A Nubian Story

Click here to read it.

Note: I actually found this story when I was looking for stories from the Jewish Talmud.

Textbooks and Nubia

I surveyed three textbooks--McDougal Littell's WORLD HISTORY PATTERNS OF INTERACTION, Glencoe's WORLD HISTORY, and Globe Fearon's WORLD HISTORY.

All three incorrectly identified Menes as an Egyptian king. Only one, Globe Fearon said he might be a legend. What we know is Nubia assisted Egyptians in the building of the First Dynasty and Menes may have been the first leader--and he was Nubian.

None of the books introduce Nubia when it was going strong--around 3200 BC, Nubia was already known for its strength and strong armies. One of the books actually states that as late as 700 BC, the Assyrians were able to easily defeat Nubia (Kush at this time) because they fought with stone age tools.

There is evidence that they beat the Assyrians in a great battle around Jurusalem around 700 BC and for thousands of years the Nubians were known for their prowess with the bow and arrow. They were never known for their stone age weapons.

Globe Fearon's book offered only one page on Nubia--mostly information on the Kush and the 25th Dynasty.

Glencoe's book had only two sentences and though McDougal Littell offered a few pages on Egypt and Nubia, it erroneously gave all the credit to Egypt for influencing Nubia. In fact, they influenced each other.

Nubia did not begin with the 25th Dynasty or even around 2000 BC; Nubia was around way before the First Dynasty (around 3200 BC) and readers of this blog have seen the evidence that shows Nubia and Egypt were often antagonistic, but they have always influenced one another.

In fact, this author feels that Nubia may have been the main influence that brought about the actual First Dynasty in Egypt. In fact, Nubia may have invented the pharoah system altogether.

History books--let's start getting it right.

How To Conquer American Racism

How do we stop racism in America?

Simple.

Teach the children of our nation that the Nubians of Africa had a great and influential hand in the creation of Egypt and were the primary helpers in the creation of the First Dynasty.

Why will this make a difference?

We will be showing that not only did man first come from Africa, but also one of the first great civilizations came from there too.

Letting our children know the great impact Africa had on the early development of religion, government, trade and other aspects that make a civilization and a nation will give our students the needed ammunition they will need when they encounter racism.

Menes was Nubian and Ramesses ll had Nubian children who he honored. The list and influence of Nubian Africa goes on and on.

If nothing else, study this blog to help us rid America of racism today.

How Nubia is Protrayed in History Texts--Glencoe and Others

Unfortunately, Nubia is not displayed accurately at all.

Glencoe, for example, in their 2008 text, JOURNEY ACROSS TIME, has Nubia coming into place in 2000 BCE.

Another text has Menes as an Egyptian--not a Nubian.

If we want to teach our children history, let's teach it correctly--not leave out information and facts.

This blog has already shown that Nubia existed before the time of the first Egyptian dynasty--and heped to create it. I have also shown how Menes was in fact a Nubian--that Egypt has its first roots in Africa, not Europe or Asia.

Glencoe and other publishers--let's start writing history the way history was made.

Were The Nubians Cowards?

I say no. Proof is in the plates taken from various places, but even more conclusively is the following from William Y. Adams, author of Nubia, Corridor to Africa:

"Egyptians...invaded the region again and again, yet seldom referred to it without the epithet 'miserable' or 'abominable'. {I as the author of this blog feel this was only propaganda to give the Egyptian troops a psychological edge because they were afraid to fight the Nubians.} Cambyses, the Persian conqueror of Egypt...ascended to the Nile as far as the Fourth Cataract, but he nearly lost both his army and his life on the return march. A Roman army reached and sacked Napata...yet Nero declined to annex Nubia...and Diocletian abandoned even the northern extremity...Arab armies which elsewhere swept Christianity from the face of North Africa...concluded a treaty (with) Nubia...Salah-ed-Din...conqueror...of Egypt and Syria, gave up all thought of adding Nubia to his domainafter the briefest of forays."

Remember: Nubians helped create the First Dynasty of Egypt and were greatly skilled and honored for their fighting ability.

