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Restoring the Ruins of Afrocentric Thought: A Rebuttal to Anthony Browder’s 5 Patterns of Historical Erasure

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Anthony Browder recently posted to his blog a piece titled 5 Patterns of Historical Erasure That Have Hidden Africa’s Greatest Civilization in Plain Sight promoting his final two tours to Luxor, Egypt (which he calls by its ancient name Waset). Although I’m sure Mr. Browder is well-intentioned (for Black people) in writing this post, his five patterns of historical erasure are weak, ill-informed, and antiquated. Not only are some of his assertions simply not true but they speak to the lack of sophistication and intellectual integrity that plagues Black Conscious circles that keep open-minded and educated individuals from ascribing to their theories. In the post, he wishes to highlight five recurring ways an unnamed villain uses to hide African history:

  1. The Name Change Pattern
  2. The Impossible Achievement Pattern
  3. The Religious Theft Pattern
  4. The Systematic Burial Pattern
  5. The Compartmentalization Pattern

Beyond the fact that the article reads like an AI generated blog post, I will take issue with points 1, 3, 4, and 5, and the anti-intellectual dichotomy between seeing primary evidence and textbooks.

Rebuttal of #1 The Name Change Pattern

Mr. Browder contends that the name of the city of Waset was changed by “conquerors” for sinister reasons. He does not mention what those reasons were, but the reader is left to assume that the Greeks, Arabs, and (Western) Europeans wanted to make their mark on the great civilization they conquered.

His claim that the name Luxur, the European pronunciation of the Arabic name al-’Uqṣur meaning castles is the origin of the word “luxury” is false. The English word actually has two Latin roots: luxus (excess) and luxuria (offensiveness). The two meanings were merged when it reached old English. As such, the word not only meant lasciviousness, but also debauchery and adultery. Spreading the idea that the word luxury has an African origin is not only wrong, but demonstrates a lack of academic negligence on his part. Furthermore, it might lead to some cognitive dissonance for his Afrocentric constituents who may consider Arabic, the language from which the name Luxor is derived, as non-African.

What is the issue with changing the name of a place if its history is preserved anyway? Many places around the world have undergone name changes, from ancient names to modern ones and vice versa. The people that live there have a right to change the name based on their current sentiments. Oftentimes, cities built around ancient sites have boarders and residences beyond the ancient city limits. So they are not the same exact cities from ancient times. Why can’t Afrocentrists acknowledge that over time people change, languages change, cultures change, and even religions change?

Rebuttal of #3 The Religious Theft Pattern

Mr. Browder claims that religious concepts such as the Annunciation, Immaculate Conception, Virgin Birth, and the Trinity of Ausar, Auset, and Heru were carved into the ancient monuments of Luxor. However, these concepts were appropriated and then plastered over and replaced with images of Jesus Christ and the 12 disciples by something he calls the “Coptic occupation” of 450 ACE. While it is true that certain religious concepts pass from one tradition to another and that there are Christians known as Copts in Egypt, Mr. Browder’s characterization of them is completely wrong.

First, the religious and linguistic traditions from ancient Egypt have been lost for at least two millennia (the coming of the Age of Pisces according to Bernal’s explanation of Egypt’s embrace of Christianity (Bernal and Gaballa, 1987, p. 125)). The Copts are the indigenous Egyptians. In fact, the name Egypt is a modern adaption of the word Copt, which the name of an Egyptian city Qifṭ. According to Medieval sources written by Egyptians themselves, Qifṭ was an ancestor of theirs. In some sources he is considered the son of Hermes (Ibn Nadīm, 1970) and in other sources he is one of the grandchildren of Ham (Suyuti and Ibrahim, 1968, page 35-36 vol. 1).

The Copts freely embraced Christianity shortly after what they consider the ascension of Christ by St. Mark, making them one of the oldest Christian traditions in the world. The fact that Copts are indigenous to Egypt and that their church dates back to the time of Christ makes me wonder what Mr. Browder is referring to when he says “Coptic occupation” at the date of 450.

Coptic Writing from the Tombs of Dayr al-Baḥrī

Perhaps a source of confusion for him is the Roman occupation of Egypt that extended from about 30 BCE until the Arab Muslim conquest of 641 CE. During that period the Copts were oppressed by the Romans, first due to the fact that they were Christians. Then, once the Romans officially embraced Christianity, they oppressed the Coptic Christians again because they did not accept the doctrine set at the Council of Chalcedon of 451 CE. The Copts, who see their version of Christianity and language as a continuation of their ancient religion and language, fled Roman persecution in the north of Egypt and naturally took refuge in the tombs and temples of southern Egypt. They repurposed those temples as monasteries and libraries for their monks and scholars. They added writing and imagery that reflected their current beliefs to some of the temples but did not deface all of them. Or else, we would not know about the ancient writing and imagery today.

It was the Muslims who ended Roman persecution of the Copts with their conquest. There was only a small faction of Arab Muslims who conquered Egypt in the 7th century, so the Muslim majority that you find in Egypt nowadays is largely pulled from Coptic converts as well as a myriad of non-Arab, non-Coptic ethnic groups who settled in the region. While Muslim – Coptic relations were turbulent at times in their history, Coptic Christians still make up about 10% of the population. In the same vein, while neither Muslims or Christians worship at the ancient Egyptian temples, they did not set out to systematically destroy or cover them up, which I will address in the next section.

Mr. Browder’s mischaracterizations of the Copts and their religion speaks to his dearth of knowledge about the full range of Egyptian language and history. Mr. Browder and other Egyptophiles only immerse themselves in a selective part of Egyptian history, to the neglect of other parts. This would not be so bad if only they would remain silent on aspects of history they have no knowledge of. Yet, they continually adopt/concoct spurious versions of subsequent Egyptian history that has no basis in reality.

Rebuttal of #4 The Systematic Burial Pattern

With regards to Mr. Browder’s points about “systematic burial,” this is yet another mischaracterization based on an ignorance of Egyptian history, environment, religion, and sociology. One need only to look at some of the early paintings and photos of ancient Egyptian monuments to find that many of the monuments we know and love today were actually covered in sand after being unused for several hundred years. This is why they required excavations to uncover. I lived in Egypt for several years and I can attest to the fact that if you leave your home for a few days without a thorough dusting, your home can easily succumb to the same fate.

Jokes aside. Obviously, this is not what Mr. Browder means by a “systematic burial.” Rather, he speaks of the Mosque of Abū al-Ḥaggāg (which he misspells as Abu el-Haggar). When I visited Karnak, I too was surprised to find a mosque decorated with hieroglyphs on its walls sitting on top of the temples. I entered and took a tour of the mosque. Unlike Mr. Browder in his 38 years of touring Egypt, I wanted to know the history of the mosque rather than just make my own assumptions.

Prior to becoming a mosque, it was a Coptic basilica and once occupied by a Coptic woman, Therese bint al-Qums. Yūsuf ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm ibn ʿĪsā al-Zāhid, known as Abū al-Ḥajjāj, was a Sufi teacher from Baghdad. He moved to the area teaching Sufism and ultimately attracting most of the inhabitants to Islam (who were predominantly Coptic Christians by then). He acquired a piece of property from Therese, and his son made the basilica into a mosque after the death of his father in 1286 CE.

The mosque speaks to the continuity of socio-religious culture in Luxor rather than “systematic burial.” In fact, nothing is covered up or systematically destroyed. The structure and material is actually preserved by its repurposing. This is nothing new. All over Coptic, Fatimad, Mamluk, and Ayyubid Cairo, one will find mosques, schools, and other structures used from the same materials of structures that once lay in ruins. In contrast to our present sentiments, preservation of unused structures was not always a priority for the people of Egypt. Our current-day obsession with artifacts is partially the result of the European materialist mindset that has been programmed in us, which ties civilization with advancements in technology and buildings. However, for most societies it appears that preservation of culture and traditions takes a higher priority, even after their material wealth and imperial power diminishes and their religion and language change. Although, celebrations like the Mawlid of Abū al-Ḥajjāj (El-Daly, 2005, p. 92) and the planting fenugreek seeds in remembrance of Osiris (El-Daly, 2005, p. 82) retain some pre-Islamic elements, they are largely considered Egyptian cultural holidays.

