False Door

I have been true to myself and my people
I have been loyal to my family and to God
I have searched for knowledge
I have gained wisdom
I have helped those in need
I have listened well
I have spoke peace in times of chaos
I have worked diligently
I have lived vibrantly
So says she whose nickname is Dana Dane

The Eloquence of the Scribes

I believe that to understand ones history, one is better able to understand ones history, one is better able to understand oneself. I can easily look towards my mother and grandmother as well as my older sister and trace clear similarities between ourselves. This is the same with a acknowledging and understanding our ancestors. I can just as easily connect myself to my mother just as I can connect myself to Queen Tiye…The eloquence of Scribes is about understanding ones history enough to tie yourself to those in your immediate circle and eventually to all of humanity, as well as the ancestors. These connections are made through rituals, meditations prayers, and art such as music and literature. Baring these tactics in mind we may clear our minds of any problems unsolved and any question unanswered. The fast movements of our day often distract us from achieving any moment of complete peace and tranquility. It is important that we bear in mind the eloquent of the scribes and move towards connecting with other forces to clear minds and truly focus on what is important…To make it plain, we look outside ourselves for answers, we ask for advice when we already know what to do, we don’t look towards our intuition and innate senses to guide us. When we stop and just catch our breath then we can better make decisions that will be acceptable to ourselves, our parents and ultimately our ancestors who came before us…

Negative Confession

The Negative Confession of Jazelle Ashley
I have not squandered my opportunities.
I have not been malicious.
I have not held grudges.
I have not bullied anyone.
I have not been spiteful.
I have not been greedy.
I have not been wreckless with money.
I have not mistreated my siblings.
I have not been tactless.
I have not been violent.
I have not forgotten Jehovah.
I have not forsaken my family.
I have not been too proud to say sorry.
I have not stopped praying.
I have not been too afraid to love.
I am pure! I am pure! I am pure! I am pure!

False Door Inscription

I am a driven individual
I have propelled social change
I have chosen to be the voice for the speechless
I have chosen to be the vision for the blind
I have dedicated myself to the emancipation and liberation of others
I have chosen to live a life of purpose and give selflessly
I have learned to appreciate and strive to educate myself on the accomplishments of my ancestors
I have realized that my life will represent greatness and through my trials and tribulations, I will live this truth
I have chosen to continue the legacy of my ancestors through my life
So says she whose name is Havian Vidal Nicholas

Simply Eloquent...

It’s still so unreal to me. The sites that we are visiting are not simply ruins, but places where my ancestors lived and thrived. While walking through their burial grounds and observing their biographies on the walls, I could sort of feel their presence. It wasn’t a ghost like presence, but more of an inspirational presence. A presence that let me know that I have to succeed and aspire towards greatness because they have laid the groundwork for me and quite frankly, there is no other option. Being in that atmosphere, allowed me to reflect on my life and realize that there is a bigger picture. I have affirmed that my purpose in life is to propel social change and I have to fight against the social injustices that continue to bind black people to perpetual servitude. Realizing that my mindset has matured, I couldn’t help but think of the Eloquence of the Scribe. Ayi Kwei Armah notes “with insights from the ages, courage from the beloved ancestors, and clear-eyed observation of a present reality, the creative soul can go to work” (Scribes, 274). Egypt has allowed me to truly become conscious of my identity and through this opportunity; I fervently believe that I can change the world.

Yours in the Struggle,
Havian Nicholas

Reclaiming Our Legacy

To put it simply, Egypt isn’t anything like I imagined. Although I have seen Ancient Egyptian pyramids and statues in history books, actually standing in front of these human-built masterpieces emanated a different feeling. While climbing through the intricate passageways of the Great Pyramid, I was filled with a sense of accomplishment…a sense of accomplishment, in knowing that we constructed these pyramids. Not just anybody, but black people, our ancestors, created these works of art. Realizing this made walking through the chambers of my ancestors slightly bittersweet. John Henrik Clarke states that if you start your history from slavery, everything else seems like progress. Granted, I voted for President Barack Obama and I was even a little emotional when I found out that he won the presidential election, but I feel like as black people, we put too much emphasis on someone saving us instead of saving ourselves. Barack Obama represents progress for the black community when we begin our history with enslavement. If we take a step back and truly educate ourselves on our history, this accomplishment no longer portrays progress when we realize that it has already been done. This accomplishment no longer portrays progress when we realize that we were kings and queens. Barack Obama no longer reflects progress, when we realize that we built pyramids-pyramids that to this day cannot be replicated. Barack Obama no longer represents progress when we truly understand that we had a rich and dynamic history long before the Greeks and Romans came along and long before the White House even existed. Walking through the pyramids and admiring the complexity and precision of these structures made me realize that we need to reclaim our identity. If we could once create pyramids based on the astronomical positions of the stars, we can do it again. We can reclaim this greatness and build modern day pyramids-pyramids that symbolize emancipation and social justice...pyramids that illustrate the unity among black people throughout the Diaspora. We need to reclaim our legacy. I feel like I am going in too deep and my body is starting to hurt due to riding a camel in the desert. Until next time…

Yours in the Struggle,
Havian Nicholas

Methodology, Translation and The Eloquence of the Scribes

“For us, the retrieval of the Egyptian heritage in all our disciplines is a first, necessary step on the way to Africa’s civilizations' rendevous with history. It is a condition we must fulfill before we can design an up-to-date corpus of disciplines in the humanities and the social sciences, the foundation for the renovation of African culture. Far from being a self-indulgent fixation on the past, the examination of ancient Egypt is our wisest option if we intend to plan and create our cultural future. The heritage of Greek and Roman antiquity has had a decisive impact on Western culture. Just as profoundly, the heritage of ancient Egypt will help shape the African culture we aspire to rethink and remake.”

