Black Genesis: The Prehistoric Origins of Ancient Egypt

addition, Diop suggests that blood groups could be used, for even today’s modern Egyptians, especially those in Upper
Egypt “. . . belong to the same Group B as the populations of western Africa on the Atlantic seaboard and not the A2
group characteristic of the white race prior to any crossbreeding. It would be interesting to study the extent of Group A2
distribution in Egyptian mummies, which present-day techniques make possible. 23
Diop also reviewed the various statements made by ancient Greeks and Romans who visited Egypt, as did Martin
Bernal later in Black Athena. Diop asserts that if we accept what the ancient Greek and Roman writers say—and frankly,
there are no good reasons why we shouldn’t—then we must conclude that the ancient Egyptians were black-skinned, for
these writers leave us with no doubt that they saw the Egyptians as “dark” or “black” men. Egyptologists, on the other
hand, insist that we should not take seriously these ancient writers. A few Greek and Roman writers make clear Diop’s
point.
Herodotus (ca. 450 BCE), the father of history, states that “. . . it is in fact manifest that the Colchidians are
Egyptian by race . . . several Egyptians told me that in their opinion the Colchidians were descended from soldiers of
Sesostris. I had conjectured as much myself from two pointers, firstly because they have black skins and kinky hair . . .” 24
Herodotus also used the fact that the Egyptians were Black in order to prove that the oracle of Dodoni in Epirus, which
according to legend was founded by a Black woman, was Egyptian in origin: “. . . and when they add that the dove was
black they give us to understand that the woman was Egyptian.” 25
In one of the works of Aristotle (ca. 320 BCE) the great philosopher and father of scientific thinking speaks rather
derogatorily about the Egyptians but nonetheless shows that he too regarded them as black-skinned: “Those who are too
black are cowards like, for instance, the Egyptians and Ethiopians. But those who are excessively white are also cowards
as we can see from the example of women . . . the complexion of courage is between the two (brown or tanned).” 26
Aeschylus (ca. 480 BCE), in his play The Suppliants, has one of the protagonists, a certain Danaos, comment on an
Egyptian ship: “I can see the [Egyptian] crew with their black limbs and white tunics.” 27
Apollodorus (ca. 70 BCE) affirms that “Aegyptos conquered the country of the black-footed ones and called it
Egypt after himself.” 28
Another Greek writer, Lucian (180 BCE), presents a dialog between two Greeks, Lycinus and Timolaus, discussing
a young Egyptian boy. “Lycinus: This boy is not merely black; he has thick lips and his legs are too thin . . . his hair worn
in a plait behind shows that he is not a freeman.” 29
Statements by many other ancient Greek and Roman writers provide similar confirmation, either directly or
indirectly, that the ancient Egyptians were black-skinned. 30 Interestingly, before racial and cultural bias affected
European scholars, many European travelers such as Constantin-Francois Volney, who journeyed in Egypt in 1783–
1785, wrote honest statements: “. . . on visiting the Sphinx, the look of it gave me the clue . . . beholding that head
characteristically Negro in all its features, I recalled the well-known passage of Herodotus which reads: ‘For my part I
consider the Colchoi are a colony of the Egyptians because, like them, they are black skinned and kinky-haired . . .’” 31
Champollion-Figeac, the brother of the famous Champollion the Younger, who deciphered the hieroglyphics, wrote
this bizarre response to Volney’s observations: “. . . Volney’s conclusion as to the Negro origin of the ancient population
of Egypt is glaringly forced and inadmissible.” 32
Diop approaches the argument from a different and in some ways better perspective by asking how the ancient
Egyptians viewed themselves. He notes that they referred to themselves as the Rmt-en-Km-t, which Egyptologists usually
translate as People of the Black Land, 33 because, they say, the ancient Egyptians were not referring to themselves but
rather to the color of the alluvial soil of the Nile Valley, which has a dark, almost black tint. Diop argues, however, that
it makes far more sense to translate this term as Land of the Black People. Indeed, Km-t is perhaps the origin of the
Biblical name Ham (hence Hamite), which also means “black.” The H and K in the Semitic dialects are often mingled to
create the guttural Kh. Thus the Hebrew Kh-am may be a derivative of the earlier Egyptian Kh-em. This would certainly
explain why in the Bible, Egypt is often called the land of Ham or Khem. Diop also presents an array of epithets of
divinities of ancient Egypt that associate them with the color black implicitly, if it’s not explicitly stated that they were
black-skinned, 34 and he also presents a variety of other arguments involving complex linguistic comparisons and word
syntax of the ancient Egyptian language and other African languages, but such arguments are well outside the scope of
our investigation.