Misunderstanding these facts and immediately casting suspicions of a cover up of African civilizations makes me question the veracity of Mr. Browder’s conclusions and ability to give a tour based on sound information, not just his personal beliefs. Such a methodology defeats the purpose of in-depth study and traveling in the pursuit of knowledge. As someone who was immersed in Afrocentric thought as a youth, I dared to put my beliefs about ancient Egypt to the test while living and studying there. I believe Mr. Browder can do the same.

Rebuttal to #5 The Compartmentalization Pattern

Mr. Browder’s fifth point is embarrassingly oblivious to how knowledge works and it makes me cringe to have to explain this. Mr. Browder claims that “compartmentalized knowledge” keeps people from seeing the “bigger picture” of how spirituality was embedded into ancient Egyptian structures. First, we call them temples because we imagine they were used for a spiritual purpose. That is obvious to anyone reading about them or seeing images of them. It has only been in recent years that people have begun to theorize that ancient Egyptian structures were built for non-religious reasons like celestial observatories, to mark a king’s legacy, or simply to awe visitors.

Secondly, he may not realize it, but every building and piece of technology we use today is a result of “integrated knowledge systems,” or as academics call it “interdisciplinary knowledge.” Art, philosophy, architecture, and even religion are employed to create the many gadgets, buildings, and objects we use everyday. I will give the example of an apartment building found in an urban or suburban area of the U.S. Every apartment building is a complex integration of architectural design, carpentry, electrical work, plumbing, thermodynamics, and legal codes among other things. Each building has a philosophy – no matter how dumb – about how people should live or want to live. To only look at an apartment as a unified system i.e., as just an apartment building, is to not appreciate its complexity. Therefore, we must argue the opposite of what Mr. Browder is trying to say. The only way to proper appreciate the ancient Egyptian temples  is through the various disciplines it took to create them.

Thirdly, I would take issue with his uncritical use of R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz as a source of information on this topic. For one, this is a selective use of European authors. If Mr. Browder, as an Afrocentrist, is going to cite an Egyptologist, he should at least cite someone who is respected in the field. Schwaller was not just a “mathematician” as Mr. Browder would have you believe, he was an occultist and Theosophist, who read his beliefs and theories into what he found in ancient Egypt. While interesting, his work, which was never accepted by other archaeologists, cannot serve as a definitive view on the temples of Luxor.

R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz

Rebuttal to “Why Primary Evidence Matters More Than Textbooks”

Finally, this faux pas in logic and scholarship have led him to make the statement:

“You cannot truly understand these patterns until you see the evidence with your own eyes.”

This is actually wrong. Many people think they can travel to Cairo and see all the sites they were shown on videos and in books, not realizing that only the pyramids and the Sphinx are located there. They will need to take another plane ride to Aswan or Luxor in the south of Egypt, and maybe take a ground trip to Abu Simbel and a boat ride down north (since the Nile flows north). This should let us know that a little bit of preliminary research can go a long way.

Mr. Browder’s above-mentioned quote also contradicts the point he was trying to make about “integrated knowledge systems.” It is possible to witness a thing and not understand it. Many of us use smart phones, but have no understanding of haptics or nanotechnology. Unless we have particular knowledge of a discipline it is difficult to appreciate a thing from that perspective.

Conclusion

It will behoove the potential traveler to learn all they can about Egypt (ancient, medieval, and modern) before traveling there. They should travel there with a well-researched an open-mind, rather than stirred by the emotionalism and anti-intellectualism Mr. Browder seeks to lure you with. Americans traveling to Egypt looking for remnants of ancient Egypt is like Egyptians traveling to the U.S. looking for remnants of the Native Americans. You can find what you are looking for if you researched it properly, but it might not be obvious in contemporary society. A lot has happened in America in the last 500 years. This is even more true of Egypt over the last 4000 years.

References

Bernal, Martin, and G. A. Gaballa. Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization. Rutgers University Press, 1987.
El-Daly, Okasha. Egyptology: The Missing Millennium, Ancient Egypt in Medieval Arabic Writings. UCL Press, 2005.

Ibn al-Nadīm, Abū al-Faraj Muḥammad ibn Isḥaq. The Fihrist of Al-Nadim: A Tenth Century Survey of Muslim Culture. Translated by Bayard Dodge, vol. 2, Columbia University Press, 1970.
Redford, Donald, et al. “East Karnak Excavations, 1987-1989.” Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, vol. 28, 1991, pp. 75–106. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/40000573.

al-Suyuti, Jalal al-Din, and Muhammad Abu’l Faḍl Ibrahim. Ḥusn Al-Muḥāḍara Fī Tārīkh Miṣr Wa’l Qāhira. Dār Iḥyā’ al-Kutub al-’Arabīyya, 1968.

The Death of Black Consciousness: “Sinners” and the Rise of Hedonistic Afro-Fetishism

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If you can control a man’s thinking you do not have to worry about his action. When you determine what a man shall think you do not have to concern yourself about what he will do. If you make a man feel that he is inferior, you do not have to compel him to accept an inferior status, for he will seek it himself. If you make a man think that he is justly an outcast, you do not have to order him to the back door. He will go without being told; and if there is no back door, his very nature will demand one.(Woodson, 1933, pp. 84-85)

Ryan Coogler’s Sinners attempts to bite the neck of black consciousness and drive a stake through the heart of whatever is left of it. In a day and age when “wokeness” has been weaponized against the people it was designed to inform, it is surprising to see my people blinded by yet another co-opting of and profiteering from our intellectual heritage. What’s worse is the uncritical nature in which large segments of our community have embraced this co-opting and appropriation. This is undoubtedly due to our continued miseducation and psychological entrapment that somehow we have grown to love.

The greater issue at hand is that the so-called conscious ones among us are some of the most miseducated. They have “suspended their disbelief” in American popular culture and media, the true religion of America, and have drunk the proverbial kool aid and are now sacrificing their moral integrity at the alter of the cinemas. Over the years, I have witnessed our people take events and symbols in movies as educational tools. While there is no doubt that Netflix, movie theaters, podcasts, and YouTube have replaced our once literate culture, they still do not realize how much facts and symbols can be distorted to fit someone else’s agenda. Despite the outdated themes addressed in Sinners, which has allowed it to be heralded as a beacon of wokeness, its themes appear carefully curated for domesticated Blacks. In this post, I will criticize the film for its promotion of three concepts that are leading to the death of black consciousness: 1) Black Hedonism, 2) Afro-Fetishism, and 3) Domestication.

Black Hedonism

A major aspect of the American racism project is to portray people of African descent as immoral and governed by their passions. Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone With the Wind, writes in the 1930s of African Americans who took part of the Great Migration:

…the former field hands found themselves suddenly elevated to the seats of the mighty. There they conducted themselves as creatures of small intelligence might naturally be expected to do. Like monkeys or small children turned loose among treasured objects whose value is beyond their comprehension, they ran wild–either from perverse pleasure in destruction or simply because of their ignorance. (Mitchell, 1936, p. 1249)

Sinners reinforces this stereotype. It portrays the Smoke-Stack twins as protagonists and heroes despite their link with the criminal underbelly of 1920s- 30s Chicago. According to the film’s backstory, they survived a brutal and treacherous life in the city to return to their hometown in Mississippi, home of the blues, and start a business, a juke joint, the early 20th century equivalent to a club. Much of the film’s rising action centers on their preparation and advertising for this club. In one scene, one of the twins shoots his friend in the buttocks unknowingly for rummaging through his truck. He then coldly shoots the man’s young accomplice in the legs. What is the point of this? Is black consciousness now promoting wanton black on black violence?

A common pretext of lynchings historically has been the ease with which official channels (law enforcement, media, etc.) can shape public opinion to believe that any black person who is accused of committing a crime must be guilty because black people are somehow predisposed to illegal and immoral behavior. Instead of opposing this construct by showing how European dominance is illegal and immoral in a universal sense, the writers of Sinners have embraced the hedonistic image of black people. This image makes crime, addiction, lack of sexual discipline, and violence a natural part of black culture. Not only have they accepted this image for their own generation, but have projected this image on generations past. This is not to say that there was no black underworld or social ills, but it is not representative of all black culture but for some reason it is repeatedly highlighted in American media.

An adulterous affair between Mary and Stack.

