Black Genesis: The Prehistoric Origins of Ancient Egypt

Egyptians or who built the pyramids, Hawass has issued some rather odd statements. For example, when, in 2002, a
small robot was used to explore narrow shafts in the Great Pyramid of Giza, he told a bemused journalist of the popular
Al-Gomhoreya newspaper: “The results of the robot’s exploration refute the allegations reiterated by Jews and some
Western countries that the Jews built the pyramids!” 38
Hawass’s superior, Egypt’s Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni, made a very similar bizarre statement: “Israeli
allegations that they built the Pyramids abound, and we must face up to this even if it triggers a crisis with Israel! This is
piracy! Our history and our civilization must be respected but the Israelis want to take over everything! We must
counterattack with full strength because this is how they took Palestine. They keep on saying Palestine belongs to them
and now they are doing the same with the Pyramids!” 39 Further, Hawass added to this: “A group of people are making an
organized campaign. There are some people pushing them [Israel]. . . . These people are waging a big attack against us. I
swore two years ago that I would not reveal their names, but I found out that I must mention them because it is becoming
a threat . . . there is among us a bad person, a Jew . . . and I will tell the public that everyone who tries to talk against the
Egyptians should shut their mouths!” 40
According to Hawass, a member of the group allegedly waging a “big attack” backed by Israel against the Egyptians
is Robert Bauval. Bauval is a Christian, not a Jew, and, ironically, he was born and raised in Egypt. *40
In a more recent television interview in February 2009, Hawass unabashedly claimed that the Jews “control the
entire world” and that “. . . for eighteen centuries they [the Jews] were dispersed throughout the world . . . they went to
America and took control of its economy . . . they have a plan: Although they are few in number, they control the entire
world . . . look at the control they have over America and the media!” 42
Needless to say, with this type of display by the chief of the SCA, any claim, however scientific and scholarly, of a
Black African origin for Egypt’s ancient civilization will inevitably be met with indifference and, more likely, with
opposition. Indeed, Hawass has already made this quite clear with his latest commentaries on this issue to the official
Egyptian MENA News Agency: “. . . the portrayal of ancient Egyptian civilization as black has no element of truth to it!
Egyptians are not Arabs and are not Africans despite the fact that Egypt is in Africa . . . !” 43
According to this kind of logic, though Egypt is in Africa, Egyptians are not Africans. Such blatant contradiction
most likely stems from the fact that Hawass probably equates Africans and Blacks. Therefore, any connection between the
ancient Egyptians and Blacks or Africans must be rejected at all cost, even if it contradicts geographical realities. Perhaps
this extreme view clarifies other, less blatant but still puzzling attacks that scholars have made in their academic
publishing. Facts, however, are facts: Egypt is in Africa, Egyptians are Africans, and there is now overwhelming evidence
that ancient Egyptians have a Black African origin.
Rejection of an Article
In early 2008, Thomas Brophy, together with another coauthor, submitted to an academic journal a paper about a small
part of the proposed astronomy of Nabta Playa. The journal returned it with a critical review from an anonymous referee
(perhaps from an Egyptian scholar) who, in the course of recommending that the journal reject the paper, actually
referred to Brophy and his colleagues as “behaving like arrogant Westerners.” We were puzzled by that strange
comment. Why, we thought, would an accomplished scholar make such a personal attack within the formal review
process? It seemed out of context. Then it dawned on us: perhaps he was speaking from a perspective formed partly
by a racially hierarchical worldview. If this was true, it would be natural for him to have a sort of chip on his shoulder about
Westerners. In Brophy’s paper, as far as we were thinking at the time, we were simply proposing a solution to an
astronomy puzzle. He and his colleagues made no mention of or concerned themselves with any contemporary racialcultural
implications of their paper. Yet we now understand why those innocent suggestions about astronomy at Nabta
Playa may have been perceived as a threat.
At this point, we must state categorically that we are not trying to steal the pyramids, we are not claiming to have
built the pyramids, and we are not claiming that our friends and family—or even our ethnic group—built them. We say
this with tongue in cheek, of course—hoping that the SCA director will make room for some humor and a broader