Ancient African Kingdom of Kush

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?
5

Images from the Tomb of Rameses III 19th Dynasty

• 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.
7

• 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).
8

• 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.
9

• 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.
10

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 Wadi
Hammamat 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)

Sources of Information:
-Egyptian texts
- Greek and other contemporary texts

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 –

African-American Writers on Ancient Nubia

Martin Robeson Delaney (1812-1865)

Henry Highland Garnet (1815-1882)

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. William Edward Burghardt DuBois (1868-1963)

Joseph Ephraim Casely-Hayford (1866-1930)
Ethiopia Unbound: Studies in Race Emancipation

Edward E. and Josephine E. Carlisle

Dr. Edward Wilmot Blyden (1832-1912)

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.

Dr. George Washington Williams (1849-1891)

Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins (1859-1930)

Dr. Willis Nathaniel Huggins (1886-1941)

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.

Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965)

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. Chancellor Williams (1898-1992)

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.

Dr. John Henrik Clarke (1915-1998)

Dr. Yosef A.A. Ben Jochannan (1918- )

Dr. Ivan Van Sertima (1935-2009)

Dr. Johnson Coleman De Graft-Johnson (1919- )

Dr. Miriam Maat Ka Re Monges (1955- )

Dr. Necia Desiree Harkless (1920 - )

Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop (1923-1986)

PALEOLITHIC ends 8,000 BC
MESOLITHIC 8,000 – 5,000 BC
NEOLITHIC 4,900 – 3,000 BC

13 Ta -- “Land” Seti -- “Bow”
Ta-Seti “Land of the Bow”

Army Recruits {Weni}
Irtjet
Medja
Yam {Iam}
Wawat
Kaau

Bega People Ancient and Modern

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.

Nubian Nations and Others From the
Tomb of Anen New Kingdom

Headwear of the Rulers (Qore) of Kush

Images from the Tomb of Ramesses III

Egyptian 11th Dynasty
Mentuhotep II

Mentuhotep and his Daughter Kemset

Kemset, The Black Sister, Daughter of Methuhotep

Caeretan Hydria showing Herakles and Busiris with
Egyptians -Front

Caeretan Hydria showing Herakles and Busiris with
Egyptians- Back

DIAGNOSTIC - KERMA
“BLACK-TOPPED
RED WARE”

DIAGNOSTIC –
CLASSIC KERMA
“BLACK-TOPPED RED WARE WITH
GRAY BAND”

Full Frame from the Tomb of Huy

The Princes and Princesses of Kush

The “Fake” Prices and Princesses of Kush

Mai Her Peri- Lion on the Battlefield

Hieratic Biographical Text of Mai Her Peri

The Africans of the Ancient Nile Valley I

Africans of the Nile Valley II

Entertainment for the Royal family

Mentuemhat Ruler of Thebes, 4th Prophet of Amon –
25th Dynasty

Herihor, High Priest of Amon – 20th Dynasty

The Rulers of Kush in the Kerma Museum

Napatan burial sites:
El-Kurru
Nuri

Amenirdis I
Daughter of Kashta

Shepenwepet II
Daughter of Piye

Meroitic Period
250 BC – 350 AD

Qore – “King”
Kandake – “Queen”
Kandake
Candace

Amanitore & Natakamani
1 – 20 AD

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.

Churches and Mausoleums from the Early Christian Era

Musa Hilal Janjaweed (Devils on Horseback)
and his Army

Destruction of the Fur Kingdom

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.

National Images 6: Nubian Women

Contemporary Africans of the Nile Valley

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 Kushite
coins.
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 Himyarite
letters “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.

Candace or Meroitic- Kdqy-Kandake

Qore Khabbash Meroitic Coin
To 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.

More Meroitic Owl Coins No. 122, 123, 124

• “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.

Giving Life Like the Sun Forever

Ancient African Kingdom of Kush

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