Monday, August 16, 2010

The Good Society

Hotep
"The Ancient Egyptians had one word for truth, order, reciprocity and that word is Ma'at. The Western concept of truth does not need to have justice. If that's not the case then why do they have separate words for it?"
-Dr Greg Carr
While being in this place, it is very easy to see how the African people who built Kemet could see a new day as being the repetition of birth, or weheme mesu. If I didn't have a watch or a computer to remind me, I would have no sense of time at all. The worldview of these people is deeply entrenched in the concept of Ma'at. Ma'at is cosmic order, justice, righteousness. Ma'at has no beginning nor end, the goddess just is. She is the order that the laws of the universe must obey. It's as Dr Carr said, the Ancient Egyptians had a concept that encompasses all of those concepts. They are indistinguishable from each other.
A Miles College student, Brandon Young, and I were in conversation about the topic. He paraphrased Plato saying that the truth can be found without justice. I was immediately reminded of Napoleon, who more or less said, that historical truth is written by the winners of war. At that simple interchange between students, it became clear that ingenuity of African civilizations could not be conceptually understood by the West. It was true in antiquity and stands valid until today.
In closing, I'll add this. Ancient Kemet marries the idea of truth, order and justice to eternity. The West makes the truth relative to the moment and limits the concept of justice to mortality. We have been doing better a lot longer than the whole world has been. Why not continue in that tradition?






James Robinson
Howard University Student Association
Director of Student Advocacy for 2010 - 2011
jamesrobinson1010@hotmail.com
@kurtleelove

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Dr. Carr & All our future leaders "our HU Students"
Glad that you are enjoying your time in OUR LAND, and your students are enjoying and experiencing a life long lesson/reminder from their/our ancestors: " always remember our skills, courage, achievements, triumph, resilience and learning abilities which we passed through our DNA, to you all, wherever you are" .

I was touched by all comments left on HU page, by your students.
As an Egyptian, Every time, I visit Egypt I feel so sad and have eyes full with tears, do you know why? because we don't resemble anymore our ancestors, do you know why? because every nation that conquered Egypt changed its religion, culture, and may be DNA as well(skin color).
But, I'm proud to say, even without Black skin or as we call our dark skin "wheat" color, I'm Egyptian from Africa (Not the Middle East).
Souzan Hawala-Druy "Hyphenated American"
Faculty at HU- Nursing