Is Studying Ancient Egypt in Its African Context Afrocentric?

Is Studying Ancient Egypt in its African Context Afrocentric? Studying Ancient Egypt is African context can be definitively distinguished as Afrocentric. Evidence of this is given from Ancient Egypt’s geographical location, the Ancient Egyptian culture, and linguistics. What is currently known as afrocentrism is a cultural ideology first formed from the work of late nineteenth century and early twentieth century African-American intellectuals. Afrocentrism manifested into its current form because of the African-American intellectuals during the Civil Rights Movement and African-American Studies departments in black colleges and universities across the nation. Afrocentricity deals with asserting African culture and the contributions of Africans, especially in the Western world. Egypt, being a part of Africa, is well within the grounds of being a part of Afrocentricity. Ancient Egypt was a very profound society with cutting edge technological advances in its time. Its cultural influences have left a mark on today’s society. Because of this, Europeans have “adopted” the Ancient Egyptians and tried to make them seem dissonant from the rest of the African continent. They have done this through history rewriting and media making the African-American community believe that Ancient Egypt was never a factor in the growth of Africa.

For this response, I will be using two articles provided to me by Dr. Woods and the third source I used was from Dr. Molefi Kete Asante, one of the founders of the idea of Afrocentrisim. The first article I chose to discuss is called “Is Studying Ancient Egypt in its African context ‘Afrocentric’?” by S.O.Y. Keita. In this article, he thoroughly answers this question by addressing points that indefinitely proves that Ancient Egypt should be considered in its African context. The second article I used is called “Egypt, Africa and the Ancient World” by Joesp Cervello Autuori where he compares Egypt to Africa more in depth. This article

Cited: Asante, Dr. Molefi Kete. "Afrocentricity | Dr. Molefi Kete Asante." Dr. Molefi Kete Asante. http://www.asante.net/articles/1/afrocentricity/ (accessed February 21, 2013). Autuori, Josep. "Egypt, Africa and the Ancient World." History of Africa and the Diaspora ? (0): 131-137. Keita, S.O.Y.. "Is Studying Egypt in Its African Context "Afrocentric"." History of Africa and the Diaspora ? (0): 124-130.