Presentación del libro 'Civilización y barbarie', de Cheikh Anta Diop-CANCELADO-

• Date: 13 December 2016
• Place: Salón de Grados of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC). Humanities building. C/. Pérez del Toro No. 1
• Time: 6pm
• Organisers: ULPGC and Casa África
• Presenters:
• Luis Padrón, director general of Casa África
• Germán Santana, professor of Modern History and director of the Masters in Hispanic African Relations at the ULPGC
• Albert Roca, professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Barcelona, ​​president of the Barcelona Centre for African Studies and director of the Editorial Bellaterra Library of African Studies.

How do we avoid thinking about who is the barbarian and who is civilized? Do we suspect that it’s not the side we would want it to be? Those are the issues discussed in this work by Cheikh Anta Diop which has been translated into Spanish by Casa África within its History and Politics Collection to bring the vision of this great historian and Senegalese anthropologist to Spanish-speaking audiences. Cheikh Anta Diop studied the origins of the human race and pre-colonial African culture and is considered to be one of the greatest African historians of the twentieth century.

This is the work to be presented in Gran Canaria by Albert Roca, professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Barcelona and president of the Centre for African Studies, who will participate the following day in the dialogue between think tanks organised by Casa África and who is also director the Ediciones Bellaterra library of African Studies. The presentation, to which admission is free, will be held on Tuesday 13 December 2016 at 6pm in the Salón de Grados of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Humanities building. C/. Pérez del Toro No. 1.

Civilization or barbarism, which is available on loan from the Casa África Media Library, breathes hope into those who read it without prejudice, a difficult experience, but worth the effort. Cheikh Anta Diop, the physicist turned historian, linguist and philosopher, returns the optimism of science to us through a simple but very powerful message: in order to base progress on empirical facts, the only route is to increase the number of people looking at those facts. Civilization or barbarism should be required reading for anyone who is involved in the history or sociology of science. The question is not who is the barbarian, but who wants to continue being one.

Casa África’s History and Politics collection aims to support the publication of texts in the Edicions Bellaterra African Studies Library, directed by Albert Roca. Through these titles, African cultural heritage is spread in Spain with the aim of bringing to the Spanish public the legacy of the great thinkers of African society. The collection is based on translations of the great titles by African thinkers, such as the authors Cheikh Anta Diop, Joseph Ki-Zerbo and Kwame Nkrumah, who have laid the groundwork for political and cultural initiatives on the continent.

The books are available from bookshops and stores throughout Spain as well as from the website.

Albert Roca holds a doctorate in Social and Cultural Anthropology from the University of Barcelona, ​​is professor in the Department of Cultural Anthropology and History of America and Africa at the University of Barcelona and professor in the Department of Art History and Social History at the University of Lleida. President of the Centre d’Estudis Africans i Interculturals. Director of the journal Studia Africana and member of the inter-university group ARDA (Africa Research and Teaching Group).