Black History Month: The African Pharaohs Who Ruled Egypt

Many respected scholars have pointed to the significant contributions of black Africans to the civilizations of ancient Egypt and Greece. But this ancient history is unknown to most Americans.

Now, coinciding with Black History Month, National Geographic magazine is bringing this piece of the past to the masses with the cover story in its February issue. The special feature relates that blacks from Nubia, in what is present-day Sudan, conquered and united Egypt in 728 B.C. They ruled the Egyptian empire for three quarters of a century before being defeated by the Assyrians.

The rise of the Nubian pharaohs of Egypt has been largely ignored by historians, according to the editors of National Geographic, due to racism and the mistaken belief that black Africans could not have been responsible for the splendor of what was ancient Egypt.

Copyright © 2008. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.