An Interview with Bruce B. Williams

A few blogs ago I asked if anyone anywhere could give me information on Bruce B. Williams and/or his publications. His groundbreaking work opened the eyes of myself and others about the positive impact ancient Nubia had on Egypt, it's phaoronic culture and the development of the First Dynasty.

I actually got a chance to meet with him at the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago. I was sitting at a back table with a few of his books in front of me when he entered the archives and came straight up to me and asked if we could step outside and talk for a few minutes.

Below are my notes from this interview:

MB: I have been an avid follower of your findings and I wonder how your theories about Nubia and the development of the First Dynasty is working out.

BBW: More and more people are coming to view the development of the First Dynasty the same way I do.

MB: Menes, according to much of my research, was a Nubian pharaoh in Egypt before the First Dynasty.

BBW: Menes is also known as Narmer. There is no real proof of his existence. Nowhere is he mentioned in the Egyptian literature.

MB: I've been writing a blog about Nubia and its impact on the phaoronic system in Egypt. I have been trying to show how Nubia influenced its development.

BBW: I never said the A-group from Nubia developed the phaoronic system independently. Individuals from Egypt and Nubia had a common purpose and worked together.

MB: Can you give me additional resources for my research?

BBW: (He gave me a list of individuals and websites.) A lot of the material you have to go through and decide on your own what is true, probably true, or not true at all. You're going to have to use a lot of your own common sense in making these decisions.

MB: What about Adam's book, NUBIA--THE CORRIDOR TO AFRICA?

BBW: Some of it is worth knowing, some of it is not. You will have to read it to make your own decisions.

In the next few blogs I hope to give evidence on the development of Nubia and its importance in ancient Egypt from what I was able to learn at the Oriental Institute--including the incense burner Bruce Williams utilizes as evidence that Nubia had a royal leadership that predated Egypt's pharaohs.

A Discussion with Dr. Larry Ross, Lincoln University, Jefferson City, MO

I brought specific plates of drawings from Ramesses ll --plates that came from a book entitled, The Beit El-Wali Temple of Ramesses ll by Herbert Ricke, et al. and publised by the University of Chicago as part of its Nubian expedition series in 1967. The book has a number of plates that were taken from the temple before the water from the dam covered it up.

Dr. Ross befgan the conversation by stating that Ramesses ll created the monuments to show off his military strength. "You can take these depictions with a grain of sand because Ramesses is the one creating the monuments."

My argument was that every depiction in his temple shows the Nubians in a positive light--even the plate when they are retreating as in Plate 8. Other plates show his opposition as weak and cowardly--the Syrians, for example, are begging for surrender and some of them are jumping from the wall committing suicide. A Libyan captive is begging for his life (Plate 24) and other individuals are in equally subservient postures. The only two groups that actually face him are the Bedouin (but they are portrayed as fleeing) and the Nubians (who are also the opnly group recovering their injured and dead).

Granted propaganda is written all over the stellas and other places in other places calling the Nubians (or Kush) cowards and other negative statements, but if you look closely at Plate 8 (and I'll try to get a copy of it on this blog so you can see it too), you will see bravery and even his own two favored sons (due to their placement next to their father) who are obviously of Nubian blood.

Furthermore, the one plate that shows Ramesses ll smiting a Nubian shows a very self assured man ready to die and not scared to die in battle (Plate 27).

"In my studies, I go deeper than what the victor has said or done as written on monuments honoring him," Dr. Ross replied. "The Nubians were very strong and courageous and they would not be afraid of death."

I conclude from the plates that the Nubians were strong, courageous and not afraid of death. Ramesses ll had a lot of respect for them. In the plates taken from the walls of the temple honoring him, he shows his respect. The Nubians were defeated, but they faced him in battle. When he executed a Nubian, he presented the individual as a man who "dies well" unlike any of the others he is depicted as slaying.

This brings me to the following conjecture: The negative propaganda written about the Nubians (or Kush) was written to give the army of Ramesses ll more confidence--a mental strategy, if you will, because he understood and admired the Nubians and knew what they could do. This was his way of empowering his army to want to fight, fist, and secondly, to help them believe they were stronger and better than their opponents--psychology to get his army to believe in itself.

In other words, the propaganda was really complimentary to the Nubians (Kush).

Dr. Ross and I will continue this dialog.