Sinners also promotes loose sexual behavior that is not even justified by secular culture. The fact that both Mary and Pearline are married to other men but are entertaining Stack and Sammie respectively as love interests promotes adulterous behavior that has historically destroyed our communities. The animosity and broken homes that result from adultery is debilitating to any type of black unity or solidarity. Even princes of Pan-Afrikanism, conscious kings, and champions of Black women like Dr. Umar Johnson and Brother Polight lose all credibility due to their lack of sexual discipline. Yet the same people blame religion for the problems of the Black community, when in actuality the average church, mosque, and temple only warns us of the dangers of self-destructive behavior. In actuality, people don’t have a problem with religion. They have a problem with self-control. They have a problem with accountability. They have a problem with systematic learning. And most of all they have a problem with discipline.

Additionally, the rhetoric of some pro-Black spiritualists that “religion” was forced on black people needs to stop. They have not yet received the memo that: “We is free now” and black people have been choosing their religion freely in the U.S. for over a century. When they say “religion” they usually mean Christianity, but extend this to mean Islam as well. Their logic is that Christianity was forced on enslaved Africans in the Americas. Enslaved Africans in America are Africans and Christianity is a religion. Therefore, all religions were forced on all Africans. The analogy is so weak that even a child can see the gaping hole in it. Just because Europeans forced Christianity on some Africans in the past does not mean that Christianity and other religions that Africans happen to follow was forced on them and will be perpetually in the future. Also, now that African Americans are no longer enslaved, whatever religion they choose to practice is of their own free will, be it Christianity, Islam, or Yoruba.

Our treatment of Christianity with regards to African populations must be studied in context, whether in Africa or in the Americas. Christianity in the context of colonial Nigeria was liberating in some regards. Conversion to Christianity gave rural Nigerians access to skills and resources that they could use to gain upward mobility and compete with more urbanized Nigerians. However, in the Americas conversion to Christianity did not accompany such perks. In Catholic controlled colonies, conversion was mandatory. And although Africans were baptized en masse, they received little to no religious instruction. So there is no wonder why the African expressions of Catholicism are folk and syncretic in nature.

In Protestant controlled colonies, African conversion to Christianity was treated with caution. On the one hand, the initial justification for the slavery of Africans was the fact that they were not Christians. Once they embraced Christianity their servitude should have been void but it was not. For this clear hypocrisy, Protestants feared the conversion of enslaved Africans and they tried unsuccessfully to emphasize verses encouraging submission to their human masters rather than the powerful narrative of Moses leading his people out of bondage (Curry, 1997, pp. 24-26). This fact is corroborated by Carter G. Woodson in his Education of the Negro. In the early 19th century, religious education for enslaved Africans was equivalent to training them for insurrection.

The push against organized religion in popular American culture is more of an emotional response to perceptions of religious institutions than an intellectual one. Most have never bothered to read widely and deeply on the histories of religions and it shows. Religious institutions have historically been one of our strongest institutions because they have brought people of like minds together, served as a base for exchanging ideas, and offered charitable services. Institutions, religious, political, financial, educational, or social, are means to power, influence, and freedom. Instead of strengthening our religious institutions, which we still retain some control over, black hedonists have worked to weaken these institutions in favor of fragmented and individualistic Afro-fetishism.

Afro-Fetishism

Afro-fetishism has risen in prominence since the inception of Afrocentrism. It is the tendency of African Americans to romanticize things they consider to be authentic African culture. In Sinners it manifests itself with the romanticism of southern root doctors, conjuring spirits, and the conflation of entertainment (music and dance) with spirituality. In reality, there is no one thing called “African spirituality.” Simply put, “spirituality” is a European concept developed primarily by Theosophists and occultists, which seeks to separate spirituality from religion. It represents one of the modern iterations of the so-called European Enlightenment, which promotes a Eurocentric view of religion and religious history; a history not experienced by most of the people of Africa.

Every religious system has a spiritual aim. “Religion” – as Afro-fetishists might call it – is the exoteric outer core that houses the esoteric inner core or “spirituality.” The doctrines, rules, rites, and rituals of religion must be upheld for people to achieve their spiritual goals. The morality, meanings, and heart-felt connection is cultivated through religious discipline. Both are necessary, otherwise, confusion and delusion prevails.

We witness this in Sinners and in real life. For instance, Smoke rightfully questions Annie’s Hoodoo practices, which she believes protected Smoke and Stack as they led a life of crime in Chicago. Yet, these same practices were not sufficient to thwart the death of Smoke and Annie’s baby daughter. Although, her herbs and concoctions helped her defend the non-dead at the juke box against the dead, we should remember that vampires are fantasy. Not only that, but potions and fetishes often tied to “African spirituality” are powerless against the spells of “niggerdom” and white supremacy.

The fact that their daughter passed away also poses an interesting question to those who venerate the ancestors. Is their daughter an ancestor because she passed away before her parents or is she still their “descendant?” Moreover, many of the people who talk about conjuring the spirits of the ancestors also speak about inter-generational curses and barely get along with their living family members. Why are they calling on the same people who caused the curse? Why do they want to build/continue relationships with the dead rather than the living? Are they not inviting vampires in their home?

Furthermore, every individual has an exponential number of ancestors, represented by the following equation: x=2n. This means that after three generations, a person has eight grandparents; after four generations, a person has sixteen grandparents, and so on. Once a person goes back ten generations, for instance, they have over a thousand grandparents. That is a lot of ancestors to make shrines to. Hardly anyone can remember the names of all of them let alone find pictures or memorabilia for them.

When people claim communion with the ancestors, how do they determine which ones to commune with? And if the ancestors speak to them, how do they know the person speaking from beyond the grave is not an imposter? The truth is that while it is essential to honor one’s ancestors by not speaking ill of them, speaking their names for as long as possible, and fulfilling any of their good endeavors, they are in more need of us than we are of them. Their lives are over and their affair is with their Creator. It is on us to live our lives, honor, and speak to our loved ones while they are still alive instead of seeking out mystical ways of communicating with them after they are gone.

While I understand the need of our people to connect with their roots, which were severed from us during our oppression in the western hemisphere, African Americans have the tendency to perform these so-called connections in a very superficial way that is more indicative of their Americanness than any real connection with actual Africans. Furthermore, much Afro-fetishism is based on marketing and consumerism. Things like red black and green flags, ankh jewelry, and incense are mainstays of an Afrocentric esthetic but are not items indigenous to Africa or are staples of any contemporary African culture. Yet, someone has convinced us through strategic marketing to pay top dollar for these things. From tours of ancient Egyptian temples to pathways towards citizenship for African Americans, even people from the continent have thought of ways to market to the emotional sentiments of African Americans because at the end of the day we are just consumers with US dollars.

Annie prepares potions of protection and healing through her knowledge of Hoodoo.

Domestication

Finally, Sinners speaks to the domestication of black consciousness. Domesticated black consciousness can only be militant about safe topics related to racial bigotry, cultural autonomy, and other corny topics that get black people riled up but will never spark a revolutionary consciousness or affect real change. The film is set in the 1930s and features a lot of details and covert commentary on that era but misses several opportunities to draw parallels and commentary to current events. However, as the famous Mozart quote goes: “The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between.”

While the film attempts to highlight complex racial dynamics from the 1930s such as colorism, European ethnic dynamics, Asian immigration, labor inequality, etc., it is completely silent on actual movements of Black people from that era to improve their political and social conditions. No attention is given to the influence of Marcus Garvey from the 1920s and the Communist movement of the 1930s. Garvey instilled pride in blackness and self-determining industriousness that had nothing to do with organized crime. Still intelligence agencies identified Garvey as an existential threat to the American order who would lead a Bolshevik-style revolution among African Americans. As perhaps the first target of J. Edgar Hoover’s terror campaign, Garvey became a victim of a government set up, which led to his imprisonment and deportation. In an odd, yet correct move, President Biden pardoned Garvey fully and unconditionally as one of his last acts as president. Nevertheless, a movie supposedly made for Black people of conscious did not even hint at the power the Garvey movement had on African American communities as well as its parallels to the current political climate.

Another footnote of history that Sinners neglected is the fact that Communism had spread across Black America. Inspired by the 1917 Soviet revolution but not controlled by it, many African Americans were attracted to Communism and Socialism during the period the film is set in. The likes of Shirley Graham Du Bois, W.E.B. Du Bois, Benjamin Davis Jr., and Paul Robeson had adopted the ideals of the revolutionary left. This was because of the all-too-familiar trap of the two-party system: the Democrats, who were then the preferred party of the Ku Klux Klan and segregationists, and the Republicans, the party to whom most African Americans were loyal because it was the party of president Abraham Lincoln, who supposedly “freed the slaves.” At that historical moment, with the onset of economic depression, the white Republicans’ growing disinterest in the black community, and the Democrats’ deconstruction of the Reconstruction in the form of Jim Crow segregation laws left very few viable political alternatives for African Americans. There is a lesson there for people who reflect on our current situation as America teeters on yet another great depression, the Democrats’ obsession with only symbolic progress for blacks, and the Trump-led Republicans reversal of some our domestic victories in the form of Civil Rights.

