Daughters of Rameses II

Saturday, and it hasn’t even been a whole week yet…Im currently riding on a bus back to Aswan from Abu Simbal. In Abu Simbal, we saw the temple of Rameses II and one of his wives, Nefertari. His statues were HUGE and the hieroglyphics were amazing. There was so much to see in the scenes inside of the temple, it was beautiful. The Egyptian people were so connected to God and their worlds revolved around their ideas of spirituality, and humility towards the Gods…. It makes me think about today’s Egyptians and how they associate themselves with being Middle Eastern, rather than black, African or Egyptians. Yesterday a man asked me if this was my first time in the Middle East, Is aid yes but I thought I was in Africa. Many Egyptians call themselves Middle Easterners. Evidently, it is a political statement. To be Middle Eastern is to be Muslin, being African is interpreted as something different. But Islam, as well as Judaism and Christianity draw many ideas from the traditional Ancient Egyptian religion. Therefore, it would seem as if it would give you more pride to say that you are Egyptian or African rather than Egyptian…Its interesting. Its like if I lived in Michigan but I associated myself with a traditional Canadian religion and therefore, I claimed to be Canadian, it seems wrong. In my opinion, Egyptians are experiencing an identity crisis because they don’t seem to know who they are. Our tour guide, Hala, said that Egyptian children today don’t learn about the ways of their ancestors or about how Egypt set the foundation of religion, mathematics, science, technology, English et cetera. Plato once said that what the Greeks are taught is fit for pigs and the Egyptian lessons are better. When will we as Africans, African Americans and Egyptians claim our ancestry and take pride in being the sons and daughters of dynamic Kings such as Rameses II???
Dana Daneeeeeeeeeee