Ancient Egypt
Egypt is clearly a part of Africa, but for a long time, Western scholars tried to say that ancient Egyptian culture was related to cultures in the Middle East. So, the relationship between Egypt and Africa was seen as a one-way flow, with parts of an “advanced” or “higher” society being brought to an “uncivilized” continent.
This point of view must be seen within the framework of Western science, and it is hoped that it is a thing of the past. With the exception of Nubia, we still don’t know much about how ancient Egypt and the rest of Africa were connected. In the past, most of the cultural achievements of African people south of the Sahara that were seen as signs of an advanced society, like divine kingship, ironworking, inhumation rites, and the religious cult of the ram, were thought to have come from Egypt.
Most of the time, these theories are based on superficial similarities between things Egyptians did nearly 5,000 years ago and things Africans do today. Over the years, a long list of possible connections has been made. Their scientific or methodological base has to be seen as weak, and few Egyptologists or Africanists accept these diffusionist theories right now. In the last few decades, the discussion about how ancient Egypt and Africa were connected has become more and more controversial and based on different ideologies.
During this change, Afrocentrists brought back many of the above-mentioned ideas. In some cases, they did so without questioning what could be shown to be unscientific dreams. Discussions about the link between ancient Egypt and Africa have mostly been about the ancient Egyptians’ “racial” background. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Egyptologists and anthropologists tried to show that the Egyptians could not have had black skin and could not have been part of the “Negro race.
The African response, under the leadership of Cheikh Anta Diop, had to demonstrate the ancient Egyptians’ race as evidence that the ancient culture originated in Africa.
Even today, politics and prejudice drive most of the talk about the relationship between Egypt and Africa. This seems to have stopped serious research in a lot of areas, and the science is still not very good. The Old Egyptian language is part of the group of languages called “Afroasiatic. This group also includes the Semitic languages of Asia and Africa, the Berber languages of northern Africa, the Cushitic languages of northeast Africa, the Omotic languages of Ethiopia, and the Chadic languages of present-day Chad.
This language group’s home is in northeast Africa, probably in what is now Sudan. People from Africa who immigrated to the Nile Valley eventually settled in Egypt. From the beginning, Egyptians traveled to and lived in areas south of their home country.
Before the dynasties, there was a lot of trade with the south. Ivory, incense, ebony, and animal skins were some of the things that were traded. The popular funeral biography of Harkhuf from the Sixth Dynasty talks about bringing in a pygmy or dwarf, a name that comes from the Cushitic language.
It’s possible that the ancient Egyptians were also interested in the Chad region, which they could reach through ancient Nile valleys and caravan routes that led to the west. But so far, no proof of a journey to the west has been found. The country of Punt was important at different times in the history of ancient Egypt.
Since the fifth dynasty, the Egyptians have talked about this part of Africa, where they got myrrh, electrum, fragrant herbs, ivory, and gold. On the walls of Queen Hatschepsut’s temple at Deir al-Bahri, near Thebes, is the longest story of an expedition to Punt. Here, we can read about the trip and also see pictures of daily life in Punt and the people who live there.
Only Egyptian sources mention the name Punt, and nothing is known about what the Puntites called themselves or where they lived. So, even though the discussion about where Punt is located has been going on for more than a century, it is still going on. Based on a careful look at written and visual sources and archeological data, it seems that most people now agree that Punt can be found inland from the coast of the Red Sea.
It might be linked to the Gash delta cultures in eastern Sudan, which had contact with the Ethiopian highlands and the Upper Nile valley. Early in the 12th century BCE, almost all mentions of Punt in history stopped, and the trade seems to have ended. Even though there is a lot of proof that ancient Egypt and Africa were connected, it has been hard to connect Egyptian references to African goods, places, or people to their modern-day names.
This sad gap in our knowledge might be filled in the future if researchers in linguistics and ethnoarchaeology worked harder and didn’t let their ideas get in the way.
Also Read: Ancient Kemet: Old Kingdom and Its Unknown Contacts to the Southern Part Of Africa
