For the People
Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop Pt. 2 (1985) | For the People
Season 4 Episode 5 | 29m 19sVideo has Closed Captions
Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop discusses why the pre-sapiens theory of origins in Europe and England is false.
In the second part, Dr. Diop discusses the lengths to which some geologists have gone to establish the pre-sapiens theory, using a fake fossil, fabricated to establish that man had his origins in Europe and especially in England. There are American anthropologists who took this theory as their own and defended it, and we know today that it is false.
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For the People is a local public television program presented by SCETV
Support for this program is provided by The ETV Endowment of South Carolina.
For the People
Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop Pt. 2 (1985) | For the People
Season 4 Episode 5 | 29m 19sVideo has Closed Captions
In the second part, Dr. Diop discusses the lengths to which some geologists have gone to establish the pre-sapiens theory, using a fake fossil, fabricated to establish that man had his origins in Europe and especially in England. There are American anthropologists who took this theory as their own and defended it, and we know today that it is false.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipListervelt Middleton> Good evening, and welcome to the final part of our interview with one of the leading international scholars in the fields of anthropology and Egyptology, Dr.
Cheikh Anta Diop.
Dr.
Diop, a nuclear physicist, is director of the radiocarbon laboratory at the University of Dakar in Senegal.
In this segment, Dr.
Diop discusses a scheme designed to.
Well, let's take a look.
Elizabeth Clements> [translation] This is a picture of the Piltdown Man.
And it is to demonstrate to you the lengths to which certain anthropologists have gone to establish their theories.
The Piltdown Man was created by a British anthropologist in 1912 by the name of- Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] Downson.
A geologist, I'm sorry.
He was a geologist, Mr.
Downson.
(Dawson) Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] He fabricated by piece by piece, this...fake fossil.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] He dug in the, in the dirt in Sussex.
In English, in England.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] Like modern man.
He has that, he has eyes and he has the forehead as we do, as modern man does.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] You can see that, that his mandible, I think it's called.
<Yes.> Clements> [translation] Is that of a monkey.
<Yeah.> And it's canine's.
<Yes.> Are that of a, of a monkey.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] From this fabrication grew, a theory called the pre-sapian theory, which was, was manufactured to establish that this man was the predecessor of modern man.
Dr.
Diop> Yeah.
[Speaking French] >> [translation] And that, in fact, man had his origins or was born in Europe.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] And especially in England.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] >> [translation] And there are American anthropologists which who, who took this theory as their own and, and defended it.
And we know today that it is false.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] And in France also there were anthropologists who defended the theory.
And of course, we now know it was false.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] And we know that it is false.
So we learned that it was false by another anthropologist, English anthropologist, who analyzed it and discovered that it was in fact a fake Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] Professor Oakley Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] It was in 1955 that Professor Oakley, working at the British Museum, analyzed this fossil and discovered it to be false.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] >> But the, the bad had already been done for 50 years.
This was the theory that made, that created the clash between the poly centric and the mono centric theories.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] So we must give credit to those, to those, anthropologists or those scientists who who are working with a clear head and a clear, clear idea or objective, spirit.
And we must note them as we go along, as we must note, Professor Oakley, in this case.
Listervelt> You have spent much of your life studying the history of the ancient Egyptians.
Who were the ancient Egyptians.
How did they look?
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] >> [translation] Here you have the first king of the earth, the very first.
And the Egyptians, the ancient Egyptians looked like this man.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] You can see that he has those traits that are associated with the black <feature> those features associated with the Black race, which are even more pronounced than many of the people here.
It was this man who unified the Nile Valley from Upper to Lower Egypt.
And this was 3300 years before Jesus Christ.
Dr.
Diop> Yes.
[Speaking French] >> [translation] You can see by his features and those of the pharaohs and kings that, that will follow it.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] You can see that they were not a people that started as Whites and became progressively more Black.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] They were instead of Black people and authentic Black people but which never ceased to be Blacks.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] >> [translation] You can see that, that the first men, the first the Egyptians were Black men like Black men that you see in Africa now.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] >> [translation] This is a very important reproduction, Dr.
