Ethiopia Shall Stretch Forth Her Hands: Black Reception of Ancient Egypt and Nubia

Catalog description

This class explores how Black people have thought about, understood, and used the concepts of ancient Egypt and Nubia over the last few hundred years. The class will begin with a short introduction to ancient Egypt and Nubia with particular attention to questions of ethnicity. Then, we will cover the dominant (white) discourse of ancient Egypt from before the decipherment of Egyptian Hieroglyphs into early Egyptology. The third and longest section will be a chronological discussion of the literature, art, and scholarship produced by Black people in relation to ancient Egypt and Nubia. We will see how these pieces fit together to show the long history of Black thought on the subject. Primary sources range from 18 th century letters to modern music videos. All required readings will be in English.