“Lost Kingdoms of the Nile” at the Clay Center in Charleston, West Virginia features more than 200 objects on loan from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The exhibit, which continues through April, made only one other stop on this tour — at the Michael C. Carlos Museum in Atlanta.

A colorful sarcophagus dominates one room, while the accessories of burial add to the display. There’s an alabaster vessel that held the deceased’s organs, a replica of an ivory inlaid bed on which the deceased would have been carried, shawabtis, or statues, that were buried with the dead to represent the servants they’d need on their journey to the afterlife and gold tips that covered the ends of their fingers and toes. The statues were a big improvement over the actual servants who were buried with earlier rulers in the Kerma Period.

The Clay Center staff constructed a templelike entrance to the exhibit as well as special display cases for the artifacts. Creative services manager Bridgett Turley copied ancient wall paintings and hand-painted them on the exhibit walls.

Staff members developed student and adult programming and activities to showcase and to maximize the exhibit’s impact for visitors.

The Nubians settled in Africa, south of Egypt on the Nile River. Nubia was not professionally excavated until 1913, partially because Nubia is not easily accessible by river. It’s six treacherous sets of rapids upriver from Egypt. Many of the sites were lost or destroyed when the river flooded.

Located in modern-day Sudan, Nubia was the gateway to the African interior. Nubians and Egyptians later traded goods and influence. Egyptians valued Nubian goods such as gold, ivory, ebony and exotic animals. Nubians invented pottery and the concept of kingship. They were skilled goldsmiths.

“Lost Kingdoms of the Nile” features imposing stone statues, intricate gold and silver jewelry, hand mirrors, pottery and stone vases and pitchers, oversized historic photos and a wealth of pieces associated with the afterlife.

Excerpted from an article by Julie Robinson for The Charleston Gazette

There are an estimated 300,000 tribesmen inhabiting Egypt, with some of them living in the same way their ancestors did thousands of years ago.

At the end of October, the second annual Characters of Egypt Festival will host some 160 tribesmen from around the country for a weekend that showcases their various cultures in a desert national park near Marsa Allam. The event is organized by the Wadi Environmental Science Centre (WESC) and the Egyptian Desert Pioneers Society (EDPS).

The weekend festival includes exhibits on traditional handcrafts, costumes and herbal medicines, as well as on the music and dance of the tribes. The event is an opportunity for both foreigners and Egyptians to learn about groups of people that are often overlooked but are a part of Egypt’s past and present.

Characters of Egypt will be held from October 29-31 in Wadi el-Gemal National Park. More information is available at http://www.charactersofegypt.com.

Almasry Alyoum

Bedouin Valley Ecolodge

Although Ancient Egypt, whose glorious past, well organized dynasties, sophisticated civilization, rich art, science and superb architecture are well known, European historians have, until recently, always insisted on leaving ancient Egypt out their studies of African history because they claim that its people were never part of black Africa.

The Egyptians of Pharaohnic times, it is argued, were not Negroes; they were therefore not Africans, meaning that their civilization, no matter how firmly implanted it was on African soil, or how deeply immersed it was in African mythology, it should not be included in the African context.

This is a patently clear indication of how long Europeans have been in denial about Africa’ immeasurable contribution to the world in every known sphere of life’s endeavours.

In his scholarly and important book, Africa in History, this is how Basil Davidson, a white Zimbabwean, dismisses this perception: “It has become clear that the familiar attribution of the term ‘white’ to North African stocks (as of the term ‘black’ to other African stocks) is really little more than another mystification of the racist sort. All such categorizations should be dismissed. Consider only the strange case of the ‘Hamitic Hypothesis,’ another myth dear to the epoch of imperialism.

“In countless books and lectures it was preached that any signs of past progress detectable among Africans must have been the fruit of outside intrusion, of intrusion from the north: more exactly of ‘white’ intrusion from Europe.

“This derivative form of the ‘Africans-have- no civilization’ myth was best offered in a scientific guise by a British anthropologist, C.G. Seligman, in a book of 1929 (The Races of Africa), much admired then and after.”

On the insistence by European historians that the people of Ancient Egypt were not black Africans, this is what Davidson has to say: “This view has little to be said for it. If it now seems perfectly clear that the vast majority of pre-dynastic Egyptians were of continental African stock, and even of central-western Saharan origins, there is likewise serious dispute among the authorities even as to whether the hypothetical ‘dynastic race’ associated with the foundation of Pharaonic Egypt had come from outside Africa.

“These early populations undoubtedly included the descendants of incoming immigrants from the Near East. But to argue from this that the vast majority of the inhabitants of old Egypt, not being ‘Negro’, were therefore not African is as little tenable as to argue the same about the Berbers and the Ethiopians, whom nobody has yet proposed to erase from the list of African peoples.

