What is the two cradle theory

Diop's knowledge of indigenous culture played an essential role in shaping his analytical acumen and inspiring his untiring devotion to investigative scholarship. His academic training in Western sociology raised questions in Diop's mind about common assumptions regarding human advancement and defining social structures like the family, society, and state.

These questions, coupled with Diop's inability to accept the inferiorization of African intellectual and institutional development, drove Diop to create new theories and concepts. For Diop, culture naturally became the source for defining human realities.

Hamitic hypothesis

His Two Cradle Theory traces the cultural characteristics of African and European concepts, behaviors, values, and beliefs to their origins. The theory thus provides a model that situates Africans in the context of their own cultural paradigm for human development rather than the Western paradigm. Rectifying scholastic attempts to debase Africa and her people, in his book The Cultural Unity of Black Africa , Diop challenged European evolutionists who argued that the transition of the world from matriarchy to patriarchy marked the beginning of civilization.

Instead, he theorizes two distinct cradles of civilization existing side by side, one matriarchal, one patriarchal. The southern cradle, Africa, where humanity began, produced matriarchal societies. Over time, the migration of peoples to the colder climates of the northern cradle, Europe, produced patriarchal societies. Diop attributes matriarchy to an agrarian lifestyle in a climate of abundance, and patriarchy to nomadic traditions arising from a harsh environment.