The Ancient African Kingdom of Kush
Du Sable Museum of African American History
November 20, 2014
Dr. Josef Ben Levi
Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop on The Fear of Evading the Question of Egypt as an African
Civilization.
• Diop (1974) further stated that:
• The African historian who is skeptical and evades the problem of Egypt is,...neither modest or objective, nor unruffled; he is ignorant, cowardly, and neurotic. Imagine, if you can, the uncomfortable position of a Western historian who was to write the history of Europe without referring to Greco-Latin antiquity and try to pass that off as an scientific approach. (1974, p. xiv)
• Philosophy is a factor in the life history of the human experience.
• Why is it that European philosophy is called simply philosophy but African philosophy is designated as ethnophilosophy?
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• Fundamental to this academic denial is the way historiography is constructed in the Western academy and its foundations in George Wilhelm Frederick Hegel's thinking about the place of Egypt, whose accomplishments he places outside of the African sphere.
• He stated that Africa had no history. For Hegel, Egypt was of Asiatic or European origin or what he called Hither Asia. He argued that:
• Africa's northern coast, was to be and must be attached to Europe. (1899/1956, p.99).
• Since the two main criteria Hegel used to define philosophical thought were reasoned discourse and written records, for Hegel:
• Africa was in an unhistorical, underdeveloped spirit, in a state of nature and only on the threshold of the world's history. (1899/1956, p. 99).
• While castigating Africa, Hegel does later acknowledge that Egyptian civilization received its culture from what the Greeks called Ethiopia, mainly the Kushite capital at Merowe which is at the fourth cataract of the Nile valley in what is called the Sudan today.
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• Hegel goes on to say:
• At this point we leave Africa, not to mention it again, for it is no historical part of the world; it has no movement or development to exhibit. (1988/1956, p. 99)
• Hegel, essentially, relegates Africa and her people to what amounts to a footnote in his introduction.
• Hegel detaches Egypt from Africa and consequently, the Africans from Egypt.
• He went on to argue that the Greeks got rid of all the foreign nature of philosophy so well that it was essentially of Greek origin (Hegel, 1899/1956).
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• A German scholar, Johann Gottfried Von Herder (1744-1803), created the concept of an imaginary connection between the ancient histories of Western Europe and ancient Greece and Rome.
• This was in spite of the fact that the Germanic peoples and their early history is not nor ever was connected with ancient Greece or Rome.
• But This notion of origins did not really matter so long as one could be constructed and agreed upon within a respected academic consensus.
• Herder influenced the historical perceptions of both Georg Wilhelm Frederick Hegel and Max Weber.
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• Herder made the case that history is essentially the story of great men and battles.
• This was a view that led to the establishment of two historical doctrines, the Crocean doctrine of Benedetto Croce and Paul Veyne doctrine.
• The Croce-Veynes doctrine of history which stated that:
• The intelligence of history has been enriched from the time of the ancient Greeks to today. (1985; 2001, p. 1; p. 129-130)
• Hegel's line of thinking has influenced the popular Western European and American concept of Africa as well as the Western academy's view about African philosophy.
• The ancient histories of Western Europe created an imaginary connection between itself and ancient Greece and Rome was a concept developed by a German scholar, Johann Gottfried Von Herder (1744-1803).
• This was in spite of the fact that the Germanic peoples and their early history is not nor ever was connected with ancient Greece.
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Geography: Ta Seti, Wawat, Kush, Yamm
• Ancient Kush is the foundation of Classical Nile Valley Civilizations. It is located in the area of present Upper Egypt (Lower Nubia) and the Sudan (Upper Nubia).
• Its earliest development started in the Western Sahara around Nabta Playa, in the Eastern Desert around the WadiHammamat near the Red Sea and the Southern region near the origin of the Nile River.
• From these three regions emerged the African people we today call the ancient Nubians.
• All of the major cataracts of the Nile flow through ancient Nubia or Kush.
•
Geo-Political Names for Nubian Locations in Ancient
Kemetic Texts:
• Ta-Seti- (Land of the Bow)
• Ta-Nehesy-(Land of the Nehesy
People)
• Wawat (Lower Nubia)
• Irjet-(Lower Nubia)
• Satju-(Lower Nubia)
• Kaau-(Upper Nubia)
• Iuntiu-Setiu (Eastern Desert)
• Yamm (Upper Nubia)
• Nubia (Gold Lands?)
• Punt-(Upper Nubia-Red Sea)
Ethnic Nubian Names in Ancient Kemetic Texts:
• Kush-(12-32nd Dynasties)
• Sha’at-(Isle of Sai)
• Iryshek-(Western Desert)
• Tua-(Western Desert)
• Imana’a-(Western Desert)
• Ruket-(Western Desert)
• Awshek-(Eastern Mountains)
• Webet-Sepat (Eastern Mountains)
• Khenet-Hennefer (Kush-18th Dyn.)
