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

(^^Ignore the man above me as he is a TROLL^^)

Yes, sub-Saharan African people did have kingdoms. Well, the cultures were very diverse- some were complex kingdoms like the Egyptians, Incas and Aztecs were and some were simple tribal societies like the North American Indians had. Unfortunately you won't find many courses about Sub-Sahara African and Native American history because their cultures have been significantly subdues or wiped out and so many of their languages were oral as opposed to written so there's few written records to provide historical details. It's a shame and a waste, I know.

Answer 2

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 3

Regarding ancient Egypt, in the past most people thought in terms of a hierarchy of races, with white people at the top and black people at the bottom. Because they thought like this, and because the modern population of Egypt (which has been conquered by Syrians, Persians, Greeks, Romans and Arabs) has been affected by immigration, Egyptologists thought of the ancient Egyptians as being white. As a result of this, and because most actors in the early days of cinema were white, the image of the light skinned Egyptian has become very deeply ingrained just like the historically incorrect images of Vikings with horned helmets and cavemen with clubs running from dinosaurs. Most ancient Greek historians, who were obviously in a better position to say what the ancient Egyptians looked like, described them as being like other Africans.

As for sub-Saharan Africa, the people living there will certainly have had great empires, but unfortunately, they didn't write about them and neither did anyone else. We have the same problem when trying to learn about any culture which didn't have writing. Without having contemporary written records we have to piece together our knowledge from archaeology, which is much more difficult, and why history lessons are dominated by certain cultures. The ancient Egyptians, Chinese, Greeks etc. wrote about their history, culture and beliefs, so we know much more about them.

Answer 4

the study of Egypt first started becoming popular during the times of slavery.People wanted to believe that the Africans were not capable of having a civilization that was admired by and pre dates European civilization.If they had said that the ancient Egyptians were black Africans then that might take some of the steam out of the theory that Africans were uncivilized uneducated savages.
As far as other kingdoms history is written from an European viewpoint.People still have a hard time coming to terms with the fact that Africans did have civilizations and culture out side of Egypt.Kilwa Kisiwani,Nok,Ghana,Mali,and songhay are some of them.Mansa Musa's kingdom of Mali at its height was larger than all of western Europe.These are left out for whatever reason the writes of history choose.To get an actual account of African history other than the European view of Africa you need to go outside of the schools teachings and research for yourself.Society still wants to believe that the Africans have contributed nothing and have no kind of history that's worth knowing about.Any part of Africa that does have significant history is slowly being disconnected from Africa.

Answer 5

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 6

you go girl! it's great that you are taking an interest. African societies are the cradles of all civilizations past, present and future. I know some great books you can read up on to get all the facts. In fact...an aboriginal once (in a very nice way though) somewhat attacked me as to how I would justify being a 'colored' Canadian. What was strange is that it is due to slavery, how we even ended up here in North America.
So it seems africans get attacked in many ways, even in contemporary times. They won't teach this because it reveals the truth. You have to be willing to teach yourself on your own time. It's like finding 'God', the Church never says anything about it. They are just fundamentalists trying to impose their views. It's one of those things you have to go out there and seek yourself. Africans are categorized as follows: The Shona, The Berbers, The Egyptians, The Maasai, The Dinka, The East African Pastorialists, The Ethiopians, The Peoples of Middle Niger, The Swahili, The Nubians, South Africans, Kenyas. There is a series of books called The Peoples of Africa that use evidence to prove their points. You can contact African Shamans, Healers and such to get great info on. I have a list of books....but you would have to email me...I won't list them all here. As for African Ancient civilizations, they are Nubia, Numidia (North Africa BEFORE it was conquered by the Arabs, so technically Palestine is not their land EITHER), Ethiopia, and Egypt. I hope this helps. Contact me if you feel the need! When you don't know your past, you can never know yourself. It's a way to shoot you down!

Answer 7

Excellent question - young sistren!!!

And I hope my answer will be new information you can share with others.

First of all, forget about asking your teachers. If you can not meet a teacher that has a deep intellect to research this info you are going to have to seek it your own ( like you are doing).

Ancient Egypt was not the only part of African History that contributed to the development of Western and Greek culture. Many different cultures tried to rule the land back then and many had different warrior type talents (in other words). The Greeks and Vikings were savages.
The people of color were more calm and intellectual. They were focused and more naturally capable of philosophy.

Many of the scrolls were burned in the fire at the Library of Alexandria. Do some research - it is a very tough study.

Answer 8

The ancient Egyptians were a semitic people. Ranging from the dark to light skins of modern Arabs and Jews.Cleopatra's folks came from Macedonia in Central Europe and the line bred brother to sister. Outside of Egypt and Kush, Africans didn't leave a lot of records--and records are where history comes from.

Which is not to say that Africa hasn't had an impact on culture. The stories of the African Spider Totem Anansi, have been adapted to just about every culture. There is some truth to the saying that "All stories are about Anansi."

At least, in the US, we devote an entire month to African American History. Now all we have to do is find some. The sites have to be there somewhere, if we can stop folks killing each other long enough to look for them.

Answer 9

there are always some types of kindoms everywhere for every race you can think of including the african race. the reason why it is not seen much in history books is because there has not been much evidece found, although we know people lived there and didnt just chase people with sticks. people like the egyptions wee highly talked about because there is so much evidence dating back thousands of years, and we keep uncovering more evidence today. and also the egyptians were neither white, nor black, they were EGYPTIAN, and to get technical they were most likely more tan because of their location. and one last thing, slavery by no means erased african history, you can find much research about tribes.

Answer 10

LOL, you know like I know that the first people on this earth derived from Africa. It has never been and never will be a place that's cold, its tropical and just damn hot. As we migrated and moved, we came to evolve to our respective climates, that's where different skin colors, facial attributes, and hair textures came from. As the locations changed, so did we. I'm sure everyone contributed to some part of history, as Egypt was one of the most advanced civilizations ever. If they weren't black, then they almost definetly had to be Middle Eastern.