Egypt
Essays on Ancient Kemet
by
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1. Africa
Today, only the most knowledgeable and culturally aware African-Americans know the accurate story about Egypt/ancient Kemet/Tawi and the rest of Africa. Young people, in particularly those with parents who were civil rights activists, black scholars, and whose teachers know the truth, have a better understanding of Egypt and Africa. This is further underscored as unfolding scholarship details the Black substructure, structure and superstructure of ancient Egypt, without question, and this has put the racist pseudo-scientists who distorted history, to be in retreat.
The history of Africa has been distorted to exclude the contributions of Egypt as the Voice of the Mother Continent, Africa. Academic and cultural imperialists created a mythical area called the “Middle East” and postulated and preached a false history of this ancient African civilization. They projected Egypt as being a part of that area, part of the “Fertile Crescent,” at the expense of Africa. The fact is, from time immemorial, Egypt/Sinai has been and still is a state in Africa and the Egyptians were and still are Africans. For that matter, some years ago, Egypt was the host and its President Mubarak, Chairman of the Organization of African Unity (OAU). This clearly shows Egypt is in Africa, not the Middle East!
The great writers of antiquity including Herodotus, Strabo and Diodorus and many others, all held that the Egyptians/ Kamites were black people and this was based on their physical observations. Such a view was held at a time when Egyptian civilization had been thousands of years old and been through its many incursions and conquests by foreigners. Nevertheless, this belief was accepted until interest in Egypt/Kemet was developed by c. 1800 of our era. Because Africans were enslaved and had been downtrodden in the west, at that time, pseudo-Scientists felt it necessary and natural to exclude Egypt from Africa to justify that condition as being a perpetual one. As such, Africa’s true role in Egypt was omitted and the history falsified to show the superiority of Europeans and their culture. Why not, since white-men subjugated black-men in an institution of slave trade and slavery in the west. And so, successive generations accepted the false belief and systematically shaped history to justify their story, or as the man said, “His-Story.”
As the Science of Egyptology, aided by the disciplines of Anthropology and Archaeology, developed the strategy was to elevate Europe and derogate Africa. This outlook was achieved by falsifying the historical record. The falsity was accepted and perpetuated by innocent and ignorant scholars and writers who dared not challenge the prevailing myths about Africa, and so, timidity and ignorance reigned. “The people who preached racism colonized the writing and teaching of history,” as Professor Clarke has consistently advocated.
Modern European scholars including Volney, Ruins of Empire, 1791; Denon, Travels in Egypt and Assyria, 1793; and Sir Godfrey Higgins, Anacalypsis 2 Vols. (1836) took an iconoclastic view. They shattered the myths surrounding Africa, Africans and especially Egypt/Kemet. They too, had read Herodotus, “the Father of History,” and his descriptions of Egyptians/Kamites, as having “thick lips, broad nose, wooly hair and being burnt of skin.” Diodorus Siculus had said the Ethiopians claimed to have found Egypt/Kemet as a colony. And so, a new school of thought arose, but they paid the price of ostracism.
2. CHEIKH ANTA DIOP
Cheikh Anta Diop, a Senegalese, has masterfully posed the question of the African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality (1955), Edited and translated by Mercer
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About the Book
Egypt Essays on Ancient Kemet is a collection of early essays written by the author dating to the time of his graduate work in African History at Hunter College of the City University of New York in the late 1970 and early 1980s. The Table of Contents reads: Africa; Diop; Culture for Liberation; The Fascination of Egyptian Archaeology; The Egyptian Tomb; The Nile Valley in World Antiquity History; The Priesthood; Sakkara; Upper Egypt/Kemet; Temple of Isis; Karnak; The Temple of Luxor; Abydos; The Dance, Music and Musical Instruments; African Art; North Africa: Egypt, Kush, Ethiopia; Time Measurement; Pharaonic Crowns, Names and Regalia; The Nile River; Kemetic Technology/Sciences; Yosef ben-Jochannan; The Blessing; and References.
The first essay, Africa, deals with the muddle of the presentation of Egypt, its denigration of the role of Africans in that cultural development; and how the primary and secondary American school system has failed the African American youth in teaching and reinforcing their connection with this ancient African cultural development in the Nile Valley.
Hardly another single work mirroring Diop, has had as profound an impact as that reviewed work entitled, African Origins of Civilization: Myth or Reality. The Senegalese scholar has analyzed and rectified the historical record regarding the proper portrayal of blacks in Egypt. He has gone beyond and demolished the myth of Europe and Asia in origins and significant contributions in the foundations and progression of the culture. The other Essays focus on the little historical, social, economic, artistic, cultural and philosophical issues and features, in totality, that created the great culture cluster of Egypt and the Nile Valley.
The Tribute to Dr. ben-Jochannan has meaning to the author, for the respected elder, historian, teacher and friend, showed the way to many other students as well, that ancient Kemet/Egypt was a prize worth learning about, fighting for, and defending. The Blessing is just that, for critics and those who complement this work.
The photographs, illustrations and plans of various temples presents a pictorial view and helps to reinforce the text message that Egypt is a wonderful cultural experience. The book is useful for the general reader, students and even the expert scholar.
About the Author
Frederick Monderson is a retired college professor and school teacher who taught African History in the City University of New York and American History and Government in the NY public schools. He has written more than 700 articles in the NY Black Press, Daily Challenge, Afro Times and New American newspapers. Very active in community service he has also written several books on Egypt including Barak Obama: Ready, Fit to Lead: Road to the White House, Seven Letters to Mike Tyson on Egyptian Temples, 10 Poems Praising Great Blacks for Mike Tyson, Medinet Habu: Mortuary Temple of Rameses III, Temple of Karnak, Book of Research Essays on Ancient Egypt, Where are the Kamite Kings, The Holy Land: A Novel on Egypt, Intrigue Through Time (A novel about Egypt), Hatshepsut’s Temple at Deir el Bahari, The Majesty of Egyptian Gods and Temples (a book of Egyptian Poems), Egypt Essays on Ancient Kemet, The Ramesseum: Mortuary Temple of Rameses II, The Colonnade: Then and Now, Reflections on Ancient Kemet and Glory of the Ancestors: 19 Letters to O.J. Simpson on Ancient African History. A student of the esteemed Dr. Yosef ben-Jochannan, Dr. Monderson conducts tours to Egypt annually.