{"id":434,"date":"2022-11-19T14:34:06","date_gmt":"2022-11-19T19:34:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.classics.sites.carleton.edu\/clas220ancientafrica\/?page_id=434"},"modified":"2022-12-09T15:59:05","modified_gmt":"2022-12-09T20:59:05","slug":"the-sons-of-kemet-jazz-ancient-egypt-and-afrofuturism","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/dh.classics.sites.carleton.edu\/clas220ancientafrica\/parent-page-3\/the-sons-of-kemet-jazz-ancient-egypt-and-afrofuturism\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sons of Kemet: Jazz, Ancient Egypt, and Afrofuturism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-cover aligncenter is-light is-repeated wp-duotone-unset-1\" style=\"padding-top:0;padding-right:0;padding-bottom:0;padding-left:0\"><span aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-cover__background has-background-dim\"><\/span><div role=\"img\" class=\"wp-block-cover__image-background wp-image-489 is-repeated\" style=\"background-position:54% 38%;background-image:url(https:\/\/dh.classics.sites.carleton.edu\/clas220ancientafrica\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/Black-to-the-Future-album-1.jpg)\"><\/div><div class=\"wp-block-cover__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-cover-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-large-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The Sons of Kemet: Jazz, Ancient Egypt, and Afrofuturism<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <em>Sons of Kemet<\/em> is a British jazz group playing a brand of jazz inspired by Caribbean folk, rock, and African music. Known for their up-beat dance music and catchy saxophone licks, the group is led by front-man and saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings. Hutchings is backed up by Theon Cross on Tuba, and both Seb Rochford and Tom Skinner on drums. In 2021 the group released its fourth album, <em>Black to the Future. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed alignright is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"ast-oembed-container\" style=\"height: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Sons Of Kemet - My Queen is Harriet Tubman (Hyundai Mercury Prize 2018)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0mu1FHeNkpo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Sons of Kemet <\/em>perform <em>My Queen is Harriet Tubman <\/em>at the 2018 Mercury Prize awards <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The name of the group itself draws on ancient Egypt. The group is named after <em>kmt<\/em>, a term ancient Egyptians used to references themselves. Hutchings sees the word as representative of Black identity. He draws that interpretation from anthropologist Cheikh Diop, who in his 1980 work<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/unesdoc.unesco.org\/ark:\/48223\/pf0000156750\" target=\"_blank\"> <em>The Origins of the Ancient Egyptians<\/em><\/a>, translates <em>kmt <\/em>as \u201cthe negroes (p. 41).\u201d Diop describes the term as \u201ca collective noun which thus described the whole people of Pharaonic Egypt as a black people (p. 42).\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As straightforward as this may sound, the term <em>kmt <\/em>is at the center of a vigorous scholarly debate over the ethnicity of ancient Egyptians. While Afrocentric scholars like Diop hold that <em>kmt <\/em>refers to the land of black people, other scholars hold that it refers to the land of black soil.&nbsp;While this may seem like an ancillary difference, divergent interpretations of the word <em>kmt <\/em>have a range of consequences when it comes to the debate over race and ethnicity in ancient Egypt.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One one side of the question stands a more traditional branch of Egyptology. Duane Roller, professor Emeritus at Ohio State University is representative of a line of thought that considers questions of race and ethnicity outside the scope of the classics discipline. Regrading the debate over Cleopatra&#8217;s ethnicity, Roller <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.oup.com\/2010\/12\/cleopatra-2\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/blog.oup.com\/2010\/12\/cleopatra-2\/\" target=\"_blank\">writes<\/a> \u201cIt is unlikely that Cleopatra cared about her racial makeup, but people over 2000 years later still obsess about it, thus trivializing her accomplishments.