“The old racist categories of ‘white’ and ‘black’ can indeed make no sense in this or perhaps any other connection. Thus the Berbers have been often referred to as a ‘white race.’

“Yet it is ‘quite impossible’, in Capot-Rey’s most expert view, ‘to speak of a Berber race. Either one means, in using this term, a language spoken with much the same grammar and vocabulary from the Mediterranean to the Niger, or one means a moral and material civilization.’ Whatever their pigmentation, or physical appearance, the Egyptians of Pharaonic times were an intimate part of African history.”

Excerpted from an article by Olley Maruma for The Southern Times

Cairo is actually amazingly relaxed, peaceful, and safe, considering the grinding poverty many people live under. One can walk anywhere as late as 3am, and never feel threatened in the slightest, even girls. Mark it off to the civilizing effect of Islam, which contrary to the image in the West, is a pervasive social contract with the people that punishes cruel, dishonest, or violent behavior.

Cairo is beset by choking pollution- fumes from the 2 million cars, many junky old Fiats- even at 3am on a winter night, and a fine desert dust that covers everything. A few hours on the street is equivalent to smoking a pack of cigarettes. Cars navigate, like schools of dolphin, by horn echo-location, honking constantly, repetitively, maddeningly. People cross streets of solid traffic by weaving through 10 lanes of cars- like flocks of birds the cars somehow part and let them through.

Egypt is one of the cheapest places in the world, with perfectly nice hotel rooms as little as $4 a night, 400 mile trains maybe $10, and decent meals or subs $1; and the treasures of 5000 years of civilization splayed out around you. (As anyplace with such vast income disparities, touts and hustlers will pester you to buy their goods.)

In a good sense, Egyptians were the original master race, building the very first epic monuments, and since have been tempered and enriched by a dozen foreign invasions, like deposits of the rich Nile silt: Assyrians, Persians, Alexander’s Greeks, Romans, Turks, French, British… that make the people open and generous to foreigners. The Pyramids were tourist attractions to almost every civilization on earth, so Egypt has always been a country of the world.

When you hear “terrorism, terrorism, terrorism”- remember it’s a one in a million likelihood- you have a lot more chance of being hit by a car. Though surprisingly, in 2 months I never saw any examples of that.

hammernews.com

The history and culture of Lower Nubia was always inextricably intertwined with Egypt’s. Yet, the relationship was never clearly defined. Lower Nubia was culturally contiguous with Egypt proper, but it was never fully incorporated into the “Two Lands”.

Why Lower Nubia continued to be designated as something of a Wild West by the Pharaohs continues to be a curious mystery: was it an accident of geography or an indication of a racial and ethnic separation?

The 50th anniversary of the official appeal by Egypt and Sudan to UNESCO on 6 April 1959 to save the monuments of Lower Nubia proved to be the perfect opportunity to tackle this contentious subject afresh.

The contemporary Nubians are the indigenous peoples of the central Nile Valley who live along the narrow patches of fertile land that snakes through the desert and forms a gigantic letter “S” in northern Sudan and the southern tip of Egypt. They are a people whose precise origins are unknown, but whose elders today converse in four closely related Nilo-Saharan languages known collectively as “Nubian”. Ancient Kushite inscriptions abound, but the Meroetic language is not yet deciphered.

In some ways, of course, it is only natural that Nubia should appear as an appendage of Egyptian civilisation. It is in a different category partly because Nubians are distinctive racially from the rest of Egyptians — then and now the darker complexion of the Nubians was a defining characteristic of their unique identity and a distinguishing factor from Upper Egyptians. Language was yet another differentiating factor. However, it is clear that in ancient times the distinction between Upper and Lower Nubia was as marked as that between Nubia (Upper and Lower) and Egypt (Upper and Lower). It was then that I was confronted with the notion that Lower Nubia was different in more respects than one, that it had its own separate cultural identity.

Nubia is not a country, and Nubians do not necessarily aspire to create a country distinct from either Egypt or Sudan. However, since time immemorial Nubia was a distinct land, but an integral part of the Egyptian sphere of influence. It was also an extension of sub-Saharan Africa albeit with distinct Egyptian influences. Lower Nubia traditionally was far more Egyptian oriented than Upper Nubia which retained to a greater degree its “African” character.

With racism to the fore and religiosity lurking in the background the subject of Nubia’s heritage is always going to be contentious.

Excerpted from an article by Gamal Nkrumah for Al-Ahram Weekly

The rams were excavated at El-Hassa, 180km north of Khartoum, on a sacred causeway leading to an ancient temple, said Vincent Rondot, head of the French Section of the Directorate on Antiquities of Sudan.

