Black Genesis: The Prehistoric Origins of Ancient Egypt
Black Genesis: The Prehistoric Origins of Ancient Egypt
Black Genesis: The Prehistoric Origins of Ancient Egypt
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<strong>The</strong> memory <strong>of</strong> the ancient lands must have lasted for a long time, and was perhaps progressively mythified,<br />
following a process that has been well documented in ethnology in many other places in Africa. Perhaps the rituals<br />
even demanded a periodic return to ancient cult places . . . like the great shelter <strong>of</strong> the Wadi Sura. In this way the<br />
memory <strong>of</strong> the ancient vision <strong>of</strong> the land <strong>of</strong> the dead, as well as the land <strong>of</strong> origins, would have been preserved. 58<br />
<strong>The</strong> recent finding <strong>of</strong> Bergmann and Borda fully support this hypothesis, and to which we also agree.<br />
Central to the cave ceiling was a domestic scene, with bags or gourds probably filled with milk or grain, hanging<br />
from the ro<strong>of</strong> <strong>of</strong> a house. <strong>The</strong>re were three types <strong>of</strong> cows: black and white, all white, and white and brown with black<br />
spots. <strong>The</strong>se were drawn in very realistic postures—walking, grazing, or being herded to a watering hole. We took<br />
photographs from every angle in order to have a detailed record for our own files. Oddly, outside the cave there were no<br />
visible signs <strong>of</strong> human presence as far as we could make out. *42<br />
Figure 5.5. Cattle and people at Uwainat cave<br />
It is likely that any such evidence lay buried under the sand that had filled the floor <strong>of</strong> the cave, drifting in and out<br />
over the millennia. Our imaginations ran wild: we conjured images <strong>of</strong> the hardy people who must have lived here<br />
thousands <strong>of</strong> years ago and who, perhaps, hailed originally from the Tibesti Mountains. <strong>The</strong> rock art they left behind<br />
made it easy for us to visualize their women milking cows or grinding seeds and cereals while their men went hunting or<br />
chipped stones to make knives and arrow or spear heads and the elderly sat outside at night, pondering the stars. <strong>The</strong> most<br />
thrilling part <strong>of</strong> this experience was finally to see with our own eyes those mysterious black-skinned ancestors that once<br />
navigated the desert, learned the art <strong>of</strong> husbandry, followed basic agriculture, practiced the rudiments <strong>of</strong> astronomy and<br />
timekeeping, and then finally moved eastward toward the Nile, toward <strong>Egypt</strong>, carrying their precious cargo: knowledge,<br />
which was to spawn a great civilization.<br />
We resumed our journey, skirting the eastern flank <strong>of</strong> Uwainat Mountain, reaching the Sudanese border early in the<br />
afternoon. On our way south we steered clear <strong>of</strong> a small sign fixed on a metal pole (we examined the sign and saw that it<br />
said, in Arabic, misr [<strong>Egypt</strong>] on one side and sudan on the other, and our handheld GPS indicated it was a few kilometers<br />
<strong>of</strong>f the actual border). Continuing south, we drove across the border and around the mountain and found ourselves on the<br />
south flank <strong>of</strong> Uwainat late in the afternoon. Here, the remoteness and utter mystery <strong>of</strong> this strange place took hold <strong>of</strong> us.<br />
<strong>The</strong> landscape was otherworldly, and we felt as though we were astronauts landing on an alien planet for the first time. It<br />
was very tempting to start exploring, but night was falling fast, so we decided to camp in a sandy bowl set against a rocky<br />
mound some 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the mountain.<br />
We hardly slept that night; the excitement was too great. We refrained from lighting a fire in order not to attract SLA<br />
rebels that may have been roaming the region. Just a few weeks before, a group <strong>of</strong> foreign tourists had been kidnapped in<br />
this area, and our unarmed military escort was extremely nervous about being here on the Sudanese side <strong>of</strong> the border. In<br />
the morning, at the first break <strong>of</strong> light, we quickly lifted camp, packed our gear, and set <strong>of</strong>f toward the massif <strong>of</strong> Uwainat.<br />
We headed for the twin peaks that dominated the ridge and toward the place where Marai and Borda had seen the<br />
pharaonic inscriptions a few months before. As we drove there, one <strong>of</strong> the drivers suddenly let out a shout. He had<br />
apparently spotted part <strong>of</strong> a human skeleton sticking out <strong>of</strong> the sand. We stopped and rushed to examine the shallow<br />
burial. It was not prehistoric but was much younger, probably less than a century old. Likely the skeleton belonged to a<br />
Tebu nomad or Bedouin. Our drivers could tell he was a Muslim from the way the body was laid. As Muslims