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On April 4, 1985 the honorary
degree of Doctor of Humane
Letters was conferred upon
Professor Cheikh Anta Diop,
director of the Radiocarbon
Laboratory at the Fundamental
Institute of Black Africa (IFAN) at
the University of Dakar in Dakar,
Senegal. The convocation was
held in the great nave of the
Martin Luther King, Jr. Inter
national Chapel at Morehouse
College before over two thou
sand students, faculty, staff and
citizens of greater Atlanta.
Dr. Diop’s eight-day lecture
tour in Atlanta and Washington,
D.C. was made possible by Delta
Airlines providing a complimen
tary ticket on their inaugural
flight from Paris to Atlanta on
April 2nd. Dr. Hugh M. Gloster,
president of Morehouse
College, Mayor Andrew Young,
Dr. Joseph E. Lowery, SCLC
president, and Dr. Lawrence E.
Carter, dean of King Chapel,
extended the invitation to Dr.
Diop in January through Dr.
Charles S. Finch, of the
Morehouse School of Medicine
who met with Dr. Diop in
London, England. Ronald Allen,
president and John W. Cox, vice
president of Delta Airlines, both
arranged Dr. Diop’s flights from
Dakar to Paris, to Atlanta, to
Washington and return via Delta.
Professor Diop addressed the
black College presidents in D.C.
on April 3rd at their annual
National Association of Equal
Opportunity and Higher Educa
tion meeting. His topic was "The
New Renaissance: Black
Colleges In The Rediscovery of
Africa's Contribution to World
Civilization.”
In his honorary degree cita
tion, President Gloster said,
"Cheikh Anta Diop: Man of
many talents, you are not limited
to one profession. You have
climbed to the heights in physics,
history, anthropology,
sociology, linguistics, and
politics. In this period of
specialization you are a
Renaissance man with an out
standing record of achievement
in many fields.
"As a young man in Senegal,
you demonstrated great genius
in physics and went to Paris at the
age of 23 to do advanced studies
in that field. Within a short time,
however, you became interested
in studies of the origin of African
civilization. Eventually you
became convinced that only
through restoration of Africa’s
importance in world history
could the cultural shackles of
colonialism be removed. Your
first doctoral dissertation, show
ing that Egypt was a black African
civilization, was rejected but was
later published under the title of
Black Nations and Culture in
1955. This book won wide
acclaim, but two additional
attempts to receive your doc
torate were turned back. Even
tually, in 1960, you defended
your dissertation, received the
degree of Docteur es Lettres, and
published The Cultural Unity of
Black Africa and Pre-Colonial
Black Africa.”
“But as a young man you were
more than an investigator work
ing in libraries and among ruins;
you were also a fearless activist
fighting for the liberation of
French colonies in Africa. From
1950 to 1953 you were Secretary-
General of the Democratic
African Assembly, and you
helped launch the first Pan-
African Student Congress in Paris
in 1951. You also participated in
the first World Congress of Black
Writers and Artists in Paris in 1956
and in the second such Congress
in Rome in 1959. After returning
to Senegal in 1960, you par
ticipated in the first World Black
Festival of Arts and Culture held
in 1966 in Dakar. In 1974 your
principal books were translated
into English, and since then you
have published two additional
books including Civilization or
Barbarism.”
"You are currently Director of
the Fundamental Institute of
Black Africa at the University of
Dakar, you sit on numerous
scholarly committees, and you
are recognized as one of the
outstanding researchers of the
world. One writer has hailed you
as the "Pharoah” of African
studies.... you have established
yourself along with W.E.B.
DuBois as one of the two out
standing black scholars of the
20th century.”
Dr. Diop’s most famous book
in the United States is African
Origin of Civilization: Myth of
Reality translated by Dr. Mercer
Cook.
In his address, Dr. Diop con
tends that "as far as science
knows today, before 30,000 B.C.
there were no whites in ex
istence. Yellow appeared even
later, around 15-20,000 B.C.
Today, science can rely on
irrefutable material evidence ot
illustrate these facts.”
"Considering that mankind
developed in Africa and that this
first mankind was black-skinned,
blacks had to be at the origin of
the world’s first civilizations.
Their domination extended over
the entire globe. The overall
supremacy of the blacks extend
ed right down to the Assyrian
period."
Dr. Diop stated that, "The
Greeks were forced to come
humbly and drink at the fountain
of Egyptian culture. Therefore,
the respect paid the black man at
that time was immense, of
course, we witness the inor
dinate hatred of the Assyrians,
(Continued, pg. 6)
Ending Our 60th Anniversary