Egyptology: Hanging in the Hair
West Africa Magazine (July 8, 2001)
by Anu M’bantu and Fari Supia
F0R YEARS, EGYPTOLOGY has been fighting a losing battle to hold onto an ancient Egypt that is Caucasian or, at worst, sun-tanned Caucasian.
At the 1974 UNESCO conference Egyptology was dealt a fatal blow. Two African scholars wiped the floor with 18 world-renowned Egyptologists. They proved in 11 different categories of evidence that the ancient Egyptians were Africans (Black). Following that beating, Egyptology has been on its knees praying to be saved by science. Their last glimmer of hope has been the hair on Egyptian mummies.
The mummies on display in the world’s museums exhibit Caucasoid-looking hair, some of it brown and blonde. These mummies include Pharaoh Seqenenre Tao of the 17th dynasty and the 19th dynasty’s Rameses II. As one scholar put it: “The most common hair colour, then as now, was a very dark brown, almost black colour although natural auburn and even rather surprisingly blonde hair are also to be found.”
Many Black scholars try skillfully to avoid the hair problem. This is a mistake! In 1914, a white doctor in Detroit initiated divorce proceeding against his wife whom he suspected of being a “closet Negro”. At the trial, the Columbia University anthropologist, Professor Franz Boas (1858-1942), was called upon as a race expert. Boas declared: “If this woman has any of the characteristics of the Negro race it would be easy to find them . . . one characteristic that is regarded as reliable is the hair. You can tell by microscopic examination of a cross-section of hair to what race that person belongs.”
With this revelation, trichology (the scientific analysis of hair) reached the American public. But what are these differences?
The cross-section of a hair shaft is measured with an instrument called a trichometer. From this you can get measurements for the minimum and maximum diameter of a hair. The minimum measurement is then divided by the maximum and then multiplied by a hundred. This produces an index.
A survey of the scientific literature produces the following breakdown:
|
Groups
|
Location
|
Hair Measurement
|
| San | Southern African | 55.00 |
| Zulu | Southern African | 55.00 |
| Sub-Saharan Africa | 60.00 | |
| Tasmanian(Black) | 64.70 | |
| Australian (Black) | 68.00 | |
| Western European | 71.20 | |
| Asian Indian | 73.00 | |
| Navajo American | 77.00 | |
| Chinese | 82.60 |
In the early 1970s, the Czech anthropologist Eugen Strouhal examined pre-dynastic Egyptian skulls at Cambridge University. He sent some samples of the hair to the Institute of Anthropology at Charles University, Prague, to be analyzed. The hair samples were described as varying in texture from “wavy” to “curly” and in colour from “light brown” to “black”. Strouhal summarized the results of the analysis:
“The outline of the cross-sections of the hairs was flattened, with indices ranging from 35 to 65. These peculiarities also show the Negroid inference among the Badarians (pre-dynastic Egyptians).”
The term “Negroid influence” suggests intermixture, but as the table suggests this hair is more “Negroid” than the San and the Zulu samples, currently the most Negroid hair in existence!
In another study, hair samples from ten 18th-25th dynasty individuals produced an average index of 51! As far back as 1877, Dr. Pruner-Bey analyzed six ancient Egyptian hair samples. Their average index of 64.4 was similar to the Tasmanians who lie at the periphery of the African-haired populations(1).
A team of Italian anthropologists published their research in the Journal of Human Evolution in 1972 and 1980. They measured two samples consisting of 26 individuals from pre-dynastic, 12th dynasty and 18th dynasty mummies. They produced a mean index of 66.50
18th Dynasty Egypt
The overall average of all four sets of ancient Egyptian hair samples was 60.02.
Sounds familiar . . . just check the table!
Since microscopic analysis shows ancient Egyptian hair to be completely African, why does the hair look Caucasoid? Research has given us the answers.
Hair is made of keratin protein. Keratin is composed of amino acid chains called polypeptides. In a hair, two such chains are called cross-chain polypeptides. These are held together by disulphide bonds. The bulk of the hair, the source of its strength and curl, is called the cortex. The hair shafts are made of a protective outer layer called the cuticle.
We are informed by Afro Hair – A Salon Book, that chemicals for bleaching, perming and straightening hair must reach the cortex to be effective. For hair to be permed or straightened the disulphide bonds in the cortex must be broken. The anthropologist Daniel Hardy writing in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, tells us that keratin is stable owing to disulphide bonds. However, when hair is exposed to harsh conditions it can lead to oxidation of protein molecules in the cortex, which leads to the alteration of hair texture, such as straightening.
Two British anthropologists, Brothwell and Spearman, have found evidence of cortex keratin oxidation in ancient Egyptian hair. They held that the mummification process was responsible, because of the strong alkaline substance used. This resulted in the yellowing and browning of hair as well as the straightening effect.
This means that visual appearance of the hair on mummies cannot disguise their
racial affinities. The presence of blonde and brown hair on ancient Egyptian mummies has nothing to do with their racial identity and everything to do with mummification and the passage of time. As the studies have shown, when you put the evidence under a microscope the truth comes out. At last, Egyptology’s prayers have been answered. It has been put out of its misery.
