| [ |
mood |
| |
 accomplished |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
The Doors - Not to Touch the Earth |
] |
Kemet -- "black land"
Among Afrocentrist authors, it is common to refer to Egypt as "Kemet," the indigenous term for the country, which means "black land." Traditionally, mainstream scholars contend this term refers to the dark, fertile soil beside the Nile, in contrast to the desert beyond it, labelled the "red land" by Egyptians. Afrocentrists, however, associate the term with Egyptian racial identity, pointing out that ancient Egyptians also called themselves "Kmemeu", or "the black people" and their subjects "Kemetu", or "the blacks' people". They also cite the archaeological evidence, particularly that of temple statuary, and the writings of Herodotus and other ancient authors, who refer to the dark skin and woolly hair of Egyptians.
Others argue that indigenous Egyptian terminology is best translated as "people of the black land", and that Western classical writers usually described Egyptians as a mid-tone between black Ethiopians and pale Europeans. Herodotus himself is clear that Egyptians look different from Ethiopians. Marcus Manilius states that "the Ethiopians stain the world and depict a race of men steeped in darkness. Less sun-burnt are the natives of India. The land of Egypt, flooded by the Nile, darkens bodies more mildly owing to the inundation of its fields: it is a country nearer to us and its moderate climate imparts a medium tone."
Linguistic arguments --
Most philologists consider the ancient Egyptian language to be a member of the Afro-Asiatic family (otherwise called "Hamito-Semitic") - a language group, most probably native to Africa, that covers most of the Middle East, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, as well as much of Chad and Nigeria. As a result, speakers of Afro-Asiatic languages are multi-ethnic and possess a wide range of skin colors. (Other languages in this family include Arabic and Hebrew.)
In contrast, Afrocentrists commonly link ancient Egyptian with languages of the Niger-Congo family, virtually all the speakers of which are blacks. For example, Cheikh Anta Diop claims that the ancient Egyptian language has vocabulary in common with Wolof, while Théophile Obenga links it with Mbochi. However, mainstream scholars contend it is inadequate to list similar-sounding or possibly related terms in different languages; only a rigorous investigation using the methodology of historical linguistics, in particular the comparative method, suffices.
Geographic arguments -- (IF YOU READ ONLY ONE, MAKE IT THIS ONE)
Opponents of Afrocentrism often argue that Egyptians belong among the Semitic peoples of the Middle East, pointing to the fact that Egypt is at the extreme north eastern edge of the African continent, close to both Israel and the Arabian Peninsula. However, rather than being comprised of a singular people, Egypt also extends south into areas occupied by undeniably black-skinned people. Complicating the discussion, "Semitic" also defines a language group that also includes many black African peoples.
It is commonly accepted that the population of Egypt was, at least in later dynasties, a mixture of black African, Mediterranean, Semitic and, even later, European peoples. However, these very categories are disputable and indeterminate.
However, skin color among various populations of indigenous Africans differs naturally. Today, a brown-skinned Fula is generally considered no less a black African than a very dark-skinned Nubian. Afrocentrists argue that the same can be said of Nubians and Egyptians. In fact, prognathism — a forward-slanting facial profile — is a key indicator used by forensic experts today to determine racial identity.
It is important to note, however, that all aspects of the standard Africoid phenotype of coarse, curly hair; broad, flat noses and full lips do not apply to all black peoples, many of whom have relatively straight hair and narrower facial features. Paradoxically, while these peoples posses a range of skin tones and some diverge from the classically Africoid phenotype, they are considered no less "Negro", no less black, than other autochthonous peoples of the African continent— many of the Nilotic and Cushitic peoples of both North East Africa and East Africa being examples. Further, these indigenous, black, African peoples of the Nile Valley all comprised in part—and Afrocentrists believe in predominant part—the ethnically diverse kingdoms of ancient dynastic Egypt.
Artistic arguments --
Artistic renderings of the human form in dynastic Egyptian art were produced using a variety of pigments, including stark white, yellow, brown, red-brown, inky black and even blue. In some instances, the selection of skin tones was symbolic and meant to convey vitality, strength, feminity, permanence, and even death.
