Black Africa: The Economic and Cultural Basis for a Federated State

by Cheikh Anta Diop

This expanded edition continues Diop's campaign for the political and economic unification of the nations of black Africa. It concludes with a lengthy interview with Diop.

Genres: Africa, History, Economics, Nonfiction, Politics, African Literature

146 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1960

About the author

Cheikh Anta Diop was an Afrocentric historian, anthropologist, physicist and politician who studied the human race's origins and pre-colonial African culture.


Diop's first work translated into English, The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality, was published in 1974. It gained a much wider audience for his work. He proved that archaeological and anthropological evidence supported his view that Pharaohs were of Negroid origin. Some scholars draw heavily from Diop's groundbreaking work, , while others in the Western academic world do not accept all of Diop's theories. Diop's work has posed important questions about the cultural bias inherent in scientific research.
Diop showed above all that European archaeologists before and after the decolonization had understated and continued to understate the extent and possibility of Black civilizations.
The Swiss archaeologist Charles Bonnet's discoveries at the site of Kerma shed some light on the theories of Diop. They show close cultural links between Nubia and Ancient Egypt, though the relationship had been acknowledged for years. This does not necessarily imply a genetic relationship, however. Mainstream Egyptologists such as F. Yurco note that among peoples outside Egypt, the Nubians were closest ethnically to the Egyptians, shared the same culture in the predynastic period, and used the same pharaonoic political structure. He suggests that the peoples of the Nile Valley were one regionalized population, sharing a number of genetic and cultural traits.
Diop argued that there was a shared cultural continuity across African peoples that was more important than the varied development of different ethnic groups shown by differences among languages and cultures over time.

His books were largely responsible for, at least, the partial re-orientation of attitudes about the place of African people in history, in scholarly circles around the world.

Reviews

[JRT · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a short, but powerful piece on the paramount necessity of continental African unity. The great Cheikh Anta Diop sets forth a compelling case against any and all efforts to unify Africa on economic lines without first unifying politically. Diop argues that post-colonial Africa has not been able to secure any meaningful independence from its former Western masters because the many African states are disjointed, politically isolated from one another, and susceptible to foreign domination and external influence. He calls this problem "South Americanization" in an allusion to the similar phenomena that plagued Latin American nations once they secured their "independence" from Spain and other European powers. In short, continental African federalism is necessary to stop neo-colonialism and usher in true cultural, economic, and geo-political African independence.

Diop argues that in order to politically unify, vast sections of Africa must first adopt a common language. Second, the individual African states in the continent's various regions must be willing to cede some of their national sovereignty (specifically in the areas of foreign trade, defense, and economics) to a continental / regional political entity that has the authority to bind all the states together under common interests. Only then can unified economic interests be ensured.

Diop spends a significant portion of the book detailing Africa's vast, plentiful, and abundant natural resources. These resources give Africa the ability to industrialize and become clean-energy self-sufficient. However, Africa must first break the chains of indirect foreign rule. This can only be done by political unity among individual African states in the form of a single Federated State (or in the meantime, various regional political entities). Diop includes a 15-step program for continental African unity, and spends much time discussing the necessity of including Arab North Africa in the the program. Diop also makes clear that the unified Federated State would not be exclusionary on the basis of skin color or "race," but that no white state would be allowed to exist in Africa, as it would entail white minority rule over a Black majority, inevitably leading to war and conflict.

This is a great introduction to the historical frame that Pan Africanists such as Diop, Nyerere, and Nkrumah viewed in the post-colonial age. It is also illustrative of what Black / African radicalism should focus on in 2021 and beyond. Pan African unity is as much a necessity today as it was in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Diop's emphasis on African cultural renaissance (through embracing indigenous languages and understanding African civilizational history) informs his belief that culture is central to uniting the continent of Africa, and defeating the forces of Western imperialism once and for all.

