History of Africa - Gift of the Nile

I am working through the series History of Africa with Zeinab Badawi.  This episode is called The Gift of the Nile and the run time for this episode is 45:16.

Zeinab Badawi continues to explore the history of Africa and this time she is touring Egypt.  She explores Egyptian Civilization and the Nile River. They were the first civilization in Africa to invent writing.  They left behind spectacular monuments.  She films the mummy and the treasures of King Tutankhamun.   She goes beyond the mummies and the pyramids.  Who were the actual Egyptians?  What were the origins of Ancient Egyptians?

The Ancient Egyptian civilization is linked with the Nile River.  As the climate changed, more and more people were being drawn to the Nile.  They would have settled in small communities along the river.  Here they would farm and raise cattle.  The ancient people of the Nile would also fish and hunt.  Zeinab heads to Southern Egypt and visits a family to learn about how modern-day Egyptians identify themselves.  She takes a meal with the family.  Zeniab asks the question what color skin did the Ancient Egyptians have?  Were the Ancient Egyptians an African Civilization?

Zeniab works on this question with other historians and looks at the evidence as well.  One scholar puts them firmly in the Africa category.  The Ancient Egyptians would have traveled from all over Africa to settle along the Nile River and the Nile River Delta.  She then interviews Zahi Hawass and gets his views.  He believes that asserting that they were a distinct group of people and that DNA could not really fit the Ancient Egyptians into one category or another.

Zeniab continues her exploration of Ancient Egypt, how did a sophisticated survive?  The answer is found in the Nile.  The Nile would have flooded leaving behind rich fertile soil for farming.  She meets up with a local farm to talk about the crops that he grows on his farm.  The farmer newly planted a mango tree on his farm.  This farmer talks about his attachment to the land and wants to continue to grow in the traditions of his ancestors.  Zeniab tries out a piece of sugar cane that the farmer grows.  The Ancient Egyptians managed to tame the Nile to make the best use of the water.  Zeniab walks along the irrigation channels.  Ancient Egyptians would have created irrigation channels to help water their farms and protect their cattle from being swept away in flood waters.

Eventually, the Ancient Egyptians would have created a writing system and a numbers system to record information and communicate with each other.  They created a calendar and studied the skies.  The early Egyptians farm enough food to feed themselves and store.  They had time to make pottery, make crafts, and build grand monuments.  Zeniab travels to the Pharaonic village.  It is an attraction that shows what life in Ancient Egypt was like and is accessible by boat.  Here she takes in a paper-making demonstration.  Ancient Egyptians made paper out of papyrus and it is because they were avid record keepers we know so much about the Ancient Egyptian Civilization.

After tanking in this village, Zeniab goes to the Valley of the Kings.  She talks about how one ancient historian documented the pharaohs and divided the Egyptian Civilization into four different periods.  The Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, New Kingdom, and the later period.  The first Pharoah was named Narmer and he was the one who unified Egypt.  Zeniab continues to learn about the first pharaohs.  So what does Zeniab continue to learn about the pharaohs and the Ancient Egyptian civilization?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out more.

As I continue to go through this series, I am wishing that each episode was a few minutes longer because what Zeinab presents is fascinating.  The chapters were well done, but the identity chapter could have been broken up.  I was missing Joann Fletcher from this episode, but this time I feel like she would have taken away from this primer on the history of Africa.  Maybe one day, she can pair up with Joann and do a history series.  Overall this is a good episode on ancient Egypt and would be something to include as part of the Ancient Egyptian section for a history class.