Cheikh Anta Diop, Civilization or Barbarism

Yesterday afternoon, we arrived in Aswan, the southernmost border of Kemet during its early period and the gateway through which the genius of inner Africa entered the Nile Valley. The word "Aswan" is likely taken from the Kemetic Sewenet, or "trading post." Five thousand years after the unification of the various societies scattered throughout the valley by Menes, our little band of travelers found

ourselves at a trading station of sorts, buying potato chips and drinks from the descendants of the original Nubian inhabitants of this region, flooded out of their villages after the construction of the High Dam in the 1960s and relocated to the city. Before evening's end, we managed to collapse time and space and convene a conversation on the power of translating ideas and information from one time to another and, in so doing, mediating a conversation between Africa past, present and future.

We'd spent the morning in Saqqara, the largest national cemetery of Kemet, a place bristling with the undisturbed graves of some of the society’s most notable figures. Kemet referred to cemeteries as the "land of the Westerners," attended by Wosir (Osiris), the governor of the West. As we entered the looming festival and pyramid complex of the 3rd Dynasty's Per Uah Djoser (2650 b.c.e.) through the hall of the world’s first stone building built by his counselor and architect Imhotep, I found myself tracing the polished limestone with my fingers, pondering the magnitude of the moment. Imhotep was revered in Kemetic memory and the Greeks identified him with as Aesculapius, the patron of physicians. The Hippocratic oath taken by doctors contains his name among the litany of figures in whose name they promise to wield their ability and judgement.

Earlier, we had spent productive time in the tombs of Ptah Hotep, [Literally "God's Peace"] and Kagemmi, two administrators of the early period, and in the burial chamber of the pyramid of Per Uah [Literally "Great House"] Pepi, of the 6th dynasty. As has been mentioned in multiple posts, Ptah Hotep's "instructions" are recognized as the first collection of wisdom teachings in world historical memory. They have been an anchoring force in my own intellectual work since I was introduced to them twenty years ago by the brilliant scholar Jacob Hudson Carruthers, Jr. (Djedi Shemsu Djehuty, or "The One Who Speaks is a Follower of Djehuty"). Dr. Carruthers, the first African American to master the ability to read and translate Medew Netcher and in many ways the father of contemporary Kemetic language studies among African-Americans, was a son of the southern Black Methodist tradition who received his college education at the hand of, among others, James Farmer, Sr. (the towering figure portrayed by Forrest Whittaker in the film account of the Wiley College debate team, The Great Debaters).

I remember standing next to Baba Djedi as we stood in the hot sand of the mammoth festival enclosure, facing Imhotep's step pyramid, in 1996. I was one of his young apprentices at the time, and had returned with my own apprentices, determined to help them enter the intellectual work I had been recruited to what seems like so long ago. As I stood there watching them take pictures, I was reminded of the importance of our work to establish a place from which to view and interpret the world and reality. The imperative of this work informed the essence of August Wilson’s famous 1996 address The Ground on Which I Stand, delivered before the national convention of the Theatre Communications Group in Princeton, New Jersey. Long tired of fighting to establish spaces where the voices and visions of African people could be presented without interpreters or mediators in the theater arts, Wilson declared the imperative of generating clear space to occupy and speak to the world from the convened authority of the Black experience.

Even in a moment when Wilson—widely lauded as the pre-eminent voice among African dramatists in the United States—declared that “we will not be denied our history, “ he evoked the Greeks as his point of remembering departure. A testimony about the nature of the “ground on which I stand and all the many grounds on which I and my ancestors have toiled” nevertheless began with Euripides, Aeschylus and Sophocles, continued through Shakespeare, Shaw and Ibsen and emptied into O’Neill, Miller and Williams. Africa only entered Wilson’s forceful testament with the Maroons, from Nat Turner and Denmark Vesey to Delany, Garvey and The Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

The irony dripping from Wilson’s observation that “we cannot share a single value system if that value system consists of the values of white Americans based on their European ancestors” and continues with the contention that “we need a value system that includes our contributions as Africans in America” had, as with very nearly every other declaration of Africana intellectual autonomy celebrated beyond the smaller circles of long-view rememberers, constructed and embraced an Africa balanced on a temporal fulcrum constructed entirely out of the signal but amputating moment of enslavement. Try as he might, and succeed as he had, Wilson could no more transcend the limiting confines of such a framework than Toni Morrison, Zora Neale Hurston, Sterling Brown, Alvin Ailey or Maya Angelou.

In short, the grounds on which these brilliant conjurers of Africana stood were only gingerly traipsed, an unordered, wide-ranging but ultimately irreconcilable collage of sounds, images, ideas and experiences, convened to give succor and hope, comfort and voice but not context, fortifying self-consciousness and, ultimately, full-bred humanity. The struggle to voice the complex rhythms of African deep thought and long-view historical memory continues to face the challenge of methodology. How do we approach the study of Africana? A central element of this challenge is the practice of translation, or the work of discovering, recovering and extending the intellectual work of previous centuries and millennia of thinkers.

“The history of Africa will remain suspended in air and cannot be written correctly until African historians connect it with the history of Egypt.”

Cheikh Anta Diop, Black Nations and Culture

We ended our first class session in Cairo Monday night with this discussion of methodology. The conversation was framed by the opening quote in this post, drawn from the work of the Senegalese scholar Cheikh Anta Diop. Diop, born in Djourbel Senegal in 1923, is widely recognized as the major intellectual force advancing the work of the study of classical Africa in the second half of the twentieth century. The thrust of Diop's work can be captured in two lines of thought. First, Diop examined the origins of human society, advancing the study of the original contributions of Kemet in the sciences and

humanities, among other areas. Second, he traced the cultural, linguistic and intellectual interconnectedness of inner Africa, describing the relationship between groups ranging from the Akan, Dogon and Yoruba of West Africa to the Ki-Kongo and Lingala of Central Africa and the Shillik, Nuer and Dinka of East Africa and Kemetic archetypes and structures.

