By Simba Jama

THEY say a picture tells a thousand words. 

Well, ancient Egypt was riddled with images and sculptures of black-skinned people with wooly hair. 

Members of the royal family of Egypt, called Pharaohs, along with the common folk of Egypt were black people who were indistinguishable from the modern day negro/Bantu.

Egypt is thus as important to black history as Greece is to white history. Even more so, Egypt is the cradle of all mankind because its civilisation predates most others. Humans began as hunter/gatherers in Africa and only used stone tools. 

Writing, monotheism, circumcision, higher education, livestock rearing and most early inventions to do with agriculture, architecture and so on originated in Egypt.

It was akin to the civilisation in Mesopotamia but superseded it because of the land’s geographical advantages.

Egypt did not receive much rainfall since ancient times, but the river of Cush, which is known as the Nile, receives water from Uganda and Ethiopia were the river begins. 

The river disgorges on the valley of the Nile and finally into the Mediterranean ocean. These deposits of animal matter, human cargo and plant matter made the Nile Valley very fertile.

Cultivation increased and improved, prompting humans to live closer to the Nile Valley.

Bigger populations began living together and social and economic systems had to be developed to cope with them.

Irrigation systems such as flooding with the use of the shaduf and canals were innovated and metalwork to improve tools and weapons thrived.

Hairstyling, jewelry, embalming and other tertiary developments were largely pioneered in Egypt and many of their traits of civilisation would spread to the rest of the world through the travailing of Egyptians or foreigners who visited Egypt. 

Greece, for example, owes many things to the ancient Egyptians. Their arrival and annexation of Egypt led them into a renaissance in almost every aspect of life.

They got their knowledge of mathematics, science and spirituality from Egypt. Some of their most revered scholars attended mystery schools in Egypt and even they portrayed the Egyptians as ethiops or burnt-face people.

Alexander, the so-called great, who led the Greeks to world dominion was paternally Egyptian and was crowned king of Egypt. 

He was called the bearer of two horns because he had assumed his step-father King Phillip of Macedonia’s power upon his death.

Alexander admired his Afro-Asiatic roots so much that he instituted miscegenation between Greeks and Asians to form a Eurasian race as a measure to strengthen the Greek race.

This reverence of Egyptians preceded Alexander and Greek gods, such as Zeus.

The earliest ancestors of Greeks and Romans were Amalekites (Agagites) and Idumeans (Lacedeminians) who were both Edomites or descendants of Esau. He was a child of Afro-Asiatic black people who originally inhabited western Asia, yet Esau came out with a peculiar red and hairy phenotype. 

This shows that these Westerners, namely the Greeks and Romans, did not only inherit their civilisation from Afro-Asiatic blacks but also their ancestry. 

But in the media, in school and so fourth, we find the ancient Egyptians being portrayed as non-blacks, even whites or this red Edomite race.

This is far from the truth. The Egyptians were black, and Afro-Asiatic groups like the Hebrew people used to run to their land to hide from oppressive groups of the north, including the Assyrians, Babylonians and later Greeks and Romans.

This was done to blend in with Egypt’s black populace and individuals like Joseph, Moses, Zipporah (Ishmaelite) and Paul were mistaken for Egyptians in the Bible.

Ancient Egyptian kings like Tutankhamun had wooly hair and the colour of their skin resembled bronze and copper; the colour of reddish brown soil. This is the shade of black found among many Africans in sub-Saharan Africa.

Afro Asiatic races of the north, particularly Hittites and Hebrew people were of the same complexion but kept beards and dressed differently from Egyptians.

Hittites were Canaanites, brothers to Cush and Mesrium, the pilgrim fathers of Ethiopia and Egypt respectively. Though these Hittites eventually succumbed to a skin depigmentation disease called vitiligo or leprosy, they were originally indistinguishable from their Egyptian brethren as depicted in Egyptian artefacts such as Tutankhamun’s chariot and treasure chest.

Nubians were fellow Africans who were south of Egypt. Their distinction from Egyptians was in their complexion which was darker and bordered on the shade of brownish black. They, too, were carved onto the chariot and treasure chest of Tutankhamun.

The descendants of the Nubians can be found around Chad and Sudan, still bearing a darker complexion than most Southern African Bantu groups. 

Thankfully, the ancient Egyptians had a global worldview and depicted not only themselves in their art, but also groups that lived around them.

According to their art, the only non-black group known to the ancient Egyptians were the red skinned Edomites who initially inhabited neighbouring Mount Seir and Arabah.

Ramses III’s paternal ancestry along with those of other mummified bodies were found to be identical to that of the modern day sub-Saharan Africans, namely E1b1a.

Meaning that the descendants of the ancient Egyptians relocated to southern and western Africa owing to the drying of the Sahara region.

The migration of Egyptians and Nubians to south and west Africa led to the introduction of livestock rearing, stone sculpturing, cultivation, mining, smelting, the use of animal symbols, totems and crops like millet to those regions.

Blacks are still the indigenous people of Egypt. 

The light-skinned groups came from the Persians who conquered Egypt before 400 BCE; the Greeks who followed around 380 BCE; the Romans who followed after 68 BCE; the Arabs after 700 CE who began black but were taken to inter-marrying with fair- skinned Europeans, particularly Slavic blonde hair and blue-eyed women. 

And, finally, the Turks who were present in Egypt from the time of the Ottomans in the 1500s CE up until the late 19^th Century of our current era. 

These never returned to their homelands but are still in Egypt. It is thus a great misconception to identify the race of these latter groups with the ancient Egyptians whom we find carved in numerous statues, and carved on numerous artefacts in that land.

The ancient Egyptians and Hebrew people walked shirtless in the high heat and if any of these light-skinned migrants tried to do likewise, they would succumb to sunburn and skin diseases. That is why they wrap themselves in sheets to fend off direct contact with the sun.

Greek scholars like Hypocrites, Plato and Aristotle all recognised the Egyptians as black people. Western scholars also encountered this evidence which debunked their theory of blacks being uncivilised and thus incapable of founding a civilisation.

Eventually a British scientist named Seligman came up with a theory that claimed there were two types of Egyptians; brown whites from the north and blacks from the south. 

He called this the Hamitic theory and attributed the Egyptian civilisation to the brown whites who he claims are ancestors and kinsmen of the Caucasian race. 

This subjective theory, based not on fact or evidence but sophistry (lies) meant to tarnish black historical greatness and promote white supremacy, is the only connection whites claim to have to Egypt.