by Daud Malik Watts
with Tony Browder
GIFTS OF THE NILE VALLEY
Nature has endowed the continent of Africa with many gifts. There
are millions upon millions of people. Yet there are other vast plains on
which few people, but millions of animals, live.
There are great mountain ranges yielding man's most precious
treasures - gold, silver, diamonds, uranium, bauxite and every other
conceivable mineral - in large quantities. There are also tremendous
areas of perfect desolation, wastelands as large as continents. There are
forest as thick and full of life as is earthly possible; there are areas barely
able to support insect life. Indeed, the continent of Africa bears witness
to nearly every form of life on earth.
In spite of this variety of natural wonders, one gift of Africa towers
above the rest. This is the gift of the Nile Valley. The Nile is the greatest
of rivers, the mother of human civilization, and perhaps the mother of
mankind itself.
SOURCES OF THE NILE
The Nile is the longest river in the entire world, with a course of
4,132 miles. It does many amazing things a river is not supposed to do.
For example, it is well known that a river needs to be fed by rain or
smaller rivers called tributaries in order to survive. The Nile, however
flows for over a thousand miles through pure desert, receiving neither
rain nor joining with another body of water - but it does not dry up! In
fact, for up to ten miles on either side of the river it actually fertilizes the
desert with rich topsoils from its sources. This fertile valley has fed large
civilizations for over 10,000 years!
Unlike most rivers, the Nile flows from south to north. It has two
sources, the White Nile and the Blue Nile. The White Nile is the longest
and begins in the heart of Africa near the borders of Kenya, Uganda,
Tanzania and Zaire in an area often called the Great Lakes region of
Africa. We will discuss this area shortly. The rich, black topsoil carried
through the desert originates in the river's other branch - the Blue Nile.
The Blue Nile begins in the highlands of Ethiopia, 5, 000 feet above
sea level, in the peaceful surroundings of Lake Tana. Heading west and
north, the river drops rapidly and gains power. At times it is a mile deep
and fifteen miles wide! During the wet season (June-January), the great
swollen Blue Nile rushes toward the plains of the Sudan with, as one
writer described it, "the force of a tidal wave". There it meets its sister
branch.
The White Nile has just completed a journey of 2,000 miles from an
almost magical land in the heart of Africa sometimes called "the
mountains of the moon".
THE MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON
It is like no other place on earth. Within a radius of 300 miles,
nearly every type of environment known to man exists. There are ice
peaks and glaciers, steamy jungles, salt lakes, fresh lakes, gigantic
swamplands, great plains, the approaching desert, and mountains as old
as time itself. All of this, incredibly, is on the equator - in the heart of
Africa.
Water is abundant in some areas and scarce in others. The central
lake, Lake Victoria (called Lake Nyanza), covers over 26,000 square
miles- half the size of England! Moreover, it` is connected to other lakes,
several of which are well over a hundred miles long.
In this hot, wet, cool, dry, cold, mountainous and flat land, the
moon rises with a brilliance almost equal to that of the sun - a bright red
ball appearing from behind mountain ranges or from the clouds that
cover Mount Kenya or Mount Kilimajaro. Indeed, Kilimanjaro is a KiSwahilli phrase that means "mountains of the moon".
About 100 miles southeast of Lake Victoria, modern scientists have
discovered the remains of human beings (homo erectus) that are 1.6
million years old. This means that there were Africans in modern-day
Tanzania over one million years before any other known group of people
existed!
Indeed, the ancient Egyptians were well aware of where their
ancestors originated. One of the oldest writings in the world, the
Papyrus of Hunefir, states very clearly:
"We came from the beginning of the Nile where the God Hapi
dwells, at the foothills of the Moutains of the Moon."
The river moves north. From its sources on Lake Victoria and Lake
Albert in Uganda, the White Nile begins its 2,000 mile journey to join
with the Blue Nile. The entire route is shared by both man and nature.
As the altitude drops, the temperature rises. It is a long and difficult
journey.
When the two great branches of the Nile meet, in modern-day
Sudan, the next in the series of miracles begins. The Blue Nile with its
great force and rich black topsoil is subdued by the White Nile, but the
clash of these two giants floods both sides of the river and pushes the
floodwaters for a distance of well over one thousand miles.
From the air, the river looks like a giant snake, winding its way
through the desert, with a wide green strip of land on the side. In reality
it is much more than a strip of land. The annual flooding of the Nile
created several thousand miles of croplands, very large wildlife marshes
teeming with exotic animals and great civilizations that lasted over 5,000
years, protected by the desert and the descending highlands the sides of
the Nile.
This warm, narrow strip provided Man with a very valuable
commodity -time. For in the relatively changeless Nile Valley, human
beings had thousands and thousands of years of settlement. There was
time to reflect on nature, to record and work in harmony with her
patterns. There was time to identify the rising, settings and phases of the
sun, moon, and star systems; to examine the marvels of the human
body; to learn what to plant and when to harvest it. There was time to
learn how to best save the precious floodwaters and black soils left by
the Nile; to experiment with new crops and to improve on farming
techniques; to develop new building techniques.