• Irem-(Dongola Bend-Old Yamm)
• Miu – (Bayuda Region-5th cataract)
• Karoy-(Napata area)
• Meroe-(Baruat)-East Bank of Nile, South of 5th cataract
• Butana- (Inland from Merowe)
Ancient Writers on Nubia
• Homer
• Herodotus
• Eratosthenes
• Claudius Ptolemy
• Olympiodorus
• Strabo
• Diodorus Siculus
• Flavius Josephus
• Pomponious Mela
• Pliny the Elder
• Julius Africanus
• Procopius
• Ammianus Marcellinus
Some Names for Nubia:
*Ta – Seti (“Land of the Bow”)
* Wawat (Lower Nubia)
* Kush (Upper Nubia)
* Ethiopia (Greek -- “Land of the Sun-Burned/Burnt Faces”)
{not the same as modern Ethiopia (Axum, Abyssinia)}
* Meroë
• Mdw Ntr – Divine Speech-
• Ta Seti- Land of the Bow-
• Kush- the Southern Land-
• Ta Netcher – The Land of the Divinities
• Ta Nehesi – Land of the Southerners-
• Nehesi – The Up River Ones –
Dr. Alexander Crummell (1819-1898)
Africa and the American Negro: Addresses and Proceedings of the Congress on
Africa, December 13-15, 1895
Antenor Firmin (1850-1911)
• Antenor Firmin predicted that the United States would have a Black president in 1885!
Dr. Rufus Perry (1834-1895)
• The Cushite, or the Descendants of Ham as Found in the Sacred Scriptures and in the Writings of Ancient Historians and Poets from Noah to the Christian Era, 1893.
George Wells Parker (1882-1931)
1918. The Children of the Sun. Omaha: Hamitic League of the World. 2d reprint ed., Baltimore: Black Classic Press, 1981.
William Leo Hansberry (1894-1965)
1974. Pillars in Ethiopian History: The William Leo Hansberry African History Notebook –
Vol. I. Edited by Joseph Harris. Washington: Howard University Press.
1977. Africa and Africans as Seen by Classical Writers: The William Leo Hansberry African
History Notebook – Vol. II. Edited by Joseph Harris. Washington: Howard University
Press.
Drusilla Dunjee Houston (1876-1941)
1926. Wonderful Ethiopians of the Ancient Cushite Empire. Oklahoma City:
Universal Publishing Co. Reprint, Baltimore: Black Classic Press, 1985.
Dr. John Glover Jackson (1907-1993)
1939. Ethiopia and the Origin of Civilization: A Critical Review of the Evidence of
Archaeology, Anthropology, History and Comparative Religion – According to the Most
Reliable Sources and Authorities. New York: Blyden Society. Reprint, Baltimore: Black
Classic Press, 1985.
Khasekhemwy
Statue of King Khasekhemwy, the last king of the Second Dynasty (ca. 2686B.C.) was found at Hierakonpolis in ancient Nubia in 1898.
Also the funerary stela of the First Dynasty king “Djed," with the niched facade of his palace called a serekh to hold his name and designate him as a king.
The Medieval Nubian Period: 550-1500 c.e.
• This period is divided into three kingdom: Nobatia :200-543 CE., Makuria:650-700 CE., and Alwa 580-1504 CE.
• This is the period known as Christian Nubia. At this period many Nubians became Monophysite or “Coptic” Christians.
• Nobatia remained a Christian Kingdom until it was conquered by the Moslems under Arab clans such as the Beni Kanz who converted the people to Islam and intermarried with their women. During this time a treaty was established between Nubia and Egypt called the “Baqt”
• The Nubian Christian Kingdoms were finally conquered by Muhammad Ali in 1504.
Baqt Treaty
1.In 652 CE. a treaty between Nubia and Egypt was signed under Abdallah ibn Sa’ad ibn Abi Sahr in which Nubia would supply 360 “slaves” each year to Arab Egypt and promise not to attack them. In return Egypt would provide 1300 “gallons” of wine.
2. In 720 CE. a “Baqt” is signed between Egypt and the Beja.
3. In 758 CE. The Abbasid Dynasty complained that it was not receiving any “Baqt” payments and the Blemmeyes attack Upper Egypt.
4. Between 819-822 CE. The King of Dongola and the Beja refuse to pay “baqt” and mount an attack on Egypt.
5. In 1268 The King od Dongola, Dawud pay “baqt” to the Mamlukes.
6. In 1317 The Christian king of Nubia is defeated and the first Muslim King, Abdullah Bar Shambu is place on the throne in Dongola. The first mosque is built in Dongola and the “baqt” is reestablished.
