Cheikh Anta Diop

Cheikh Anta Diop (29 December 1923 – 7 February 1986) was a Senegalese historian, anthropologist, physicist, and pan-african political leader.

Cheikh Anta Diop
Cheikh Anta Diop
Born	December 29, 1923 Diourbel Region,Senegal
Died	February 7, 1986 Dakar, Senegal
Nationality	Senegal
Known for	The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality, Civilization or Barbarism: an authentic anthropology, Black Africa: the economic and cultural basis for a federated state , Precolonial Black Africa, The Cultural Unity of Black Africa: The Domains of Patriarchy and of Matriarchy in Classical Antiquity
Field of study	History, Anthropology

Diop's work is considered foundational to Afrocentric Historiography and Afrocentricity more broadly. The questions he posed about cultural bias in scientific research and colonial historiography contributed greatly to the "postcolonial" turn in the study of the history and structures of African civilizations away from the european and colonial conceptions, mostly through his studies of Ancient Egypt. This is sometimes referred to as Diopian Historiography.. Cheikh Anta Diop advanced multiple theories, including the Two Cradle Theory, African Matriarchy, and Egypt as a black civilization.

Cheikh Anta Diop University (formerly known as the University of Dakar), in Dakar, Senegal, is named after him. The African Renaissance movement was founded in the early 1990s by Théophile Obenga and Cheikh M'Backe Diop to expand upon the ideas of Cheikh Anta Diop. The Cheikh Anta Diop International Conference was initiated by Molefi Kete Asante to coincide with the introduction of the first doctoral program in African American Studies at Temple University, first held in October 1988.