Essay on "African Presence in Ancient Egypt According to the Book Black Folk Here"

Essay 4 pages (1107 words) Sources: 1

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Black Folk

Clair Drake describes the black, definitively African presence in ancient Egyptian history in the Preface to Black Folk Here and There as "a constant struggle by Nile Valley black elites to regain political power and cultural independence" after the Roman Empire's "incorporation of Egypt on the eve of the Christian era," (xv). This struggle would be borne out on the stages of multiple continents, via contact with various colonizing forces. Even those "black elites" in ancient Egypt did not enjoy what Drake calls "autonomous development," (xv). Instead, the black elites were eventually "co-opted by Roman, Greek, and Middle Eastern imperial rulers," (xvi). This did not preclude the black African presence from prevailing in ancient Egyptian history. Most of the so-called black elite "enjoyed a high degree of participation as equals" in many situations (Drake xvi). However, slavery would remain a persistent presence throughout African history and indeed in ancient Egypt too. Sub-Saharan Africa was viewed as a repository for labor from female domestic labor to prostitution, and males from sub-Saharan Africa were used as soldiers and menial labor.

A second period of the Black Diaspora that Drake explicates in the Preface of Black Folk Here and There is the "process of gradual Islamization began in the eleventh century AD followed by a massive economic and cultural european penetration after the middle of the nineteenth century," (xvi). Between the eighth and the fifteenth centuries, the Arab-Berber slave trade "siphoned off blacks with military skill, political acumen, and intellectual and artistic talent for the benefit of Muslim cultures stretching from spain to northern India," (xvi). However, as they were in ancient Egypt the blacks that were "siphoned off" during this time were "accepted as social equals and marriage partners" and "did not generate black cultures" in the Diaspora (Drake xvi). There was also a notable incorporation of black African cultural contributions into European culture and more importantly, those contributions were acknowledged "without racial attribution," (Drake xvi). For example, the role of ancient Egypt in the development of Greek intellectual and religious thought as well as the impact of Moorish culture, art, and design of Southern Europe cannot be underestimated. Ironically, during this period the elite rulers of black kingdoms in Africa had been facilitating the slave trade that led to the third tremendous era for the black Diaspora.

The transatlantic slave trade lasted from the sixteenth to the middle of the nineteenth century. It would have the most immense impact on African scholarship, as this period gave rise to the first incidence of "racial slavery," (Drake xvi). First of all, cultural "coping and co-optation" began to emerge in the Americas via the investigation of ancient Egyptian history. Archaeological findings that spawned interest in ancient Egypt became incorporated readily by white European and American scholars. Ancient Egypt became fully co-opted to the point where black African presence there was practically erased from the record. This can be almost directly attributed to white scholars like Breasted and Weigall.

Part II

James H. Breasted became infatuated with Akhenaten, as St. Clair Drake points out in Black Folk Here and There. Akhenaten is described as "history's first individual" and the "world's first idealist," (Drake p. 207). More importantly, Breasted portrays Akhenaten as being unequivocally white. The prevailing belief that Akhenaten was unequivocally white was conjoined with the… READ MORE

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