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Many, if not most scholars generally agree that the Egyptians would not consider themselves Black in the modern sense of the word. Kathryn Bard of Boston University <a href=\"https:\/\/bridge.primo.exlibrisgroup.com\/discovery\/fulldisplay?docid=alma991014488269702971&amp;context=L&amp;vid=01BRC_INST:CCO&amp;lang=en&amp;search_scope=CCO_MyCampus_PCI&amp;adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&amp;tab=Everything&amp;query=any,contains,Black%20Athena%20Revisited&amp;offset=0\">writes<\/a>, \u201cEgyptians were the indigenous farmers of the lower Nile valley, neither black nor white as races are conceived of today.\u201d&nbsp;Scholars such as Bard rightly point out that ancient people did not see themselves in terms of modern racial categories (specifically Black vs. white), and retroactively applying those categories to them would be anachronistic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-2 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"773\" height=\"1024\" data-id=\"474\" src=\"https:\/\/dh.classics.sites.carleton.edu\/clas220ancientafrica\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/Kleopatra-VII.-Altes-Museum-Berlin1-1-773x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-474\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dh.classics.sites.carleton.edu\/clas220ancientafrica\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/Kleopatra-VII.-Altes-Museum-Berlin1-1-773x1024.jpg 773w, https:\/\/dh.classics.sites.carleton.edu\/clas220ancientafrica\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/Kleopatra-VII.-Altes-Museum-Berlin1-1-226x300.jpg 226w, https:\/\/dh.classics.sites.carleton.edu\/clas220ancientafrica\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/Kleopatra-VII.-Altes-Museum-Berlin1-1-768x1018.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dh.classics.sites.carleton.edu\/clas220ancientafrica\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/Kleopatra-VII.-Altes-Museum-Berlin1-1.jpg 1149w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 773px) 100vw, 773px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Cleopatra depicted in Roman sculpture<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"988\" height=\"1024\" data-id=\"476\" src=\"https:\/\/dh.classics.sites.carleton.edu\/clas220ancientafrica\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/Relief-Cleopatra-goddess-Temple-Dandarah-Egypt-Hathor-30-bce-1-988x1024.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-476\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dh.classics.sites.carleton.edu\/clas220ancientafrica\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/Relief-Cleopatra-goddess-Temple-Dandarah-Egypt-Hathor-30-bce-1-988x1024.webp 988w, https:\/\/dh.classics.sites.carleton.edu\/clas220ancientafrica\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/Relief-Cleopatra-goddess-Temple-Dandarah-Egypt-Hathor-30-bce-1-289x300.webp 289w, https:\/\/dh.classics.sites.carleton.edu\/clas220ancientafrica\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/Relief-Cleopatra-goddess-Temple-Dandarah-Egypt-Hathor-30-bce-1-768x796.webp 768w, https:\/\/dh.classics.sites.carleton.edu\/clas220ancientafrica\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/Relief-Cleopatra-goddess-Temple-Dandarah-Egypt-Hathor-30-bce-1-1481x1536.webp 1481w, https:\/\/dh.classics.sites.carleton.edu\/clas220ancientafrica\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/Relief-Cleopatra-goddess-Temple-Dandarah-Egypt-Hathor-30-bce-1.webp 1543w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 988px) 100vw, 988px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Cleopatra depicted in an Egyptian relief carving<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Scholars like Diop, who represents the Afrocentric wing of Egyptology, don\u2019t accept this. While Diop understands that Egyptians obviously did not think in modern terms of Black and white, he <a href=\"https:\/\/unesdoc.unesco.org\/ark:\/48223\/pf0000156750\/PDF\/184265engo.pdf.multi.nameddest=156750\">insisted that they nevertheless saw themselves as Black.<\/a> He sees his work as combating efforts on the part of traditional scholars to erase African history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201c[<em>kmtjw<\/em> and <em>kmt<\/em>] are the only adjectives of nationality used by the Egyptians to designate themselves and both mean \u2018negro\u2019 or \u2018black\u2019 in the Pharaonic language. Scholars hardly ever mention them or when they do translate them by euphemisms such as the \u2018Egyptians\u2019 while remaining silent about their etymological sense.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"> Diop, a Senagalese scholar who studied in Paris, wrote in a colonial and early post-colonial context. He was a strong believer in pan-Africanism as a means of <a href=\"https:\/\/moodle.carleton.edu\/pluginfile.php\/1074951\/mod_resource\/content\/1\/african-origin-of-civilization-complete.pdf\">retaking power in post-colonial Africa.