There was time to think, to organize, to develop and condense
ideas. There was time to observe and learn the lessons of the human
community and the animal community, and to apply them to all kinds of
activities and ways of thought. There was time to reap the benefits of a
thousand generations of thought.
The security and stability of the Nile/desert relationship, enabled
human communities to develop themselves. It was like a gift from the
gods- a peaceful and beautiful land where the sun rose on the east bank
and set on the west bank of the great and timeless river, where great
flocks of birds, fish and animals - everything - lived in the middle of the
desert. But more than an oasis, this was an entire land running
hundreds of miles. This balance gave the early river dwellers a feeling
that they attributed to the god/spirit of the river, Hapi. We use the same
word for that feeling today.
CIVILIZATIONS OF THE NILE VALLEY
Many civilizations developed in the Nile Valley. Among them were
Nubia (Ta-Neshi), Cush (Sennar, Itiopi), Meroe, and of course, Upper and
Lower Egypt (Kemet, Ta-Merri). Because these civilizations contributed
so much to world culture, hundreds of books have been written about
them, especially Egyptian (Kemetian) civilization. We will discuss some of
those contributions a little later, but first, there is one point that must be
made.
Many writers argue as to whether or not Egypt was an African
civilization, in spite of the fact that the Nile Valley is inside of Africa. To
the people of the ancient world, there was absolutely no doubt that
Egyptians were, and had been from time immemorial, an African people.
The Greeks wrote about it. The Romans wrote about it. In the Bible, the
Egyptians are called Mizraimites after one of the one sons of Ham, the
"father" of the Black races (see The Black Presence in the Lands of the
Bible P.I.E Series Vol.1, #5) . The Hebrew word Miz'raim means "
Children of the Sun."
The Egyptians themselves (and other peoples of the Nile Valley) left
thousands of proofs that they were, in fact, Africans. They were excellent
sculptors, painters, and craftsmen. For 3,000 years, they portrayed
themselves in the colors of Africans - black, brown, and beige. They
portrayed foreigners as white. In fact, even the name "Kemites" - written
in the heiroglyphs - literally translates to mean the "People of the Black
Lands"!
When we actually examine the history and culture of the Nile
Valley, the links with the rest of Africa become even more obvious.
EARLY NILE DWELLERS
Human history actually began thousands of years before recorded
history. How many years? No one is absolutely sure. Perhaps farming
settlements preceded writing by 30,000 years, 100,000 years or even
longer! One great modern scholar, Cheik Anta Diop, points out;
"More than 150,000 years ago beings.... identical to the man
of today were living in the great lakes at the sources of the Nile and
nowhere else.... it was from this place that men moved out to people the
rest of the world." He goes on to point out that, "....there were only two
routes available by which these early men could move out to people the
other continents, namely, the Sahara and the Nile Valley."
Because it is nearly impossible to sustain life in the vast Sahara
Desert, we can assume that to early man the Nile River route was much
more practical and thus much more popular. We can also assume that
settlements, villages and towns developed on the banks of the 4,000 mile
long river many thousands of years before any of its greater civilizations.
These earlier Africans were the ones to develop the many basic elements
needed to build the world's first great civilizations.
They developed methods of farming that took advantage of the
flooding of the Nile and learned to build small channels that held the
waters in the field even after the flood season ended. They developed
methods of counting and calculation that later led to mathematics, the
calendar and other pure sciences. They developed methods of boating
and fishing that were able to take full advantage of the bounty of the
Nile. They learned to use metals especially copper, bronze and gold for
tools, weapons and ornaments. They learned to use the stones and clays
of the earth to build houses and temples, and to make pottery.
They learned to make symbols to represent the things people did and the
things they thought about. Finally, they learned to appreciate beauty,
style, and wisdom and began to develop painting, sculpture, and
philosophy. They developed the desire to enjoy and improve every
aspect of their river civilization.
THE A N U
Among the earliest known peoples who settled and developed the
Nile Valley were a group known as the Anu. They built a number of
fortified towns along the Nile which later became important cities. Among
them were Ant (Esneh), An (now Hermonthis), Dendere (the birthplace of
the goddess Isis), On (Tinis), and northern On (now called Heliopolis).
They developed other centers as well, and their common ancestors - Ani
or An - was considered an early "god" and is linked to the major
religious figure, Osiris.
Ausar called Osiris by the Greeks
Moreover, there is evidence demonstrating that the Anu also
settled Nubia, parts of the Sinai and Libya. A portrait of Ausar, called
Osiris by the Greeks shown above, and the image of an Anu chief, Lord
Tera Neter (previous page), gives us an ides of how early Egyptians and
writing symbols looked.
Other areas and peoples were also critical to the evolution of Nile
Valley civilizations, especially Nubia and Ethiopia.
NUBIA
Ancient Nubia - called Ta-Neshi and Zeti in ancient records - was
actually a very large and important portion of the Nile Valley, south of
Egypt (Kemet and Ta-Merry). This section of the Valley was longer than
Egypt and was traditionally considered the homeland of many ruling
groups within Egypt. A number of modern writers try to project an image
of Nubia as the source of the black slaves of Egypt. However, it could just
as easily be projected as the source of great pharoahs.