Diop's work reminds us that the Africans who find themselves in the western hemisphere continue to convene meaning around the grammars and vocabularies of Africana meaning-making, that set of normative assumptions about the world that also informed the lives and work of classical Africa. It is only through beginning to grasp the long-view contribution of Africa to world history that we can hope to find our own voices and define the grounds of which we stand. Such an effort will reveal the necessity to re-think the concept of academic disciplines, going beyond even conversations of inter or multidisciplinarity to reach more essential questions of the purpose, form and function of knowledge. Over the next stages of our journey, our students will continue to explore the imperative, techniques and possibilities of engaging the long-view African intellectual tradition in deep study, sense for sense and semantic translation, discovery and recovery, and the production of a flowering range of methods for making sense of memory in the context of our contemporary moment.

A Note on The Instructions of Ptahhotep

Kemet successfully managed to transmit a considerable portion of its high cultural and national identity through the active process of copying ancient manuscripts. Ayi Kwei Armah's book "The Eloquence of the Scribes" captures the seriosness of this process. The creation and transmission of the genre of texts the Egyptians referred to as sebayet "wisdom teachings," were important because they maintained much of their essential relevance in reflecting some of the traditional core ideals and values of the nation. The prominent sebayet of Ptahhotep was important not only because it attained the high status as a classical sebayet, but also because it represented an established experiential approach to understanding and ordering human life and activity. Regardless of issues of reception and audience, the unifying purpose of sebayet was primarily edification, i.e. the propagation and transmission of moral ideals, knowledge, and practical advice. Sebayet is a genre that allows latitude in structure and content, but essentially communicates a kind of philosophy teaching by life experiences and example. Sebayets like Ptahhotep rose to a transpersonal level and embodied some of the most collective, enduring, and cherished values of the nation. The Sebayet of Ptahhotep was copied over and over again by Egyptian scribes for over 1000 years and this long cultural tradition of transmission largely accounts for its ability to be not only copied, but sometimes altered in subtle, yet complex ways. Changing social and poltical reality invevitably exerts pressure on the continuity of accepted tradition. These historical changes sometimes precipitate the creation of new kinds of literary motifs, expressions, and themes, but also it generates the imperative to extend ancient texts of cultural significance like Ptahhotep by intentional alterations in an attempt to make it conform to new linguistic and sometimes social and historical realities. This dynamic process is difficult for you to see because your reading is based upon the most complete, well-known version of Ptahhotep puplished as the Prisse Papyrus. There are other versions of the text (i.e. the wooden Carnavorn tablet, the British Museum papyrus 10509, a Turin manuscript, and two ostraca from Deir el-Medina) that complicate our examination. Nevertheless, I want to emphasize to you that Kemetic scribal copyists were often engaged in a active and complex interpretive activity to make the past live in the present through uniting the ancient attributed author Ptahhotep and the contemporary reader/hearer into a single collective entity.

In Maat,

Dr. Mario Beatty
Chair, African American Studies
Chicago State University

From Cairo to Aswan

Today, we visited Saqqara, the tombs of Ptah Hotep and Kagemmi, the Pyramid of Teti, and Memphis.

Even though I’ve been to the tomb of Ptah Hotep, it was one of today’s highlights for me, that and my first view of a “Pyramid Text” in the pyramid of Teti.

Ptah Hotep (or Ptahhotep) was a vizier who lived during the reign of Izezi, a 5th dynasty per-uah (or pharaoh). One of Ptah Hotep’s many roles is that of scribe. He was the author of the earliest known book—the Instructions of Ptah Hotep. (For our short note on the “Instructions,” click on the link on the webpage.) School children not only learned to read using this text (what we would consider a primer); they also learned early on, through this text, how best to conduct oneself in life. As Wisdom Literature, the “Instructions” had those two significant functions—to foster and encourage written literacy (learning to read) and cultural or traditional literacy (learning how to live).

In so many ways, the “Instructions of Ptah Hotep” consistently challenges me to think differently about my own primary field of teaching and research—African American Literature. For one thing, it’s impossible for me to begin my graduate seminar, which covers African American Literature from the beginning to 1940, with Lucy Terry (as does the Norton Anthology) or with the slave or emancipatory narratives. My first task is to dismantle the notion of illiteracy among Africans (both on the continent and in the Americas). Doing that requires me to show how the earliest systems of inscription manifest in the Diaspora. Having removed the stigma of illiteracy among the early authors of African American literature (who in her right mind would really believe that Phillis Wheatley was illiterate?… the same person who believes in a limited idea of literacy I suppose…), I am prone to go back to the dual function of Wisdom Literature like the “Instructions” and to imagine how early African American literature adapted that duality. When we consider what was written and why it was written by Africans in the Americas, we begin to see more clearly that among the questions we need to ask more readily have to do with inquires into what was published and why what was published was published and promoted (as distinct from what was not). What happens to the narratives of enslavement, for example, that aren’t hell bent (pun intended) on selling Christianity or of using Christianity (even in the form of critique) as the lens through which to read “American” identities of enslavement? Why don’t we hear more about the many narratives written of men and women of varied faiths? How does awareness of and exposure to the oral narratives change our way of thinking about and reading the written and published ones? What does the mouth to ear narrative reveal that the emancipated to amanuensis to reader does not?

To me, revisiting the tomb of Ptah Hotep and remembering his function as scribe renews my commitment to asserting early African American literature (and some contemporary literature too) as something more than, or something other than, that which we have come to know it.

Is it clear yet that one of the folders I brought along contains the readings I’m supposed to spend time with to compose my opening lecture (to someday become a journal article about rethinking the discipline), that I’ve yet to work on that lecture/article (hence its infiltration here!), and that I can’t quite finish the syllabus (or add the books) for this graduate seminar until I know exactly where I’m going with the argument. One twist to the left or the right of either side of my contention means the difference between reading Delany’s Blake or simply texts by David Walker and Henry Highland Garnet. How much space am I trying to clear this semester? Can they (meaning I/we) handle Blake now, or is it a text for a Special Topics class that’s more focused?

Alas, I digress….