While the Communist Party may not be the most viable direction now, where are the black conscious thinkers, artists, and filmmakers to groom the next generations of Martin Luther Kings, Malcolm X’s, and Shirley Chisholms? Who are the people who will use their platforms to organize around the African Union Symposium of 2025 in which reparations for the African diaspora will be a key issue? Who will educate the masses about conflicts in the Congo and Sudan? Who will meet with forward-thinking African leaders like Ibrahim Traore, Assimi Goïta, and Julius Malema on our behalf? Sinners has looked deeply into the “safe” aspects of African American history like the Great Migration, the Blues, and even lives of ethnic groups like the Chinese, Irish, and Native Americans in rural Mississippi, but cannot find the bandwidth to dig into the aspects of black history that will make us reflect on and correct our current conditions.

Marcus Garvey

Conclusion

Carter G. Woodson is probably rolling in his grave to find that his book the Miseducation of the Negro still applies almost word for word to 21st century Negroes. Coogler and the cast of Sinners has effectively carved out a back door for African Americans to re-enter into American society. This is a door in which we only seek validation from a pat on the head for our musical and athletic prowess. This is a door in which we can only move forward in society if we wait until someone lets us by. This is a door in which we literally stay in our places and have no global scope for our economic future. We are only content with ratchet and hustle culture.

As black social media applauds the symbolism in the film Sinners and the many social issues it raises, corporate America has yet again blindsided them by ignoring, if not suppressing, many latent histories and current events. However, as the last visages of black consciousness, we must reject hedonism and embrace discipline in all aspects of our lives. We must reject Afro-fetishism and the shallow consumerist mindset that is meant to derail us from our true purpose. And we must reject the domestication of our purpose, which will keep us from thinking globally and connecting our ideas from the past to benefit our future. As the sun rises in the west, I hope the vampires of black consciousness are laid to rest and we can resurrect our consciousness for the generations to come.

Suggested Readings:

Curry, Mary Cuthrell. Making the Gods in New York: The Yoruba Religion in the African American Community. Studies in African American History and Culture. New York: Garland Pub., 1997.

Horne, Gerald. Black Liberation/Red Scare: Ben Davis and the Communist Party. Toronto: Associated University Presses, 1994.

———. Race Woman: The Lives of Shirley Graham Du Bois. New York: New York University Press, 2000.

Mitchell, Margaret. Gone With the Wind. New York: MacMillan Company, 1936.

OnGenealogy. “Do the Math – How Many Ancestors Do I Have?,” 2025. https://www.ongenealogy.com/do-the-math-how-many-ancestors-do-i-have/.

Woodson, Carter G. The Education Of The Negro Prior To 1861 A History Of The Education Of The Colored People Of The United States From The Beginning Of Slavery To The Civil War. Project Gutenberg, 1919.

Woodson, Carter Godwin. The Mis-Education of the Negro. Khalifah’s Booksellers & Associates, 1933.

The Conscious King: Why did Martin Luther King Write About the Mystery Schools?

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Martin Luther King Jr. was a dedicated freedom fighter; who lived and died in the pursuit of the liberation of the so-called African American. As time passes, generations have less of a connection with what he truly represented even as studies on his life and legacy become more nuanced. I would hope that our communities can see MLK for who he really was and how we can build upon his work rather than the caricatures of him that have originated both in and outside of African American communities. I hope that we can move beyond King “the Uncle Tom,” King “the Pacifist,” King “the Charlatan,” and the latest, King “the Hotep.” These caricatures of MLK serve no purpose but to distract people from the hard work of continuing his legacy. In this post, I will briefly summarize MLK’s writing on the Mystery Schools and Christianity, for which some members of the Conscious community take as proof of his “consciousness.” I will then dismiss their claims and speak to the reality of MLK’s intellectual legacy.

MLK on the Mysteries

At the tinder age of 20 or 21, a young MLK, half way through his graduate seminary degree, wrote a paper titled “The Influence of the Mystery Religions on Christianity.” In this piece, the young Dr. King is making the argument that a number of mystery cults of the Greek and Roman world influenced aspects of Christian thought. While this term paper is not an exhaustive listing of these influences he puts forth five cults in which he has identified influence: 1) Cybele and Attis, 2) Adonis, 3) Osiris and Isis, 4) Eleusis, and 5) Mithras. In the Cybele and Attis myth along with the Osiris and Isis myth from Egypt he sees congruences in the idea of the virgin mother and savior son, and the trinity. In the Eleusis myth he equates the spring celebration of a new life with the modern Christian Easter celebration of Christ’s rising from the dead and promise of salvation. And in Mithraism he finds several similarities regarding Sunday as the holy day, celebrating the birth on December 25, the practice of baptism, the concept of a convert being reborn, the struggle and ultimate triumph of good over evil, the belief in a mediator between God and man, among other things. He also mentions that Paul was raised in Tarsus, one of the centers of Mithraism, and insinuates that these beliefs found their way into the teachings of Paul.

Furthermore, the astute reader may notice an accute contradiction in this paper. In his introduction MLK appears to state that there is a direct relationship between the beliefs and practices of the Mystery religions and Christianity. See the following two statements:

“This triumph [over the Mystery religions] may be attributed in part to the fact that Christianity took from its opponents their own weapons, and used them: the better elements of the mystery religions were transferred to the new religion.”

“It is inevitable when a new religion comes to exist side by side with a group of religions, from which it is continually detaching members, introducing them into its own midst with the practices of their original religions impressed upon their minds, that this new religion should tend to assimilate with the assimilation of their members, some of the elements of these existing religions.”

Yet, elsewhere in his paper he is careful not to characterize this influence as a deliberate affectation, as he states in the conclusion: “it was generally a natural and unconscious process rather than a deliberate plan of action.“ This view is undoubtedly shared (or enforced) by his professor, who commented:

“It is not so much that Christianity was influenced by the Mystery Cults, or borrowed from them, but that in the long process of history this religion developed. It, Christianity, is the expression of the longing of people for light, truth, salvation, security.”

While MLK was not the first or the last to make these claims, it is particularly odd to find that he wrote them. After all, he was from a family of Baptist clergymen and was himself a Baptist minister. This sparks many questions about MLK’s motives to write such a paper or how this knowledge carried over into his leadership of the African American community.

MLK and the Black Conscious Community

While many may be surprised that MLK ever wrote about the Mystery Schools, this idea has circulated through some Black Consciousness circles. Yet, they pay little attention to the full scope of his paper and only focus on what he had to say about the ancient Egyptian Mysteries (i.e., the Osiris and Isis myth). Their point is to make MLK a closeted “hotep,” or at least a Christian who viewed his Christianity as a syncretic veil of this ancient African spirituality. They might even cite the fact that he did not do a lot of calling to the Christian faith nor did he preach much about common themes found in a church such as salvation through the blood of Jesus, the Holy Ghost, sin, and the like. Not only are the Conscious characterizations of MLK far-fetched, but they are based on an extremely selective reading of a term paper MLK wrote for a course when he was 21 years old! Indeed, other influential Black intellectuals wrote more extensively about ancient Egypt like WEB DuBois, Carter G. Woodson, William Leo Hansberry, etc. So why the hoopla about MLK?

Conscious characterizations also ignore other potential influences in his life such as membership in the Greek-letter fraternity Sigma Pi Phi (the Boulè), the pervading ideas of Theosophy and perennialism, as well as Freemasonry, who all had a history of introducing Americans to concepts similar to MLK’s topic in this paper. Despite any criticisms the Black Conscious community might have of these groups, it is possible that MLK imbibed information about the Mysteries from one of these channels.

