United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, General History of Africa Volume II: Ancient Civilizations of Africa: Paris, 1990. 41-42. Print.
"The Egyptians as they saw themselves
It is no waste of time to get the views of those principally concerned. How did the Ancient Egyptians see themselves? Into which ethnic category did they place themselves? What did they call themselves? The language and literature left to us by the Egyptians of the Pharaonic epoch supply explicit answers to these questions, which Eurocentric scholars can't refrain from twisting or 'interpreting'.
The Ancient Egyptians had only one term to designate themselves:
𓆎 𓀀 𓁐
𓏏 𓏦
= kmt = the black people (literally). This is the strongest term existing in the Pharaonic tongue to indicate blackness. It is accordingly written with a hieroglyph representing a length of wood charred at the end, and not crocodile scales [a false claim made in Eurocentric circles]."
Available online: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000184265
Non Ancient Egyptians:
1638 BCE – 1530 BCE: Hyksos settlers
669 BCE – Assyrians invasion.
525 BCE – Persian invasion.
332 BCE – Greek invasion.
31 BCE – Roman rule.
642 – Arab conquest (current occupation)
Eyewitness to ancient egyptian phenotype:
Herodotus: The ancient Greek historian who lived in the 5th century BCE described the ancient Egyptians as having black skin and woolly hair in his work "Histories."
Strabo: The ancient Greek geographer and historian who lived in the 1st century BCE described the Ethiopians (a term that could refer to people from various parts of Africa) as having black skin and woolly hair, and noted that some people considered the Egyptians to be of the same race.
Diodorus Siculus: The ancient Greek historian who lived in the 1st century BCE described the Ethiopians as having dark skin and curly hair, and noted that some people considered the Egyptians to be of the same race.
Plutarch: The ancient Greek philosopher and historian who lived in the 1st and 2nd centuries CE wrote that the Egyptians were "black with heat" due to the climate of their homeland.
Al-Masudi: The 10th-century Arab historian and geographer described the ancient Egyptians as "a black people, different-looking and woolly-haired."
Jean-Francois Champollion: The 19th-century French scholar who deciphered the hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt noted that some ancient Egyptians depicted themselves with darker skin tones than those of their neighbors.
Herodotus: "Histories," Book II, Chapter 22, Available online:
When you are on the website go paragraph 8 then 1 where he confirms the Aksumite colonization of southern arabia (Yemen)
Herodotus: The description of the Egyptians as having "black skin and woolly hair" can be found in Book II, Chapter 22, which begins with the sentence "For my part I hold that the Colchians, the Egyptians, and the Ethiopians..."
Al-Masudi: The passage describing the Egyptians as "the darkest of all humans" can be found in Volume 1, Chapter 3, on page 52 of the edition I consulted.
Jean-Francois Champollion: In his "Lettre à M. Dacier relative à l'alphabet des hiéroglyphes phonétiques," Champollion does not use the term "black" to describe the ancient Egyptians. Rather, he argues that they were of African origin, based on linguistic and cultural evidence. The full text can be found at the link I provided earlier.
In his work "Bibliotheca Historica" (Historical Library), Diodorus Siculus proposed a theory that the Egyptian civilization had Nubian origins. He argued that the culture, religion, and knowledge of the ancient Egyptians had been heavily influenced by the indigenous people of Nubia. He based this hypothesis on his observations of the similarities between the two cultures and the existence of Nubian elements within Egyptian society and religion.
Amenemhat III (1859 - 1814 BCE) , 12th Dynasty, Papyrus of Amenemhat III (Kahun), Plate 3, Description of the citizens of Kmt "Ancient Egypt":
𓆎 𓀀 𓁐
𓏏 𓏦
The first symbol is a bilateral; that is, it stands for two letters and means "black." Pictorially it is a charred piece of wood; phonetically it represents KM. (KM). The second symbol is a monoliteral; that is, it stands for one letter. Pictorially it is a loaf that stands for the consonant T. The third symbol is a determinative, which represents man and woman. The fourth symbol is a a determinative that means plural, Pictorially it is three vertical lines which means the plural of man and woman.
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