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Ancient Kemet: Remember the Time
To assist our chronological understanding, Manetho, a Kemetic priest, in his book Lost History of Egypt, divided Kemetic rulers into thirty time periods or dynasties. This division, still used by modern historians, sub-divides Kemetic dynasties into: the Old Kingdom (First Intermediate, Middle Kingdom, Second Intermediate), and the New Kingdom, geographically referred to as Upper and Lower Egypt to identify their north and south locations.
The Upper and Lower kingdoms of Kemet were rivals until the reign of King Menes (fl. C. 3100 B.C.-3038 B.C.), also known as Aha Mena and Narmer. He politically united Kemet, established a centralized government (c. 3200 B.C.), and founded a capital named Memphis in his honor, between Upper and Lower Kemet (Egypt).
This political unification played a significant role in Kemet, which allowed economic, social, cultural, and governmental institutions to endure with comparatively little change for almost two thousand years. Thus a high culture emerged, hieroglyphic (Mdw Ntru) writing was introduced, commerce flourished, the great pyramids were built, and Kemet became one of the most advanced nations in the ancient world.
Consequently, it set a record of achievement few civilizations could rival. After this period, Kemet entered a cycle of instability which ended in c. 2000 B.C. With the establishment of the Middle Kingdom (2134-1786 B.C.), and the founding of Wa-Set (a.k.a. Wo-Se' and Thebes). However, because of weak leadership, in 1786 B.C. Kemet was captured by foreign nomads, the Hyksos, who were eventually expelled in c. 1570 B.C. Leading to the birth of the New Kingdom.
The New Kingdom (c. 1570-1085 B.C.) witnessed: the rule of Amenhotep I, II, IV (Amenhotep IV introduced monotheism to Kemet and the world), Tuthmosis I, II, III, and IV, Makare Hatshepsut (the queen who proclaimed herself pharaoh and ruled during the minority of her nephew Tuthmosis III), and Rameses I and II (the Great), whose temple doorways were flanked by large pylons or towers (often with statues or obelisks [tekhenu] in front), and organizer of the construction of the famous rock carved temple of Abu Simbel, and the establishment of Wa-Set/Wo-Se' (Thebes) and Memphis as the intellectual, political, commercial, and cultural
center of the world.
After the twentieth dynasty (1200-1085 B.C.), Kemet was subject to foreign domination by Libya, Sudan, Assyria, Nubia, and Persia, with only a brief period of independence in 405 B.C., which ended in 332 B.C. When Alexander, the "Great" (a former student of Aristotle), and his army invaded.
Thereafter, the Greeks founded the Ptolemaic dynasty (Greeks in Egypt) and built the city of Alexandria to honor Alexander "The Great" and Hellenistic culture, with the Alexandria Library as its hallmark. This library was built "unscrupulously" upon ancient Kemetic knowledge and the "confiscated" documents of Athens (Hessel, 1950)
The Ptolemaic empire lasted for 200 years, until it was weakened by internal conflict and fell to Rome in 30 B.C. Egypt was absorbed into the Byzantine empire (c. A.D. 395) until the Arab conquest of 639-42 A.D., which incorporated (Kemet) Egypt into the Arab/Muslim "Middle East" world community, a place where it has remained ironically, despite its African roots and colonization by the Mamelukes (1250), Ottoman Turks (1517), French (1798), and the British (1883-1937), since 639-42 A.D. (Levey, 1983, 254-55).
Now that it has been established that the ancient Egyptians were an African people with a long history, we can turn to our main topic, the Kemetic roots of library and information science via an evidential exploration of: literature, history, education, classification, cataloging, and the genesis of information storage.
The Ancient Egyptians: An African People
There is an ongoing debate concerning the race of the ancient Egyptians. Some have said the Egyptians were not Black, and thus African people have no claim to Egyptian culture, and that the Black folks pictured in the temples and on the monuments of Egypt were only slaves in a racially mixed Egyptian population, and thus did not play a significant role in Egyptian civilization.
To debate the issue here isn't necessary. However, we can briefly explore this important topic and remind ourselves and others that "...human lineage began in Africa some 2.5 million years ago...", and as a result, all humans are genetically linked to an African woman who lived 200,000 years ago (Williams, 1991, 56-57).
Exploring the African Centered Paradigm: Discourse and Innovation in African World Community Studies (Africology: The Journal of Pan African Studies e-book)
Cheikh Anta Diop, author of "Origin of the Ancient Egyptians" in Egypt Revisited (Van Sertima, 1982, 9-37), understood the significance of the above facts. His research uncovered seven key aspects of this race/culture debate:
(1) He asked the curator of the Cairo Museum to allow him to perform a melanin (skin color) test to determine the pigmentation of the ancient Kemetics and thus end the debate. The curator refused to allow him to perform the test. The test would, according to Diop, "...enable us to
classify the ancient Egyptians unquestionably among the Black races."
