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If I weren't Egyptian...

Rosanne El Fayed, Sophomore , Political Science
Rosanne.Hassan2020@feps.edu.eg

“If I weren’t Egyptian, I would’ve wanted to be The most recent and significant development for us has
Egyptian.” It comes to a great surprise that this old been the attempt to attribute ancient Egyptian civilization
saying deeply engraved in our patriotic spirit since to “them”. The supporters of this movement claim that
forever is not only being taken too literally by non- the kings of our ancient pharaonic civilization were black
Egyptians but also accompanied by the confiscation – skinned. In ancient Egyptian civilization, Afrocentrism
of your Egyptian-ism license. holds that the Egyptian pharaoh is native to the Sudan,
Today, dear readers, we are talking about a movement and that the present Egyptian has nothing to do with the
that began in the 20th century and is rising to a
threatened and controversial position in our 21st ancient Egyptian: According to which the traditional
century. It's the “Afrocentrism”. Egyptian died or emigrated to the south. While those in
northern Egypt (yes, us) have nothing with the ancient
This movement, which was developed by African Egyptian. They even claimed that one of the queens of
Americans since the 1920s and 1930s, to try to justify Egypt (Queen Tiei) who was the wife of Amenhotep III
all kinds of racism against them since the inception of in bares African features and a black skin, hence
America and the civil war that took place between the confirming that the ancient Egyptian was a black African.
North and the South in opposition to the exploitation
of these Africans to work in America’s mines and
fields. A war that ended with the separation of the
African Americans to an “isolated” society started the
spark of the ongoing struggle between black and
white people.

This movement, dear reader, aims also to attribute all
the ancient and rich civilizations of the world to
African black people. Afrocentrism argues that
Western society disrespects African civilizations, and
participates - on a commercial or unconscious basis -
in a conspiracy to obliterate Africa as a source of all
civilizations. It is especially concentrated in the
United States of America among African-Americans,
and has become widespread among sub-Saharan
African communities in Europe, among Negro
minorities in North Africa and the Middle East.

Vol.1, Issue 40, February 2022 11
Vol.1, Issue 40, February 2022