Why do some people say the ancient egyptians were white? they might not be black but their def. not white.?

Question

wat is up with that??

and how come im learning so much in school about white people and chinese people and maybe even native people but you never hear anything about kingdoms in africa outside of egypt and kush? did black people not have kingdoms? it seems like evry other group or race has a kingdom or a legacy to live up to but i never hear nothing about black african kingdoms. i asked my teacher about it and he just said their was nothing in africa at the time. like it was just a bunch of people chasing eachother around with sticks and not contributing to history in any way. how come i gotta take a special class just to find out about what happened south of the sahara but any regular class will tell me all about ancient china and mid-evil times? i know slavery erased most of our history but can i at least have a clue??? some of us still care you know!!!

Answer 1

You are certainly persistent and very dogmatic in your pursuits. How many times have you posted this very same question? And how many times have you gotten the same answers?

I've already answered it at length, the very same question, at least once or twice. Should you be interested in my previously posted answer(s), go to my profile and check it out. All questions and answers are open to public scrutiny at all times.

Wotan

Answer 2

Because the Ancient Egyptians lived in a heavily sunny region, their skin definately was not white. It may not have been completely black, but I think it was at least similar to the Middle Eastern skin. At least as far as research and probability goes. Because they had so much exposure to the sun, they had to have increased melanin in their skin, which makes them darker. I don't know a lot about the other African cultures, but i know that they are very scattered, and there were no real "empires" though there were kingdoms, they just were not as large and glamorous as, say Egypt. I think African history is AMAZING to learn about and I think you should pursue it on your own if your teacher won't help you. There are a lot of people out there who DO know, or at least know how to help you find more info. Hope this helps :)

Answer 3

Your question is exactly why people go out and write their histories - they do not learn about it in their schools so they go out and research it, and write about it. Venting your grief may serve a temporary purpose here - but if you have the inspiration, why not go out and do your research and write about the history of the races of the ancient Egyptians, and African Kingdoms yourself?

I once had a high school History teacher who dismissed Anarchism the same way that your teacher dismissed the African Kingdoms. This was the reason why I learned more about Anarchism and the Anarchists - because of his crass attitude and the fact that it was not taught in school. This was the inspiration for independent learning - let it be yours too.

Your question is frequently asked here in Yahoo! Answers - but most of the people who ask this question resort to accusations of racism and lose sight of the point in question: what race(s) were the ancient Egyptians?

Answer 4

To the Egyptian question, I'm fairly sure that the Egyptians were african, yet they had a lighter pigmentation because of their position in the north of Africa. Now, Africa did become rather important around about... oh, I think 1000 A.D. There were great and wealthy kingdoms, such as that of Mali and Ghana. The city of Timbuktu was also a prominent stop along the trade route.

Answer 5

I don't know anyone who would try to make a hard case that the Egyptians were white. I'm not sure who is saying that to you. Don't let something that "some people" say set you off--"some people" will say anything!

I didn't learn much about African history or kingdoms when I was in school, either. It could be blatent disinterest and lack of examination on the part of western, white scholars writing the text books, but there could be other things involved, too.

I am just guessing here, but African culture follows an oral tradition in a lot of cases today, and I wonder what evidence there is of extensive written histories for the thousands of cultural groups in sub-Saharan Africa? I don't know. I'm not saying there isn't any, but I am saying I haven't seen anything extensive on it, even in major metropolitan museums, which tend to include those things in their collections.

Our art museum, for example, has a lot of examples of scrolls and things from antiquity from China and European cultures that have written stories, poems, etc., but the African and Oceanic exhibitions, which are extensive, don't have things like that. It could be that African and Oceanic traditions and communication arts were mostly oral, and oral tradition is more easily lost. Of course, it also could be just a lack of interest that hasn't documented it for western text books. I don't know. In some of the art museum's other exhibitions, like for the First Nations in the Americas, I remember reading that they often recorded things on materials like bark that were not meant to be preserved and were largely lost to time and decay. The collections on First Nations are extensive, but there is nothing in them that is part of a written history.

Slavery did erase the personal familiy histories of the descendants of African slaves, but I don't think it erased African history, itself. That's not what causes its absence from the text books and class rooms. The relationship is likely rooted in a legacy of institutional racism in education. I would be interested to know though what kinds of written histories exist for it vs. oral traditions.

You ask a good question. Too bad your teacher couldn't give you a better answer. Sounds like he doesn't know either.

