Kemet and the 'art' of concealment

The recent publication of a book claiming that British museums are over-reacting to a sensitive public by hiding away mummies and other ancient human remains has spurred Dr William ‘Lez’ Henry to write about practices he has noticed across Egypt and questions the museums’ motives.

I always find it interesting when European-white “experts” discuss the consequences of their forages into other people’s lands, which generally result in plunder, death and cultural destruction.

In this instance we are talking about the discussions in the UK around whether ancient bodies, skeletal remains etc. etc. should be publicly displayed in museums or should they be hidden from the wider public gaze.  For instance: “The Egypt gallery at Bristol City Museum & Art Gallery has changed their display of Egyptian human remains. Instead of the previous display of mummies in open coffins, it now exhibits the mummies with the lids half closed, which it considers more respectful.”  

It is the idea of “more respectful” that interests me here because Europeans in many of their colonies used the remains of mummies for various purposes, including fuelling steam engines and for the manufacturing of brown paper for wrapping items such as grocery and meat in the United States.

Such usage often coincided with paper shortages and it was found that the bandages that were used during the mummification process were an able substitute for rags, but whilst this appears a practical usage it coincided with mummies being “unwrapped” or “rolled-out” as entertainment in museums and during travelling shows.

It is this lack of respect for the Afrikan’s ancestral practices/history/humanity that is of significance here, because European “experts” have generally colluded in their scholastic endeavours to write the African presence out of ancient Egypt.

To many of us this is old news and in my humble opinion only a fool would believe, in this day and age, that there never was an Afrikan presence in an Afrikan country such as Egypt, but as Curtis Mayfield reminded us there are indeed: “educated fools, from uneducated schools” that abound in our contemporary clime.

I state this because I have noticed that from the first time I visited Kemet/Egypt in 1992 until my visit this year with Nu-Beyond’s INFOCATION 2010 group I have witnessed significant changes across the visual landscape.

Indeed I am certain that when I went to the Cairo Museum for the first time in 1992, several of the artefacts displayed what anthropologists would associate with an indigenous Afrikan presence, a prognathous or jutting jaw, as opposed to that which you would associate with the European an opisthognathous, receding jaw.

Similarly several Afrikan scholar activists have suggested the same thing but as we do not have access to what is ‘hidden’ away it remains mere conjecture.

However, what I do know is that during my visits to the sacred sites and temples the restorations/renovations are more like “face lifts” as the lips, noses and faces that were “chopped off” or “fell off” (this depends on which accounts you believe) are often replaced with an overtly European look (kind of ironic with the craze in collagen lips and broader hips).

We need not be surprised that this occurs, as between our INFOCATION tour in 2008 and our 2010 tour we noticed drastic, cosmetic, changes to the layout of the temples we visited and the manner in which they are being “restored”, which is why we lead these tours to Kemet as pretty soon…well who knows!

The point I am making is that the more information that becomes readily available to prove that the countries and peoples of Afrika have always contributed to the storehouse of human knowledge; the more we are fed with foolish distractions such as the above debate about morality and “respectful” behaviour.

Such debates have no context for there is no mention of the fact that it was immorality and disrespectful behaviour, to their perceived inferiors, that led to such cultural artefacts being displayed by racist Europeans in the first place and whilst this dimension remains “concealed” the history of the world remains in a shroud of whiteness. Hotep!!

Dr. William 'Lez' Henry is a Social Anthropologist, He is the Director of Nu-Beyond Ltd. Learning By Choice!

 For information about INFOCATION tour 2011 Click here.