<\/a> He wishes not only to write history, but to \u201crestore the historical consciousness of the African peoples and reconquer a Promethean consciousness (p. xv).\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dh.classics.sites.carleton.edu\/clas220ancientafrica\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/Diop.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-438\" width=\"294\" height=\"392\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dh.classics.sites.carleton.edu\/clas220ancientafrica\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/Diop.jpg 720w, https:\/\/dh.classics.sites.carleton.edu\/clas220ancientafrica\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/Diop-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 294px) 100vw, 294px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Chekih Anta Diop<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This may seem outside the aims of history or classicism. Historians do not usually explicitly state their political goals at the outset of their work. But Diop argues that traditional scholars have been erasing African history just as explicitly as he is trying to re-write it. He argues that traditional classical history <a href=\"https:\/\/moodle.carleton.edu\/pluginfile.php\/1074951\/mod_resource\/content\/1\/african-origin-of-civilization-complete.pdf\">promotes the idea<\/a> that \u201cBlacks are nonexistent culturally and historically (p. xvi).\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This brings us back to the <em>Sons of Kemet<\/em>, and specifically their latest album, <em>Black to the Future. <\/em>The album was inspired by Diop\u2019s work. In an <a href=\"https:\/\/thequietus.com\/articles\/29965-sons-of-kemet-interview-2\">interview with <em>The Quietus<\/em><\/a>, Hutchings said, \u201cIf you consider that humanity did start in Africa, then we&#8217;re trying to go to a point where we&#8217;re acknowledging what those principles are and seeing how we can contextualize them for our modern day.\u201d&nbsp;Hutchings\u2019 efforts to acknowledge and develop ancient African principles in the modern day are a shining example of what Diop advocated for in <em>The African Origins of Civilization<\/em>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Diop and Hutchings are similar in another way too. Both are products of a colonial history. Diop was Senagalese, working and studying in the colonial metropole of Paris. Hutchings was born in London, but lived most of his childhood in Barbados before returning to the UK. Like Diop, Hutchings wants to re-center traditional historical narratives around Africa.&nbsp;In <em><a href=\"https:\/\/moodle.carleton.edu\/pluginfile.php\/1074951\/mod_resource\/content\/1\/african-origin-of-civilization-complete.pdf\">The Africa Origins of Civilization<\/a> <\/em>Diop wrote, \u201cThe ancient Egyptians were Negros. The moral fruit of their civilization is to be counted among the assets of the Black world. Instead of presenting itself as an insolvent debtor, that Black world is the very initiator of the \u2018western\u2019 civilization flaunted before our eyes today (xiv).\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe now know that all music comes from Africa,\u201d said Hutchings in an interview with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.huckmag.com\/art-and-culture\/music-2\/sons-kemets-shabaka-hutchings-africas-eternal-cultural-influence\/\">Huck magazine<\/a>. \u201c[Naming the group Sons of Kemet] is part of getting the word out there because people don\u2019t know that Kemet\/Egypt was a civilization or that the links between Egypt and Ancient Greece formed what we think of as Western philosophy. The intention is that people hear the music, read a bit more and come into contact with that whole body of information and history.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hutchings is a proponent of Afrofuturism, an aesthetic and philosophical movement that owes it\u2019s origins to Diop himself. In the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dmagazine.com\/arts-entertainment\/2021\/02\/anti-racist-pedagogy-in-art-a-unt-speaker-series-provides-a-vision-for-the-future\/\">words of scholar Bennett Capers<\/a>, Afrofuturism is about \u201cforward thinking as well as backward thinking, while having a distressing past, a distressing present, but still looking forward to thriving in the future.\u201d Afrofuturism is \u201can intersection of imagination, technology, the future and liberation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These ideas clearly draw on Diop\u2019s vision of \u201ca modern Africa reconciled with its past and preparing for its future.