[Tekpwfari Stix El Ra]

This book is so brilliantly written made me wonder if the countries colonized by France have a better understanding of Africa's plight and the dynamics of the relationship between the colonized (slave) and colonizer (master). Dr. Diop is a breath of fresh air when it's so hard to find scholars, elders, and teachers that will state the hard truth of how Africa can at least start to contemplate our problems from an realistic African paradigm. Asé and Hótep to this wonderful ancestor.

[Devin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I must note that despite my 5 star review, I completely disagree with Diop on the question of Palestinian-israel relations and his assessment of the situation and what would become of it. Diop operates from a view that implies that there is even remotely some legitimacy to israel, which there is not; israel is an illegal, illegitimate apartheid state that should not exist. Diop theorizes that in the coming decades [this was written in 1977], tensions between israel and Palestine would cool and a two-state solution would be peacefully reached. Of course I have to acknowledge that Diop theorized this almost 50 years ago, and then would himself die in 1986. The landscape of the genocide of Palestine and Middle Eastern affairs, has changed drastically since. I am confident that if Diop were presently alive, he would reassess and become an ardent critic of israel. Just needed to say that.

This was my first time reading Cheikh Anta Diop, and I believe I jumped into the perfect text to read. I was astounded at Diop's careful, intricate, almost-overwhelming-at-times, breakdowns of African history, language, and culture -- and even more so in the section where he theorizes plans for clean energy and total self-reliance on a unified Africa. I had never read about thermonuclear energy, or tidal energy, or hydroelectric energy, until here, and Diop lays it out so carefully as to make the reader understand fully what can be achieved under Pan-Africanism. Diop had a crystal clear vision of the total shape of Africa, from Egypt to Eswatini. His scathing takedown of apartheid South Africa is critical reading material for anyone who is curious about learning more about the struggle for liberation in South Africa.

At times, Diop seems to lean in fully to a Marxist-Leninist framework for the future of Africa and a possibly-united Africa, but then goes on to state that the ideology of a unified Africa would be something different. I would be interested in reading more on this; obviously the conditions of a unified Africa [or even all across the continent with each nation sovereign] were vastly different from the USSR, but the formulas are still applicable. I don't know,.I want to read more from Diop on this and I hope he wrote about it.

He writes so plainly [I mean this in the best possible way] about culture, and what culture means and the breakdown of those meanings. I read and reread it and realized it could be applied to practically all oppressed persons. Just an incredible analysis.

Overall, I can't recommend this book enough and I can't wait to dig deeper into Diop.

[Inem · Rating 4 out of 5]

This actually should be essential reading for Pan-Africanists

It's a short read (105 pages in the french version) that maps out a fairly detailed plan for the industrialization of a federal African continental-wide super state. I really like that this book focuses on the more logistical side of Pan-Africanism. It's more about strategies than ideology. Both are important but, it's interesting to read the more technical stuff like this because it gets talked about less. Diop is no doubt a scientist at heart and by training so there were moments when I got a little lost in the details of how energy is going to be extracted and converted and all that. He also touches on the language question in Africa-- I have thoughts on this and I am glad he brings it up. It needs to be brought up more. He's a little biased towards Senegal and the Sahel-- like he drags on a little bit when he gets to the part where he talks about Senegal's contribution and a little with Mali and Niger too but I do like that all of Africa is included to some extent here. He is a scientific socialist - he doesn't go into it THAT much but he does state outright that our Africa will be a socialist united state and will avoid creating an industrial bourgeoisie and will not go down a capitalist path, he talks about economic planning and references his historical materialist analyses of AFRICAn history in his other works. This is the Diop that is definitely getting erased and replaced with the "Afrocentric" Diop.

Ok on the language question in Africa

Here's where I agree with Diop:
- I believe that Africa does indeed need to have a single federal language that serves as the language of communication between all of the various states and is the official language of the government, most media, literature, the workplace and is a language of instruction from the primary through university level of education. While Diop doesn't mention which language this should be, I agree with the popular Swahili proposal. It makes the most sense and Pan-Africanists who believe we can create a successful continental-wide government without an official shared language are not being realistic or scientific.