Class tonight was powerful in any number of ways. Interestingly, it was also the calmest by far. And tomorrow—our first day with a post-7am (7:30, whoopee!) wake up call and that’s not jam packed—will surely be our “calmest” day.

The students are to write two essays: one that considers either the theme of The Politics of Translation or the theme of The Eloquence of the Scribes. The second essay is more of a narrative expression since they’ll be writing their own False Door Confessions (mad love to Angie P, who shared hers tonight, inspiring us all!) or their own Declaration of Innocence (big ups to Jazelle and Sawdayah for sharing tonight). I suppose I shall too...

Part of tonight’s energy had to do with the beauty of Aswan (its land and its people, now and then). Part of tonight had to do with the energy these 20 have created by sticking together. At the airport in Aswan, for instance, Dr Carr and I were delayed and separated from the group. During the rushed walk to the gate, I kept thinking, I hope one of the guys (Ernest, Robert, or Nijel) gets on one bus (from the terminal to the airplane) with half of the group and the other two stay back with the other half of the group. I’ve been watching them as they look around to make sure everyone’s accounted for, all without any ones prompting. Turns out, they all refused to get on any bus to anywhere until we showed up. So, in addition to being relieved, I stuck my chest out because my babies stuck together... Part of tonight’s energy had to do with the fact that the thematic considerations, the writing prompts, the site visits, and the lectures are all coming together for them now. A week ago, it was little more than 250 pages (yes, 250 pages) of “stuff we got to read before we go to Egypt.”

Just watch what that stuff turns into tomorrow when they begin to share their responses to the prompts and readings. I’m willing to bet by the end of the day, you’ll stick out your chest too knowing that the future’s in some pretty good hands.

And maybe one of them will tell you about the Pyramid Texts since I didn't! Maybe tomorrow. It's after midnight yet again, yet already. Good night from Aswan...

The Journey Begins...

The first couple of days in the Kemet, City of Black People (to each his own interpretation) have been breathtaking…I embarked upon this experience not really knowing what to expect, however, I know the best is yet to come and this will be a lifetime memory. In an earlier essay I wrote that:

I am thankful for the opportunity to participate in this cultural and educational experience. I choose to use the word experience specifically, as I am approaching these two weeks in Egypt as just that—an experience. I plan to engage myself in all aspects and be open to the learning opportunities that are to come. Ultimately, I want to be able to walk away from this ‘experience’ a changed person; a person that is more appreciative of one’s culture, a person that is more educated in the visceral sense of the world we live in, and a person who is able to share and pass on the knowledge found in the motherland.

As a rising junior Theatre Arts Major with a concentration in Acting, this interdisciplinary fellowship will continue the development of defining the relationship between the arts and the culture of African people. After reading the pre-trip material provided, I have specific interest in the history of the use of Narratives, beginning in the era of the Old Kingdom and connecting their use to the performing arts and administration of today.

In essence, I look forward to the trip at hand and connecting this experience with my current undergraduate work, as this will be a true interdisciplinary experience that will last a life time.

We had the opportunity to visit the Great pyramid of Khufu and the Giza Pyramid. The operational construction of these infrastructures incorporated the disciplines of the sciences, mathematics, business management, administration, etc. The Great Pyramid alone contains 2,300,000 blocks of stones specifically and mathematically constructed to be precise. We had the opportunity to go inside of the great pyramid and visit a room dedicated to King Khufu. The genius behind the creation of these two great pyramids place a multitude of things into perspective:

-management of workers
-organization of operations
-scheduling
-time management
-project timeline
-Chain-of-command creation

All of which are incorporated within projects and businesses that we as a people create today. We raise the question, what happened to the prospering works and creations of our people? We tend to see a decline in the prospering black owned business, and in particular, black owned theatres. Mis-management may be a cause; however, I believe we as a people have drifted away from the ideal of one community, all working for the greater good.

Egyptians had a goal and mindset to achieve when constructing these pyramids. They represented a greater goal that could be accomplished. Not to say there were not problems and complications, but I believe they knew importance of needing to move forward in order to create positive progress…

