CONFERENCE
THE MANCHESTER MUSEUM, UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER
** Call for Papers **
"Egypt in its African Context"
The Manchester Museum, University of Manchester
3-4 October 2009
>
The African elements of the ancient Egyptian culture, and indeed
its physical location in Africa, have frequently been ignored, and
there exists a level of prejudice against suggestions that Egyptian
culture can be situated within an African cultural context. The
contextualising of ancient Egypt culturally and geographically
within Africa, the concept of ancient Egypt as part of Black
History, and the discussion of how the material is perceived The aims of the conference are to:
* address perceptions of ancient Egypt in the West, in scholarly
writing and public understanding;
* present the work of scholars working on African-centred
Egyptology;
* present a scholarly approach to the subject of Egypt in Africa
to counterbalance the extreme Afrocentric views within which
such a debate is often contextualised;
* investigate how community groups and professional Egyptologists
can transfer their knowledge and points of view.
Papers are requested that address the following themes:
* the African aspects of ancient Egyptian culture;
* historical and contemporary African perceptions of ancient
Egypt;
* the contested nature of ancient Egypt;
* the biases inherent in presentation of Egypt in the West, and
ways of addressing this - in museums, media and popular and
scholarly publication.
Key speakers include Dr Sally-Ann Ashton, Senior Assistant
Keeper, Department of Antiquities, The Fitzwilliam Museum,
Cambridge; Dr Abadayo Folorunso, Professor, Department
of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Ibadan, Ibadan,
Nigeria; Dr Maulena Karenga, Professor, Department of Africana
Studies, California State University, USA; Dr Shomarka Keita,
Research affiliations with the National Human Genome Center,
Howard University and the Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian
Institution, USA; Dr. José Lingna Nafafé, Lecturer, Department of
Sociology, The University of Birmingham, UK; and Dr Kimani
Nehusi, Senior Lecturer, Cass School of Education, University
of East London, UK.
The conference is organised in association with The Fitzwilliam
Museum, Cambridge and with the support of The Petrie Museum
of Egyptian Archaeology.
Abstracts of no more than 500 words, and full contact details,
are to be emailed to the conference organiser, Karen Exell:
karen.exell@ manchester. ac.uk
Closing date: 31st July 2009
Dr Karen Exell
Curator, Egypt and the Sudan
The Manchester Museum
University of Manchester
Oxford Road
Manchester M13 9PL
www.manchester. ac.uk/museum
http://egyptmanches ter.wordpress. com/
Direct line: 0161 275 8772
Note (a) AFRICAN LEGACY, and the significance of a range of newly discovered sites, which include:
(b)The world's oldest stone tools dated
2.6 million years.
See http://exn.ca/hominids/home (Discovery Channel)
Ethiopian fossil of homo erectus- 1.3 million years old
(c)Olduvai, Northern Tanzania-second oldest in the world,
with tools dated 2.1 million years. (d)Blombos Cave, South Africa, where, in
2003,
the world's oldest jewellery in the form
of 41 perforated shell beads, were found.
Here we have evidence of stylized
art work, as well as
the kind of symbolism and creativity that
we associate with modern humans. See South Africa museums,Cape Town
(www.museum.org.za/sam/muse/9904/htm)
(e)At Loiyangalani, Tanzania,East Africa,
in the Serengeti National Park, decorated ostrich eggshell
beads were discovered by archeologists.
They point also to early
human creativity. These were found March 2004, in layers dated between
280,000
and 40,000 years.
We must also take into account
(f)The Ishango mathematical/calendar artifact of East-Central
Africa,
dated about 25,000 years.
This artifact was taken out of the Congo region to Belgium.
See the exhibit at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Belgium.
Also in this category of early mathematical artifacts is
the 37,000 year old Lebombo bone of SWAZILAND, Southern Africa.
(g)Rock Art in Southern Africa
8000 years old.
Multiregional and uniregional theories of human origins
point to Africa as the birthplace of humanity.
Several molecular biologists and paleontologists confirm this to date.
The evidence so far implies that the first humans
in the world (homo sapiens) emerged in Africa about 200,000 years ago
and migrated to the various continents much later-perhaps as recent
as 45,000 years ago, in the case of migration to Europe.
Recent fossil finds suggest that the world's
earliest hominids lived approximately 6 million years before that
in Kenya. We note also the 4 million year old fossils of Dinknesh (Lucy)
and her descendants,
and the 1996 discovery in Southern Ethiopia
of stone tools 2.6 million years old.