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"819\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dh.classics.sites.carleton.edu\/clas220ancientafrica\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/180207111542-afrofuturism-david-1-819x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-442\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dh.classics.sites.carleton.edu\/clas220ancientafrica\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/180207111542-afrofuturism-david-1-819x1024.jpg 819w, https:\/\/dh.classics.sites.carleton.edu\/clas220ancientafrica\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/180207111542-afrofuturism-david-1-240x300.jpg 240w, https:\/\/dh.classics.sites.carleton.edu\/clas220ancientafrica\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/180207111542-afrofuturism-david-1-768x960.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dh.classics.sites.carleton.edu\/clas220ancientafrica\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/180207111542-afrofuturism-david-1-1229x1536.jpg 1229w, https:\/\/dh.classics.sites.carleton.edu\/clas220ancientafrica\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/180207111542-afrofuturism-david-1.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 819px) 100vw, 819px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">An artistic representation of Afro-futurism by artist David Alabo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed alignleft is-type-rich is-provider-spotify wp-block-embed-spotify wp-embed-aspect-21-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Spotify Embed: To Never Forget The Source\" style=\"border-radius: 12px\" width=\"100%\" height=\"152\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/track\/0dPrF5uEHk2hqbBxaMOxsP?si=606e9216bdcf467f&amp;utm_source=oembed\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That&#8217;s why it&#8217;s called <em>To Never Forget The Source<\/em>,\u201d said Hutchings in his interview with <em><a href=\"https:\/\/thequietus.com\/articles\/29965-sons-of-kemet-interview-2\">The Quietus <\/a><\/em>, referring to a song off the <em>Sons of Kemet&#8217;s<\/em> latest album. \u201cBecause if we forget where we&#8217;ve come from, then we&#8217;re just drifting off into confusion.\u201d Hutchings\u2019 music draws themes from what Diop would call the history of Black Africa, which necessarily includes Egypt, and works to shape and advance them into the future. \u201cThe Source refers to the principles which govern traditional African cosmologies\/ontological outlooks and symbolizes the inner journey,\u201d wrote Hutchings. Hence the album name, <em>Black to the Future<\/em>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hutchings\u2019 name itself reflects the past. Hutchings\u2019 is named after Shabaka, a pharaoh of Egypt who reigned from 705 to 690 BC.&nbsp;Shabaka was one of the 25th dynasty kings, a group of rulers who came from the Kingdom of Kush or Nubia in Upper Egypt (towards the interior of the continent) in present day Sudan and southern Egypt. The Nubians and the Egyptians had a complicated relationship over time: sometimes at war, sometimes trading, sometimes intermingling. In the middle of the 8th century BCE (around the 750s), Egypt was in the midst 3rd intermediate period, a time of strife and instability characterized by a lack of strong and stable dynastic rulers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text alignwide is-stacked-on-mobile\" style=\"grid-template-columns:56% auto\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"396\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/dh.classics.sites.carleton.edu\/clas220ancientafrica\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/Shabaka-bust.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-448 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dh.classics.sites.carleton.edu\/clas220ancientafrica\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/Shabaka-bust.jpg 396w, https:\/\/dh.classics.sites.carleton.edu\/clas220ancientafrica\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/Shabaka-bust-198x300.jpg 198w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 396px) 100vw, 396px\" \/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Nubians took advantage of this instability, expanding northward into what was once Egyptian territory. Eventually, led by Piya, the Nubians conquered all the way up to Memphis, Egypt\u2019s&nbsp;traditional administrative capital. However, Piye returned to Nubia. He conquered and controlled much of Egypt, but preferred to rule from the traditional Nubian capital of Napata.