Until Next time…

Nijeul Porter

My formal exposure to Kemet took place as a doctoral student at Temple University taking courses, beginning in 1994, from Dr. Theophile Obenga, a world renowned African scholar from Congo (Brazzaville) noted for his scholarship in the areas of philosophy, linguistics, and Egyptology. My less formal introduction to Kemet occurred as an undergraduate student at Miami University, Oxford, OH while pledging Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., an organization that integrated Kemet into the system in a variety of complex ways as both a symbol and during the ritual initiation process. As a prospective initiate, we were referred to as "Sphinxman." I chose our line name, "The Triad," and also chose our individual line names, Khufu, Khafre (that would be me!), and Menkaure, the namesakes of the three Great Pyramids on the Giza Plateau. I have always been captivated by the pervasive spirit of excellence in Kemet that is exhibited in monuments, tombs, temples, and all works of craftsmanship. Dr. Carr also has this fraternal affiliation with Alpha Phi Alpha, but I digress! (smile) Too many Egyptologists will say that the extent of the scientific knowledge of the Ancient Egyptians was primarily of a "practical" nature, noting that we do not have at our disposal many written texts to demonstrate their knowledge, particularly in the Old Kingdom. Many say that we don't have good knowledge of their school system and use this as a subtle means to lessen the greatness of the achievements of our ancestors in the Nile Valley. (Two main concepts for school in Kemet- one, "at-seba," lit. place of teaching and continues in Coptic as "ansebe" and the other, "per-ankh," the house of life)My retort to these scholars is that the monuments themselves are texts and witnesses to the greatness of their knowledge. The scientific knowledge in terms of mathematics, astronomy, and architecture that built the pyramids implicitly necessitates a rigorous and ambitious educational curriculum and this is a fact despite the lack of enough written texts that could provide us with a more complex picture. In his post, Dr. Carr mentioned that some scholars view the pyramids as being built in a sacred cosmic alignment with the three stars in the constellation Orion's belt. The Egyptian called this constellation "sah," and it was typcially an image of Wsir or Osiris holding a was-sceptre. This is a plausible interpretation. When I attended and presented at the International Congress of Egyptologists in Rhodes, Greece last May, I sat in on a presentation that theorized that the alignment of the pyramids could also depict the symbol of the horizon (Egyptian "akhet") with the sun rising between them, symbolic of a powerful process and moment in the rhythmic movements of the cosmos. Thus, there are both solar and astral meanings of the alignments of the pyramids and both are plausible and probably true which is reflective of the Kemetic mind to always have a complex of creation, and the creative process in the cosmos. Dr. Carr also mentioned the divinities of Djehuty and Seshat. I sat in on another presentation in Rhodes, Greece last May and a team of scholars indicated that the normative understanding in Egyptology of the headdress of Seshat as indicating a star on a pole is flawed. Their is a problem with this interpreation because Egyptian stars ALWAYS have five-pointed stars, but the so-called star on Seshat's headdress has seven. They showed a 3-D depiction of the headdress and demonstrated that it was not a star on a pole as most assume, but it was actually an astronomical instrument used to align monuments with the movements of the sun or other stars. I thought that their presentation was very convincing and I am inclined to now view Seshat's headdress as such. Dr. Obenga was my dissertation advisor and I wrote my dissertation on "The Image of Celestial Phenomena in the Book of Coming Forth By Day: An Astronomical and Philological Analysis" so I am very conversant with issues dealing with Egyptian astronomy although my most recent work has focused more on Kemetic wisdom literature and weighing in on important historical issues. I am sure that during your trip you will learn more about Dr. Obenga and his coupling with Cheikh Anta Diop at the famous 1974 UNESCO Cairo symposium held on the Peopling of the Nile Valley and the Deciphering of the Meroitic Script. I hope that during the next two weeks that I will be able to make a small contribution to your understanding of this great African civilization. As your ancestors in the Nile Valley would say, "djed maat, ir maat," "speak maat, and do maat" throughout this life-changing journey.

In Maat,

Dr. Mario Beatty
Chair, African American Studies
Chicago State University

Day Two: The Pyramid Complex at Giza and the Egyptian Museum

"I felt that I had a peculiar heritage in the Great Pyramid built...by the enterprising sons of Ham, from which I descended. The blood seemed to flow faster through my veins. I seemed to hear the echo of those illustrious Africans. I seemed to feel the impulse from those stirring characters who sent civilization to Greece...I felt lifted out of the commonplace grandeur of modern times; and, could my voice have reached every African in the world, I would have earnestly addressed him in the language of Hilary Teage--'Retake Your Fame!"

--Edward Wilmot Blyden, In the Great Pyramid of Khufu, July 11, 1866.

Tuesday morning as we entered the Great Pyramid of Khufu, we didn't engrave the

word "LIBERIA" at the entrance like the scholar and Pan Africanist Edward Wilmot

Blyden did on the occasion of his visit in July 1866. We didn't sing "O Isis and Osiris" from Mozart's The Magic Flute like Paul Robeson did when he stood in Khufu's burial chamber in 1938. We did, however, sing the Alma Mater as we climbed through the narrow passageways and, once inside the chamber, struck a resounding, pitch-perfect chorus of Lift Every Voice and Sing, ringing the granite sarcophagus and walls with the words and chords of the Johnson Brothers, James and Rosemond. Howard University has returned to the Nile Valley one year after our historic 2008 study abroad, and we had done so in force.

As we descended into the Pyramid, the rousing conversation that had carried well into t

he night the previous evening still echoed in

my ears. Having survived the long plane ride and emptied ourselves into the awaiting tour bus at the Cairo airport, our work had begun on Monday with a tour of the Mosque of Muhammad Ali Pasha at the Citadel, completed in 1848, a marker for the birth of the modern Egyptian state and a symbol of national pride. The irony was palpable: Here we were, entering our examination of the Nile Valley by touching base with the contemporary reality that modern Egypt is very different than ancient Egypt and at once still fortified and connected to the ancient ones in many lived, imagined and constructed ways.

Driving through the neighborhood of Heliopolis, we took note of the fact that this area had once been called On, and represented the home of the Kemetic symbol of intelligence, writing and memory, Djehuty (called Thoth by the Greeks and the symbol later borrowed and transmuted into Hermes and, later,Mercury). We will become well familiar with Djehuty and his female counterpart Seshat, the patron symbols of all thinkers and writers, over the course of our journey.

Finally, we arrived at the hotel, Le Meridien Pyramids, in the shadow of the largest pyramids in the country--and the world--those of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure, as well as the Hor-em-Akhet (Heru of the Horizon), commonly known as the Great Sphinx of Giza. We

checked in, showered, ate dinner, and convened our first class session. Our band of 21 was tired but hardy, and we launched into a study abroad mbongi (a ki-kongo word for "room without walls," or "think tank"). Our initial theme--"The Politics of Translation"--proved ideally suited to the task of having us think about why we were in Kemet, where we found ourselves, and why it was so important for us to enter our study with questions of method and process attending our every step.

We began class by reintroducing ourse

lves to each other: in our intrepid band are Howard students in fields ranging from

History and Psychology to Communications, Africana Studies and Theater. We have been accompanied by an administrator from

Fisk University and her mother, as well as a scholar from Drexel University engaging in a study of African-American participation in study abroad initiatives. The Fiskite and her mother also happen to be my sister and mother (haha). The Drexel scholar also has deep Howard ties of blood and common purpose. For her eightieth birthday, my family chipped in and subsidized my mother's first trip to Africa. An Alabama Baptist, she had stood in the grand mosque and fell silent before the living witness of the common humanity of the heady mix of languages and cultures that surrounded us. Now she proclaimed herself the official tour "Grandmother," to the laughter of all.

