The African Kingdom even toppled the might of Egypt.Photo from a research trip to Nubia.
Not long ago I was lucky to attend a lecture by visiting German Professor Wildung on the Rediscovery of Ancient Sudan. It raised the question for me: why aren’t the so-called Afrocentrists content to claim the dazzling rival civilization to Egypt, Nubia/Sudan?
Here, my renegade fiction hero Anson Hunter touches on the controversial issue in a scene ('Hathor's Holocaust').
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| 2nd novel in the 9-novel series (AMAZON KINDLE) |
(excerpt)
Chapter 11
Gebel Barkal, Nubia
ANSON SAT next to the driver, thrown around in the cabin of
the Land Cruiser, as they approached an isolated butte rising in the shimmer of
the desert.
Here the great Nubian kingdom of Napata once flourished at a
place where the River Nile, slithering like a snake on a scorched belly across
the largest desert on earth, loses its way. Stunned by the smoking heat of the
Nubian sun, it twists back on itself, flowing in the wrong direction for 270
kilometres - back towards the heart of Africa, before winding its way into
Egypt.
And here, too, the design of pyramids changes direction.
Unlike those of Egypt, they were smaller, clustered together and tapered, with
steep-sides inclined at seventy degrees, as if stretched in a heat haze, or as
if viewed through the eyes of a Modigliani.
“That’s the holy mountain of Gebel Barkal over there, near the
town of Karima, where we’ll camp. It marks the most important religious complex
in Nubia and the second most important to the Egyptians,” he said for the
benefit of Gemma. “It was the southern home of the God Amun-re.” He pointed
into the haze. “The Royal Necropolis of the ancient city of Napata, the Nubian
capital before the Meroitic period, lies over there to the north. There are
also large pyramid fields at El Kurru, a few kilometres southwards from the
mountain, and at Nuri, on the other side of the Nile.”
Gemma, in the back seat, commented:
“I suppose with such an influential neighbour as Egypt, Nubia
was bound to become a mirror society instead of a stand-alone civilisation.”
The Nubian driver growled.
“Let me tell you something. Nubia not only stood alone. One
of our great Nubian kings, Taharka, formed an alliance with ancient Israel and
defended Jerusalem from a siege by the Assyrians, driving them away. He is even
mentioned by name in the Old Testament.”
The driver was no mere driver. The shiny headed man, as dark
as the image of a shade in an Egyptian tomb, was a former inspector of Nubian
antiquities. Ali had a degree in Egyptology and was now a specialist tour
operator and something of a renegade as well as a friend of Anson’s.
Anson added: “The Nubian Taharka may have done more than save
Israel’s bacon. He may have rescued the entire Jewish culture and religion. The
Assyrians under Sennacherib were intent on destroying Jerusalem and deporting
its people. Consider this. The Old Testament had yet to be written and they
were still wrestling with the concept of Yawveh. Where would the Abrahamic
faiths Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - be, if the Nubians hadn’t stood by
Jerusalem? It was a turning point for the Western world and the Middle East.”
“I’m no Afrocentrocist, by the way,” Ali said, softening.
“I’m not claiming that Egypt was a black civilisation. It wasn’t, although
there certainly were black elements and black pharaohs. No, we have our own
civilisation to be proud of.”
“Indeed the Nubians had a long and intricate relationship
with Egypt,” Anson said, smiling. “From New Kingdom times they were admired for
their loyalty and honesty and hired as the police force of Egypt and also as
mercenaries because of their prowess with the bow. The Egyptians felt they
could rely on the Nubians - right up to the point where they invaded and took
over the country in the eighth century BC. These guys did a reverse takeover
and ruled Egypt for almost a hundred years! They became the pharaohs of the
twenty-fifth dynasty, with their capital at Gebel Barkal.”
Ali laughed.
“And Anson trusts me!”
