whites, not Af- “centered.” ricans, created the Egypt of the Pharaohs. In many Section I of your Resource Guide has introduced

16 USAD Social Science Resource Guide • 2017–2018