For example:
•
•
•
•
The boy Pharoah Tut-ankh-amen was the son of Nubian Queen
Tiye.
Pharoah Rameses II, the great builder, had his personal temple
created at Abu Simbel in the very heart of Nubia.
Pharoah Tarakha, Queen Hat-shep-sut, Queen Nefer-tari, Pharoah
Ah-mose I, and others, especially in the 17th - 18th Dynasties,
were all either Nubians or direct descendants of Nubians.
Pharoah Zoser- builder of the first pyra-mid as well as the other
great pyramid builders, are also described as typical Africans.
For most of the long historical period of Nile River civilizations,
Nubian civilization existed as a compliment to their northern cousins in
Egypt. When Egypt was militarily overpowered by foreigners, their royal
families retreated into Nubia. The great monuments of Egypt (and Nubia
also) were created from stone quarries in Nubia and skillfully shipped
down the Nile on boats which Nubians specialized in building and
sailing. Indeed, Nubia was very rich in gold, quality stone, hardwoods,
large cattle, fighting men, and linked Kemet to the trade with the interior
of Africa.
Unfortunately, there are many things we may never know about
Nubia. In the early 1960's, the Aswan Dam was completed by the
government of Egypt. A new lake, Lake Nasser, was created which
flooded the lands that were once Nubia. Remember, the Nile Valley
civilizations were thin stretches of land on both sides of the river and,
when the new lake was created, only a few of the largest, most popular
monuments were saved.
ETHIOPIA
Like the other people of the Nile Valley, the people of the Ethiopian
highlands and the Blue Nile region were known by many names. To the
Greeks, their land was known as "Aethiopicus"; to the Hebrews, Kush
or Cush (which means 'black' in their tongue); the Arabs called the land
Abyssinia; and the Africans called it Axum, Itiopi, and perhaps Sennar
in the area where the Blue and White Nile Rivers join.
A 19th century drawing of one of the Nubian pyramids in Meroe
Because the Greeks and the Romans used the term "Ethiopian" to
describe the millions of people of African descent from the Atlantic Ocean
to the Middle East, India and southern Asia, pinpointing the exact
identity of the ancient Ethioipians can become very confusing. After all,
to the Greeks, the term 'Aethiop' simply meant " burnt face" and was
used to designate a very large number of different kinds of Africans and
dark-skinned people of African descent. It was used in a similar manner
to the way the Europeans employed the term "Negro" which means
"black" in Spanish.
We do know, however, that the rugged mountains of Ethiopia
isolated and protected the early settlements around Lake Tana. A
civilization followed which was among the first to fully develop the
science of astronomy.
Hardly any group of people were able to build settlements on the
banks of the rocky, downhill course of the Blue Nile, but where the land
leveled out many settlements sprang up. This area was the other
"Ethiopia" of the ancients - Sennar. Although not very much is known
about the region, it appears that many of the elements of higher
civilization originated there. Professor Diop, for example, suggested:
"Ethiopia was the first to have laws, arts, and writing, but
these civilizing elements, still crude and imperfect, were greatly
developed in Egypt, which was favored by the climate, the nature
of the soil, and the geographical position."
Let us, then, examine some highlights in the brilliant development
of Egypt (Kemet), the greatest daughter of the Nile.
UPPER AND LOWER EGYPT
By 3,000 B.C., the Nile Valley had a very long history. In addition
to Nubia, Ethiopia, Sennar and the towns of the Anu, a large number of
towns and small cities had developed on the Nile. Some of these were
independent ruling their own small areas, while others had united to
form small federations. They all had certain things in common, such as
being ruled by a class of priest-kings, and practicing a similar type of
religion. This religion was a complicated set of beliefs that had been
developing, almost without interruption, since the dawn of Mankind.
Their way of thinking drew upon lessons learned from the plant and
animal kingdoms as well as Man, and sought to express the links and
similarities by way of symbols.
As we have seen, most of the elements of the river societies had
been developed further to the south. To the ancient Egyptians, therefore,
the south was up! Upper Egypt was south and Lower Egypt was north,
and included the large flood plain (the Delta) created where the Nile River
finally flows into the Mediterranean Sea. If we bear in mind that the Nile
was Egypt and Egypt was the Nile, it becomes clear that Upper Egypt,
which was older and included more river territories, was the soul of
Egypt to most of the inhabitants.
Lower Egypt, however, also produced very early civilizations in the
area of Lake Fayum and the Delta. In addition, the peoples of this area
had contacts with the cultures that developed outside of the Nile Valley.
Much later in Egypt's history, at about 700 B.C., the Greeks began
building settlements on the banks of Lake Fayum.
While a number of modern 'Egyptologists' argue that dynastic
Egypt/Kemet came into being around the year 3,000 B.C.E, it can be
demonstrated that Egyptian/Kemetian cultural roots extend well over
40,000 years. One of the calendars created in this region, the Sothis
calendar (which we will discuss later) proves that the Kemites dated thier
first dynasty as early as 4,200 B.C. making Kemet the earliest unified
government in human history.
