astronomy

Théophile Obenga

Théophile Obenga is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Théophile Obenga rather than just read about it. In short: Théophile Obenga (born 1936 in the Republic of the Congo) is professor emeritus in the Africana Studies Center at San Francisco State University. He is a politically active proponent of Pan-Africanism.

Key takeaways

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Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
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Reproduce the core statement of Théophile Obenga from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Théophile Obenga (born 1936 in the Republic of the Congo) is professor emeritus in the Africana Studies Center at San Francisco State University. He is a politically active proponent of Pan-Africanism. Obenga is an Egyptologist, linguist, and historian.

Background Obenga was born in 1936 in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo. 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 a 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 to the United Nations Educational and Scientific Cultural Organization (UNESCO) program consecrated to 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, Obenga, Cheikh Anta Diop, and numerous professors from Egypt and Sudan were Africa's representatives to the UNESCO symposium in Cairo on "The Peopling of Ancient Egypt and the Deciphering of the Meroitic Script".

Linguistic analysis During the 1974 UNESCO Cairo symposium, The peopling of ancient Egypt and the deciphering of the Meroitic script, Cheikh Anta Diop and Obenga were among its participants. Adding on to Diop's African origin of ancient Egypt model, Theophile Obenga focused on linguistics. Obenga criticized Joseph Greenberg's mass comparison method, for its inability to prove genetic relationships among languages. He cited the work of Istvan Fodor who also criticized Greenberg's multi lateral comparative analysis. Obenga through the usage of the historical comparative method sought to prove that the Egyptian language is genetically related to the majority of the languages in Africa. Obenga analyzed typological similarities in grammar as well as examined the word forms of ancient Egyptian and numerous African languages such as Wolof and discovered that the similarities between the ancient Egyptian language and the African languages he analyzed to be greater than the similarities between the Semitic, Berber, and Egyptian languages, which Greenberg grouped together as the Afroasiatic languages. Obenga revealed 101 putative cognates in African languages classified in different families by Greenberg. These languages share the same word across the length and breadth of the continent. According to Kambon, the sheer spatial and temporal depth involved makes the notion that these terms were borrowed from one language family to another highly unlikely. These lexical commonalities point to a common ancestral proto-language from which they are all descended. Obenga proposes three major language families for Africa:

Berber Khoisan Paleo African/Negro-Egyptian. Obenga developed Cheikh Anta Diop's Paleo African language family as Negro-Egyptian. This family is composed of:

Ancient Egyptian Chadic Coptic Cushitic Niger-Kordofanian Nilo-Saharan Rules of historical linguistics “Historical linguistics” or even “historical genetic linguistics” consists of a diachronic perspective of the study of languages aiming to account for the dynamic nature of linguistic phenomena. To do this, this scientific discipline mobilizes descriptive data made available by synchronic linguistic studies (lexicology, phonology, morphology, grammar, etc.), by comparing them from one language to others (or from language to language). within a corpus previously determined through the empirical observation of a few similarities. This comparative approach aims, according to him, to test said similarities, in order to know if they are “fortuitous”, “borrowed”, “convergent”, or even “inherited”. In the group of languages considered, only the regular character of inherited linguistic properties would constitute the “genetic relationship” common to these languages. In other words, according to Obenga, we should only speak of “genetic kinship” common to languages, on the one hand if they present inherited similarities between them; on the other hand if the regular evolution in time and space of said similarities can be highlighted by the method of historical linguistics. Théophile Obenga, believing that the "ultimate goal of this linguistics is to be able to carry out a general classification of all known human languages", undertook - following Cheikh Anta Diop - to apply the method of historical linguistics to “Negro-African” linguistic phenomena.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Théophile Obenga

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Théophile Obenga claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Théophile Obenga before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Théophile Obenga ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Théophile Obenga

In research: Théophile Obenga appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Théophile Obenga in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Théophile Obenga is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1936 births, Government ministers of the Republic of the Congo, Living people, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Théophile Obenga outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Théophile Obenga in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Théophile Obenga means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Théophile Obenga out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Théophile Obenga in simple terms?

Why does Théophile Obenga matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Théophile Obenga?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Théophile Obenga.