Cheikh Anta Diop> [Speaking French] >> [translation] This is found in the tomb of Ramses the third.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] >> [translation] The 20th dynasty Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] The person on the left- Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] This is the general type represented by the Egyptian artist himself.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] And the second person or personage is the general type of all the European, <Yes.> represented by the artist.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] >> [translation] And the third personage is, the general type representing all the other groups found at the interior of the continent.
Dr.
Diop> of the Africa.
>> of the continent of Africa.
Dr.
Diop> Right.
[Speaking French] >> [translation] The fourth personage is the general type of all of the Semites living in that area of Asia.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] This is- Dr.
Diop> the different race >> [translation] The different races represented by the artist.
And these are the races that existed in his time as he saw them.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] >> [translation] We are 1,200 years before Jesus Christ.
Dr.
Diop> Yeah.
[Speaking French] >> [translation] So, the Egyptians were never confused with the Europeans Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] And they never became different from on the on an ethnic plane from the other Africans.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] So this is fairly significant from this point of view.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] This was discovered by an German scientist who is called Lepsius.
Dr.
Cheikh Anta Diop> [Speaking French] >> [translation] And before this you have not seen this reproduced in any other, in any other forms.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] or any other work.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] And so you can see how history departed little by little from the reality.
Listervelt> How did ancient writers describe the ancient Egyptians?
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] All of the writers of ancient Greek and ancient Rome agreed.
<Yes.> That Egyptians of their epoch, of their time were in fact Black.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] But these were the Egyptians of the end of the great Egyptian civilization.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] For a period of some 900 years, beginning at the fourth century before Jesus Christ, and going through the fifth century after, the Greeks were constantly witnessing to the fact that the Egyptians were Black.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] So, they would be considered Black from there origins, from their beginnings all the way to the end of their civilization, as is indicated by the first king, the slide, which we saw.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] I will show you quickly the, others.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] You have (Dr.
Diop Speaks French) Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] This is the third dynasty of Egyptian civilization, here.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] 2,800 B.C.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] It was Em dynasty?
(Dr.
Diop confirms in French) Clements> [translation] With this king in the third dynasty.
All of the things that we admire the Egyptians for are already in place.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] The great Egyptian architecture was evolved under his, his reign.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] Two thousand three hundred years before the birth of architecture in Greece.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] You can say, It can be said that at that point the Greeks didn't even exist in history.
<Yes.> (Dr.
Diop speaking French) >> Mathematic, medicine, Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] >> [translation] Everything was already in place during his reign.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] >> [translation] And so civilization or Egyptian civilization as we know it was born under the reign of these pharaohs.
Dr.
Cheikh Anta Diop> [Speaking French] >> [translation] This is the Sphinx.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Napoleon...Napoli Italia... Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] >> [translation] These are, Frenchmen who, were part of it on top of the Sphinx.
They are measuring there on top of the Sphinx.
They were part of a mission that accompanied Napoleon.
I'm sorry.
(Dr.
Diop speaking French) Clements> [translation] In the 19th century.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] You see that the profile of the Sphinx at that time was even was more authentically African than it is now.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] The wind and the sand has eroded the sphinx considerably.
(Dr.
Diop speaks French and English) Dr.
Diop>...Sphinx at the British Museum.
>> [translation] The nose of the Sphinx is in the British Museum.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] And they are unable, the Egyptians are unable to have it back again to compare it with this... Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] It's perhaps because the features are so typically African that no one wants to see that, that comparison be made.
Listervelt> When was this slide, this drawing rendered done?
[Translator speaks French] Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] [Translator hesitates] [Dr.
Diop speaks French] [Translator speaks French] [Dr.
Diop and translator converse in French] Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] The end of the 19th century.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] [continues speaking French] [Dr.
Diop Speaking French] African tulip, purple Africa.
Dr.
