Cheikh Anta Diop

"The negation of the history and intellectual accomplishments of Black Africans was cultural, mental murder, which preceded and paved the way for their genocide here and there in the world."

"Instead of presenting itself to history as an insolvent debtor, that Black world is the very initiator of the "western" civilization flaunted before our eyes today."

"The ancient Egyptians were Negroes. The moral fruit of their civilization is to be counted among the assets of the Black world."

"Pythagorean mathematics, the theory of the four elements of Thales of Miletus, Epicurean materialism, Platonic idealism, Judaism, Islam, and modern science are rooted in Egyptian cosmogony and science."

"Ancient Egypt was a Negro civilization."

"Contrary to the legend, the Negro king was not, and had never been, a despot with unlimited powers. ... His mission was to serve the people wisely and his authority depended on his respect for the established constitution."

"Already during the Middle Ages, the memory of a Negro Egypt that had civilized the world had been blurred by ignorance of the antique tradition hidden in libraries or buried under ruins. It would become even more obscure during those four centuries of slavery."