In typical portrayals of Egyptians in their own art, from the Old Kingdom onwards they appear brown-skinned, using a red ochre pigment. The tomb of Tutankhamun contained a box on which the pharaoh was depicted riding a chariot over black-skinned people, presumably representing Nubia. There were also walking sticks, the handles of which depicted both black-skinned and pale-skinned conquered adversaries, representing defeated Nubian and Asiatic enemies.
There are numerous representations in Egyptian sculpture and murals spanning more than three millennia of individuals with dark skin, of faces which are broad across the cheekbones, with full lips and pronounced prognathisms and receding chin lines. (See the mural illustrations below in "Ethnographic murals".) Such features are characteristic of a "Negroid", or Africoid, phenotype.
The Great Sphinx of Giza, thought to be a likeness of the Pharaoh Khufu, is in considerable disrepair after over four thousand years of erosion and vandalism. In 1378, the nose was reportedly pried off by an Islamic fundamentalist. However, some see Africoid features in what remains, pointing to the image's pronounced facial prognathism, which remains clearly in evidence. According to Diop in The African Origin of Civilization, French scholar Constantin-François de Chassebœuf, Comte de Volney (1757-1820) visited Egypt between 1783 and 1785 and expressed astonishment upon seeing black Egyptians and the "Negro" face of the Great Sphinx:
"...[Egyptians] all have a bloated face, puffed up eyes, flat nose, thick lips; in a word, the true face of the mulatto. I was tempted to attribute it to the climate, but when I visited the Sphinx, its appearance gave me the key to the riddle. On seeing that head, typically Negro in all its features, I remembered the remarkable passage where Herodotus says: 'As for me, I judge the Colchians to be a colony of the Egyptians because, like them, they are black with woolly hair. ...'" In other words, the ancient Egyptians were true Negroes of the same type as all native-born Africans. That being so, we can see how their blood, mixed for several centuries with that of the Romans and Greeks, must have lost the intensity of its original color, while retaining nonetheless the imprint of its original mold. We can even state as a general principle that the face is a kind of monument able, in many cases, to attest or shed light on historical evidence on the origins of peoples.
Analysis of mummified remains --
Melanin tests -
Afrocentrists also cite the results of Cheikh Anta Diop's forensic tests of melanin content in Egyptian mummies and of forensic reconstruction of skulls to prove their contention that the early dynastic Egyptians were black Africans and remained so in predominant part for millennia. Supporters of Diop's claims assert that similar tests for determining the melanin content in bones have been used by police departments in the gathering of forensic evidence around the world, albeit using remains thousands of years younger.
The importance of Diop's work cannot be dismissed. Melanin content alone is not definitive evidence of ethnicity, but when placed in the context of the possible Nile Valley populations of the time, many consider Diop's findings compelling. Detractors argue that relatively few examples of well-preserved human remains of the era exist, and that the degradation of melanin over time and in the presence of ancient embalming fluids is a phenomenon that has not been widely studied. Diop himself addressed the subject in Origin of the Ancient Egyptians:
"Melanin (eumelanin), the chemical body responsible for skin pigmentation, is, broadly speaking, insoluble and is preserved for millions of years in the skins of fossil animals. There is thus all the more reason for it to be readily recoverable in the skins of Egyptian mummies, despite a tenacious legend that the skin of mummies, tainted by the embalming material, is no longer susceptible of any analysis. Although the epidermis is the main site of the melanin, the melanocytes penetrating the derm at the boundary between it and the epidermis, even where the latter has mostly been destroyed by the embalming materials, show a melanin level which is non-existent in the white-skinned races....
Either way let us simply say that the evaluation of melanin level by microscopic examination is a laboratory method which enables us to classify the ancient Egyptians unquestionably among the black races."
Shall I go on? I could ya know. Stick that in yer lolly and suck it! Humph I say Adam, Pfffft I say Steve & Booya I say Brian!
Ya'll ain't going to accuse an encyclopedia to be wrong are ya? Only getting my information from the same place ya'll do.
so kiss my black, afrocentric ass!
 
DARKNESS IS SPREADIN'!
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
dirty_dre's journal
mellow
nostalgic
restless
need to get work done
ecstatic
chillin'
Oh it's over now
trying to write poetry
dirty
melancholy
drunk
procastinating
awake
indescribable