|
I am from Egypt and most of the Egyptians who say this mostly live in Northern Egypt which is Lower Egypt. Ethnically in Egypt there is a big difference in Upper and Lower Egypt. I feel that most people on this board have never meet a Sa3eadi Egyptian that was dark-brown with tightly curled hair.
Egypt has always been a diverse place with black people in Upper Egypt and lighter Medditerean types in the North. Over time,however,there has been lots of mixing in the cities of Cairo and Alexzandria withg foreginers so you get very diverse phenotypes.
The women's ignorance of history also is relfect and reinforced by the sub-Sahara myth that validates claims of white supremacy. Meaning that some invisible line is drawn in the sand to seperate Northern Africans from so-called black Africa. This is based on no historicakl facts,but because of Europeans wanting to cliam ancient Egypt.
What most people donot realize is that the Sahara both Central and Southern was once fertile with life,floura and Fauana,and herding and agritcultural farming. Pockets of these original Saharan communities exist in Southern Morocco and Algeria that are called Haratin. These people are not sub-Saharan slaves but are people who lived in the Sahara from time immortal.
Black populations still exist in Northern Africa especially in the Sahara. Egypt once you get past the cities of Cairo and Aelxzandria starts to darken from Light brown to Dark brown. Many Egyptians from Luxor to Aswan can easily be called black if they were transported to America.
Here is some pictures of Luxor Egyptians
http://www.kirikou.com/egipto/familia/familia.htm
http://www.sat7.org/photos/photo008.jpg
Pictures of Egyptian children from Southern Egypt
http://www.sat7.org/photos/photo010.jpg
here is another family,but notice that many relatives are both dark and light. You can tell that both Upper and Lower Egyptians have been mxing for a long time
http://www.sat7.org/photos/photo017.jpg
many of these children look like bi-racials
http://www.copts.net/Images/kosheh/p9a.gif
Here is a picture of a Coptic Christain from Egypt. One thing to note about the Coptics is the fact that many have heavy mixed with Greeks,Syrians,and other races of people. This Coptic man is from the border of El Koshneh which is between Middle Egypt and Upper Egypt
http://www.egyptology.com/reeder/egyptart/photo5.html
---Here is an Egyptian from el Kab carrying water jug. El Kab is the sea of the first Pharoahs.
This observation of Upper Egyptians being darker is often made by European travelers themselves. Denon,one of Napoleans crew,even commented on the apperance of the Upper Egypt reamrking that the inhabitants were very African in apperance. The same is true even today that many African Americans that venture into Luxor to Aswan often get mistaken for Egyptians. Even lighter skinned Africans Americans get mistaken for some Cairene Egyptians.
See the following:
Except for his curly black hair, with its hint of African negro blood, he looked more Arabian than Egyptian; most of the men in the village were shorter, more heavily built, and had strong cheekbones, thick noses, and heavy jaws. Among their rugged faces, Shahhat's stood out as singularly expressive." The reader might conclude from such a description that Critchfield's initial attraction to Shahhat was due to the fact that his features were much less African than those of the majority of Upper Egyptians. Ironically, that is the attitude of some inhabitants of northern Egypt, who refuse to acknowledge Upper Egyptians as Arabs, and consider darker skin to be a negative trait. Such prejudice is the second challenge which faces Upper Egyptians, in addition to poverty: racism. Although I did take issue with the presumably inadvertent racial implications of Critchfield's observations, Shahhat, an Egyptian is an entertaining and vivid introduction to the richness and diversity of rural Egyptian life. Uzra Zeya is a program coordinator for the American Educational Trust specializing in Islamic affairs. Advise and Dissent and Shahhat, an Egyptian are available from the http://www.ahram.org.eg/weekly/2002/598/li1.htm
http://www.washington-report.org/backissues/0390/9003045.htm
|