(2) He reported that, by osteological measurements (body size as determined by muscles and bones) used in physical anthropology, the ancient Egyptians were an African people.
(3) He discussed the connection of the Group B blood type among the modern and ancient Egyptian populations, and the African population of West Africa.
(4) He discussed how Herodotus (the "father of history") and others (Aristotle, Strabo, Diodors) referred to the Egyptians and the Ethiopians as people with "...black skins and kinky hair," or people who were (according to Ammianus Marcellinus, Book XXI, para 16:23) "...mostly brown or black."
(5) He illustrated how the divine inscriptions of Kemet associated the surnames of the gods with the word black; hence, a reflection of the (black) good in people and God.
(6) He illustrated how in The Bible (where Egypt is mentioned over 750 times) Semitic (Hebrew and Arabic) custom and tradition associate Egypt with Black people.
(7) He investigated the linguistic link (e.g. Egyptian and Wolof) between ancient Kemet and other parts of Africa.
The crux of the issue of race and the Egyptians is part of an attempt to take Egypt and Egyptian history out of Africa intellectually, and thus substitute a Euro-centric politicization of history that confirms the racist notion that Africa has no history of importance, and that the ancient civilization of Egypt is not part of the African experience, but rather is a part of the Arab, Asian,or an European centered experience.
Discourse and Innovation in African World Com
(Africology: The Journal of Pan African Studies e-book)
Hence it seems easy for those of the Euro-centric mind to put Egypt in the Middle East, or anywhere but Africa, because its great past contradicts all the jungle and savage images white racism has created about Africa and its people.
The truth, as revealed through a correct reading and interpretation of history, is that Egypt is a part of Africa and African people. No amount of dis-information or mis-information will change that reality; a reality some may not want to face, because it requires that they alter/change what they think about Africa, about the African experience, and ultimately about themselves.
This ambivalence or fear to alter how we think, act, and react to African ethnology was illustrated by Allman F. Williams when he said, "...if the 'Out of Africa' model proves even partially correct, ...it will fundamentally change our view of who we are," in reference to the African origins of humankind (U.S. News & World Report, 1991, 60).
Consequently, there seems to be a fear that once people (especially those effected by white racism) realize that their roots are tied to an African woman who lived 200,000 years ago, and that Egypt was a Black civilization, they may have psychological problems. The problem is rooted in white racism, and a false consciousness that will not allow one to see Egypt (Kemet) as a Black civilization; the ancient leader in art, literature, science, government, etc., while Europe, the pinnacle of Western thought, eagerly sent its elite (students) to Kemet to receive the advanced and fundamental lessons of civilization, an enterprise Kemet mastered many years before the rise of Europe, and according to George G.M. James in Stolen Legacy:
Greek Philosophy is Stolen Egyptian Philosophy (1954, 39), Europe didn't know anything about libraries until the African Moors of North Africa occupied and introduced them to Spain. We should expect this debate/problem concerning the race of the Egyptians to continue. However, we know, through the work of Diop and other capable scholars, that there is a solid connection of language, culture, religion, biology, and eyewitness reports, to prove that the ancient Egyptians were an African people. They were a people who saw themselves as Black, referred to themselves and their land (Kemet: "the black land") as Black, and had others see and
refer to them and their land as Black.
Having explored the issue of phenotype (color/race) and its delineations in ancient Kemet, we can now turn briefly to its history.
ALCHEMY - AFRICAN CHEMISTRY OF NATURE
KEM-ISTRY
The original word “Alchemy” (“Chemi,” parent name of Egypt or Kemet) means chemistry of Nature “from Egypt”. Broadly, “Alchemy” is a philosophical system containing the beginning of all Science–originally dealing with Mysteries of Matter, Creation, and Right Life-seeking so as to harmonize humans holistically with the Cosmos. Very Ancient Africans elaborated upon it with Astrology, Religion, Mysticism, Magic, and similar fields of study. As the keystone of Very Ancient African Sages’ basic Physical Science studies of Matter, Motion, and Forces of Nature, Physics arose specifically to help Sage-Scientists follow steps within Nature’s Processes and analyze each Effect. From Principles (ingredients of unchanging Truth) arising from their priest astronomer’s astro-mathematics, they inferred Circumstantial Truths (i.e. by God’s observable manifestations having Correspondence with what is Esoteric and Un-observable) emanate from the One Cosmic Force, Sekhem—also called Atum, Amen, Aten—and symbolized by the Sun (Fiery). Ancient African Sages knew the Sun’s Physics as the factory for creating all Physical Matter and Energies—the forces and building blocks of all Things in the Cosmos
Resultant African Physical Sciences conclusions led to Ancient African doctrines of the Opposites (or Contraries); of the Change or Transmutation; and of the life and function of the Universe. These were presented under Matter’s Four Qualities and Four Elements—Water, Fire, Air, and Earth–expressed by a diagram’s outer and inner squares—with the implication of them being the four fundamental types of all manifestations (James, p80, 142; Amen, Metu Neter I:74). The diagram explains Fire’s Qualities are hot/dry; Earth, dry/cold; Water, cold/wet; and Air, wet/hot—and each of these has significance. For example, Earth is the mud in which the lotus flower is rooted–and water, the surrounding support of its stalk. By specializing in the Transmutation of one kind of mental Vibrations into others, Ancient Africans Sages’ Art of Hermetic Alchemy—i.e. named for the African Master Tehuti, whom Saleem (The Egyptian Book of Life p10) says lived around 50,509 BC–dealt with the mastery of Mental Forces. In other words, African Tradition Alchemy is the rotation of the Four Matter Elements in order to discover the processes of Nature and so being able to work with them. Such applies to humans by them being a manifestation of Nature and because of the Spark of God (off the Fiery Sun) present within the Soul of each–and felt by “Knowing Thyself”. This God Spark gives them a “drop” of God’s powers—e.g. those of Omnipotence (Unlimited and universal power); Omnipresence (everywhere simultaneously), and Omniscience–total knowledge of Cosmic Laws.