With introductions and reasons for emptying blood and treasure into the cost of the trip re-stated and absorbed, we launched into our work. We immediately began to tease out the challenge of reading classical African history and culture through contemporary lenses, the challenge of translation. The work of discovery and recovery of ideas and experiences from the past is given astonishing force by the monumental work of the people of Kemet. The ancient Egyptians wrote on everything, it seems. Their language, Medew Netcher (literally "Divine Speech" or "Divine Words") was the foundation for the scripts we use today, though these have been reduced exclusively to markers for sound.

As our conversation entered its second hour, we were interrupted by the arrival of a small group of study tour participants from the U.S. led by my friend Manu Ampim, a scholar based in the Bay Area who has travelled to Kemet over twenty times. Later, we saw another colleague, Zizwe Poe, an Associate Professor of History at Lincoln University who is leading a study tour of the Nile Valley as well. I was reminded of the stories I heard from Asa Hilliard and Jacob Carruthers of running into colleagues and friends from the U.S. while examining the history and culture of Kemet. We were connected in so many ways, and Zizwe reminded me that Nnamdi Azikiwe, the First Prime Minister of independent Nigeria and a Lincoln University graduate, had actually started his undergraduate

work at Howard under William Leo Hansberry.

Azikiwe took the lessons on African history he learned from Hansberry to Lincoln, becoming the first person to offer a course on African history there.

We retired for the night after beginning to exchange the photographs and videos that will become part of this blog, allowing those following us at Howard and around the world to glimpse some of our real time reactions to what we are experiencing.

The next morning, we arose with the sun, grabbed a quick breakfast in the hotel dining room, and embarked for the Great Pyramid plateau of Giza, a bedrock site that looks down on modern Cairo and faces the south, Upper Kemet and Inner Africa. On a clear day--which, because of the pollution generated by twenty million city residents and workers occurs far too infrequently--a visitor to the Great Pyramid can look out over the expanse of desert and glimpse the first "true" pyramidal structures in the world, those constructed by Pharaoh Senefru and the workers of the fourth Kemetic dynasty (circa 2600 b.c.e.) at Meidum and Dashur. This was, needless to say, not a clear day. So we turned inward and journeyed to the burial chamber of the Great Pyramid of Pharaoh Khufu. Khufu, his grandson Khafre (whose pyramid we entered a bit later) and his great grandson Menkaure had their pyramids constructed in an alignment that mirrors the stars in Orion's belt. There are many theories about the plausibility of Kemetic attempts to literally mark the stars by placing pyramids and temples at strategic places up and down the Nile Valley, but there is no denying that these Africans had indeed charted the stars and aligned all of their major building projects with the rhythms of celestial and terrestrial phenomena.

After we left the pyramid of Khafre, we scrutinized a funerary boat belonging to Khufu that has been perfectly preserved in a mini museum just outside the Great Pyramid. This boat, which dates at least to 2550 b.c.e., was recovered from the smallest of seven pits discovered so far by archeological teams. It is very small compared, for example, to the boat sent to Punt (modern day Somalia) by the Pharaoh Hatshepsut in 1480 b.c.e. In a few short days, we will visit Hatshepsut's temple, cut into the cliffs at Deir el-Bahri and site of the stirring photograph of the women members of the group that pioneered the Howard Summer Study Abroad in Kemet experience last year.

After leaving the Giza plateau, we stopped for lunch and to visit a shop for examining and purchasing shenew, the necklace form of

the ovals representing the universe that the Kemetians used to represent the names of the Pharaohs. These ovals were called "cartouches" by the French, and are a popular form of contemporary jewelry for visitors to the Nile Valley. Then it was off to the next major site: The Egyptian Museum.

The Egyptian Museum began its life as an idea initiated by the aforementioned Muhammad Ali in 1853. Ali realized that so many treasures from classical Africa were being looted by England, France, Germany, Italy and other European countries that an institution was necessary to restrict this cultural appropriation and keep Kemetic artifacts in the country. Five years later, a Bureau of Antiquities was established and in 1902, the building housing the current Egyptian Museum was completed. It is the largest collection of artifacts from a single country in the world.

We had prepped for our visit to the Egyptian Museum the night before in our initial meeting. We knew what we wanted and needed to see in order to ensure maximum benefit for the four hours we would be spending among the thousands of artifacts; highlights would include the Narmer Palate (the stone document chronicling the unification of Upper and Lower Kemet in 3100 b.c.e.), key statuary of Djoser, Khufu, Hatshepsut, Akhenaten and Nefertiti (and family), Amenhotep III and Tiye and, of course, the treasures of Tutankhamun. The central experience I could not wait to introduce our students to was a trip to the rooms that house several sakhu (mummies), including those of Seti I, Ramses II and Djehutymes III. These bodies have been preserved in such a striking fashion that those looking upon the visages of these long-deceased Pharaohs fall silent in wonder.

Before we entered the museum, we poured a libation outside the museum in respect for the ancestors. We'd performed a similar ritual at the same place the year before. Then, we entered the museum...WHOA! Look at the time! It's 5:45 a.m. here, and my luggage has to be outside my door at 6 a.m. in order to be loaded for the trip to Aswan! Okay, this post has to end. This is only a teaser: When we arrive, we'll pick up from here and continue to chronicle our first several days in Kemet. Today, we're going to visit Saqqara, the site of the first free standing stone building in world history, designed by Imhotep. We're also going to the tombs of Ptah Hotep and Kagemmi (brilliant authors of wisdom texts in the Old Kingdom) and Hwt-Ka-Ptah (house of the soul of Ptah), called "Memphis" by the Greeks and the place that provided the name "Egypt" from the Greek pronunciation "aigyptos." More later...gotta go put that bag outside my door! Stay tuned!

Hello from Cairo

We arrived in Cairo yesterday, and it seems like at least 2 days ago.

First, a confession... when we landed (a 20 hour day for most of us), we hit the ground running. No time wasted! We went to the Citadel and to a mosque. We checked in to the hotel about an hour or so before dinner. And after dinner, we went straight into the lecture. After paying a ridiculous amount of money for 2 hours of internet time, we weren't able to blog much because we split the 120 minutes between 22 people, and it was our primary means of communication! So, sorry for our neglect.

