Théophile Obenga

Théophile Obenga
Born	Théophile Mwené Ndzalé Obenga Mbaya, Republic of Congo
Website	http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~afrs/obenga.html

Théophile Mwene Ndzalé Obenga born in Mbaya, Republic of Congo, 2 February 1936, Historian and linguist by trade. Along with his late predecessor, Cheikh Anta Diop, he defends a vision of African history refocused on concerns of African researchers and intellectuals, eager to correct the racist theories and histories put fourth by white supremacist scholars.

Doctor of Arts degree in Humanities, he studied various disciplines: philosophy, comparative historical linguistics, prehistoric archeology, science education, Egyptology. Théophile Obenga studied philosophy at the University of Bordeaux. He studied history at the Collège de France in Paris, and has taught Egyptology in Geneva, Switzerland. He also trained in science education at Pittsburgh. Former Director General of the International Centre for Bantu Civilizations (CICIBA) in Libreville, he is now a professor at the Faculty of African civilizations to the State University of San Francisco, which is a campus of the University of California.

He directs Ankh, "Journal of Egyptology and African Civilizations" published in Paris. Among other scientific concerns, this review explores the different avenues of research initiated or renewed by Cheikh Anta Diop, correcting racist ideas put foward about Kemet in particular and Afrika in general.

From January 28 to February 3, 1974 at Cairo, Egypt, Obenga accompanied Cheikh Anta Diop as Africa's representatives to the UNESCO symposium on "The Peopling of Ancient Egypt and the Deciphering of the Meroitic Script".

In 2009, Théophile Obenga provides publicly his support for President Denis Sassou-Nguesso , candidate for re-election to the Congolese presidency.

Theories

Common Origin of Afrikan languages

Obenga has advocated a number of ideas such as a "Negro-Egyptian" language family (négro-égyptien), which includes all languages of Africa, an approach which he shares with Cheikh Anta Diop. He takes issue with the term Afro-Asiatic and states that the term is only a scientific invention and that the Egyptian language was never reconstructed following the methods of comparative historical linguistics, the very aim of which is to link genetically the languages concerned.

In 1925, the linguist Antoine Meillet, in his book The Comparative Method in Historical Linguistics, questioned the possibility of a common origin of the "Negro languages ​​of Africa." But the foundations of a theory of "African historical linguistics" has been laid by Cheikh Anta Diop, in his first book, Negro Nations and Culture (1954) where he presented, among others, a "comparative study of grammar and Egyptian Wolof." To Diop, both the Negro-Egyptian theory and cultural unity of antiquity among the various "indigenous African" are the fundamental arguments of Afrikan-Centered thought.

Obenga cites three main language families in Africa, namely the Khoisan, Berber, and Negro-Egyptian. The Berber language family being an unrelated foreign invasion language, not genetically linked to Khoisan and Negro-Egyptian.

Bibliography

• L’Afrique dans l’Antiquité – Égypte ancienne – Afrique noire, Paris, Présence Africaine, 1973.
• Introduction à la connaissance du peuple de la République Populaire du Congo, Brazzaville, Librairies Populaires, 1973.
• Afrique centrale précoloniale – Documents d’histoire vivante, Paris, Présence Africaine, 1974.
• La Cuvette Congolaise. Les hommes et les structures. Contribution à l’histoire traditionnelle de l’Afrique centrale, Paris, Présence Africaine, 1976.
• Le Zaïre, Civilisations traditionnelles et Culture moderne (Archives culturelles d’Afrique centrale), Paris, Présence Africaine, 1977.
• La vie de Marien Ngouabi 1938-1977, Paris, Présence Africaine, 1977.
• Stèles pour l’avenir (poèmes), Paris, Présence Africaine, 1978.
• Pour une Nouvelle Histoire, essai, Paris, Présence Africaine, 1980.
• La dissertation historique en Afrique. A l’usage des étudiants de Première Année d’Université, Dakar, NEA, Paris, Présence Africaine, 1980.
• Sur le chemin des hommes. Essai sur la poésie négro-africaine, Paris, Présence Africaine, 1984.
• Littérature traditionnelle des Mbochi. Etsee le Yamba, Paris, Présence Africaine, 1984.
• Les Bantu, Langues-Peuples-Civilisations, Paris, Présence Africaine, 1985.
• Discours et écrits politiques de Jacques Opangault, Paris, Présence Africaine, 1987.
• Astres si longtemps. Poèmes en Sept Chants, Paris, Présence Africaine, 1988, Collection : Poésie.
• La Philosophie africaine de la période pharaonique – 2780-330 avant notre ère, Paris, L’Harmattan, 1990.
• Ancient Egypt and Black Africa: A Student's Handbook for the Study of Ancient Egypt in Philosophy, Linguistics and Gender Relations, Edited by Amon Saba SAAKANA, Londres, Karnak House, 1992.
• Origine commune de l'égyptien ancien, du copte et des langues négro-africaines modernes – Introduction à la linguistique historique africaine, Paris, L’Harmattan, 1993.
• La Géométrie égyptienne – Contribution de l'Afrique antique à la mathématique mondiale, Paris, L’Harmattan / Khepera, 1995.
• Cheikh Anta Diop, Volney et le Sphinx – Contribution de Cheikh Anta Diop à l'historiographie mondiale, Paris, Présence Africaine / Khepera, 1996.
• L’histoire sanglante du Congo-Brazzaville (1959-1997)– Diagnostic d’une mentalité politique africaine, Paris, Présence Africaine, 1998.
• Pour le Congo-Brazzaville – Réflexions et propositions, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2001, Collection : Études Africaines.
• Le sens de la lutte contre l’africanisme eurocentriste, Paris, Khepera / L'Harmattan, 2001.
• L’UNIVERSITÉ AFRICAINE dans le cadre de l’Union Africaine, Paris, Pyramide Papyrus Presse, 2003, Collection : Narmer.
• African Philosophy – The Pharaonic Period: 2780-330 BC, Dakar, Per Ankh, 2004. (Traduction de l’ouvrage La Philosophie africaine de la période pharaonique 2780-330 avant notre ère, Paris, L’Harmattan, 1990).
• L’Égypte, la Grèce et l’école d’Alexandrie – Histoire interculturelle dans l’Antiquité – Aux sources égyptiennes de la philosophie grecque, Paris, Khepera / L’Harmattan, 2005.

See also

• Kemet
• Black nationalism

External links

• "Department of Africana Studies at San Francisco State University"