Cheikh Anta Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] This is Amenhotep the first.
And you can see that he is.
This is.
He was his natural skin color.
He is not painted... Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] >> [translation] And you can also see that his hair is kinky.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] It is this dynasty represented here that, that conquers all of the Western world.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] All of Western Asia Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] And also all of the Aegean Sea Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] >> [translation] This is the period of African imperialism.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] It's at that point that, that it is at this point that Africans had the imperial initiative.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] And they dominated all of the people from the Mediterranean all the way into to the Far East.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] It was of this dynasty, Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] Where you recall Moses the Third, <Yeah> Clements> [translation] conquered 111... Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] 111 states in all.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] And they made them part of the Egyptian empire.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] Here you have Ramses the second and a Tootsie warrior.
You're...It's remarkable.
The, the similarity between the tootsie's hair, hairdo.
and the helmet worn by the Pharaoh.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] He is one of the certainly one of the most prestigious of the, Egyptian pharaohs.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] And you see the same reality, Anthropological reality that is African.
The similarities between the two.
Dr.
Cheikh Anta Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] You can see another another Pharaoh who is also Black (Dr.
Diop speaking English) typical, Clements> [translation] typical of, of that time.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] This is the founder of the 11th dynasty, Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] For some 1000 years, the city of Theb in Upper Egypt worshiped this pharaoh.
(silence) Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] Here, here you see the represent, representation of one people who always indicated their gods to be Black of skin color.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] This is the inventor of mono, monotheism, <Yes.> the first to say that there was one god.
<Right.> Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] (silence) Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] This is the first pharaoh to say that there is one God, and that he must not be, that God must not be represented by images.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] He was before Moses, Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] There was no Bible.
Not yet.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] And so it is even Africa that is the origin of monotheistic religion, as well.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] This pharaoh had six daughters with his queen Nefertari Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] One of the daughters is in the lap of the Queen.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] You see her again in... Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] See how she is typically African.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] An, an African would know that this is a totemic hairdo.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] >> [translation] I have compared her with, with one of the the African tribes that is known for the forming of the head of the skull.
<Yeah.> Dr.
Cheikh Anta Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] This is taken from <Professor Finch> one of the magazines, one of the, reviews or journals of, Dr.
Van Sotomayor and Dr.
Finch.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] I chose these because they are so much better done than others that I have.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] This is the pharaoh on the left.
And this is his mother, on the right?
Her name is Thai.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] This woman had a preeminent role in diplomacy in Egypt at that time.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] >> [translation] All of the kings that I've spoken to about, who made their conquests of up to the, Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] >> [translation] In the previous dynasty.
<Right> Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] >> [translation] wrote to this woman, Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] >> [translation] to intervene in these matters with her son.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] >> [translation] So that they could be in the good graces of this king.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] The fellow was still very young.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] There you see this mother who, who is so typically African and then you see next to her also typically African, the first prophet of the world.
Listervelt> Why is the history of Egypt so crucial to Black people?
What's at stake?
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] Because Egyptian civilization played the same role for Africa, that the Greco-Roman civilizations played for the Western civilization.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] If we are to create a body of, of, of the humans of social sciences, then we must part and take as a point of departure Egypt.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] Tied to ancient Egypt, Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] It's the only way to reconcile African civilization with history.
Listervelt> What would you say to the Black parent who is satisfied with his or her child learning only European or White history?
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] >> [translation] You, it's fine to learn the history of others, but you must know your own self first.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] >> [translation] If a people forgets its historical memory or loses its historical memory, it becomes a very fragile people.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] self-conscious history can permeate the rest.
Clements> [translation] The regress, and it is that historical memory which permits them to be a strong people.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] Even in the Diaspora, these ties must remain.
Dr.
Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] This can only help us make and make our lives better in the various countries in which we live, Dr.
Cheikh Anta Diop> [Speaking French] Clements> [translation] The fullness of our, our culture will help us in in, in finding or seeking the, the fraternity among races that we must have in this world.
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For the People is a local public television program presented by SCETV
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