Page 42 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 32

Ar t & Cultur e
Art & Culture

Nubia — Queen Qalhata’s successor performs a re-animation ritual to enable
her spirit to exist in the next life. Tomb of Queen Qalhata, al-Kurru Necropolis,
Sudan, 2007. Image: Chester Higgins.

In my photographs, I celebrate the sacred enduring and innovative civilization has been

agency of people of African descent and uprooted from the memory of African people.
their foundational influence on all Western The north-flowing River Nile in northeastern
religions. The images illustrate a millennia- Africa is fed by two main tributaries:
long migration of faith up and down the the Blue Nile, originating at Lake Tana,

River Nile, the living waters that link Ethiopia, which contributes eighty percent
Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt. The ancient of the water as well as the fertile silt and the
land of Egypt was called Kemet, translated White Nile, which arises in the Great Lakes
as The Black Land. The ancient territory region of Central Africa. For this study of

of Sudan south of Kemet was called Nubia, the origins of spirituality and faith, I begin
from the ancient word nub, or gold. With this in Ethiopia. The Blue Nile River from the
visual record of faith, I propose to redefine Ethiopian highlands flows downhill north
the beginnings of belief at its earthly place to Khartoum, Sudan. Here, the Blue and

of origin, along the sacred Nile. Coming White Niles merge to form the River Nile
face to face with the monumental remains that courses through the deserts of Sudan
of Ancient Egypt, I realized that the African and Egypt on its way to empty into the
foundation of religion had been obscured by Mediterranean Sea.

miseducation. The story of Ancient Egypt’s

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