TODAY! our wake up call was at 6am... breakfast at 7... bus on the road to the pyramid at 7:30. The Great Pyramid is open for the first 150 people only, so we had to be there in plenty of time! We got there, and in we went. Even though I came last year, I didn't get to go in this one. So, I was excited about that. My other "first" today was the camel ride that afforded me an amazing view of the three pyramids. (Pictures to come I promise!) Then, we went to the so-called "Solar Boat" museum. More details on that too. Left there and went to the Sphinx; left there and went to lunch (finally!); left there and went to the Cairo Museum, where we stayed until the closed. You'll hear from the students about the whole day... the pyramids, the sphinx, the museum, mummy rooms, everything...I'm sure.

Finally, we arrived back at the hotel in time (about 45 minutes) for a shower and dinner. After dinner, we had the lecture from 9-11pm. I say all this to say, we can't find time to blog! Good for us (because we're filling our days with information and experiences; bad for the blog because we aren't sharing as much as we'd like). But hang in there with us! The only reason I can do it now is because it's 1:02 am, and I've finally got a moment to spare. And guess what, our wake up call is at 5:30am for tomorrow's adventures.

We have an entire class day in Aswan on Thurs, and that's when we plan to have students add targeted information entries with narrative to accompany the pictures and videos. They are learning so much, soaking it all in, and they're anxious to share it.

I'm off to bed. More later...

Lately....

Hotep

This has been a tiresome 48 hours but the knowledge that I have gained so far is incredible. In the past 2 days, I have been to the to visit the mummies of great kings and queens, I have been to the sacred mosque a past leader in Islam, Muhammad Ali, I have walked inside of two pyramids in Giza, one of the wonders of the world, I have studied the governance system of Ancient Egypt, architecture, the astronomy, the mathematics and technology, the language, the early, middle and late Kingdoms, and the periods of instability. I have interacted with Egyptian people, observed their way of life and observed how different the country is in terms of religion and prosperity. I’ve done a lot so far.
With all the thoughts that are running thru my mind, I cant help but feel a sense of pride in knowling for sure that the people that I am observing are black and of African descent. Race has had so much power and has made my people out to be inferior; however knowing that my ancestors were the ones to build one of the wonders of the world, in a place that they knew would not flood, where the top of the pyramid was symmetric to astronomy and where even the sides of the pyramid had ties to religious beliefs…how could we ever believe that we were inferior.
The problem lies in our history of ourselves being told with a beginning in slavery. From the perspective of slavery, everything indeed looks like progress. From slavery to Obama, we as black people believe that we have truly progressed. However if we study ourselves before slavery and acknowledge the intelligence of our ancestors, the fall of their dynasties and the events that took place thereafter, our perspective has changed. When we being to look through the lenses of our beginning being in Africa, instead of our beginning being with the middle passage, we may look towards the future with a new light. We would have to then challenge ourselves to meet our ancestors with true progress, not just politically with Obama; we need to be doing more.
One of the main reasons, I think we are stuck at the bottom and that people refuse to believe that we are the ones that built these pyramids is because we are relaxed and not working nearly as diligently as our ancestors were. It is not that we need to prove ourselves to others, it is that we need to prove to ourselves that were are better than our current circumstance. We should be continuously putting the world in awe at our intelligence, because then, they would have no choice but to associate us with our ancestors. We have to be motivated continue to press on and supersede our ancestors who are still putting the world in awe, thousands of years later.
Therefore, we need to stop looking at slavery as the beginning. Malcolm X said that you can’t stab a man 8 inches deep and then take the knife out 2 inches and call it progress. Honestly, true progress is progress in which we challenge ourselves to move beyond the progress of our ancestors and continue their legacy as true intellects. That is why Im here…
Dana Racine Hall

P.S. – Shout out my mommy, Tiaaaaa, Daddy, Jus, my sisters and brothers in Ubiquity, Incorporated and everyone else who is reading my blog to see how Im doin!

What A Day

Today was engorged with wonder. It was truly awesome. We began bright and early at Giza—the pyramids of Khufu, Khafre, and Menkare. Khufu’s is the Great Pyramid—the largest in the world.

Getting off the bus and seeing that pyramid in front of me moved me. I was speechless and a bit emotional to stand in the glory of my people. I touched the every block on the way up. And we didn’t just climb the pyramid; we journeyed into its core, the burial chamber. After crouching, climbing, crawling, we stood in the airtight chamber. There the hints of claustrophobia I had been feeling on the way in reached the hilt, so I crouched down at the back of the room and told myself, “This is important, you can breathe, and you’re fine.” And then, Dr. Carr broke out in “Lift Ev’ry Voice.” And we sang like it was us who “trodded the stony road.” Some white people seemed awed and clapped. I was fine after that, but I chose not to go into Khafre’s pyramid, which is smaller.

We then went to see the Sphinx. It is smaller than I thought, but just as magnificent.

And then: the Egyptian Museum. My God. Hordes and hordes of artifacts, from statues to sandals, to jewelry, games, furniture. Real mummies, with hair, and teeth. And please believe their faces speak of Africa. We walked for about two and a half hourse through that museum, and saw only a fraction of what it has to offer.

Before entering the museum, Doc pulled us aside to give an invocation and pour libation in memory of those that came before us and in respect for what this trip is about. We poured water for the Africans who were the first humans on the planet, and evolved to create ingenious and beautiful civilizations. We poured for the same Africans who, thousands and thousands of year later, found themselves kidnapped, captured, betrayed, and marched to the coasts to be sold to foreign lands, and tortured in alien cultures. We poured for the families that did what they could to survive this, and pass something of their old selves down to their children. We poured for our own parents and families who sacrificed and scraped to get us ont his trip, and finally, we poured for our grandchildren’s children; we prayed they too would benefit from our experience. I shed a few tears then because I thought about how blessed I am, and the sadness and beauty of the responsibility that comes with such a blessing.