Here's where I disagree with Diop:
-Diop proposes that in addition to an official continental-wide language, we should also have official regional languages or official languages for the (sub) states in Africa based on whatever language is the most commonly spoken language in the African states today. This is easy for him to say since he is Wolof and he basically says sorry Serer speakers but in Senegal, we are replacing your language with Wolof. This would cause serious conflict literally everywhere, especially in a place like Nigeria which hardly has a majority language but even in Senegal and Burkina and other states that do have a majority language.

What I propose is that we have one official language for the African federal-state BUT we also continue to guard Africa's position as the most polyglot continent in the world. Every village or group of villages with a shared ethnolinguistic group should have a council of education charges with ensuring that all primary and secondary school students in the villages are receiving a bilingual education with instruction in Swahili and then the local language of that village. It's not perfect but it's light years better than what we currently have. So many people would become literate in their native languages for the first time. So many would become the first person to read and write in their language in their whole bloodline. This seems mostly feasible though we may need special programs for critically endangered languages.


Final thoughts: I honestly wonder what Diop would say if he came back here to learn that he's considered the father of this neo-pharaonic back to Egypt movement. He would have to be so confused...

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

A FAMED AFRICAN SCHOLAR GIVES SUGGESTIONS FOR A STATE OF ALL AFRICA

Cheikh Anta Diop (1923-1986) was a historian, anthropologist, physicist, and politician who was involved in the freedom and nationalization movements in Africa.

He wrote in the Foreword to the English edition of this 1987 book, “Since 1960, when the first edition of this work appeared, the specter of South-Americanization that should have been staved off has instead materialized everywhere. African unity has made only limited progress in certain specific domains of economic, cultural, academic or other life. Even in those cases, we have had only regional or continental groupings, never involving any real surrender of an iota of national sovereignty and, therefore, not irreversible…

“The Organization of African Unity is better than nothing. If only its authority were stronger, if a determinate part of the sovereignty of the various states were transferred to it in specific domains, it would play a more efficacious role. At the moment, this would seem especially necessary in the matter of defense in order to counter the South African peril. Both Pretoria and Israel now possess the atomic bomb without having had to carry out their own nuclear explosions, thanks to Western duplicity.”

He continues, “Enlightened self-interest itself argues for the adoption, before it is too late, of a federal system… only a nationwide or a subcontinent federated state can offer a safe political and economic area, stable enough for a rational formula covering the development of our countries with their infinitely varied potentials to be put into effect. Because the federated state involves a real surrender of sovereignty, it is an irreversible structure that has nothing in common with the transitory economic groupings that have proliferated since independence.

“Within a federated state, today’s political boundaries would become mere local administrative lines, and disagreements---such as the ones which have pitted … Mali against upper Volta, Ghana against Togo… Somalia against Ethiopia---would no longer be conceivable. That, therefore, is the framework within which we have chosen to deal with Africa’s energy problem. The ideas presented in popular form in this work… are topical… What we are proposing is a schema of continentwide energy development that takes into account … renewable and nonrenewable energy sources, ecology and the technical advances of the coming decades...

In the section, ‘Bases for African-Arab Cooperation,’ he wrote, “I have demonstrated in my earlier books all the biological and cultural kinship between Arabs and Black Africans, a kinship … that goes back to the 5th millennium B.C. and the beginning of the 4th with the birth of the Semitic world… This kinship greatly antedates Islam, but all the prejudices inherited during the history of the intervening centuries have obscured it. One day it will come to the fore again, and it is a factor not to be overlooked in the unifying dynamic of the continent.”

