Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: https://lithub.com/why-the-idea-of-western-civilization-is-more-myth-than-history

I am learning a lot on this forum. Thanks

On Monday, May 29, 2023, 'Emeagwali, Gloria (History)' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Founding myths of Egypt exist but

they have been appropriated and

hijacked into other belief systems.

Among the building blocks and

components of  Egyptian foundation

 myths and theologies are :

1. The  myth of the great deadly 

serpent Sata 

2.  Immaculate conception of

  Goddess Auset (Isis)

3. Resurrection of Ausares (Osiris)

4. The winged God Heru (Horus) 

the Hawk who probably inspired 

the portrayal of winged angels.

5.  Mother and child portrayal 

6.The narrative of the 

   meeting point  of the living and the

   dead symbolized by the ankh (cross)

7. Negative confessions eg

     I  have not killed. 

     I have not done evil.

     I have not stolen

     (See Book of the Dead).

8.  Symbolic feasting on the blood

     of enemies represented as wine.

 Note the celebration of the 

Gods through hymns and sacred

 music, liturgies, and eulogies eg 

 the Great Hymn to Osiris.

I wouldn't include in the above list

the alleged action (magic) of 

the lector- priest Djadjaemankh

who placed one side of the 

lake's water on top of the other 

since that was a popular but

not necessarily theological 

narrative.

Professor Gloria Emeagwali
Prof. of History/African Studies, CCSU
africahistory.net; vimeo.com/ gloriaemeagwali
Recipient of the 2014 Distinguished Research
Excellence Award, Univ. of Texas at Austin;
2019 Distinguished Africanist Award
New York African Studies Association

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From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Cornelius Hamelberg <corneliushamelberg@gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, May 27, 2023 9:58 AM
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: https://lithub.com/why-the-idea-of-western-civilization-is-more-myth-than-history

 

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The head posting takes us back to Martin Bernal's Black Athena, the rejoinder," Black Athena Revisited" , the feud between Bernal and Lefkowitz,  and of course  "The Great Debate: Dr. John Henrik Clarke Vs Mary Lefkowitz. March 29, 1996,  the late Uncle Ben (Yosef Ben-Jochannan) and all that jazz…

Concerning the birth of nations, their founding fathers, national myths etc, 

Re - "Africa is doing badly not only because of the indices we allude" etc  

(Ojogbon Falola)   

Today Shavuot is being celebrated as the birth of the nation Israel at Mt. Sinai where Israel was given a Divine Constitution - by the Almighty Himself : The Torah! 

Shemot / Exodus 19: 9 : And the Lord said to Moses, "Behold, I am coming to you in the thickness of the cloud, in order that the people hear when I speak to you, and they will also believe in you forever." And Moses relayed the words of the people to the Lord.

It is an enduring history going back 3, 300 years and this history sometimes referred to as myth or legend has captured the minds and the imagination in a vice- like grip for the believers among the Jewish people, the Christianity that morphed out of Judaism towards the end of the 2nd Temple era when the nation was under Roman colonial rule, and of course Islam that popped up in Saudi Arabia some 500 years later.

Questions : 

Are there no enduring founding myths about e.g. Egypt ? 

What is lacking in our sense of history?  

The Igbos aside, some of whom proudly claim to be "one the lost tribes" / "lost sheep of the House of Israel",  pre-jahiliyyah is there no uniting or unifying national myth of  " the twelve tribes of Nigeria", all going back to a common ancestor, or have the Nigerian ancestors all been swept away,  buried, subsumed and replaced by what started with Abraham and Moses as the common spiritual ancestor? 

Cornelius Ignoramus is only asking…

On Friday, 26 May 2023 at 01:39:27 UTC+2 Gloria Emeagwali wrote:

https://lithub.com/why-the-idea-of-western-civilization-is-more-myth-than-history/

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