In about 4200 B.C., Upper and Lower Egypt were united under the
leadership of a Pharoah (Lord of the House) called Narmer by the
Egyptians and Menes by the Greeks. This leader, described as a 'typical
Negro' by Diop, built the city of Memphis and began a new phase in Nile
Valley history often referred to as "dynastic history". This term simply
means that leadership was passed on along family lines, until it was no
longer possible. Over a period of 5,000 years, Egypt was ruled by about
30 dynasties.
This African Egypt produced an amazing and important
civilization, which gave us many of the scientific, philosophical and
cultural ideas, and practices of the "modern" world. But it could also be
an exciting, creative, and fun culture. Let's take a look at it.
HOW ANCIENT IS EGYPT/ KEMET ?
Human measurements of time are determined by how we view the
movement of the earth vis-a-vis the visible universe, in particular the
sun. We call one rotation of the earth in relationship to the sun - a day.
We call one earth-orbit around the sun -a year. Because the earth's axis
tilts back and forth, changing the relative position of each region to the
sun's warm rays; we call this warming and cooling cycle - seasons.
The ancient Kemites were first to discover and chart these
relationships and, as we shall see, many more. A provocative book by Dr.
Charles Finch, Echoes of the Old Darkland, contains a short chapter
entitled "Chronology, the Calendar, and the Kamite Great Year".
"The creation of any servicable calendar", Finch notes,
"requires such a detailed knowledge of astronomical movements that it
presupposes a long prior period of precise observation and meticulous
recording of the results. Plato insisted that the Egyptians had been
charting the stars and planets for at least 10,000 years and he does not
seem to be exaggerating. Egypt, being a dry country, lay under clear
nighttime skies for months on end, ideal for naked-eye observations of
the heavenly bodies. Consequently, they had devised three calendars,
stellar, lunar, and solar."
While their solar calendar of 365.1/4 days is in widespread use
today; and their lunar calendar of 354 days is currently used in the
Islamic and traditional Jewish worlds; the two stellar calendars that they
developed absolutely boggle the mind. These two measurements of time
are called the Sothis calendar and the Great Year.
THE SOTHIS CALENDAR
'Sothis' is the Greek word for Sirius, the North Star. Although it is
the brightest star we can see in North America, in the southern position
of Upper Egypt this star is invisible, except for a very brief moment, once
a year, just before dawn of the summer solstice (i.e. the point at which
the earth has fully tilted south).
To the astronomer-priests of Kemet, this occurance was especially
significant, because within 20 days of the appearance of Sothis (Kemetic:
Sepdet) the Nile Flood began. Thus, Sothis was the announcer of the allimportant flood, the new season, and the new year.
Once in every 1,460 years, Sirius/Sothis rose with (not before) the
sun. It was only at that point that the 1/4 day added to 365 could be
absolutely, astronomically factored in the calendar. Thus, the Sothis
Calendar had a 1,461 year cycle, which can be used to absolutely date
historical events. Dr. Finch and Cheik Anta Diop have identified
Sothis-dated records that prove dynastic Egypt was flourishing over
6,200 years ago, in 4200 B.C.
Diagram of the Zodiac of Dendara showing zodiac signs in green
THE
GREAT YEAR
The Africans of the Nile Valley discovered an even more amazing
stellar (star-based) calendar than that of the North Star, Sirius. This
calendar, called the 'Precession of the Equinoxes' or the ' Great Year', is
based on an absolutely accurate undersatnding of the rotation of the
earth.
The earth does not rotate on a straight axis, like a ball on a string.
It's movement is more like the wobbling motion of a spinning top,
rotating and revolving around the sun. The counter-clockwise movement
of northern poles takes place over an incredibly long period of time, so
much time that years, decades, generations, and even centuries cannot
accurately measure it's cycle. Because it's cycle is 25,900 years (that's
right, 25,900), it must be measured in Ages.
Two central factors made it possible for Nile Valley civilizations to
observe and measure such a long cycle, and to accurately record it. One
factor was the cultural stability of the Nile Valley, which made the efforts
and result of untold generations of astronomer-priests understandable
and available to later generations. The second factor was stone, an
abundant natural resource that made the building of monuments and
observatories (such as the Temple of Dendera) capable of lasting for
millenia.
The Herem-ekhet called the Great Sphinx in modern times
Dr. Finch notes, "...It takes between 25,860 to 25,920 years for the
earth's axis to complete this circle.... Once this was discovered, after
untold centuries of painstaking observation by pre-historic Kamite
astronomer-priests, the heavenly circle was divided into 12 arcs, each
dominated by a constellation associated with a mythic type. Since most
of these astro-mythic types were animals, the term "zodiac", from "zoion"
meaning "animal", was given to this celestial circle by the Greeks. Each
of the 12 arcs of the Precessional circle represents a "month" of 2,1552,160 years.. Each "month" constitutes an "age" and each age is
dominated thematically by it's own astro-mythic typology."
