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- Reviewed location of Kemet, and discussed why it has importance to us
- Reviewed images of various per-aas (pharoahs) and others
- Examined picture showing Kemetic artists depicting people of various hues, although all clearly "black"
- Discussed origin of the name, Kemet (Kmt); where Km means "black", and the "t" indicates feminine; and Kemet means "the Black place" or "the Black land"
- Are the people of Kemet did they refer to themselves as Black or is it result of other factors; would a people controlling a land have a need to refer to themselves as "black"?
- Would invasions into Kemet influence the way indigienous Kemeties saw themselves
- Addresses the scroll of the "Tale of the Eloquent Peasant" and examine the name of Khun-anup, where "Anpu" occurs first in the name; attempting to determine from the story where is Kemet, since he describes himself as going "to Kemet"
- The story says that he is going south, selling his wares from the salt fields to the people
- Going to the Banks of the Nile is not a reference to people (Mdnyt)
- KM (t) as the medu (symbol) is considered either as the hide of crociddle or charcoal
- From a Hymn to the 12th Dynasty per-aa Senwoset; the text says that "He ruled kmt... He placed the Red Land in his company ... He caused kmt to live. He dispelled her troubles"
- Red Land is a reference to the desert
- If Kemit means people then the references should be plural; or rather it says Her troubles and suggests it is singular
- Kmt ends in "t" and therefore it is either femine or a collective singualr pronoun (i.e. "the people" or "the community")
Mdu Ntr, Controversy of how this word should be written Insert:Mdu Ntr
Different regions, different periods used langauage
References to The People.
Kemites not what they called themselves
They called themselves Remetj or Remet, stop using the term Kemite
2 comments:
What - no bloggers out there! I'll get it started. Why do we always have to spend 1/2 a class discussing the ethnicity of Kemites? There's about a gazillion books, websites, articles that have determined that Kemites were an African people. We all know this, so who are we having this discussion for? I think it's only worse when we begin to impose our own race obsession on our ancients. "Well did they call themselves black?" Why would a people with a ancient tradition, creators of the world's greatest civilization at that time, for whom other nations sought out for assistance, SURROUNDED by other Black people, even consider the relevance of declaring, "hey, we're black". This is like a historicallly black college having a Black Studies Department. I was teaching a program at Castlemont years ago, and the students were organizing a BSU. I pointed out to them that they comprised over 80% of the student population (although it looked like 99%), and therefore the general student union WAS the black student union... I'm looking forward to another dynamite class.
Also can someone post notes on the corrected name Baba Ray shared with us for Kemites? If someone has the medu for it, we can post it on the blog.
Dear Jahi,
That a proposition is rational may not be sufficient reason for it to be believed. People subscribe to ideas for all sorts of reasons that have little to do with logic. They may do so because of: consistency with prior beliefs; on the basis of some authority; to fulfill some deep emotional need; to avoid criticism from significant others; or just because it’s easier than adopting one that is unfamiliar. It is our hope that New Life Seminary classes will provide a safe environment in which students can share ideas that give them comfort and others that may cause at least some distress.
It was in this spirit that I asked the class to approach the subject of Kmt as if it were a news story describing “who, what, where and when.” We looked at the meaning of the word and considered whether it referred to the land or a specific human settlement on it. This led to a rather lively discussion at the end of which we opted for the black land – even after looking at a way of writing the word that ended with the determinative for “people.” We read that example as a singular reference to the country, “The Black,” because it was accompanied by the feminine singular pronoun “her” and not by the plural “them.”
I thought it was, all in all, a lively and effective discussion, if what we are interested in is how the people of Kmt saw themselves rather than how we wish to view them from our own perspective. I completely understand why there would be some tip-toeing toward the conclusion at which we arrived, but I’m satisfied that we followed the facts where they led us. This is as it should be.
There is an article, admittedly published on the WEB, entitled, “KMT: The Black City”
by Akinjinde Bonotchi Montgomery, who obviously makes the opposite argument. It begins, “Kmt translated as the “Black Land” is a European Egyptological white lie.” The piece may no long be available online. If anyone would like a copy, we could perhaps reproduce mine.
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