Answer 6

Initially the original people who made up the nation of Egypt were not white, they had very dark skin, as did all of the inhabitants of Africa. The people who occupy today's Egypt are the descendants of the Indo- Europeans, who invaded Egypt in the 2nd millennium b.c. This particular tribe of Indo- Europeans were called the Hyksos. In 327b.c Alexander the Great conquered an already declining Egypt, and after his death, one of his Greek born generals took hold of Egypt, and named his daughter Cleopatra. This was the last Cleopatra, who was (unlike the Cleopatra's that ruled before her) white and of Greek decent, and the last of the once great Egyptian dynasties. I cant tell you why African kingdoms are not taught in school because there were some, such as Ghana, Meroe, Axum, Sheba and Timbuktu. Your teacher should not have made that comment, tell him to take a college history course. I did, and was taught African history by an African professor, who taught me things that I probably would not have learned had I had a non African professor teaching me. Don't wait on the school system to teach you your heritage, because if you do, you'll never learn it. Go to the library and read up on ancient Africa. There ways to learn about it. Good Luck :)

Answer 7

Yo, I feel the same way. See, I'm in college right now & I haven't took a history class yet & I was wondering rather I should just take some regular history class or take black/african history. At first I didn't want to do black/african history because I didn't want to look like one of those "power to the black people" type black person thats only about black people & racist to the other races(I know my thoughts may seem like off the wall to you but they meant something to me). Then i thought again that I should know at least 5% of where I come from since I hardly learned 1% in high school. shame. and to say they have absolutely no written text is bull.

Answer 8

Why do some people say the ancient Egyptians were white? Because some people are ignorant - of history, of anthropology, of genetics, and of many other things. As to the rest of your question - it is only in recent years that the western world has admitted that China has an ancient history, and that Chinese mathematicians discovered some of the basic principles of mathematics long before they were 'discovered' in the western world. The 'white' world is highly ethnocentric, and will not lightly give up its perception that they were the first and foremost at almost anything you would care to mention. African history is there - keep digging to find it, keep sharing it, and keep believing it is important.

Answer 9

Basicly this is the 100% truth the first Ancient Egyptianwhere black the ones who built the pyramids the others were of other races and at the very end they were some white. The reason we have no history of african history is beacause white people deleted it. Slavery (Atlantic & Arab slavery) took 30,000,000 black people from their land compared to the smaller poplulations of thoose times this would be a major percentage of the people gone which were mostly strong black men which were used in labour while in Africa the industrial revolution could never happen as it needs a strong number of men. So every continent especially america grew in economy while Africa lost out. Slavery was able to happen by wars between kingdoms in order to produce slaves and this way of life ( wars between kingdoms) is why today Africa has many conflicts. White people gave the kingdoms weapons and alcaholl for slaves and today many african government still buy weapons to fuel battles something white people and slavery brought to africa. When africans were then brought to america they were mixed with other groups so no one could speak to eacother their children were taken from them and sold into slavery at young so anything African didnt survive in America. While in Africa most of the people moved to remote place to avoid being captured the people who knew the history of africa were unable to tell the next generations as slavey continued for centuries. All of this contributed to the history of Africa never being told. Its stupid to think black people didnt have a civilization or nothing happened in Africa untill white people came and colonised a continent when it was down. Today we know every human originates from Africa meaning we all come from black people so its ignorant to think it civilization started outside Africa and that WHITE people were in AFRICA having a civilization many years bc.

Answer 10

When you look at the skin colour the Ancient Egyptians paint themselves in they seem to be of a reddish colour. The Ancient Egyptians spoke an Afro Asiatic Language ( Arabic, Hebrew, Amharic, Ge'ez, Berber)

Its possible for the Ancient Egyptians to have many skin colours ranging from Anwar Sadat to Hosni Mubarak for modern day examples

Answer 11

firstly, the point of ancient egyptians is that they are ancient. no they probably weren't white, but who knows?
and besides, who's saying that to you? that's really ridiculous.

as for not learning about african culture--- there were a few major civilizations, but they all eventually collapsed. not only that, but the european (or "White" as you say) and asian cultures actually contributed politically and scientifically to western modern life.
While it is sad that african culture is mostly ignored in our current educational system, it has everything to do with the principle we have of relating everything you learn in a history class back to the present day.
because african culture did not really influence western development, it is often ignored.