It is also possible that he is only responding to academic questions of his time. Jan Bremmer mentions that scholars in the early 20th century were enthralled with the question: to what extent did the Mysteries influence Christianity? She credits Isaac Casaubon (1559–1614), a medieval philologist, with starting this line of questioning (although unnamed scholars prior to him also held this view). Casaubon’s works were later revived in the 20th century by Dame Frances Yates (1899–1981) and Fritz Graf (1922-2017). These issues would be debated by the likes of Austrian Theosophist Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), German Egyptologist Eduard Meyer (1855-1930), and English religious scholar Arthur Darby Nock (1902-1963) (Bremmer, 2014, pp. 142-148). George G.M. James also published his pivotal Afrocentric work, “Stolen Legacy” in 1954. So MLK was not doing anything special in the broader scope of things.

MLK’s Perennial Legacy

Perhaps, what I find to be more interesting from this paper are the two questions he ends with:

The staggering question that now arises is, what will be the next stage of man’s religious progress? Is Christianity the crowning achievement in the development of religious thought or will there be another religion more advanced?

He hints to an acceptance of evolutionary perennialism. He appears to ask: with the advancement of mankind, will there also be an advancement in religious thought beyond Christianity? Of course, a Muslim would answer in the affirmative and claim this advancement for Islam. Regardless of the answer, he does not seem to be calling to a regression in religious thought that will take us back to the ancient Egyptian religion and ancestor worship.

It should come as no surprise that one of Black America’s most prodigious leaders should be astute on certain details of history. The great Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was known for his leadership in the Civil Rights Movement and his commitment to non-violent direct political action, but before that he qualified himself by engaging with the salient ideas of his time. Furthermore, it was confirmed in the early 1990s that he had plagiarized parts of his doctoral dissertation at Boston University, so his legacy as a scholar is tarnished. However, MLK is not known for his scholarship or teaching, but for his oratory, activism, and leadership and that should be the criteria by which we judge his legacy.

References

Bremmer, Jan N. Initiation into the Mysteries of the Ancient World. Münchner Vorlesungen Zu Antiken Welten 1. Boston: De Gruyter, 2014.

Garrow, David J. “King’s Plagiarism: Imitation, Insecurity, and Transformation.” The Journal of American History 78, no. 1 (1991): 86–92. https://doi.org/10.2307/2078086.

King, Martin Luther. “The Influence of the Mystery Religions on Christianity.” Essay. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, November 29, 1949. https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/influence-mystery-religions-christianity.

X Marks the Spot: Malcolm X, the Bridge Between Sabians and Hanifs

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Sunday May 19, 2024 marked the 59th Ziyara (commemorative visitation) to the grave site of El Hajj Malik Shabazz (Malcolm X) and Dr. Betty Shabazz at Ferncliff Cemetary in Hartsdale, NY. As many know, the African American community cannot agree on many things but Malcolm is a rallying point for the forward-thinking trajectories within the community. This was evidenced by the peaceful coexistence of Sabian and Hanif traditions practiced by the intellectual, political, and spiritual offspring of Malik Shabazz at the annual Ziyara.

It was not always this way. In the aftermath of Malcolm’s murder it was a struggle to to keep his name alive let alone his ideas and his work. Only a few brave souls had the guts to open their doors and speak at his funeral. Joseph E. Hall and the Unity Funeral Home allowed the viewing of his body, the Faith Temple Church of God in Christ, allowed his wake, Shaykh Hesham Jaaber, who along with Shaykh Ahmad Hassoun washed and wrapped his body according to the Islamic tradition, Ahmad Osman, Ossie Davis who spoke, and the list of attendees like the late John Lewis, James Farmer, Andrew Young and many others… Their names will be forever etched in history. Similarly, Malcolm’s older sister and confidant Ella Collins sought to keep an accurate depiction of his character, philosophy, and direction by holding the annual Ziyara.

I will point out that these brave people were Hanifs. Despite the association of Hanif religions with conformity and reactionary politics the Black resistance to oppression required the strength and courage only inspired by true faith. That was the place of Malcolm, Betty Shabazz, Ella Collins, Martin Luther King, James Farmer, Mutulu Shakur, Sekou Odinga and countless other freedom fighters. Many of whom were practicing Muslims and Christians.

The Sabian dimension, like their ancient counterparts, has always contributed to the philosophical development of our people. A philosophy that pushes the boundaries of intellectual inquiry and imagination of how Africans can be in this world spiritually, mentally, and physically. Their contributions on the Black intellectual tradition should not be disregarded, as it was the likes of John Henrik Clarke and Dr. Ben Jochanan (both intellectual offspring of Malcolm), who forged a path for Black Studies in the universities to the chagrin of white intellectuals who controlled the narrative on African history. They were able to pry open the  grip that white Africanists had on the field prior to the 1960’s. Their contributions continue to reverberate with regards to the study of ancient Egypt (Kemet), which Africans on the continent and in the Diaspora rightfully claim a connection to despite the protests of some modern Egyptians.

This is not to say that they did not have lapses in knowledge, especially regarding the history of Islam. Their lack of contact with learned continental African Muslims and lack of acquaintance with the Islamic intellectual tradition in Africa and around the world has led to their over reliance on the sources of white Africanist and Orientalist scholars. Similarly, their logical fallacies that equate the Islamic experience with the Christian experience and inability to view things outside of the American paradigm has crippled their understanding of Hanif religions and led to an uncritical embrace of Sabian religion and spiritual thought. Their rejection of religion, while claiming a form of “spirituality,” has warranted them the label Sabian, whose etymological meaning refers to “one who has left religion.”

Beyond the ceremonious nature of the gathering, there was undoubtedly a political message. One that stood on the legacy of the Black Radical Tradition. This was orchestrated by Prof. James Small, a living progenitor of Malcolm. Not only was he the body guard of Malcolm’s older sister Ella Collins, but he was also imam of Muslim Mosque, Inc. and a leader within the Organization for Afro-American Unity (OAAU), the two organizations started by Malcolm before his death. Not only that, but he later acquired authorizations in the priesthoods of several African systems of spirituality and served as a point person for many Black revolutionary activists and freedom fighters since the 60’s. He is therefore an authority in African American Sabian, Hanif, and radical political traditions. As he emceed the event, he stressed the universality of these traditions and some of the speakers’ connection to Islam. He introduced the all-star round up of speakers consisting of scholars, revolutionaries, and leaders of the past and the future, like Dr. Leonard and Rosalind Jeffries, Sundiata Acoli, Pam Africa, Mfundishi Jhutyms, Jihad Abdul Mumit, Baba Zayid, Brother Reggie, Adéyínká “Muhammad” Mendes, and others. They shared prayers and spoke in brief about the legacy of Malcolm. Imam Talib Abdurrashid was noticeably absent from this gathering due to health issues, but members of the Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood (MIB) in Harlem as well as the Jamaat of Shehu Uthman Dan Fodio were delegated to represent him in his absence.

A final point was made about the link between the Pan African struggle and that of Palestine. Contrary to the sentiments of Pan African social media influencers and personalities, who claim that Palestine is not a “black issue,” the veterans and students of Malcolm say it is, because the Black radical tradition stands for justice everywhere. Additionally, we should not allow morally degenerate politicians and media executives to frame our issues for us. The issues of Palestine are not race, religion, terrorism, anti-Semitism, or even freedom of speech. Rather they are colonialism, the right to self-determination, and the right to self-defense. Likewise, these were the issues of the Black Power struggle in the U.S.; a struggle I would deem as successful in many ways. Although police brutality remains a salient issue for many Black communities, there are undoubtedly marked changes from the Jim Crow era to now that almost no elder will deny. But those improvements were not made from the kindness of the hearts of politicians and law enforcement, they were made from decades of political pressure applied by the likes of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X and those who upheld their intellectual, political and spiritual legacies.

From Darkness to “Polight”: A Prospectus on Sabianism and Ritual Sacrifice

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We at the Maurchives normally refrain from commenting on the personal shortcomings of our interlocutors in our critiques, with aims at maintaining the intellectual integrity of our positions. However, the recent revelations of the so-called black conscious influencer known as “Brother Polight” (Michael Noak Jr.) has ignited passions and outrage from within the black community. Given the sordid nature of the crime – taking sexual liberties with the daughter of a mistress among other things – and as a survivor of abuse, I take his despicable acts personal and denounce him for them. I am admittedly disgusted, angry, and disappointed with the so-called conscious community, but I am not surprised.

