Ancient Egypt in Afrocentrism

The question of the race of ancient Egyptians was raised historically as a product of the early racial concepts of the 18th and 19th centuries, and was linked to models of racial hierarchy primarily based on craniometry, anthropometry and genetics. A variety of views circulated about the racial identity of the Egyptians and the source of their culture. These were typically identified in terms of a distinction between the Caucasoid and Negroid racial categories. Some scholars argued that ancient Egyptian culture was influenced by other Afroasiatic-speaking populations in Northeast Africa, the Maghreb or the Middle East, while others pointed to influences from various Nubian groups or populations in Europe.

The earliest examples of disagreement regarding the race of the ancient Egyptians occurred in the work of Europeans and Americans early in the 19th century. One early example of such an attempt was an article published in The New-England Magazine of October 1833, where the authors dispute a claim that "Herodotus was given as authority for their being negroes." They point out with reference to tomb paintings: "It may be observed that the complexion of the men is invariably red, that of the women yellow; but neither of them can be said to have anything in their physiognomy at all resembling the Negro countenance."

In the 18th century, Constantin François de Chassebœuf, comte de Volney, wrote "The Copts are the proper representatives of the Ancient Egyptians" due to their "jaundiced and fumed skin, which is neither Greek, Negro nor Arab, their full faces, their puffy eyes, their crushed noses, and their thick lips ... the ancient Egyptians were true negroes of the same type as all native born Africans."

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