Conversations with Professor Abdul Bangura

Interviewer (Prof. Gloria Emeagwali): I am told that you have five PhDs in Mathematics, Computer Science, Linguistics, Economics and Political Science, respectively. I don't think I have met anybody else with such a fantastic profile.

Interviewee (Prof. Abdul Bangura): Well, I am quite sure there are others that one may not be aware of.

Interviewer: What motivated you?

Interviewee: What motivated me was that, I was very strictly a believer or a follower of Cheikh Anta Diop. I decided that maybe it was time to learn from the example of the great Cheikh Anta Diop, and that is how I started learning from different disciplines to look at a problem, or an issue, to get a much more comprehensive understanding of complexities. Of course, as you know, Cheikh Anta Diop was not only a physical scientist, but a historian, a linguist, a physicist – so I come from the tradition of Cheikh Anta Diop.

Interviewer: You did a PhD in Mathematics. How have you been able to use mathematics, or to link mathematics in your multi - disciplinary methodology?

Interviewee: Well, mathematics as you know is one of those disciplines that is really natural, if you can say that. There is nothing in life that you do that does not involve mathematics. For you to spend time in doing this interview, you must have made some mathematical calculations: How long should the interview be? What are you going to extract from the interview? These are all mathematical calculations. We must instruct the new generation on how to tackle some of the very pressing problems that they encounter in much more practical ways because one of the very sad things that has happened in mathematics is that it has become so abstract that young minds are afraid to even tackle the field because of seeing all the equations, numbers, and all the symbols of the Greek alphabet etc. It is based on very sound logic, and the thinking process of solving a problem becomes a logical tool one can use to solve other problems in life. I also want the world to also know the origin of some of the mathematical equations, problems and solutions that emerged from the African continent, and not just in Egypt, because we hear a whole lot about Egyptian mathematics.

Interviewer: Based on your multi-disciplinary approach, have you been able to add or confirm any of the positions, the propositions, and perspectives of Cheikh Anta Diop? The famous Senegalese scholar that you mentioned had some pretty interesting insights about the ancient Egyptians. Do you have any confirmations or additions to make?

Interviewee: Well, you are right. Cheikh Anta Diop was pretty much and still stands as one of the greatest testimony to African achievements. He stated that until we, African historians, or students of African history, can claim their rightful ownership of Egypt, then our history will be suspended in air. He used a good multi- disciplinary approach to look at some of the challenging questions of his time, that is, the origin of the Egyptians and whether or not Egyptians, that is, the original Egyptians, were Black Africans from the south of the Sahara, and of course, the first great work that he published was Precolonial Black Africa. His findings were grounded in very serious science including carbon dating which he did as an experiment in his own physics laboratory, and also from his excavations.

Interviewer: Well, I have had the experience recently of meeting some of the museologists working in the various Egyptian museums at a conference. They were quite positive about the identity of the ancient Egyptians, and they certainly correlated his findings.

Interviewee: I really want to emphasize the point that when we teach mathematics, or any subject for that matter, why certain things that are said by detractors need to be challenged, and taken seriously, because one of the things that happened to us was that we took a back step, and allowed the dominant paradigm to exploit our quietness, or our shyness. Again, it goes back to the original African ways of thinking about problems and society.

Interviewer: What do you see in the crystal ball for Africa?

Interviewee: I think Africa and its African diaspora have a very positive future ahead. The major reason is that people on our continent are no longer blinded by some of the things that were easily sold to them. Our problem in this society is not that we don't do the work. We work very hard, from dawn to sunset, but it is the leadership, that is the problem. Youth in the diaspora, also tell us that our community leaders have failed them in terms of our pastors, our imams, saying one thing, and then doing something else, so therefore, we have to go back to the African knowledges and learn from there.

Well, thank you so much for the wonderful insights, Professor Bangura- holder of five PhD's, from American universities - in different fields.

Interviewee: Thank you.