Azanism: A Critical Analysis of the Mytho-Reality Complexity of the

Azanian Nation

Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades

an der Fakultaet Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften,
Fachbereich Sozialwissenschaften
der Universitaet Hamburg

Vorgelegt von:

Raul Guevara Diaz

October 2009
 Angaben der Gutachter

Erste Gutachter: Zweitgutachterin

Professor Dr. Cord Jakobeit Prof. Dr. Marienne Pieper
Institut fuer Politikwissenschaft, Institut fuer Soziologie,
Allende-Platz 1, Allende-Platz 1,
20146 Hamburg, 20146 Hamburg,
Deutschland Deutschland

Datum der letztzen muendlichen Pruefung

19 Mai, 2011
 1

I. INTRODUCTION

Substantial amount of academic literature in the field of social sciences (specialized in ethnic
and nationalist politics) has dealt considerably with both the colonial and post-colonial
aspects of the social and political history of Africa, and undeniably the conventional wisdom
about Africa‘s political landscape should be best characterized as enduring instability. Two
main factors, namely the role of colonialism and the [supposed] heterogeneity of the society,
are considered crucial to explaining such a disturbing socio-political scenario. As would be
expected most concern scholars and authors in this field have dealt with the general political
situation in Africa within the modern paradigm of territorial nation-states. In other words,
most theories of ethnic and nationalist politics have dealt with Africa‘s political instability
within the formal context of the national state system (or statism). Even those who have
attempted to explore the possibility of an integrated or homogeneous social growth or identity
formation prior to indigenous Africans encounter with colonialism have often done so within
that modern paradigm of statism. Hence, unsurprisingly, conventional wisdom espoused
specifically by agents of colonialism/pseudo-nationalism tends to consider Africa‘s different
dialects or linguistic groups as constituting ethnic and/or national categories in their own
right.
While such traditional approaches to analysing Africa‘s social history might be appealing to
formal political requirements, they are in themselves disturbing in that they tend to fuel or
incinerate the enduring instability characteristic of African politics today. This in turn prompts
such reasonably and urgent question(s) as: whether, prior to Africans encounter with political
colonialism, the local population had, at least, in its documented social history, never
experienced any form of blanket socio-cultural order that could qualify them as constituting
an ethno-cultural national community? It must be noted, first, that by taking into account the
social history of pre-colonial/political Africa, this doctoral research does not intend to reduce
Africans encounter with colonialism to Western Europe‘s occupation of Africa from the 17th
to the 20th century but shall be including much early colonial encounters, as with ―Hyksos‖
[partial] military occupation of ―Lower Egypt‖ in the period between eighteenth and
seventeenth century B.C.E and so forth. Although the exact period of the Hyksos conquest
and occupation of Ancient Egypt remains contested, I share the calendar proposed by Martin
Bernal in Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization (1991) on Hyksos
arrival in Egypt; but, unlike Bernal and some Afrocentric scholars, I not only consider
foreigners arrival in [what is now] Africa recent, but shall be arguing that the only role such
political outsiders or colonial agents played in the indigenous culture was its destruction—the
 2

most recent of which was ―the politicized destruction of the nose of the Sphinx (supposedly
either by Napoleon in 1798 or Mohammed Saim el-Dahr in 1378.‖1 Another reason for
preferring Bernal‘s approach to the Hyksos‘ role in Egypt is his position that they introduced
the Semitic language(s) into the previously ―Kushitic Egypt.‖ So, while I share the views of
those scholars who, as will be shown later, agree that the wealth of cultural relics—i.e. the
ruins of the cultural institutions of dynastic Egypt, Zimbabwean ruins etc.—that now spread
across Africa was primarily an indigenous culture initiative (with later external politicized
culture meddlings), I also differ with most on the subject for following those who uphold the
thesis of a convergent/homogeneous culture growth for the indigenous population as a whole.
The prior existence of such a blanket socio-cultural order should serve to stimulate
contemporary debate about the national phenomenon in general and with reference to African
politics in particular.

Before we turn to the structure of this dissertation thesis, it is important to first ponder briefly
on the methodology as this will give us an overview of some of the major themes to be
discussed or the unfamiliar terminologies that will be used in this research. Indeed, as with
most previous social sciences doctoral researches, the originality of this particular dissertation
lies in its attempt to analytically establish a homogeneous ethno-cultural national
consciousness for the indigenous Africans prior to their encounter with colonialism.
Consequently, the concept of ―Azanism‖ invoked or introduced in this work should serve as
an ideological premise for such a homogeneous national culture, if there had been any as later
arguments tend to suggest. Thus, methodologically, this research will be largely
―analytical‖—that is, analysing not only traditional academic literature on the subject of
ethnic and nationalist politics, but also local myths, legends and oral narratives attributed to
local culture institutions—such as Hiku-Ptah, Manfour/Menēfre (Greek Memphis),
Thibe/Thebes, Napata, Meroē, and Bunkper etc.—with the aim of identifying signs of ethnic
or cultural convergence that would have transcended Africa‘s conventional linguistic
differences had later political interventions not interrupted its natural growth. In this sense, the
literature to be used for this research will be of diverse sources. Like the concept of Azanism,
the closely related concept of Azania should also be used for such an authentically derived
ethno-cultural/national community prior to African politics. In any event, because of the
mythological origin of the Azanian concept, it would be appropriate to explore it in detail in
the section reserved specifically for the ―Critical Analysis of the Mytho-reality Complexity of
1
Hans-Christian Huf , 2002. Sphinx: Geheimnisse der Geschichte-Von Spartacus bis Napoleon. Muenchen, 80-
84.
 3