Key to the discovery three weeks ago is a royal inscription that bears the name of little known king Amanakhareqerem.

Experts can pronounce the text and can read names, but cannot understand the words. Meroitic is a branch of the same linguistic tree as languages spoken in contemporary Sudan and Eritrea, the archaeologist said.

BBC News

Image via Wikipedia

The Meroe High Dam, otherwise known as the Multi-Purpose Hydro Project or Hamdab Dam, is well underway — and the archaeological remains of the ancient African kingdom of Meroe which developed along the upper reaches of the Nile is destined to oblivion.

The purpose of the dam being constructed close to the Fourth Cataract, about 200 kilometres north of Khartoum, is to generate electricity. It is the largest hydropower project currently under construction in Africa. With a length of some nine kilometers, and a crest height of up to 67 kilometers it is reminiscent of the High Dam at Aswan constructed in the 1960s. It too is designed with a concrete-faced rock-fill barrage on each river bank, the left river channel with a clay core, and the right with a live water section. Once completed, its 200-kilometer long reservoir, with a capacity to produce 1,250 megawatts of power, will displace 50,000 people and inundate countless archaeological sites including Meroe in the African kingdom of Kush, sub-Saharan Africa’s earliest urban civilization.

In fact the Fourth Cataract region is rich in archaeology, and it is unfortunate that, unlike the UNESCO project of the 1960s when the High Dam was built at Aswan, Sudanese Nubia has no monuments of the caliber of Abu Simbel to attract world attention to what is being done. The half-dozen Sudanese and foreign missions working in the threatened area have already pin-pointed hundreds of settlements and cemeteries spanning four millennia, and lithic artefacts, rock art, pottery, and even a granite pyramid — the only one so far known in Sudan — have been found, not to mention medieval Christian remains and Islamic cemeteries.

Excerpted from an article by Jill Kamil for Al-Ahram Weekly

“Can you believe our government can do nothing for us, and this thing that was built thousands of years ago is still helping me feed my family?”

Image by liber via Flickr

For citizens and foreigners alike, there is no escaping the truth that Egypt is inextricably linked in the public consciousness with pyramids, especially the Great Pyramids of Giza. Yet living in the shadow of past greatness is not always easy.

The pyramids are proof of Egypt’s endurance but these monuments to Egypt’s early ingenuity are also an ever-present symbol of faded glory. It is hard to escape comparisons between an Egypt that once led the world in almost everything and modern Egypt, where about 40 percent of the population lives on $2 a day.

The ubiquitous nature of antiquities has helped mold a collective consciousness, a national identity, that is uniquely Egyptian.

Egyptians, as a group, are extremely patient, though given the growing pressure of daily life, a bit less than they used to be. Their it-is-what-it-is attitude is often attributed to a strong religious faith and a conviction that all events are God’s will. Yet growing up and living amid so much history has something to do with that view, too; the abundant antiquities in everyday life are a constant reminder of one’s place in time.

These days, Egypt is rarely spoken of in a positive context. The education system is in crisis, and unemployment, traffic and pollution are all major problems. Top to bottom, the state seems to have seized up. When the historic Parliament building burned recently, firefighters bungled for hours before bringing the blaze under control. When a rock slide crushed a neighborhood, the authorities responded slowly, infuriating rather than rescuing. And at nearly every level, there is anxiety over who will rule when Mubarak is gone. The president, who is 80, refuses to clarify the issue of succession and seems out of touch with daily life in his country. His son Gamal Mubarak, who appears positioned to inherit the job, says that it is premature to discuss succession.

And there is ample evidence that Egypt itself can be expected to continue to endure. It may be down for the moment, but this country has survived the test of the time, a lot of time, where so many others have not.

Excerpted from an article by Michael Slackman for International Herald Tribune

The Official Emblem of the FIFA U-20 World Cup Egypt 2009 was unveiled today during a ceremony held in Cairo.

The Official Emblem represents a harmonious fusion of Egypt’s glorious ancient civilization with today’s modern culture. The shape of the sphinx represents the millenary essence of Egypt, while the golden colour symbolises the sun, the desert sand and the golden kingdom of the Nile. The use of red, black and white embodies the colours of the Egyptian national flag.

FIFA

Image via Wikipedia

Global financial crisis and its impact on the Egyptian economy may mean lower tourism revenue this year, according to Egypt’s minister of tourism.

Zohair Garanah said in an interview on Oct. 23 that the private sector is panicking because of the economic turmoil and is starting a price war, which will harm the industry in the long- term.

Tourism is the number one source of foreign currency income for Egypt, generating revenue of nearly $10 billion last year. Tourism accounted for 11.3 percent of gross domestic product in the last fiscal year, according to the minister. The country attracted 11 million tourists last year.

Bloomberg

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