If this sounds complex, it is; but the very same Kemetian/
Egyptian symbols for the 12 Ages of the Great Year are still in use today,
in what we call astrology. Perhaps the following listing will help to
comprehend the great length of this calendar. The Great Year circle
begins in the Age of Leo. The most recent Age of Leo, according to Finch,
began in about 10,858 B.C.E. If we add an average of 2,158 years to
estimate the onset of each "age", the current Great Year would appear as
follows:
AGE OF LEO
AGE OF CANCER
AGE OF GEMINI
AGE OF TAURUS
AGE OF ARIES
AGE OF PISCES
AGE OF AQUARIUS
AGE OF CAPRICORN
AGE OF SAGITTARIUS
AGE OF SCORPIO
AGE OF LIBRA
AGE OF VIRGO
10,858 - 8,701 B.C.
8,700 - 6,543 B.C.
6,542 - 4,385 B.C.
4,384 - 2,227 B.C.
2,226 69 B.C.
68 B.C. - 2,089 A.D.
2,090 - 4,247 A.D.
4,248 - 6,403 A.D.
6,404 - 8,563 A.D.
8,564 - 10,721 A.D.
10,722 - 12,879 A.D.
12,880 - 15,038 A.D.
As you can see, the current Great Year does not end until 13,000
years from now. This means that measurement of the previous Great
Year had to commence around 36,748 B.C. We must conclude, as the
Egyptologist Gerald Massey, the renown astronomer Norman Lockyear,
and the ancient works of Martianus Capella and Manetho did, that the
Egyptians had been carefully studying the stars for over 40,000 years.
Kemet was thus an ageless land that became a melting pot for
various classes of its African and foreign residents. By 4,000 B.C., the
rich people lived in great splendor, constantly attended by their servants,
male and female, who catered to their every whim. They were
immaculately clean; their fields were meticulously cultivated by small
armies of farmers; their clothes were carefully tailored, their social lives
were strictly planned; and their homes expensively furnished. At the
other end of the social scale the poorest Kemites lived in temporary
shacks or small tents, slept on boards, ate food considered unclean, and
often went about naked.
The great masses of the population, however, lived between these
two extremes. These were the traders, the soldiers and their families, the
craftsmen, the fishermen, bakers, dog-trainers, weavers, entertainers,
bee-keepers, brewers, barbers, doorkeepers, carpenters, government
officials, masons, scribes and artists of every description.
KEMETIAN CULTURAL VALUES
While the complex culture of ancient Kemet should not be oversimplified, we can highlight some her basic cultural ideas.
Although Kemet could amass a powerful, successful army, it was not
a warlike state dominated by the military.
Natural defenses against foreign invasion meant that Kemet
sometimes enjoyed centuries of peace, but they did not fail to maintain a
permanent military. Large forts and military outposts dotted the frontiers
of Kemet and, during times of war, the entire male population could be
mobilized.
There was a great emphasis on family and moral values.
Ancient Kemet developed a matriarchal society that was also
monogamous (having one lifelong spouse), wherein lineage and
inheritance was passed along the mother's bloodline. Crafts and tradeskills were also strictly passed along family lines.
Moral training was given the highest priority.
Young men and women were taught to strive to be honest, hard
working, clean, and to respect their elders. Fairness was very important
as well; so the Kemites developed a system of courts and appeals. Their
love of learning is embodied in the ancient saying, "Give thy heart to
learning and love her like a mother, for there is nothing that is so
precious as learning."
Religion permeated everything.
The belief in life after death is well known to have been a major
preoccupation of Nile Valley dwellers, and good moral behavior was the
best preparation for the Afterlife. Statements such as these can be found
on tomb after tomb:
" I gave bread to the hungry, water to the thirsty, clothes to the
naked.....I was respectful to my father, pleasant to my mother...I have
not robbed.. I have not caused anyone suffering... I have not falsified the
grain measures.... I have not taken milk from children... I have not
killed...."
DAILY
LIFE IN
KEMET
The civilization of Egypt (Kemet), while lasting over 4,000 years,
maintained a remarkably consistent social system. Even though there
were periods of warfare and crisis, the basic peaceful style of society, the
way of looking at things and doing things, did not really change.
Egypt itself was about 500 miles long on each side of the Nile
River. It has been estimated that there were about five million
inhabitants of Egypt/Kemet. This would mean that it was among the
most heavily populated areas of the ancient world.
How was it possible to have so many people on such a limited
amount of land, without them being consistently in conflict?
We must remember that the Nile Valley had the advantage of
countless generations of human development. Each generation tried to
accomplish two things- to improve on the skills they inherited and to
transmit this heritage to their own children. Egypt was a society in which
the family was most important; where trades and skills were directly and
strictly passed on from one generation to the next; and where the general
population was always aware and conscious of their heritage. They had
to be. The achievements of their ancestors stared them in the face every
day! Let's look at an example.
The art of writing was fully developed by the time Upper and Lower
Egypt were united by Pharoah Narmer. Egyptian writing was called
"heiroglyphics" (meaning sacred carvings) by the Greeks, and the Metu
Neter by the Kemites. The meaning of Kemet's written language and
symbolism is extraordinarly deep. Those who have studied this language
recognize that the way in which ideas are expressed are both fresh and
as old as time.
