The wait is over! it’s finally here.

The third lesson of my Black Studies series is finally in this bitch. So far we’ve briefly covered some major key points in Black history that’s often not regarded as Black history. Starting with our common ancestor known as “African Eve,” (which is estimated to have been around 200,000 years ago) all the way to what Black life was like during the time of a Green Sahra (which is estimated to be about 10,000 ago).

With all this, we’ve learned a few things to be true when it comes to Black history…

1. Black people have the oldest history on the face of this Earth
2. Our history has been suppressed
3. Africa was a vibrant place for our ancestors and they left proof of how they mastered her various landscapes. Whether it was in the south where the Ishango Bone was discovered, in the North where various cave paintings bring new meaning to what Black life was like during ancient times, or in the East where our oldest remains can be found.

Africa, or Alkebulan as our ancestors called her, is responsible for bringing so much to the table of humanity yet she never receives her due credit. For too long we’ve lived with the lie that Africa is the “dark continent” and had always needed a helping hand from Western influences to bring herself out of “development.” When in fact, it was Africa who first brought the world out of the darkness.

The first ideas of a “hidden but all-powerful” God-concept came out of Africa. Civilization itself originated in Africa. The first recordings of world history in what Western education would consider to be “high-class civilizations” started in Africa. Africa is home to the world’s first royal political structure, and the founder of matriarchy.

Matriarchy |

A system of society or government ruled by a woman or women.

The first kings and queens that ruled in human history didn’t come from Europe but hailed from Africa.

I know that might be surprising to some but I promise you this is a fact, and I’ll prove it in this lesson.

Now I know you’re probably thinking I’m about to dive into some ancient Kemetic (Egyptian) history, and you’re right… but not yet… Believe it or not, the first recordings of ancient kingdoms, as well as archeological proof of large-scale settlements that supported large groups of people, isn’t in Egypt… But in Nubia.

 

That’s right, our lesson begins in what is now Sudan, but our ancestors had many names for her. Kush, Ta-Seti, Ta-Neter, but for this lesson, we’ll refer to her as Nubia.

70,000 Years Old

When studying ancient history and ancient cultures you must always keep one thing in mind. Nothing happens overnight. You know the expression, Rome wasn’t built in a day… It basically means complex systems aren’t made instantaneously, but instead are formed after centuries and centuries of learning, and experimenting with different theories and ideas…

For example, the ancient Kemities (Egyptians) didn’t randomly wake up one day and know how to build the pyramids. The same thing goes for complex political systems such as the ancient Nubian or ancient Kemetic Dynastic periods. So before we jump into ancient Nubia’s political system, we must first try and date how old this civilization is.

Affad 23

Get ready to learn some new shit bruh…

Back in 1998, the remains of a settlement estimated to be anywhere between 18,000 and 70,000 years old were unearthed by Polish archaeologists in northern Sudan (ancient Nubia)… Let me repeat that real swift…

Twenty-two years ago, Polish archaeologists Dr. Marta Osypińska, unearthed the remains of an ancient settlement estimated to be 70,000 years old…

Let that sink in bruh… I bet this is the first time you probably heard about this shit too huh… Don’t be ashamed if it is tho because all of this was new for me as well.

At the first college I attended (which is most definitely, 100% a PWI) I had a class called, “World History.” In that class, I was taught that Homo Sapiens (us) originated in Africa, but due to the blazing heat, migrated out of Africa into Asia and southern Europe about 100,000 years ago…

Of course, that’s all bullshit…

This find contradicts what I was taught in what the West considers to be, higher education, and completely demolishes the previously held belief that the construction of permanent structures was associated with the so-called “Great Exodus” from Africa and occupation of the colder regions of Europe and Asia.

The site known as Affad 23, is currently the oldest recorded settlement in the Nile Valley which helps prove that our ancestors not only built sizable permanent structures but had also mastered agriculture in wetland environments much earlier than Western history teaches us.

In fact, this evidence suggests that our ancestors reached a much more advanced level of development and adaptation in Africa as far back as the Middle Palaeolithic era.

