Theophile J Obenga

Theophile J Obenga

Professor Emeritus

Biography: 

Born in Brazzaville, Congo (Central Africa), Théophile Obenga has studied a wide variety of subjects and has obtained a wide range of degrees. His degrees include:

  • M.A. in Philosophy (University of Bordeaux, France)
  • M.Ed. (University of Pittsburgh, U.S.A.)
  • M.A. in History (University of Paris, Sorbonne)
  • Advanced studies in History, Linguistics, and Egyptology (University of Geneva, Switzerland); in Prehistory (Institut de Paléontologie Humaine, Paris), and in  Linguistics, Philology, and Egyptology (University of Paris, Sorbonne, and College de France)

Théophile Obenga holds the Ph.D. in Letters, Arts and Humanities from Montpellier University, France. He is a member of the French Association of Egyptologists (Société Française D’Egyptologie) and of the African Society of Culture (Présence Africaine). He contributed as part of the United Nations Educational and Scientific Cultural Organization (UNESCO) program, to the writing of the General History of Africa and the Scientific and Cultural History of Humanity. He was, until the end of 1991, Director General of the Centre International des Civilisations Bantu (CICIBA) in Libreville, Gabon. He is the Director and Chief Editor of the journal Ankh.
From January 28 to February 3, 1974 at Cairo, Egypt, Théophile Obenga accompanied Cheikh Anta Diop as Africa’s representatives to the UNESCO symposium on “The Peopling of Ancient Egypt and the Deciphering of the Meroitic Script.” This meeting remains one of the single most important and famous defenses of African intellectual and historical integrity in the modern era.

Dr. Obenga’s most recent work is African Philosophy: the Pharaonic period 2780-330 B.C. Dr. Obenga retired from San Francisco State in 2009.