In a very important book called Ancient Egypt- The Light of the
World, a British scholar named Gerald Massey pointed out that the
mythology/wisdom that led the earliest peoples to create and continually
improve civilization is clearly spelled out by the "Kamite" written
language. In 1907 he wrote:
"Mythology (did not) spring from fifty
or a hundred different sources, as is
frequently assumed. It is one as a system
of representation, one as mode of
thought, one as a mode of expression."
He went on to describe the way in which early wisdom related
images to ideas. Ideas became classified into groups called "zootypes".
Zootypes became the first symbols of ideas and the peoples of the Nile
Valley streamlined these symbols into "ideographs"- a written language
that tied together the whole development of human thought. Why not?
As we have seen, human culture did in fact originate in the area of the
Nile and it was only here that it could be seen in its completeness!
Massey went on to demonstrate that:
"... the Wisdom of the Ancients was
the Wisdom of Egypt... originated in
the old dark land of Africa ... (was)
perfected in Egypt and thence dispersed
about the world."
Thus, the ordinary citizen of Kemet always had in front of him (or
her) a record of the achievements, not just of the great rulers, but of their
entire race and civilization. To them, the numerous, colorful writings on
large and small buildings, the symbols used on jewelery, clothing and
household items must have seemed to be alive.
Indeed, it seems that these people had perfected the art of living.
They knew who they were and where they came from. They sought
balance with nature and with society. They were taught that "harmony
was the greatest good", and that "the secret of happiness lies in doing the
present thing well".
They also knew how to have fun. In an interesting book called
Everyday Life in Ancient Egypt, Jon M. White notes;
"... (During) the month-long Festival of Amon... for
days on end the inhabitants of the town and country danced,
drank and frolicked in the open air. There was a pleasant feeling
abroad that the gods were also taking a rest (it was the flood
season)....one could travel from end to end of the Black Land and
find that somewhere or other there was a public holiday every
day.... The focal point... was the gilded image of the god as it was
carried past in the procession. In front of it (marched)... the priests
(some of whom were) clad in bright robes and panther (leopard)
skins and wearing fantastic bird and animal masks. Around them
skipped their women musicians, shaking their castanets."
Doesn't that sound like "Carnival" - created by African peoples of
South America and the Carribean?
There were other festivals, such as the Harvest Festival of Min, the
Festivals of Bast and Seth, the Jubilee of Horus, and the Festival of the
Valley. Many of these occasions featured passion plays, great spectacles,
and large orchestras composed of both men and women playing harps,
flutes, lutes, trumpets, castanets, and professional singers and clappers.
There were large numbers of women dancers and acrobats, and even
souvenir and soft-drink sellers. The enjoyment of life was so central to
the Kemites that even the great multi-genius Imhotep, the architect of
the first step-pyramid and father of the science of medicine, is best
known for his saying, "Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow you shall
die".
In general, the peoples of the Nile Valley civilizations ate well.
These river dwellers became excellent gardeners and grew figs, dates,
apples and lots of grapes. They grew a variety of vegetables, including
onions, beans, spinach, chick peas, garlic, lentils, carrots, radishes,
turnips, cucumbers, melons, pumpkins and a large amount of lettuce.
They liked salads seasoned with olive oil, salt and vinegar.
The staple meats were beef, fish and poultry. Poultry farming
insured large amounts of ducks and geese. Pigeons, quails, cranes and
wild geese, were trapped in large numbers in the Delta region. Pork was
discouraged from being eaten because it was considered unclean. Beer
was the national drink, while the wealthier people drank wine. Bread,
dairy products (including cheese and butter), honey, eggs and fruits
rounded out the available diet.
Thus, we can see that the historical richness of the culture, and
the top-to-bottom organization of the economy created a civilization
where all of the classes- the peasants, soldiers, artists, scribes, priests,
and noblemen (as well as those in all the professions) could live together
and continually make progress.
THE LASTING LEGACY
For over fifty centuries now, both ancient and modern mankind
have stood in awe of the great knowledge and achievement reached by
the Nile Valley civilizations. These accomplishments are so numerous
that we can only outline them in the small amount of space we have left.
An excellent source for detailed information, however, can be found in
the book, Nile Valley Civilizations, edited by Dr. Ivan Van Sertima.
From works such as these, it becomes clear that the Kemites loved
precision and accuracy as much as beauty.
ARCHITECTURE
Kemites designed houses, villas, palaces, tombs, and great temples
that still excite the imagination. They created enormous pyramids - over
80 of them in Kemet and Nubia -with such precision and accuracy that
neither modern architecture nor science can match it. Imagine! Some of
the pyramids cover an acre at their base and are nearly five hundred feet
high. They are made up of over a million tons of stone; yet these same
buildings are level within fractions of an inch, and are almost perfectly
aligned with true (i.e. magnetic or scientific) north, south, east and west!
Moreover, hundreds of remaining temples along the Nile represent
the largest, strongest and longest lasting buildings in the history of the
world; many are also among the most beautiful.