In Chapter 1, he notes, “Nowhere in African history are there holes that cannot be filled in. These empty spaces are only temporary, and the period that affects us runs without a break from Egyptian-Sudanese antiquity and fits right in sequence. So, historical consciousness is properly restored. The general framework of African history is set out… One can no longer see ‘darkest Africa’ set against a ‘deep dark past’; the African can clearly follow hos evolution from prehistory to our own day. Historical unity has become manifest.” (Pg. 6)

He proposes, “in due time it will be possible to choose one of the major African tongues and promote it to the level of sole governmental and cultural language for the entire continent… During the transitional period, European languages will continue to be used, but that situation must not be allowed to endure too long, lest it eventually turn Africa into a super-Switzerland. There is nothing to be gained by urging simultaneous perpetuation of French, English, Portuguese, Spanish and Afrikaans, and why opt for exclusive use of either French or English?” (Pg. 11)

He acknowledges, “The proliferation of political leaders is a specifically African fact of life, resulting from colonization by different imperial powers and the consequent breaking up into administrative territories of conquered regions. It constitutes a serious difficulty that will have to be taken into account in any attempts at African continental unification. No concrete way has yet been proposed that might lead inevitably and rapidly to a federation of African States, with partial or total surrender of local sovereignty.” (Pg. 17)

He points out, “It is clear that a continent such as Black Africa, the sole victim of slavery in modern times (with 100 to 200 million people killed or carried away)… with its demographic emptiness, has an imperative duty to apply a systematic policy of intensive repopulation in optimum time… It cannot consider large-scale immigration from abroad… until it has regained a strong national personality capable of assimilating the outlander instead of vice versa.” (Pg. 19)

He asserts, “There can be no compromise, and we will in the future allow no creation of White states in whatever form or for whatever pretext, regardless of the apparent prestige of the hypocritical international organization proposing such states. We will drive no one out, for we are not racists. We will wipe out no minority but will insist upon democratically proportional participation in the way states are governed. We will not accept stratification of national life in these future states on an ethnic basis. No country, until now, has solved its minority problem in any other manner.” (Pg. 24)

He summarizes, “I have traced a general outline of industrialization in the absolute without bringing out the rhythm to be adopted so that it might be realized, nor establishing any close correlation between it and actual present possibilities. It goes without saying that there have been certain sporadic industrial accomplishments at various spots on the continent, but there has been no overall plan, for reasons easy to see. There could be none prior to political unification or at least establishment of multilateral agreements. However that may be, even such limited industrialization cannot be crowned with success unless there be participation of the State and the people as a whole.” (Pg. 83)

Diop was interviewed by Afriscope (“a highly serious-minded and uncompromisingly African organ”). He stated, “That Africa is ‘politically unstable’ is a fact. We can’t even talk anymore about ‘balkanization’ since the Balkan regimes are stable, whereas in Africa we have a change of regime almost every week or every month…. And this instability is growing…” (Pg. 93-94)

He asserted, “The setting up of a continental African state presupposes the eradication of the South African threat. The establishment of a white state anywhere on the continent of Africa is inconceivable, inadmissible. The whites who are in southern Africa could remain there, but only within the framework of black majority rule. A borderline between a white state and a black state is inconceivable. Sooner or later it will lead to a racial war…” (Pg. 101)

He also observes, “what is really at the core of the controversy of whether North and sub-Saharan Africans can join in a common federation is the question: Are we culturally ready to meet with the Arab world… without surrendering an inch of our cultural, linguistic and historical identity as black Africans? This is the real question. My answer is affirmative. Black Africa has recovered its cultural personality to an extent and vigor which makes it impossible for anyone to strangle it. What remains to be done is the day-to-day work or solidifying and redefining in all areas the contours of this distinct personality. Considering all of the efforts which have been accomplished in sub-Saharan Africa in terms of the restoration of our historical and cultural identity, Africans no long have to fear being dominated by the Arabs…” (Pg, 112)

This book provides interesting insights into the ‘political’ ideas of Diop (who is often perceived in the U.S. as a ‘pre-Afrocentrist’ thinker.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Une présentation inédite de l’unité historique, culturelle et linguistique de l’Afrique ainsi qu’un argument irréfutable pour son unification dans un contexte post-coloniale. Diop insiste sur la richesse de l’Afrique en minéraux et en énergies renouvelables et démontre le rôle que ses ressources peuvent jouer dans l’industrialisation du continent. Cela passe notamment par forger les liens étroits de coopération entre tous les pays du continent sinon les intégrer dans une union collective. Ce livre doit être une lecture obligatoire pour tous ceux et celles qui sont concernés par le continent Africain et son avenir.