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oxfordreference.com\/view\/10.1093\/acref\/9780195102345.001.0001\/acref-9780195102345-e-0744?rskey=EYgTOO&amp;result=1\">Nubian dynasty<\/a> would reach new heights when Shabaka (Hutchings\u2019 namesake) came onto the scene. Shabaka took complete control of Egypt between 716 and 712 BCE. Instead of ruling from Napata like his predecessors, Shabaka ruled from Thebes in Egypt. There is some dispute whether the conquest of Egypt first happened under Shabaka or his predecessor Shebiktu, but regardless Shabaka was one of the first 25th dynasty rulers to have control over all of Egypt.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shabaka, although a Nubian was very much a fan of Egyptian culture.\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oxfordreference.com\/view\/10.1093\/acref\/9780195102345.001.0001\/acref-9780195102345-e-0744?rskey=EYgTOO&amp;result=1\">Papyri of the period<\/a> refer to rulers like Shabaka with the title Pharaoh, the same as they would for previous rulers who were native Egyptians: \u201cboth \u201cpir&#8217;u of Musri\u201d (\u201cpharaoh of Egypt\u201d) and \u201cruler of Nubia\u201d (<em>Meluhha<\/em>) are valid cuneiform titles for Nubian kings ruling Egypt.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shabaka figuratively \u2018put on the pharaoh hat\u2019 and participated in the performative aspects of being a pharaoh. This can be seen from statues and iconographic representations of him, which include a statue he erected of himself in Karnak in which he is literally wearing the Pharaoh hat, the twin crowns of Egypt. Shabaka\u2019s performative aspect of pharaohship was not unique to Shabaka. Many pharaohs from outside the Nile Delta, including Libyans from West of Egypt, other Nubians, and eventually Greeks and Romans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For example, Ptolemy I Soter was a Macedonian general under Alexander the Great. After Alexander conquered Egypt Ptolemy was appointed the provisional ruler. Once Alexander died, Ptolemy proclaimed himself pharaoh, and legitimized his rule participating in the performative aspects of being pharaoh. He was assigned his own cartouche, or hieroglyphic pharaonic title, and represented himself in statuary in traditional pharaonic fashion.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ptolemy and Shabaka both demonstrate that the role of pharaoh was not limited by what we would think of as one&#8217;s ethnic background. The role of performative, not essentialized.&nbsp;It was about doing the Egyptian, pharaoh things, not necessarily being Egyptian by blood. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shabaka himself was enthusiastic about Pharaonic culture. He was something of a history buff, seemingly interested in the already ancient past of Old and Middle Kingdom Egypt, which occurred millennia before his rule.&nbsp;The most famous result of Shabaka\u2019s historical interests is the Shabaka stone. Shabaka constructed the stone originally in the temple to the god Ptah in Memphis. The stone claims to be a copy of an Old Kingdom text, but the content of the stone is now considered original to its time of its creation in the 25th dynasty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The stone is important because \u201cit illustrates the ability of the Egyptians to think in quasi-philosophical terms.\u201d The stone put forth Ptah as a creator God, and claimed that the other Heliopolitan Gods such as Set, Horus, and Osiris were simply manifestations of him. The text served the political purpose of theologically legitimizing the rule of the Nubians over the two lands of Upper and Lower Egypt.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to scholar J.H. Taylor, the Nubian pharaohs of the 25th Dynasty sought to establish an \u201cideological link with the great eras of Egypt\u2019s past\u2026 leading to a revival of artistic, literary, and religious trends drawing inspiration from earlier eras (p. 331-32).\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dh.classics.sites.carleton.edu\/clas220ancientafrica\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/The_Shabaka_Stone.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-446\" width=\"568\" height=\"392\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dh.classics.sites.carleton.edu\/clas220ancientafrica\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/The_Shabaka_Stone.jpg 640w, https:\/\/dh.classics.sites.carleton.edu\/clas220ancientafrica\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/The_Shabaka_Stone-300x207.