I just want to do right by all the people we acknowledged in that moment. Ashe.

-Jazelle

Awestricken

Have you ever been so awestricken that you were numb? Or so amazed that you lost ability to feel amazement? That is how Kemet makes me feel. It's overkill.

Out of context, that may not read well, but it is the highest compliment. There are so many wondrous things here to turn to, to look at, to imagine, to think about...that you face a realization: amazing things are commonplace in Kemet.

...and when you are here, your mind goes on overdrive. You stay on a high of adrenaline and fulfillment, knowing that this is all yours. Satisfied that you know something few people know. Reassured that you can teach these who should know. Vowing that you will share the experience with others like you.

This was the greatest civilization that ever was, un rivaled by any other comparison. The United States of America...nothing next to ancient Kemet. Europe...nowhere near the greatness of ancient Kemet. You can't stand at the pyramids, the temples, the Sphinx...and not know that. You can't walk out of the Cairo museum and not know. Well...perhaps you can, depending on who you are, what you've read, watched, or heard; nevertheless, we can never leave this place and not know, not feel the connection we have to this land, these people, this origin where marvels in all aspects of life were the way of life.

That's why all of us must come here. We will all then be staunchly compelled to outdo the ancestors.

-Ang

21 in Cairo

Written on the bus on the way to the hotel

We are quiet on the bus as Cairo goes by outside the window. I don’t know what everyone else is thinking, but it’s beginning to dawn on me that I am on the cusp of an amazing experience.

I’ve only been in Cairo, Egypt for a little while, but several things have already struck me. It is clear that Cairo is a city of builders. Development is everywhere; and I’m not talking flimsy wood-framed dwellings or build-by-numbers condos, like we have at home. I’m talking stone. Concrete. Alabaster. I’m talking longevity. The slums are made of brick—yes brick, like the houses that go for hundreds of thousands of dollars back at home—and stand against the backdrop of pyramids. I don’t say this to suggest that Cairo is wealthy (because I do not know or think that is true), but I say this to illustrate how interesting Cairo is.

Not to sound dramatic, but when I got my first clear view of two pyramids, still huge even off in the distance, I gasped a little. My God. I remember it is my birthday today. I am turning 21 in the shadow of the pyramids, the only survivors of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, in the great Kemet!

The suburb of Cairo that we are driving through honestly is the picture of summer in the city. People shop, wait for buses, hail cabs, sit outside their houses with some friends, clean up their store fronts between customers…schools are dark and dormant…things that are as familiar as home to me. It’s still a little different though. Signs are in Arabic first, then English (if at all). We’re six hours ahead. The men mostly wear regular clothes while the women mostly wear traditional Muslim clothing (hijabs and burqas). Most people live in apartment buildings, and only middle class and up have air conditioners in this 90+ degree heat.

Some kids on the street wave to us. I wave back and think of the people I love back home. How I wish they were here to experience this with me. And I realize that I have a responsibility to have an experience full enough for all of us to share.

-Jazelle Hunt

Well im always one to pack at the last minute and I just now finished up lol. But none the less im ready! It kinda came really quickly and still now it seems surreal that we leave 2morrow. After informing people of my departure it was kind of exciting to hear all the random stories I heard about peoples experiences there, all making it well aware of how it will be a life changing experience.

I can't tell you enough how many times I texts my friends who went last year about how it was, what to bring, how necessary the shots were, and if it were really that important to read the readings because I was falling behind. lol All I know is im ready! And after a long summer working and trying to prepare for my senior year, faced with some trials along the way, my spirit is telling me this is it! You need a trip home!

I'll be driving in the morning from South Jersey to JFK to meet everyone! I can't wait! Somebody pinch me. I too plan on taking advantage of the 18 hr flight and I hope to sleep most of the way and catch up on some reading.

Until next time....

Lena

Dont Sleep on Your Dreams

I am beyond tired. Im a upcoming senior who is trying to secure housing for next year, secure money for school next year as well as trying to check, double check and triple check to make sure I have everything I need to go to Egypt tomorrow...wow. I came to Howard as a transfer student because I felt like education at the university level should give me more than just a few good teachers and books. I knew that I needed to experience something to truly say that I was satisfied with my college experience...this is it.
When I told my mom in January that I was going to Egypt this summer, she laughed and said "yea Im going too!". I told her I was serious and she just said okay and continued what she was doing. My mother, grandmother, aunt or uncle weren't able to go to college and no one on her side of the family had ever even thought to go to a place like Egypt so the idea was actually funny to her. I worked 20 hours a week last semester and convinced the provost office at Howard to give me monies so that I could go. I worked hard because I knew that If I was really going to go, I would basically be on my own. After my family saw that I was serious, they started helping with what they could.
Soo now Im all packed up, sunglasses and all, waiting for the morning to come. My mom and I will catch a flight to NY at 8 a.m., get breakfast and wait for the 3 o'clock hour to come...then 6:30. Im actually nervous because this is all too good to be true. I've never even been west of the Mississippi and I am going to Egypt tomorrow, its kinda crazy. Im pretty much a ball of emotions right now. I guess I will stop here and make myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich...quadruple check to make sure I have everything and maybe I'll take a nap...
Peace,
Dana Racine Hall

Home for the First Time

Words can't even express how excited I am. I tear up just typing the title of this post. It hasn't set in yet, the experience that I'm about to have.

I left from Michigan early this morning and now I'm waiting at the airport in Philadelphia. My next stop is to Newark, then tomorrow, New York. I'll be staying with two friends in Newark that are also attending the trip to Egypt.

I had the hardest time yesterday trying to figure out what to pack. I didn't want to pack too little or too much. I also, wanted to make sure I would have enough room for all the things I plan on buying.

Well, my plane is going to board soon, so I have to wrap up. I can't wait until tomorrow! See you soon!

~B. Moncrease