Contrary to popular belief, Polight is not “sick,” “crazy,” or “mentally ill.” His public profile over the years has suggested that he is a very intelligent, deliberate, and charming individual who can sway the hearts and minds of people with his words. Unfortunately, the criminal acts that he pled guilty to are the modus operandi for modern-day Sabians whose only pursuits are the trinkets of the sensory world. Given what we know of his character, we can only assume that he knew what he was doing, but what escapes most people’s grasp is why. Why would a grown man, who was seemingly on top of the world, who possessed fame, health, wealth, and women… why would he risk all of that for an act that if people found out about it would leave him penniless, isolated, incarcerated, and despised by people? Well the answer is clear if we peer into the history of the Sabians and their misuse of the occult sciences. In this post, I will shed some light on what could have been behind his dark acts.

Mugshots of Michael Noak Jr. (aka “Brother Polight”) and Dwight York (aka Malachi York).

Occult Sacrifice: A Brief History

Polight, like numerous other 20th century occultists, called to Sabianism as a seemingly enlightened spirituality that only served to disguise their magic and sorcery. From Charles Leadbeater and Aleister Crowley to the indecencies of Elijah Muhammad, Malachi York, and Jim Jones, spiritualist (Sabian) leaders have been accused of sex acts that traditionalists (Ḥanīfs) find repugnant. In Polight’s case, he almost killed the child he was accused of molesting by forcing on her drugs and alcohol. This act is strangely reminiscent of the rituals that brought down the Ancient Mystery Schools.

The practice of sexual orgies and human sacrifice were some of the practices that led to the decline of the Mysteries. Even prior to the spread of Christianity, the Roman government would crack down on the rites of the Baccchanalia Mysteries for their violent sexual orgies. Emperors Augustus and Claudius put stringent limitations on the Druid Mysteries of England and Gaul who used to practice human sacrifice (Grant, 2004, page 17-19).

The British Egyptologist, Margaret A. Murray described in her book, The Witch-Cult in Western Europe, the four different types sacrifices among practitioners of Witchcraft, who claimed to inherit the ancient Mysteries of Western Europe. Murray states that these sacrifices were: 1) blood sacrifices, 2) animal sacrifices, 3) child sacrifices, and 4) god sacrifices. Blood sacrifices entailed shedding a prick of blood for initiations and signing contracts (Murray, 2008, p. 152). Animal sacrifices including killing animals such as dogs, cats and fowls for the purpose of manifesting Satan (p. 154). Child sacrifices were used to obtain magical powers. They promise the Devil or their jinn an offering at a particular time to acquire these powers. They often use unbaptized children, those from irreligious homes, or their own children, usually poisoning them or sometimes by more brutal means (p. 158). God sacrifices were conducted to manifest the power of a certain Wiccan deity such as a fertility god. In ancient times, the ritual entailed a human being assuming the identity of the deity or allowing himself to be possessed it and then allowing himself to be killed, usually by fire. The ashes would then be collected and used in various other rituals. The Christians later banned this practice and took to replacing the human being with an animal or, in secret, an infant (p. 160-162).

In the Ḥanīf tradition, God shows Abraham a vision in which he is to sacrifice his son. The Judaic tradition believes this son to be Isaac while the Islamic tradition believes him to be Ishmael. Both Abraham and his son agree to the sacrifice and are prepared to carry it out for the sake of God. However, at the last moment God retracts the command and enjoins them to sacrifice a ram instead. Judaic commentaries insist this that this was not a pagan practice gone awry, but an injuction to categorically prohibit human and child sacrifices (Greenberg, 2011, p. 195).

On top of that, the Qur’an has already warned us about this end. Anyone calling to the worship of anything beside the true and living God, is an idolator. Idolators do not worship other gods per se, since there are no other gods. In actuality, they worship jinn, who seek to be worshiped as gods. These jinn promise them the fortune, fame, pleasures, and power that they seek, but demand that they perform disgusting and evil acts as devotion to them. These acts usually involve violating children, whether it’s rape, mutilation, or murder.

وَكَذَٰلِكَ زَيَّنَ لِكَثِيرٍۢ مِّنَ ٱلْمُشْرِكِينَ قَتْلَ أَوْلَـٰدِهِمْ شُرَكَآؤُهُمْ لِيُرْدُوهُمْ وَلِيَلْبِسُوا۟ عَلَيْهِمْ دِينَهُمْ ۖ وَلَوْ شَآءَ ٱللَّهُ مَا فَعَلُوهُ ۖ فَذَرْهُمْ وَمَا يَفْتَرُونَ ١٣٧

Similarly, their associate-gods have made the killing of their children seem fair to many mushriks (idolators), so that they may ruin them and may confuse their faith for them. Had Allah so willed, they would not have done that. So, leave them alone with what they fabricate.

Mufti taqi Usmani translation

When Polight would make his asinine comments about Islam many Muslims left him alone to his devices. The only “Muslims” who would engage him were those Moors, NOI, and Ahmadiyas whose doctrines would not allow them to defend the true Islamic tradition. The average listener was impressed by his diatribes because they never heard certain vocabulary words strung together. However, intelligent people knew that he had mastered the art of hypnotism, talking in circles at a loud volume in the style of his teacher, the convicted serial pedophile and high priest of the modern African American Sabians Malachi York, but much of what he said lacked substance and was never backed up by facts. His strategy was to interrogate the beliefs of others without being interrogated on his own beliefs. In the end, he called to the worship of “the black woman” and money. But the light has shown on the true depravity of his beliefs.

References

Grant, Robert M. Augustus to Constantine: The Rise and Triumph of Christianity in the Roman World. 1st ed, Westminster John Knox Press, 2004.

Greenberg, Irving. The Jewish Way. Touchstone, 2011.

Murray, Margaret Alice. The Witch-Cult in Western Europe. Forgotten Books, 2008.

America is Not Egypt

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It should go without saying that Egypt is not America. After all, they are two different places on two different continents. However, in the world of Wikipedia research, YouTube scholarship, and gullible social media disciples, this is one of the many theories that has been circulating that has no merit. While much of the current media hoopla about Ye and Kyrie Irving is indirectly a critique of the Hebrew Israelite claim that Africans in the Americas are the true Jews (yet another colonialist construct), they and their Moorish counterparts also promote a more extremely bogus theory: that ancient Egypt was in America.

Uriah Brandon*, in his YouTube series, America is Egypt, argues that there is a massive conspiracy to conceal the fact that the civilization, knowledge, and artifacts – attributed to the ancient African civilization Egypt – actually belonged to ancient Native Americans. What is more is that these ancient Native Americans were in actuality the so-called African Americans. The series raises a number of questions, to which Mr. Brandon attempts to answer with his America is Egypt theory. In Episode 4, he queries:

Shouldn’t the Egyptians aka Arabs have known about Egyptian history before the Europeans? So all of these ancient grandiose monuments sit abandoned in the desert in the middle of a trade highway between three continents and they were never studied or surveyed by the Arab population who had been living in the region for at least a thousand years?! How is it possible that supposed native Egyptians knew nothing about Egyptian culture or language until the invasion of the French? The Rosetta Stone and the pyramids had been there for thousands of years, yet the same people accredited with the some of the world’s most advanced knowledge hadn’t even cared to take a peak at a pyramid wall?

America Is Egypt Episode 4. America Is Egypt. UB TV, https://youtu.be/_0fIwWiGoiI. (5:04-6:05)

One of the foundational premises of his theory rests on the claim that Egyptians had no conceptualization, recollection or academic interest in their ancient past. This feeds into his conclusion that the Egyptian monuments and artifacts and even its historicity was concocted by European Jesuits and Freemasons. Mr. Brandon expounds upon this premise in Part 4 of his series, which I will demonstrate in this post is spurious.

Medieval Egyptology

Mr. Brandon did a good job of recounting the problematic origins of the Egyptology field and is right to question colonial scholarship on the ancient world, which is wrapped up in racialized and racist views of people and clear white supremacist motives. His deconstructions of race and language are also meritorious. However, he, like many Hebrew Israelites, Afrocentrists, Moors, and New Agers, suffer from the ailment of not reading widely enough, a lack of scholarly rigor, and debilitating confirmation bias.

Mr. Brandon exposes his ignorance of Egypt in his statement about Egyptians not bothering to look at the pyramids. Anyone who has been to the Pyramids of Giza knows that there are no hieroglyphic inscriptions on them or the Sphinx that sits in their vicinity. One will have to venture (by plane) to the southern part of Egypt to the city of Luxor to find hieroglyphic inscriptions on the walls of their temples and burial sites. On top of that, even the most ignorant Egyptian tour guide will point out that Coptic Christians used these temples and tombs as monasteries and hiding places from the Byzantines (i.e. Romans) who sought to impose their theology on the Egyptian Coptics.

