History
Cheikh Anta Diop University predates Senegalese independence and grew out of several French institutions set up by the colonial administration. In 1918, the French created the "école africaine de médecine" (African medical school), mostly to serve white and Métis students but also open to the small educated elite of the four free towns of Senegal with nominal French citizenship. In 1936, under the Popular Front government in France, Dakar became home to the Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire (IFAN), an institute for the study of African culture.
In 1950s, with decolonisation already looming, the French administration expanded these schools, added science faculties, and combined the schools into the "Institut des Hautes Etudes de Dakar". In 1957, a new campus was constructed as the 18th French Public University, attached to the University of Paris and the University of Bordeaux. This became the University of Dakar the largest and most prestigious university in French West Africa. In 1987, its name was changed to honor the Senegalese philosopher and anthropologist, Cheikh Anta Diop.
Read more about this topic: Cheikh Anta Diop University
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of philosophy is to a great extent that of a certain clash of human temperaments.”
—William James (18421910)
“Tell me of the height of the mountains of the moon, or of the diameter of space, and I may believe you, but of the secret history of the Almighty, and I shall pronounce thee mad.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)
“The reverence for the Scriptures is an element of civilization, for thus has the history of the world been preserved, and is preserved.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)