Diop, Cheikh Anta (1922–1986)

Senegalese politician and historian. He studied at the Sorbonne University, Paris, 1946–60, where he became active in anti-colonial movements and published a controversial proposition that ancient Egypt had been a purely African civilization. Returning home he founded a radical opposition party the Bloc des Masses Séénegalaise, which was dissolved in 1963 and regrouped in 1976 as the Rassemblement Nationale Démocratique (RND). In 1961 he founded the Front Nationale du Séné, which was banned in 1965. The RND was legalized by President Abdou Diouf in 1981 and led by Diop until his death, but never enjoyed popular support. Diop was widely mourned as ‘Senegal's most fertile and brilliant son, one of the fiercest fighters for Black Culture’.