Egypt and Nubia: Volume I – No. 18, The Great Sphinx, Pyramids of Gizeh, Front View, 1839. Louis Haghe (British, 1806–1885). Color lithograph; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of J. Byers Hays 1953.503

Mr. Brandon might be surprised to learn that not only was there  continuity between ancient Egypt and medieval Egypt, but aspects of ancient Egyptian culture, language, and religious beliefs were retained and studied over the medieval period… in Arabic. Although the study of Egypt since the Islamic expansion to the region is an under-researched topic in English, there was a genre of writings in the Arabic language on ancient Egypt from the likes of Abu Al-ʿAbbās al-Maqrīzī, Jamāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī, Ibn Khaldūn, and more. Many of these sources are cited in the book  Egyptology: The Missing Millennium, Ancient Egypt in Medieval Arabic Writings by Ukasha El-Daly. I recently met the author at a talk he gave at the American Research Center in Egypt on Oct. 12, 2022. Although his research aims at correcting the Western academic narrative on the topic, he also answers the very questions Mr. Brandon poses concerning the Egyptians’ own knowledge of their ancient heritage.

Mr. Brandon embraces the same conclusions as the European Orientalists who believe that only they took an interest in unlocking the secrets of ancient Egypt. They carry the attitude that a people’s adoption of Christianity or Islam  automatically makes them religious bigots incapable of not only studying but remembering their ancient past. Yet El-Daly shows both empirically and anecdotally that this was not the case. Rather it was European and American Egyptologists who ignored all indigenous writings on ancient Egypt between the 7th and 16th centuries even though they were aware of them. El-Daly asserts that:

“The main reason was the desire of early Western Egyptologists and others to keep Egyptians out of Egyptology by discouraging them from participation and study, thus leading to their marginalisation and to inevitable Western dominance of the subject” (El-Daly, 2005, p. 4).

We know that early European Egyptologists were not oblivious to the works of the Arabs, Muslims, and Copts with regards to ancient Egypt. El-Daly points out that the British Orientalist, Joseph von Hammer, published an English translation of the 10th century scholar Ibn Waḥshīya’s** deciphering of ancient scripts along with its original Arabic. Others like Athanasius Kircher (17th century) and Wallis Budge (19th/20th century) were indebted to medieval Muslim and Coptic scholarship on the Demotic, Hieratic and Hieroglyphic.*** (El-Daly, 2005, pp. 57-58)

Chapter 5 of El-Daly’s book is titled, “Medieval Arab attempts to decipher ancient Egyptian scripts.” In this chapter, he documents Arab and Muslim attempts at deciphering the hieroglyphics. He says the first of them to take an interest in deciphering the scripts of the ancient Egyptians was the mid-7th century scholar Jābir ibn Ḥayān. Other Arab and Muslim scholars who wrote on the topic include Ayūb Ibn Maslama (9th century), Dhū al-Nūn al-Miṣrī (9th century), Ibn Waḥshīya (9th/10th centuries), and Abū al-Qāsim (El-Daly, 2005, p. 67).

Ibn Waḥshīya’s attempt at decoding the Egyptian hieroglyphs.

El-Daly’s work introduces the English reader to a myriad of medieval writings in Arabic not the least of which is Anwār ʻUlwīyy al-Ajrām fī al-Kashf ʻan Asrār al-Ahrām by the 13th century scholar of Moroccan descent, Muhammad al-Idrīsī. It provides insights into the nature of medieval Arabic Egyptology. For instance, throughout the book it only mentions the presence of two pyramids. This is not because the others were built later, but because they were covered in sand and only the two largest ones were visible.

During al-Idrīsī’s time, there were a number of theories in circulation about who built the pyramids and for what purpose. One theory was that it was built by thirty consecutive kings of Egypt starting with Bayṣar, the son of Ḥām, and was used as a food repository during the time of Prophet Yūsuf. Some believed that Aristotle had the two pyramids built for himself and Alexander of Macedonia. (Idrīsī and Haarmann, 1991, p. 89). Some thought they were built by the people of ʿĀd, a race of giants from  Arabia (Idrīsī and Haarmann, 1991, p. 99). Others believed that the pyramids and the other monuments, statues, and structures (known as barbā) were built by Enoch (Prophet Idrīs) to preserve the world’s knowledge in preparation of the great cataclysm that was foreseen in the stars. They were not sure if the cataclysm would be in the form of a flood, fire, or invasion. Therefore, they build the structures out of stone and clay so that if the cataclysm was a flood, the stone would remain. If it was by fire then the clay would remain. And if it was by the sword, then everything would remain (Idrīsī and Haarmann, 1991, p. 94). Al-Idrīsī concluded that this latter theory was the most plausible and that the people of the Nile Valley collectively agreed to build these structures for the sake of mankind, showing that they did not believe that the pyramids were built with Israelite slave labor far before Western scholars came to this realization.

The linguistic terrain in Egypt was also complicated by the presence of a plethora of groups and languages in the region in late antiquity prior to Islamic hegemony. This linguistic diversity is best represented in the Genizah documents that were found in Old Cairo’s Ben Ezra Synagogue. In this collection of legal, religious, and mundane papyri documents, One can find Hebrew written in Arabic and Coptic scripts, Arabic written in Hebrew and Coptic scripts, Coptic written in Arabic and Hebrew scripts, as well as Persian and Ethiopic languages. This shows that Egypt was a linguistically plural society since the 6th century. So there is no wonder how lesser used, esoteric ancient languages can die out in such an environment.

In terms of continuity, Coptic is not just a sect of Christianity, but the cultural, ethnic, linguistic, and some would argue, the religious continuation of ancient Egypt. First, the word Egypt is derived from the word Copt, which is pronounced gipṭ. This is perhaps an adaptation of Qifṭ, the son of Miṣr, who was a grandson of Prophet Noah according to al-Masʿūdī (El-Daly, 2005, p. 21). Muslim historians from other lands often sat at the feet of Coptic monks to learn about ancient Egypt. Al-Idrīsī relates the anecdote of a non-Arab expert on Egyptology who used to collect ancient Egyptian texts. He found a mummy and a scroll in the monastery of Abū Hermes, but did not recognize the script. Believing it to be an ancient form of Coptic, he sought out a monk at the monastery of al-Qalamūn in Fayyum who could read it (Idrīsī and Haarmann, 1991, p. 100). This shows that the religious scholars among the Copts continued to retain knowledge of their ancient past at the time of Islamic expansion and Muslim scholars came to learn from them. This further demonstrates that neither the advent of Christianity or Islam eroded this knowledge and clearly they had a concept of ancient Egypt.

The Cairo Postcard Trust. Pyramid and Sphinx. Still Image, c. late 19th/early 20th century. Rare Books and Special Collections Library; American University in Cairo.

Egypt is Arabia

Mr. Brandon and those who believe that America is Egypt need not jump to far-fetched conclusions to explain anomalies in history, such as the lack of archaeological evidence for an Israelite presence in Egypt and the Levant. Indeed, there is a burgeoning school of thought that challenges classical Biblical scholarship on this matter. In 1985, Kamal Salibi, a Lebanese scholar of Christian background, published his controversial book, The Bible Came From Arabia. In light of the lack of physical evidence in the Levant and Egypt for an Israelite presence, he hypothesized that the events occurred further south. He laid a map of the Biblical place names over a map of current-day places in Arabia and was able to observe a correspondence.

Later, Salibi’s research was developed by the likes of Bernard Leeman in his Queen of Sheba and Biblical Scholarship, Dana Reynolds-Marniche’s The African and Arabian Origins of the Hebrew Bible: An Ethnohistorical Study, and the works of Fāḍil al-Rabīʿī. While I will admit that their work is inconclusive because the necessary archaeological excavations cannot be done at present due to conflict in the region, their hypothesis has some basis in logic and pre-modern texts such as al-Shahrastānī who believed that Jews, Christians, and Pagans in pre-Islamic Arabia were not ethnically distinct peoples, but rather their differences were theological (Shahrastānī and Muhammad, 1992, p. 227-228). Mandaean scriptures also corroborate a common Semitic genealogy among Jews, Christians, Mandaeans, and Egyptians and highlight the theological dichotomy between Sabians (represented by Mandaeans, Egyptians, Harranians, and the like) and Hanifs (Jews, Christians, and other followers of Abraham) (Samak, 1995, p. 38-39).