The Kenyan -Ethiopian- Tanzanian region is perhaps the birthplace
of modern humans, subject to new finds.
Needless to say that several religions do not accept
this view on human origins. Some Christians find it difficult to reconcile the Book of Genesis with scientific findings.
Ancient Africans migrated within Africa,
vertically and horizontally, as well as OUT OF AFRICA to populate the world.
For views on the African and Afro-Pacific (Afro-Australian) origins
of some Ancient Americans, such as the Ancient Brazilians,
see Dr.Walter Neves,University of Sao Paolo, Brazil
(BBC Homepage: Thursday August 26, 1999).
See also Spencer Wells of in his pathbreaking work, Journey of Man: The Story of the Human Species (PBS, 2003). Consult www.pbs.org.
Having emerged millions of years ago in the environs
of present day Ethiopia and Kenya, some ancient Ethiopians and Eritreans
migrated into neigboring Yemen (Saba), across the Red Sea.
Legends of the area, view the Queen of Sheba
and Ethiopia, as an Ancient Ethiopian. Biblical texts
such as 1 Kings 10, The Song of Solomon, and, Ancient Ethiopian chronicles
such as the 'Kebra Nagast' seem to support this view.
As pointed out by historians such as Stuart Munro-Hay i.Aksum was an African
civilization of late Antiquity.
It was one of many centers of power to emerge
in the environs of ancient Ethiopia and Eritrea,
and, was predominantly derived from the intellectual
and material resources of ancient Africans.
The Empires and Kingdoms of
j. Nubia
(Ancient Sudan -Univ. of Khartoum)
k.Arkamani,
Sudan Journal of Archeology and Anthropology
host a wide range of achievements in Africa, in particular,
and the ancient world, as a whole.
West Africa
and other parts of the continent,
provide artifacts, not only of iron,
tin, gold and bronze metallurgy, but also, evidence of
building technology, ceramics, maths and medicine.
The relics of these earlier technological accomplishments
are still visible for scholars.
Among the accessible monumental
testimonies to the skill and expertise of ancient Africans,
in various parts of the continent, are the following:
m.One
of Several Temples, Lalibela, Ethiopia.
See alsoAksum and Rome
o.Ethiopian
Slide Show (includes engineering achievements - Univ. of Pennsylvania)
q.Queen
Hatshepsut's Expedition to the Land of Punt
Sayed El-Sayed 'Measuring the fresh myrrh, in great quantities, for Amon, lord of Thebes; marvels of the countries of Punt, treasures of God's-Land, for the sake of the life, prosperity and health.....'
Extract from the inscriptions on the walls of the funeral palace of Queen Hatshepsut at Dar al-Bahri.See Hilliard,C.Intellectual Traditions of Pre-Colonial Africa.McGraw Hill, 1998.
Egyptian sentiments about Punt:
'When I hold my love close
and her arms steal around me,
I'm like a man translated to Punt
or like someone out in the reedflats
When the whole world suddenly bursts into flower.
In this dreamland of South Sea fragrances,
My love, you are essence of roses.'
Foster,John. Love Songs of the New Kingdom.Univ. of Texas, 1992.p.25
r.Benin Iya, the Benin Enclosures and Fortifications,
West Africa, 10,000 miles in length, which, constitute
one of the largest man-made structures in the world according to
the renowned British archeologist Patrick Darling.
s.The Gwoza Terraces of NE Nigeria, West Africa
u.The Walled Cities of Zazzau & Kano, Northern Nigeria, West
Africa v.Monumental fortifications of West Africa 1000AD (wall 100 miles long x 70'
high) -
commissioned by Madame Sungbo of the Ijebu Kingdom,
Yorubaland, West Africa.
x.See
also an overview of Ancient Africa(Cora Agatucci)
Note numerous metallurgical and other artifacts such as:
y.The Bronzes of Benin, Ife and Igbo-Ukwu, Nigeria, West Africa z.Indigenous Glassworks of Bida, Nupeland, Nigeria, West Africa Metallurgical Artifacts of
a1.Mapungubwe, South Africa a2.Africa's
Oldest Boat of 8000 Years(NE Nigeria)
Ancient Terracotta Figurines of Nok, Nigeria, West Africa a3.Ashanti Gold, West Africa
(Garbrah) a4.Akan Metal Casting
(Arthur/Rowe) a5.Various
archeological data from across the continent should be noted.