by Dr. Joseph A. Bailey II, MD., FACS December 5, 2016
Resultant African Physical Sciences conclusions led to Ancient African doctrines of the Opposites (or Contraries); of the Change or Transmutation; and of the life and function of the Universe. These were presented under Matter’s Four Qualities and Four Elements—Water, Fire, Air, and Earth–expressed by a diagram’s outer and inner squares—with the implication of them being the four fundamental types of all manifestations. James Amen, Metu Neter explains Fire’s Qualities are hot/dry; Earth, dry/cold; Water, cold/wet; and Air, wet/hot—and each of these has significance. For example, Earth is the mud in which the lotus flower is rooted–and water, the surrounding support of its stalk.
By specializing in the Transmutation of one kind of mental Vibrations into others, Ancient Africans Sages’ Art of Hermetic Alchemy—i.e. named for the African Master Tehuti, whom Saleem (The Egyptian Book of Life p10) says lived around 50,509 BC–dealt with the mastery of Mental Forces. In other words, African Tradition Alchemy is the rotation of the Four Matter Elements in order to discover the processes of Nature and so being able to work with them. Such applies to humans by them being a manifestation of Nature and because of the Spark of God (off the Fiery Sun) present within the Soul of each–and felt by “Knowing Thyself”. This God Spark gives them a “drop” of God’s powers—e.g. those of Omnipotence (Unlimited and universal power); Omnipresence (everywhere simultaneously), and Omniscience–total knowledge of Cosmic Laws.
Kemetic Education: The Mystery System
And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds (Acts, 7:22).
When it came to the acquisition of knowledge, Kemet was the center of most, if not all, ancient learning. At the center of this learning was the Mystery School, a secret learning center (until 570 B.C.) where one went to become a whole person, and thus help mold civilization and its philosophy. Its curriculum was a rigid and lengthy process designed to ensure (1) an educated leadership, and (2) peace among the populous via effective leadership.
As a result, students from around the world came to study the secrets/mysteries of Kemet, the learning center of medicine, science, astronomy, mathematics, and other subjects taught by African master teachers. Moses and other ancient prophets studied at Kemet (the home of monotheism, salvation, etc.) before introducing the world to religion and religious study. The above quote from the book of Acts (7:22) confirms this reality.
However, the most populous international students were the Greeks, referred to by the priests of Sais as "...the children of the Mysteries," (James, 1954, 39-40, 42) consisting of: Solon of Conchis, Thales, Plato, Eudoxus, and Pythagoras, who, according to Plutarch, "...greatly admired the Egyptian priests," and copied their "...symbolism and occult teachings..." to "...incorporate... "them in their "...doctrines" (Babbitt, 1969, 161).
The temple-university (the home of the Mystery System) was conducted by an elite faculty (as mentioned previously) called Hersetha or teachers of Mysteries, who taught: architecture, carpentry, cosmography, plant science, pharmacology, physiology, anatomy, embalming, law, astrology, literature, magic, theology, mining, metallurgy, land surveying, engineering, geography, forestry, agriculture and animal science (in addition to the above) in the departments of:
(1) the Mystery Teachers of Heaven (astronomy, astrology)
(2) the Mystery Teachers of All Lands (geography)
(3) the Mystery Teachers of the Depths (geology, cosmography)
(4) the Mystery Teachers of the Secret World (philosophy, theology)
(5) the School (mystery) of Pharaoh and Mystery Teachers (language, law, communication) (Myer, 1900 via Hilliard, 1984, 157).