The ancient Kemites also developed the tools and sciences for
making this level of construction possible. These included the lever,
inclined plane, the wedge, and the roller. Their stone cutters' precision
has never been matched. They developed the art of planning to scale
(blue prints), and whole cities and towns were planned and built in this
manner.
ART was so highly developed that a large class of citizens spent
their entire lives within this profession. Sculpture (some of which was
bigger than most buildings), paintings, gold and metal working, fashion
design, and woodworking became so refined, so exquisite, that no
civilization has ever surpassed these levels of art.
ASTRONOMY developed along the Nile and spread out from there.
Through their careful study of the stars they invented a calendar of 12
months and 365 days before recorded history, and a complex system of
beliefs concerning the heavens that was later copied by the Greeks and
the Romans. They identified five planets, Heru Tash Tawy (Jupiter), Heru
Akhety (Mars), Sebeg (Mercury), Heru Ka Pet (Saturn) and Bennu (Venus).
The Kemites aligned their pyramids and temples in accordance with the cardinal
directions and with a tool called a merkhet, they were able to precisely align their
buildings within a half-degree of the cardinal points.
The great pyramids, themselves, often doubled as astronomical
observatories.
In MATHEMATICS AND THE EXACT SCIENCES, the Kemites
revealed a great genius. They began by developing the use of numbers
and went on to invent multiplication, complex fractions, geometry,
trigonometry, and calculus. For writing the Nile River dwellers used a
reed paper called papyrus. Ancient papyri have been preserved that
clearly show the use of logarithms, square roots, solid and curve
functions, and other complex formulas. Two papyri in particular. The
Rhind Mathematical Papyrus and the Moscow Papyrus demonstrate a
mastery of numerous formulae over 3,500 years ago.
Other accomplishments are equally amazing. In PHYSICS, the
Kemites were able to study motion and gravity, and even the word "atom"
comes to us from the Nile Valley.
In the field of MEDICINE, they again took advantage of their many
generations of development. By the year 2950 B. C., the multi-genius Imhotep was able to accurately catalog the medical effects of over 2000
plants and herbs, developing what is now called holistic or natural
medicine and the science of botany. Their doctors were able to accurately
locate areas of the brain controlling different functions of body. They
discovered the circulatory system and wrote "the heart speaks in all the
organs".
The Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus and the Ebers Papyrus are two
ancient documents that prove that this level of medical sophistication
was practiced before 1800 B.C. The modern symbol for medicine, the
Caduseus, although carried by the Roman god Mercury, comes directly
from the Africans of the Nile.
In RELIGION, the contributions of the Nile Valley civilizations are
beyond compare. The Kemites developed the belief in one god and also
the beliefs in many aspects (neters) of creation. For example, the first
great god was called Amen. Jews, Muslims, and Christians call this
name at the conclusion of their prayers. In the Nile Valley he is said to
be "the Creator of the gods, who hast stretched out the heavens and
made the earth solid". He is also called "the Untiring Watcher, the Lord of
Eternity, and the Maker of Everlastingness."
The Hebrew religion was established by the Prophet Moses, who
was born on the Nile, raised in the Pharoah's household, educated in the
"Egyptian Mystery System" and married to a Nubian woman. Until he
was a grown man he thought he was a Kemite! Is it any wonder that the
teachings of the Bible parallel so many of the religious ideals inscribed in
the pyramids and temples of Kemet?
The idea of an entire nation worshipping one god was first
developed by a Pharoah named Akhenaten in the mid 1300's B.C. He
was the older brother (?) of Tut-Ankh-Amen. Akhenaten tried to promote
the idea all over Kemet that Aton was the one and only god, a movement
that was met with violent opposition from the priests and followers of
Amen.
The symbol for life in Kemetian culture is called the ankh. The
ankh is a symbol loaded with many levels of meaning. It can be viewed in
many different settings, on monuments, on jewelry, on statues, in
paintings, in written words, and as a tool in the healing sciences. It was
depicted as rays from the sun, as links between people, and as physical
keys.
It is often called the "Key of Life". The circle represents feminine
energy, the spiritual world, and things that are universal. The staff
leading down from the circle represents the masculine element, earth,
and the material (or real) world. The crossing bar is symbolic of the
horizon. Thus, the ankh signifies the meeting of the physical and
spiritual worlds, the earth and the sky, and the point of conception.
In Greece and Rome, many of the "gods" including Zeus - were
from Africa. W.E. B. DuBois, citing Greek writers, pointed out that,"...
The names of nearly all Greek gods are derived from Egypt..., and
certainly the Greeks continually turned toward Egypt for cultural
inspiration and scientific information.
Three central figures in Egyptian/Kemetian religion were Osiris,
Horus, and Isis. Osiris was the Great Father, and the Provider. By being
the Lord of Earth, he was also the Judge of the Afterworld, through
which mankind passed on the way to Eternity. In the spring of every
year, Osiris was reborn through the growth of plant life.
His son and twin, Horus, was symbolized by the sun. Represented
as the high flying falcon, his vision was so keen that the "Eye of Horus"
became a powerful symbol in its own right, and seen in many ways of
representation in Nile Valley civilizations. We see a variation of it today,
for example, in the African pyramid on the back of the U.S. dollar bill.
