The house in Dakar of the Senegalese scholar and Egyptologist Cheikh Anta Diop, author of several works for the rehabilitation of black African civilizations, will become a museum, Senegalese Prime Minister Amadou Bâ announced on Friday, December 29, 2023, on the occasion of the centenary of the birth of the historian.
“It is with immense honor and deep emotion that we gather today to inaugurate the Cheikh Anta Diop House, a place that pays homage to one of the most enlightened minds of our time,” said Mr. Bâ, in the presence of members of the scholar’s family, government officials and academics.
The museum “will house Professor Diop’s personal collection, his archives and his works, thereby making an invaluable treasure of knowledge available to future generations,” the Prime Minister said. He called for making it “a center for research, reflection and transmission of knowledge”, a place “where ideas and knowledge can flourish and be shared”.
The house which will house the future museum is located in the residential district of Fann in Dakar, near the university and the institute which bear the name of the scholar.
Political opponent
Cheikh Anta Diop, born on December 29, 1923 in the village of Ceytou (center), lived with his family in this official accommodation upon his return to Senegal in September 1960, after studying in France, until his death in February 1986 in Dakar. He rests in Ceytou.
Several cultural events were organized in December to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Cheikh Anta Diop, whose work helped rehabilitate black African civilizations, according to historians.
According to his theses, Blacks played a leading role in the birth of the civilization of Pharaonic Egypt, during Antiquity, and several civilizations – Greek in particular – were influenced by the Egyptians, particularly in the fields of science. .
Cheikh Anta Diop’s theses on an Egypt where blacks played a major role in Antiquity are contested by certain Egyptologists, including Westerners.
Professor Diop’s bibliography also includes works devoted to the history of Africa, its languages and the continent’s societies, but also to physics, politics and economics. Professor Diop, who called for the creation of a federal state of black Africa, was also an opponent of the first president of Senegal, Léopold Sédar Senghor (1960-1980), as well as his successor Abdou Diouf (1981- 2000).