[Aliyu Lawal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Africa is indeed the jewel of the earth, there is no continent on earth that is blessed with infinite mineral resources and arable agricultural land like Africa. There is a thousand and one way to develop Africa into the black man's Valhalla. With strong and consistent leadership, Africa can be the envy of the world and the pioneers of the world order. Diop has clearly mentioned the potentials of every African region in terms of energy (solar, wind, hydro, nuclear, geothermal) and raw materials (diamonds, gold, silver, precious metals etc). A good venture capitalist, especially in energy, should have this book, but please especially Europe/West should go with the intention to give and take. Not annihilate and take, Africans are good people and humble to earth. The continent had had enough exploitation and bastardisation, any investor going there should avoid politicians and go straight to the markets and consult the motherland laws on energy and mineral resources. Brilliant piece, rest in power Prof. Diop

[Nesut Piankhi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This work by Cheikh Anta Diop is well written, and gives guidance for Black Unity across the African Continent. This book addresses the Political Leadership of African Countries and provides a blue print for the culmination of Black African Power.

Dr.Diop goes into great detail about the resources and raw materials each country possesses that can be used for industrialization.

The conclusion of the book includes an in depth 14 Step Plan designed for African Unity.
I truly believe that if properly implemented it would force positive change throughout the continent and throughout the world as a whole.

[Julius · Rating 4 out of 5]

Der aus dem Senegal stammende Autor ist wohl einer der einflussreichsten panafrikanischen Historiker und Politiker der Zeit nach der Dekolonialisierung.

Das 1978 erschienene Buch ist eine Zusammenfassung seiner politischen, kulturellen und wirtschaftlichen Vorstellungen für ein vereintest Afrika. Er untersucht nicht nur Energiebedarf- und förderungsmöglichkeiten des Kontinents sondern schlägt unter anderem ebenso vor eine gemeinsame afrikanische Sprache und lingua franca zu etablieren. Nur so könne Afrika dem nachhaltigen neokolonialistischen Einfluss von ausserhalb standhalten.

[Bennie]

I did not realize how old this book was when I started. However I decided to finish it and see how things have progressed according to the guidelines the author provided. Unfortunately, while some progress has been realized in some countries, some have not progressed and some have disappeared completely. A good book which outlines a path to liberation & success from being dominated by other countries from other continents. One has to wonder if the infighting and corruption can ever be stopped long enough to advance.

[Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Required Reading

Presents a strong basis for Black thought, intellectual progression, and unique understanding of what constitutes Black uplift to achieve ‘recaptured imagination’; that being the basis for realizing what constitutes humanity, its struggles, and its oneness, which will emerge in its fullness, along with an abiding appreciation, over extended time-horizons.

[Edwina Arthur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good content that still applies today, over 50 years later. A quick yet powerful read. The only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars is because the English translation is a bit difficult to read since it seems to have been literally translated from the original.

[Anthony Carter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read

A quick read that illustrates the vast clean energy resources of Africa and how unifications across countries can increase efficiency and local prosperity.

[Anne Kedi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have just finished this outstanding piece of work. His writings are always inspiring in such a way that they remind us that Africa can just be so big. Though, you can move away from the communist view, he definetely has great points on how we could have developed the continent and more importantly, the future has proven him right. A necessary reading for any African descendent.

[Anzu Kromah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Africa must unite!