Saint Josephine Bahkita
• She was born in 1869 in the village of al-Gossa in Darfur of the Dago clan
• In 1878 at age 9 she was kidnapped by Arab slavers.
• The Arabs named her “Bahkita” (Fortunate).
• She was sold many time until a Turkish general sold her to an Italian family from Genoa.
• She was sent to a convent as a servant to her owners daughter.
• She refused to return to Africa and was freed by the Catholic church and became a nun in 1896.
• She was canonized as St. Bakhita in 1992.
The Celator Numismatics Journal
These ancient Kushite coins were first published in The Celator Vol.17, No.10, Oct. 2003.
At that time it was “assumed” that the coins were inscribed in “Aramaic” even though there was no evidence among the Numismatics and graphologists arguing over the inscriptions that this was the case. They finally concluded that it was an indecipherable language. They, at the time, never conceived of the possibility that the coins could be from ancient Africa.
A member of the Society Historia Numorum out of Boston, Mass. and remembered seeing similar inscriptions in the Sudan in 1977 decided to seek out a Meroitic Language “scholar” on the internet.
That is how I became involved in this project with members of the “Society” in early 2008. That association ultimately led to my correctly deciphering the inscriptions on the coins by the end of 2008 and solving a “Hidden Ancient African” riddle that had existed since these coins were found in 1858.
Since that time I have received other coins from them to decipher and the work is continuing. This is a brief story about my decipherment of the first two ancient Kushitecoins.
This opens a whole new area of research for African scholars who want to go beyond mere coin collecting as a hobby.
Classic Athenian Tetradrachm Owl Coin 449 bce
Ancient coins were known as Celators-to engrave, carve. They were widely used throughout the
ancient Greek world. When other countries did not have any they minted their own.
The reverse side has the owl alongside the Greek word for “ethnic” or “nation” which suggest that it
was the “national” currency .
The olive leaf represents olive oil which was the most important product exported from Athens.
The crescent moon represents the victory of the Athenians over the Persians at the Battle of Salamis
in 480 bce which was fought under the “waning moon”. This lead to the Greek ideal of constitutional
government, private property, individualism, and all of the notions that are equated with Western
civilization today.
The “owl” possibly means “wisdom”?
Athena is, of course, derived from– Net/Neith - of Sais. She was the Principle of the
“Weaver” and “Shooter” . She was also a Mother Principle as counterpart to Mut the
symbol of Motherhood. She was also sometimes identified with H at-Hor
Phoenician Tetradrahm 460-404 bce
The Phoenician letter (w-sin/shin) carved into the cheek of Athena
indicates that this coin was minted in the city of Sidon in Phoenicia.
Himyarite Owl Coin 27 bce – 14 ce.
This Himyarite Owl coin from the time of Octavian or Augustus Caesar with a wreath on his head and the owl with an amphora under its feet. To the right of the owl are the ancient Himyariteletters “Y” over “A” and to the left are the letters “H” over “P” and the letter “N” under “P” with the letter “B” left of “P”.
Egyptian Issue Owl Coin from the time of the Persian
Satrap ArtaXerxes III Ochus 343-338 bce
Athens started using coins issued with the owl about
510 bce. Around the same time that the Athenian
democratic society was established under
Kleisthenes. (Herodotus)
In 449 bce. The Athenian Coinage Decree was
signed which sought to force Athens’ allies to use
Athenian coins, weights and measures. This may
have been due to the moving of the Athenian
Leagues treasury from Delos to Athens.
Coins started being minted in Egypt (Kemet) during
the Persian periods ( 525-404 bce) and (343-332
bce.) During this time lots of “owl” tetradrachms
were produced. There were also smaller
denominations such as dekadrachms, didrachms,
drachms, etc.
Silver Owl coinage was used throughout Roman
Imperial times until it was discontinued in 267 ce.
Qore Khabbash Meroitic CoinTo commemorate the reestablishment of
ancient Kushite rule in the Nile Valley or,
Weheme Mesu, Kabbash, had a coin minted
in his honor. It is clear that it was minted in
Kush as is indicated by the inscription below
the olive leaves to the left of the owls head.
What this confirms is not only that Kush had
its own coinage, but that it had its own mint
to produce them and their own scribes to
inscribe them.
It further supports the well known facts
attested by the ancient writer such as
Diodorus, Herodotus, Plato, and others of the
significance of Kush as a trading and
intellectual center in the Nile Valley at that
time.
It must be kept in mind that when the ancient
Greeks and Romans were looking at the
inhabitants of the Nile Valley in their time,
they were looking at the descendants of the
ancient Kushites, whom we would also call
Nubians.
• “If we are to take command of the world
and recreate an African world order we
must first recover the ability to conceive
of such a task. We must first take
command of our own minds”
• Dr. Jacob H. Carruthers, “Essays in Ancient
Egyptian Studies”, p.36, 1984.
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