Review: C. A. Diop. Towards the African Renaissance: Essays in Culture and Development, 1946-1960.

Abstract

One of the less recognized works in African scholarship remains the sterling work of Cheikh Anta Diop, who charts pathways toward the overall development of Africa. Despite Diop’s contribution to African scholarship in science, language and history, his work has to date been reduced to a cold object of history. In this review, we analyze his collection of essays entitled Towards the African Renaissance: Essays in Culture and Development, a book which catches our attention as a blueprint with clearly spelled-out steps by which Africa can rediscover herself. This work can serve as a model that should influence all forms of revolutionary thought on the continent and elsewhere today.