of disinformation, Africans developed knowledge systems
of their own in the pre-colonial era. Some survived into the
post-colonial era, despite various forms of colonial
intimidation. In the case of writing, the use of specific
scripts was often confined to the priestly hierarchy. range of symbols and motifs for communicating various
ideas and concepts. The variety of writing material
used in some parts of the continent, historically, reflects
the complex history of Africa's writing systems which in the
past were in scribed on materials such as parchment, papyrus,
leather, skin, fabric, sand, clay, and metal more extensively
in some parts of the continent than others. Among
some of the a7.writing
systems (Ayele Bekerie):
Meroitic (Nubia),
Hieroglyphics (Egypt),
Bamum(Cameroon),
Vai (Liberia),
Nsibidi (Nigeria/Cameroon),
Ajimi (Nigeria/Niger)and the Adinkra pictographic system (Akan- Ghana,Ivory
Coast) systems of oral expression involving the preservation and
transmission of information in oral format.In some
cases these systems coexisted with the above-mentioned
writing systems. Texts such as the epic of Sundiata (Mali)
or the Abuja Chronicle (Nigeria) are good examples of
works which were originally in this mode.
See
Johnson, Hale and Belcher, African Oral Epics, 1997
Internet
Sourcebook (Paul Halsall)
Here are some relevant books on various aspects of African Civilization:
Extensive historiography. Great insights into Ancient Egypt (Illuminating, non-eurocentric view of Africa in the Ancient World) (Parts 1&11 are extremely relevant with respect to methodology) Diedre Badejo: Seegesi- The Elegant Deity of Wealth and Power and
Femininity (1995) Scholarly analysis accompanied by exquisite illustrations of African
fabric, design and fashion
The strength of this text is in its wonderful illustrations of African
architecture and metallurgy. Gloria
T.Emeagwali (ed): Historical Development of Science and Technology in
Nigeria,1993
The Genesis of African Science and Technology, Khenti,1998
ISBN 0-962944432
Traditional Practices and Local Institutions-The Case of Ethiopia, Red Sea
Press, 1999 New Africa Books, 2002
Black Futurists in the Information Age, Kmt Publications, San Francisco,
1997
Challenging Eurocentrism in Maths Education,1997 (Africa-related
chapters) Newsletter of the Commission on the History of Mathematics in Africa
in Pre-Colonial East-Central Africa,1993 Products Research and Development
(American Association for the Advancement of Science) New Approaches in Psychospirituality and Personality Development, 1993
Awakening the Intimate Web, 1993. Roots of Modern Psychology and Ancient Mysticism, 1999 Ibadan University Press, Lagos, 1980 Penguin, 1995 John Wiley and Sons, 1984 Proceedings of the International Conference on Traditional Medicinal
Plants,
Dar es Salaam University Press,1991
Authors:Board on Science and Technology for International Development, Office of International Affairs, National Research Council
Authoring Organizations
Description
There is an overlooked food resource in sub-Saharan Africa that has vast potential: indigenous food plants. All in all, Africa has more than 2,000 indigenous grains and fruits--"lost" species due for rediscovery and exploitation. This volume focuses on native cereals, dispelling myths about the nutritional value, flavor, and yield of African grains. The authors present information on where and how each grain is grown, harvested, and processed and list its benefits and limitations as a food source.
Copyright © 2008. National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. 500 Fifth St. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20001.
Professor of History and African Studies, CCSU
"emeagwali@mail.ccsu.edu"
Phone:860-832-2815
GENERAL AFRICAN TIMELINE
ETHIOPIAN TIMELINE
TIMELINE OF ANCIENT NORTHEAST AFRICA
Conferences and Travels in Africa
Northeast Africa is the cradle of African civilization.
Other relevant sites include:
(h)Africa's
oldest boat has been found in Ancient Nigeria and this is about
Northeast Africa
p.Egypt(Univ. of Memphis)
Geez (Ethiopia),
SELECTED PRIMARY SOURCES ON ANCIENT AFRICA
AFRICAN CIVILIZATION
AFRICAN SCIENCE/INDIGENOUS AFRICAN KNOWLEDGE
Metallurgy
Mathematics
Engineering/Building Technology
African Traditional/Behavioral Medicine
Agronomy and Botany
Lost Crops of Africa
On-line Newsletter of
African Studies
Send comments to Dr Gloria Emeagwali,