Its tombstone reads Egyptology, R.I.P June 2001.
Thank you, now it all makes sense. I’m glad the truth is slowly manifesting. It also confirms my dream, where I was an egyptian. In the dream was black not white. Even I tried to deny the dream by dismissing it as false but now it all makes sense.
Greetings Osakwe
The “Osa” pre-fix in your name “Osa-kwe” is a cognate of the name of the ancient Egyptian God Ausar.
Your ancient African fathers were devotees of Osa…Ausar! Who then could you be?
Know thyself!
Osakwe is an Igbo name which literally translates as MA OLISA KWE. Osa is the short form of OLISA. OLISA means GOD. Then Kwe is the short form of kwéré. Kwéré means either AGREE or PERMIT or WISH. Hence, the OSAKWE of a name means Ma Olisa Kwéré. In English, If God Agrees, or If God Permits, or If God Wishes.
The Egyptians didn’t identify themselves with any of their neighbours – they were more semetic than black or white and even then they thought semetic people were foreign to them. They called Egypt Kemet (“Red Land”) and thought of themselves as ‘red people’ rather than black, brown or white. This is why Egyptian murals tend to depict commoners as red and only a select few as other colours (Osiris is usually white, Isis is brown and Ptah is black, for example). Egypt was a den of diversity and it’s all too easy to get distracted by the corpses of Pharaohs – Taharqa’s dynasty was Nubian whilst Cleopatra’s was Greek. Are we then to assume that the Egyptian people were all either black or white?
Clearly race wasn’t an issue to the Egyptians. You’d think after 3000 years we might’ve made some progress, but instead if anything we’ve regressed. The Greeks weren’t black and the Nubians weren’t white (and there are more pyramids in Sudan than Egypt). Anyone who was truly proud of their heritage wouldn’t need to exaggerate it like this.
Oh an here’s irony, I’ve been colourblind all my life.
That is a problem. When you fail to see [difference] you disrespect the will of God; that we be different. It is this difference that makes all the difference. Differences that teach each other and learn from the cultures and qualities of each other that you did not know. I can not think of a group that did not learn from another man, group, race. Sometimes they will not admit that fact. A perceived superiority, and exceptionalism has/does act as a psychological barrier that keeps us at each other.
Man has no right to say we’re the same when he only creates another semblance of him/herself.
IT’s basically dishonest to say you are colorblind. What honesty sees, hears, feels, blind or not, is another human ; different but equally endowed by the blessing of God.
Being colorblind is not a badge of honor but an impediment to acceptance.
100% agreed clearly the poster before you is happy to not see color so that all that has been known before truth can be disregarded all in the name of “exaggerated heritage”…smh the fact that they claim to know Cleopatra was great I which is another total fabrication clearly shows prejudice against truth that may cause questioning of who they are. We should embrace truth give credit when due and embrace every one . It’s silly to think he colored us all different for no significant reason.
All one has to do is look at what is written in the history books. Egypt was not invaded by Rome until 300 BC. The people of Egypt were truly Black Africans. Just look at what the White man wrote himself. He recorded Abraham and Moses were from the 18th Dynasty. That was way before the White man invaded Rome. The Bible has been recorded at about 3-4000BC
If whites weren’t so horribly intent on domination, they would accept the fact that the world had always mixed with each other. Had the Bible not had Noah pronounce a curse on Ham’s son Canaan, then the Jewish and Arian races would not have though Black skin to be cursed! The skin and hair doesn’t disprove or prove how bad or good a man is. this obsession that whites have with our hair is terrifieing, because you do have the impression that they are maddened by their own subliminal hatred of colour. It is a biblical illness. Do they have an inferiority complex?! why don’t they go an digg up their own graves??? the desecration of european graves is a capitol offence and the highest fines and jail-sentences are pressed for this crime in the biggotrous West. Stunny.
Wow great point never kmnew that.
By the way; I am half-Jewish German and Half-Abbesinian Black (Sudanese). I look like an Italian with yellow skin and red to brown African hair, that becomes straight with linseed oil. When I say I am a fairskinned Egyptian Black, white people tend to attack me; saying that my olive toned skin is still not “white” enough, to be a “pharaoh”, because my hair appears straight, though heavily kinky! Well, I never asked for a throne, nor did I say I was royal, but my maternal name is Faraouq-KalaM’Haraq and she is BLACK Aswanette! So eitherway; a white person whould have to dig up my ancessters graves to dispute the fakt of my mom’s Egyptian heritage! …so this is why they do it: THEY HATE MY BLACK MOM! A vegan diet can do alot to staighten Black hair und turn a white man darker. Nubians are anything from yellow toned, with green eyes to black with red hair, to Black with straight Indian locks to fair white with kinked dreads! Why are whites so obsessed with their position in the world? They are only a small fraction of the worlds abomination. I’m glad to be a cursed Blax-buoy and a Nigger; there is alot of pride in me that I have a gorgeous BLACK mother and a Jewish-Arian father. Sadly though; my dad wasn’t born with dreads.
Beautiful genealogy break down contiune to be proud