One might notice that Leeman is of European descent but was raised in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, Reynolds-Marniche is an African American raised as a Theosophist and contributed a chapter to Ivan van Sertima’s Golden Age of the Moor, and al-Rabīʿī is an Iraqi leftist thinker and historian. Each author is from a different region and a different linguistic and educational background, which allows them to bring different expertise and perspectives to the topic. As such, scholarship is not a conspiracy, they are submitting their works to the scholarly community for review and criticism in order to arrive at a consensus.

Conclusion

It is possible for knowledge to be forgotten if the ones that possess it do not transmit it orally or in the written word. What most modern Sabian groups do not understand is that the nature of teaching in the ancient world was such that one had to have contact with a teacher or at least be taught how to read certain texts in order to acquire knowledge. This student-to-teacher transmission kept the links of knowledge alive. In times of war, disease, famine, and social upheaval the concerns of people turn away from knowledge acquisition to the issues of the time. So the number of people who devote their time to study and teaching diminishes and sometimes they die without transmitting certain knowledge. Thus, not ever omission of knowledge is a conspiracy or cover up. But perhaps the die-hard skeptical conspiracy theorist will dismiss the facts and references I posited here as well, wrapping me and the authors I cited into another layer of their elaborate conspiracy theory. But before they do, I will present this question to them: What is the difference between an age-old global conspiracy and your overall ignorance about a topic?

Notes:

*Mr. Brandon is a filmmaker out of North Carolina and graduate of North Carolina A&T in Greensboro. Like myself, he was influenced by the Afrocentric researcher, Steve Cokeley, who is responsible for giving countless lectures exposing the Black fraternal order of the Boulè Both Mr. Brandon and I grew up in the same state, had similar majors in college, similar interests, and influences. However, he is a much better filmmaker than I ever was but I am surely a better researcher. We further diverge on the level of philosophy. He seems to have embraced a strand of the Hebrew Israelite doctrine, while I am clearly a Muslim.

**Ibn Waḥshīya, though he wrote in Arabic, was not an Arab. He was of Aramaic Nabataean origin of southern Iraq.

***It must be noted that Hieroglyphics were not the everyday script of the ancient Egyptians. Demotic was found in more common use, while Hieratic was used by the scribes. Hieroglyphics was used as an esoteric script, reserved for only the high priests and kings (El-Daly, 2005, p. 60).

References:

El-Daly, Okasha. Egyptology: The Missing Millennium, Ancient Egypt in Medieval Arabic Writings. UCL Press, 2005.

Idrīsī, Muḥammad ibn ʻAbd al-ʻAzīz, and Ulrich Haarmann. Anwār ʻUlwīyy Al-Ajrām Fī al-Kashf ʻan Asrār al-Ahrām. Frānts Shtāyrir, 1991.

Samak, ʿAbdullah ʿAlī. Al-Ṣābiʼūn. 1st ed., Maktabat al-Ādāb, 1995.

Shahrastānī, Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm al-, and Ahmad Fahmi Muhammad. Al-Milal Wa al-Niḥal. 2nd ed., Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyyah, 1992.

The Cairo Postcard Trust. Pyramid and Sphinx. Still Image, c. late 19th/early 20th century, https://digitalcollections.aucegypt.edu/digital/collection/p15795coll21/id/1609/rec/93. Rare Books and Special Collections Library; American University in Cairo.

Bill Cooper vs. the Modern Mystery Schools

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A few days after 9/11, I remember lying in my university dorm room in the middle of the night as bright lights from a helicopter illuminated my room and I heard the hoots and hollers of frat boys returning home after a night of partying. Before I came to my senses, I wondered if this was the Illuminati’s declaration of martial law? The year 2001 caught many off-guard. The conspiracy theory literature of the ’90’s had many of us thinking that as we approached the year 2000 something big was right around the corner. After Y2K passed without a hitch many people went back to sleep until Bush Jr. stole the 2000 election. People were shocked at first, but not mobilized since he was considered an idiot and comedic fodder. However, the events of 9/11 would change everything and confirm what many conspiracy theorists already assumed… That the US government would declare war on its people.

The cover of Behold a Pale Horse by Milton William “Bill” Cooper.

One book in particular stands out as the pivotal work for conspiracy theorists of various persuasions. That book is Behold a Pale Horse (1991) by Bill Cooper, who aimed to expose the plots of the perverted modern-day Mystery Schools. Cooper was killed two months after the 9/11 attacks in front of his Arizona home under a barrage of bullets from police officers, further validating his assertions. Not only did he predict that the US government would blame a terrorist attack on Bin Laden prior to 9/11, but his book properly identified how the president would expand his powers using executive orders, how computer technology would be used in social engineering, and the evils of the Federal Reserve. Cooper preceded Alex Jones as the go-to conspiracy theorist with his radio show “The Hour of the Time.” (Of course, Cooper was not a fan of shock jock Alex Jones.)

The 500-page monograph succinctly outlined the patriot’s worldview, which expounded on a number of primary source documents (also included in the book), such as intelligence memos, newspaper clippings, correspondences, and other documents the author thought worthy of public scrutiny. Therefore, the serious reader could claim that he/she has seen proof of the conspiracies with their own eyes. Back before the worldwide web was prevalent, such documents were not easily accessed, and thus his book represented a one-stop shop for self-study of the global conspiracy.

Fast forward over 20 years, when we live our entire lives online, a large web of conspiracy theories of all kinds has been weaved, which has distorted the approach of Cooper, popularly known as QAnon. Whether it’s the Illuminati or a reptilian cabal of pedophiles, QAnon beliefs have a genealogy that can be traced back to Cooper’s work, but does not remain loyal to it. Like QAnon, Cooper’s primary constituency were white Christian, often right-wing, constitutionalists, who were generally patriotic Americans and sometimes White Nationalists.

However, their anti-establishment disposition has not saved them from being duped by Trump. Trump spent years rubbing elbows with Hollywood stars and other elites, including the Clintons and known pedophile ring leader, Jeffrey Epstein. But somehow he has convinced his QAnon followers that he is fighting against those elites. Trump’s more than suspicious relationship with Putin has never been resolved and reeks of treason, but this does not seem to bother any of his supporters. Perhaps they did not read carefully enough when Cooper wrote:

“REMEMBER—NEVER WORSHIP A LEADER. IF YOU WORSHIP A LEADER, YOU THEN NO LONGER HAVE THE ABILITY TO RECOGNIZE WHEN YOU HAVE BEEN DECEIVED!” (p.91)

In a similar vein, Black-owned bookstores, hip-hop music, and lecturers like Steve Cokely were the means by which Cooper’s ideas were disseminated into Black communities. Of course the foundation was already laid by the Nation of Islam who canonized these conspiracy theories in the early part of the 20th century.

In their respective interviews with Fat Joe, rapper Busta Rhymes and producer Dallas Austin described a scene from the early 90’s in which the legendary funk musician, George Clinton hipped a generation of hip hop artists to Behold a Pale Horse. Their recording sessions were like a book club and the book would inform the doomsday themes that led to Busta Rhymes’ album titles. Goodie Mob would release “Cell Therapy.” The D.O.C.‘s long-awaited second LP had several Cooper-inspired tracks. Prodigy from Mobb Deep would mention concepts from the book in his verses. And the list of hip-hop’s connection to the book goes on…

Busta Rhymes discusses the influence of Behold a Pale Horse (52:55 – 56:47).
Dallas Austin discusses the influence of Behold a Pale Horse (1:04:06 – 1:04:32).

However, the so-called Black conscious movement is not without its contradictions either. In contrast to white patriots, many “conscious” Blacks are Muslims, Five Percenters, Nuwaubians, Hebrew Israelites, or ascribe to non-traditional Christian beliefs. Likewise, they often embraced Black Nationalism and leftist Black activism such as the Black Panther Party, something that Cooper probably would have disapproved of. However, Black people generally saw his theories as confirmation of the anti-Blackness and pure evil of the American political establishment.

As we watch red-cap and fatigue-laden protesters riot at the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. and other capitol buildings around the US, we should know that their actions are motivated by beliefs with a genealogy that can be traced to Cooper, the Nazi Party, and even earlier in American history. The irony is that for much of American history both patriots and conscious Blacks alike thought that the fall of America would occur at the hands of Blacks and other minorities, but recent events are showing us otherwise.