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personal notes from way, _way_ back and maybe today

Ousmane Sembène Interviews; Samba Gadjigo/2004; Sembène on Cheikh Anta Diop, Lucy, Herodotus and Female Circumcision (Excision); p.193

It’s said that the first men are born in Africa; they talk about Lucy. They also tell us about Egypt: the conflict we have with the Maghreb and the European world. Cheikh Anta Diop, in his book with which I agree, shows that all civilizations originate from the Egypt of the Pharaohs, which was a black civilization. The same with excision, it comes from a black goddess. When Herodotus saw her, it was the first time the subject of excision came up. It was the fourth or fifth century BC. On this continent we have Egyptian values, those from Zimbabwe, those born in Nigeria. But what is the origin of the breakdown that we’re experiencing now? We must ask ourselves this question. Not to cry about the past, but I think that we can recreate these values from our current African perspective. We have a lot of history. It’s our patrimony; we must reseize it and tell ourselves we can do it. But it’s a psychological problem.

mod date: 2008-09-10T03:55:12.000Z