Cheikh Anta Diop is a Senegalese anthropologist, Egyptologist and politician who owes his international renown partly to the theses he developed and argued throughout his life about the anteriority of black civilizations, the Negro origins of ancient Egypt and the rich history of pre-colonial Black Africa, particularly through its languages and cultural unity. In 1966, he created within the University of Dakar, the first African laboratory for radiocarbon dating. In the 1970s, he was a member of the scientific committee to write a General History of Africa and was one of the main instigators of the Cairo symposium (1974), which was a real triumph over his theses on Egypt. Also involved in politics, the University of Dakar has born his name since 1987.