In both Greece and Rome, one of the most popular religions was
the worship of Isis, the Kemetian goddess and daughter of the sky. She
was the Virgin Mother of Horus, whose father (Osiris) was murdered by
the evil twin Set (from whom we derive the name Satan). She was,
according to the teachings, able to collect the pieces of Osiris'
dismembered body and bury enough of them to cause Osiris'
resurrection in the spring. Clearly, the belief in the Virgin Birth,
Resurrection, and the After Life were widespread in the Nile Valley
thousands of years before the time of Jesus of Nazareth. In fact, the very
holidays (holy-days) on which the birth, death, and ascension of Jesus
are celebrated in this era were first established in ancient Kemet.
The TRADITIONAL RELIGIONS OF AFRICA inherited the complex,
cultural, symbolic, and religious practices of the Nile Valley, including
circumcision, the practice of tracing one's ancestry through the mother's
lineage (matriarchy), basic forms and grammar of several African
languages, and their traditional world view (called cosmogeny). As we
have seen in other issues of the P.I.E. Series, the peoples in other parts
of Africa also developed impressive cities, towns and centers of learning.
Cheik Anta Diop, in his work, The African Origin of Civilization - Myth or
Reality makes a very detailed and easy to understand study of the origin
of these developments and relates them to the Fulani, Wolof, Mandingo,
Dogon and other contemporary West, Central, and East African peoples.
If knowledge can be compared to fountains, then we have seen that
the Nile Valley civilizations represented the deepest of wells. Their happy,
progressive, creative and precise societies are a model for peaceful
growth and development, both spiritually and intellectually.
This quote from an Afro-American historian Drusilla Houston,
typifies the spiritual legacy:
"The Ethopian is a great race, probably
the oldest. It is a race that does not die
out under adversity... When they think
way is blocked, they turn aside to pick
flowers along the pathway of pleasure.
We hear their happy voices in the cotton
field, they can be the life of the carnival,
their zealous fervor in camp meetings
and the swing song of marching black regiments..."
The ancient Kemites' intellectual legacy was equally profound. It
can be neatly summarized by the title of the Rhind Papyrus, called Rules
for Studying Nature, for Understanding Everything that Exists, Every
Mystery, Every Secret.
For Further Reading:
Because so many hundreds of books have been written about
Kemetic/Egyptian civilization, it is difficult to suggest only a few. There is
one factor, however, I like to keep in mind. Many writers have tried to
take the Nile Valley out of its African context, and to create a non-African
"Egyptian Race". To avoid confusion and to study this African Presence,
you may first want to read some issues of the:
Journal of African Civilizationns
AfricanStudies Department
Beck Hall, Rutgers University
New Brunswick, N.J. 08903
Some of their titles include;
Nile Valley Civilization, (1984)
Blacks in Science; Ancient & Modern (1983)
Egyptian History Revisited (1986)
The African Prescence in Early
Europe (1985)
All of these are edited by Dr. Ivan Van Sertima.
You may also enjoy:
Black Man of the Nile and His Family
by Dr. Yosef ben-Jochannan
(Alkebu-lan Books, N.Y. 1969)
Stolen Legacy
by George G.M. James (London 1954)
The Wonderful Ethiopians of the
Ancient Cushite Empire
by Dr. Druscilla Houston
(Reprint by Black Classics Press,
Baltimore, 1985)
The World and Africa
by W.E. B. Dubois,
(New York 1985)
Tut-Ankh-Amon and His Friends
by Cyril Aldredd
(Bellerophon Books)
Sanata Barbara, Calif. (1980)
Echoes from the Old Darkland
by Charles H. Finch
( Beleptron House, 1991)
The African Origin of Civilization
- Myth or Reality
by Cheik Anta Diop
(Lawrence Hill & Co., 1975)
Everyday Life in Ancient Egypt
by Jon Manchip White
(Putnam's Sons, New York, 1980)
and finally , the classic but difficult to find:
Ancient Egypt : the Light of the
World
by Gerald Massey
(Reprint Black Classics Press.
Baltimore. 1991)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank my friend Tony Browder for introducing me to
Kemetic studies and helping to develop this booklet conceptually and
graphically. Many of the photographs and art work in this issue are his
and he, along with Wayne Chandler, deserves credit for generously
sharing them.
In addition, I would like to thank: Coy Dunston and Caroline Wills, Inner
City Community Resources, for making the PIE Series possible, Mrs.
Gwendolyn Huff, Jasper Jones, Jamilah Calloway, and my parents,
Mr. & Mrs. Francis Henry, for their continued support.
I gratefully acknowledge the help of Sala Faruq, Cheko Hall, Renee
Sutton and the constant inspiration my children Bilqis, Nasir, Mahmud
and Netanya always give me.
Over and above the individuals involved, we should thank the Creator for
our Kemetic ancestors who bequeated to us such a great legacy. We
should also acknowedge (by reading) the great works of Cheik Anta Diop,
the Senegalese genius/scholar, who passed on in 1986.