*Sidenote* Don’t forget that in our first lesson we learned that our ancestors near the Congo were already using a highly sophisticated calculator roughly 20,000 years ago…

When I was researching this I ran across an article with an interview that featured the Project Director who lead much of the fieldwork at Affad 23.

“Discoveries in Affad are unique for the Middle Palaeolithic. Last season, we came across a few traces of light wooden structures. However, during the current research we were able to precisely locate the village and identify additional utility areas: a large flint workshop, and space for cutting hunted animal carcasses, located at a distance,” explained project director Dr. Marta Osypińska.

When asked about further field explorations, Dr. Marta mentioned that researchers are aiming to precisely date the exact time period in which our ancestors lived in the area using optically stimulated luminescence.

Optically Stimulated Luminescence |

Optically-Stimulated Luminescence is a late Quaternary dating technique used to date the last time quartz sediment was exposed to light. As sediment is transported by wind, water, or ice, it is exposed to sunlight and zeroed of any previous luminescence signal.

“At this stage we know that the Middle Palaeolithic settlement episode in Affad occurred at the end of the wet period. As indicated by environmental data, including the list of hunted animal species. But in the distant past of the land, such ecological conditions occurred at least twice, about 75 millennia and about 25 millennia ago. Determining the time when people inhabited the riverbank near today’s Affad is the most important objective of our project,” said Marta.

Now that we have a sense of how old ancient Nubia as a civilization potentially is, we can now focus on the recorded political history of ancient Nubia.

The Worlds First Kings

The Qustul incense burner depicted above is proof of Nubia being the first dynastic civilization on Earth. It shows a pharaoh identical to what would later characterize Kemet prior to Kemet’s founding dynasty by Mena Narmer. The finding by Keith Seal also depicted 12 other African kings before the one presiding on the incense burner.

Suggesting that this incense burner was possibly crafted hundreds or even thousands of years after the first ancient Nubian dynasty. Which of course supersedes Kemet’s first dynasty by hundreds potentially thousands of years. Many scholars place the origin even further back than that.

According to Boyce Rensberger, it was around the early 6th-millennium bc that dynastic Ta-Seti is said to have come into existence. The migrants into the Fertile Crescent at the time were still getting agriculture together, while Nubia had a monarchy (a clear social order for humans) established. Boyce Rensberger reports in the 1979 New York Times article about the discovery;

“Nubian Monarchy Called Oldest”….”Evidence of the oldest recognizable monarchy in human history, preceding the rise of the earliest Egyptian kings by several generations, has been discovered in artifacts from ancient Nubia…” “The first kings of Ta-Seti may well have ruled about 5900 BC. During the time of the fifth generation of their rulers, Upper (ie, southern) Egypt may have united and became a greater threat to Ta-Seti.”

I should note that the relationship between ancient Nubia and Kemet is similar to England and America. America, in today’s world, is recognized as its own superpower separate from England. Yet a basic elementary school social studies class will teach you that America’s founders came out of England. We’re taught all about Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeth when we’re younger because England’s history is part of America’s history. Simply put, England is the mother of America. The same should be said about ancient Nubia and ancient Kemet. They shared the same culture as one another and oftentimes depicted themselves as one and the same.

The article went on to say that the discovery was based on the study of artifacts found in ancient tombs excavated 56 years ago in an international effort to rescue archeological deposits before the rising waters of the Aswan Dam covered them. Yes, you read that right. The creation of the Aswan Dam literally washed much of our ancestors’ rich history away.

Which actually leads me to my final point of this lesson, and why it’s extremely important we reclaim our history and begin to educate our younger generations of our ancestors’ greatness.

Know Thyself

For this lesson, I used research and sources that were made public decades ago, yet I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the first time you heard about any of this stuff. Many of you might be college-educated and some more shit, yet never knew Sudan (ancient Nubia) is home to the world’s first kings let alone oldest permanent settlement…

I would ask you why do you think that is, but we all know the answer to that.

“No one is going to give you the education you need to overthrow them. Nobody is going to teach you your true history, teach you your true heroes if they know that that knowledge will help set you free.”

― Assata Shakur

P.S. I’ll never get tired of that quote from sister Assata Shakur.