Saturday, July 22, 2023

What is Ancient Kemet?


 What is Ancient Kemet

Kemetism, Kemetics all refer to Ancient Kemet one of the names given to ancient Egypt by the then ancient indigenous inhabitants who lived in Egypt before the time of the invaders and colonizers. In modern day terms the term Kemet has become associated with viewing Egypt in its African Cultural Context because of the many significant links between Ancient Egypt and modern African culture such as hairstyles, headrests, and the skin color of mummies examined from ancient Egypt. Luckily for the children of the sun, our ancient black Egyptian ancestors hid everything in plain sight with the Egyptian art, sculptures (even with the vandalized noses), and painting from that time. That history was the driving inspiration behind my new Kemet Jewelry line with the inscription: Know Thy Self.

I realize that only so much history can be crammed into early learning materials, and I truly do understand how some important times in world history can be left out. But when history is taught from only one side of historic references African Americans seem to come out on the losing end. When I was in school during my formative years, I would love to have known that several of the Pharaohs mentioned in the bible I studied in Sunday School, were black. To be honest there was nothing in the bible that I can remember that said the people being referred to in my Sunday School lessons were white, either, but all of the biblical and religious images shown to me at that point in my life were white. Having a better historical perspective would have been helpful with my own self esteem.

I would have learned the truth about slavery, in that slavery was not just a black thing. Slaves came in whatever color was captured by the warring parties back then. Imagine my shock when I learned that those black pharaohs, I mentions, had slaves of their own. Or the fact that the first trade relationships with the motherland of the African continent ships brought slaves to African to trade for diamonds and gold. In short, I would have had a better clearer picture of world history than I had prior to my college years, especially when it came to slavery. Studying about ancient Egypt has taught me that African Civilizations are way older than Greek, or European civilizations, and that many of the modern-day advancements we enjoy in math, medicine, even warfare came from some of the ancient African civilizations. 

And Kemet, ancient Egypt, is a major part of that history, history holds many valuable lessons that the wise study and learn from, just asked the Greek Historians who studied in Africa. There was once a complicated time of Library index cards and rolls of viewable tapes when you had to go out and track down history. Now thanks to the internet history can, more or less, come to you. It is always helpful to verify your online sources when it comes to historic events and information but as one of the YouTube channels, I'm fond of watching, always says: "The truth is out there!"

Teach the younger generation early what we learned so late!