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 568px) 100vw, 568px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Shabaka stone<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shabaka Hutchings\u2019 Afrofuturism represents the same ideas. Ideas that Diop had in mind when he wrote of \u201ca modern Africa reconciled with its past and preparing for its future.\u201d In an interview with Huck magazine, Hutchings referenced British-Ghanaian artist Kodwo Eshun\u2019s idea of a \u201cpoetizisation of the past.\u201d&nbsp;That poeticization, so present in Hutchings\u2019 work, cannot exist if there is no past to poeticize, if, in the words of Diop, \u201cBlacks could not break with the idea that Blacks are nonexistent culturally and historically.\u201d In order to poeticize an Egyptian past, \u201cthe moral fruit of [Egyptian] civilization must be counted among the assets of the Black world.\u201d Afrofuturism and Hutchings draw upon ideas claim that African past as a vision for an African future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI really like that idea of taking something from the past that we take as a given or take as a stigma, but actually making it poetic, re-framing it in a way that we decide,\u201d said Hutchings \u201c\u2026 taking a traditional idea or an idea that\u2019s static in the context of tradition and reframing it, adding other elements and flipping it on its head to make it into something that\u2019s malleable and forward-moving.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Works Cited: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bodine, Joshua. \u201cThe Shabaka Stone: An Introduction.\u201d <em>Studia Antiqua<\/em> 7, no. 1 (January 29, 2016). <a href=\"https:\/\/scholarsarchive.byu.edu\/studiaantiqua\/vol7\/iss1\/3\">https:\/\/scholarsarchive.byu.edu\/studiaantiqua\/vol7\/iss1\/3<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Diop, Cheikh Anta. \u201cOrigin of the Ancient Egyptians.\u201d In <em>General History of Africa, II: Ancient Civilizations of Africa<\/em>, 1980.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2014\u2014\u2014. <em>The African Origin of Civilization Myth or Reality<\/em>. New York: Lawrence Hill Books, 1974.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Li, Jean. \u201cTradition, Innovation and a Search for Egyptian Identity in the Third Intermediate Period.\u201d In <em>Women, Gender and Identity in Third Intermediate Period Egypt<\/em>. Routledge, 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">vinogradov, a k vinogradova k. \u201cShabaka.\u201d In <em>Dictionary of African Biography<\/em>. Oxford University Press, 2011. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oxfordreference.com\/view\/10.1093\/acref\/9780195382075.001.0001\/acref-9780195382075-e-1858\">https:\/\/www.oxfordreference.com\/view\/10.1093\/acref\/9780195382075.001.0001\/acref-9780195382075-e-1858<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Sons of Kemet is a British jazz group playing a brand of jazz inspired by Caribbean folk, rock, and African music. Known for their up-beat dance music and catchy saxophone licks, the group is led by front-man and saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings. Hutchings is backed up by Theon Cross on Tuba, and both Seb Rochford &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/dh.classics.sites.carleton.edu\/clas220ancientafrica\/parent-page-3\/the-sons-of-kemet-jazz-ancient-egypt-and-afrofuturism\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The Sons of Kemet: Jazz, Ancient Egypt, and Afrofuturism<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"parent":552,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"disabled","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-434","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.classics.sites.carleton.edu\/clas220ancientafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.classics.sites.carleton.edu\/clas220ancientafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.classics.sites.carleton.edu\/clas220ancientafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.classics.sites.carleton.edu\/clas220ancientafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.classics.sites.carleton.edu\/clas220ancientafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/dh.classics.sites.carleton.edu\/clas220ancientafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1263,"href":"https:\/\/dh.classics.sites.carleton.edu\/clas220ancientafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/434\/revisions\/1263"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.classics.sites.carleton.edu\/clas220ancientafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.classics.sites.carleton.edu\/clas220ancientafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}