Allen, I think you are referring to this excerpt "Cheikh Fatma means the son of Fatma"..
In the context of that passage, I don't think that the author meant for those words to be taken literally-one word being a translation of another..
Also remember that this work was translated into English from French. The book I have says "The English translation edition was originally published in Presence Africaine in 1963, it is here reprinted in by arrangement"...
Professor Diop {as he is referred to in the introduction to his book} may have meant that it was the custom of people to refer to sons and daughters using their parent's names. So a male whose birth name is "Cheikh" {or who had earned that name} was called "Cheikh Fatma". In English we would probably say "Fatma's Cheikh".
"Fatma" is an Africanized form of the Arabic female name "Fatima", The name refers to one of the Prophet's Muhammad's daughters and means "weaned".
The only other example that this book gives in that passage on names is that a female whose name is "Magette" who has a father named "Massamba-Sassoun" is called "Magette Massaba-Sassoun".
Notice that in both of the examples cited the female name comes first {whether it is the mother's name or the daughter's name}. This speaks to Diop's assertion that this society originally was matriarchal, and has retained some elements of that matriarchy.
Sorry, I don't know the etymology of the other names, though I have seen "Diop" used as a last name for other some other persons of renown from Guinea. Any information that you or anyone else can provide regarding the meaning of these names would be greatly appreciated.
Also, given the discussion at Mudcat about the use of referents for people of African descent, I also will quote this other passage from the inside cover of this book:
"The Cultural Unity of Black Africa" was reproduced out of the original text "The Cultural Unity of Negro Africa" without editing or modification {except the replacement of the word "Negro" for the word "Black"}.