the Azanian Nation.‖ For our present purpose (introduction), it suffices to maintain that
Azania is used here to represent an ethno-cultural national community of the Bantu-
Ethiopians prior to colonial African politics.
Hiku-Ptah, from which Aigyptos (Egypt) is derived, was originally used for the Grand culture
institutions in honour of the soul of Ptah; while Manfour/Menēfre (or Greek Memphis) was
the capital city of [what] Egyptologists generally consider to be the First Egyptian Dynasty
founded by Min (the Menes of Herodotus). Martin Bernal for his part states in his ―Black
Athena Writes Back…” that ‗the name translated as ―Memphis‖ was Hkpt, from the Egyptian
Ht kЗ Pth (―House of the ka, spirit of Ptah‖), the religious name of the city, from which, by
extension to the whole country, the Greek Aigyptos and our ―Egypt‖ are derived‘(2001: 304).
Most Egyptologists also agree that Ancient Egyptians called their nation ―Kem or Cham,‖
meaning black (some would say after the black soil of the Nile valley). However, unlike
conventional views, this work derives both Cham and Manfour/Menēfre (Memphis and its
founder Min) from a Bantu-Ethiopian language called Moar (with its speakers known as
Moab(s)) spoken today in North and North-western Africa. Mōb generally stands for mouth,
so Moar simply means the people of words or language. ―Cham‖ in Moar generally stands
for ancestor; so there is Cham-Ba (male ancestor) or Cham-Po (female ancestor), while
Manfou(i)r/menēfre has the mythological equivalence of infinite phenomenon, Moab
definition of life. ‗Maann‘, in essence, means phenomenon while ‗Fou(i)n‘ is derived from
Fou(i)r, respiration. Manfouir is sometimes also used by this group to represent ultimate-
freedom. Accordingly, total freedom and life (in its eternal manifestation) are synonymous.
‗Min‘, the founder of Memphis, in Moar is a demonstration of a first person simply meaning
me. However, with this group the demonstration is often accompanied by a gesture with the
demonstrator pointing either his finger to (or placing the hand on) the chest—as do the so-
called Bushmen in the Kalahari when greeting—when claiming credit for, say, an
extraordinary act or achievement, especially when such an act is a contested one. If anything,
C.A. Diop argues in his ―African Origins of Civilization: Myth or Reality‖ that ‗only the
indigenous population/Blacks were privileged in serving the cult of the god Min‘ (1974: 147).
Egyptologists generally agree today that Thibé/Thebes (Karnak/Luxor) was central to the
indigenous cultural institutions of Hiku-Ptah and Manfouir; and similarly, Napata and Meroē
are also generally considered to have been local settlements culturally affiliated to the
Ethiopian Kingdom or later Dynastic Egypt.
On the other hand, the culture symbolism of Bunkper (―Old River‖) seems rather unfamiliar
to conventional academia, but popular among the elderly of the Moabs. Interestingly, this
 4

particular indigenous group not only continue to worship the Sun-god today, who they call
Hyen-Nu/Hyeru (―One-hand‖), but continue to adore the pre-dynastic crocodile deity of the
Great Nile Valley—the latter‘s meat they are morally constrained (or forbidden …) from
eating. In addition, the original version of this crocodile deity has an ankh inscribed on its
neck. While it seems too early to substitute Hyen-Nu/Hyeru with the dynastic Egyptian myth
of Heru/Horus, but it is also compelling not to treat such recurring similarities … as mere
coincidence either. For the early culture practice of not killing crocodiles or eating their meat
seems to have anticipated the idea of the mummification of the sacred bull ―Apis‖ of
Memphis or the later symbolic use of the ram as the culture representative of Amon/Amen in
the culture institutions of Hiku-Ptah, Meroe, etc.—for both sacred animals were supposedly
vegetarians. Furthermore, the perception that the key to humanity‘s innate quest for eternal
life is found in vegetation also fits well with the idea of ―golden leaf scales used in the process
of weighing the souls of a deceased person in Osiris judgement of the dead in dynastic
Egypt‖, as in Martin Bernal‘s Response to Critics in Black Athena Writes Back, (2001: 302-
303). The golden Ankh symbolizes eternity in dynastic Egypt. And C.A. Diop also accurately
points to the culture role played by Osiris as both god of the Nile and vegetation (Diop, 1974:
88).
Importantly, following the Manfouir/Memphetic concept of life as infinite phenomenon
mentioned earlier, it is thus presumed that death would have been a latecomer in this people‘s
culture history. In fact, according to a local mythological narration, in the beginning the
celestial provinces or the sky where eternal life dwells was originally within the proximity of
human habitation, Earth—thereby facilitating humankind transition between both provinces.
In those early days, everything was in abundance and humanity knew virtually nothing about
death until one day a Witch/Wizard—out of laziness and greed—decided to cut and use part
of one of the celestial bodies as meat/food for her/his family‘s dinner. Angered by such
―violent bloody‖ act against one of Hyen-Nu‘s eternal bodies, Hyen-Nu not only severed the
link between the earth and the celestial provinces (where s/he/it withdrew), but, even worse,
introduced death on Earth. A similar mythological inquest into the origin of death is noted of
the Dinka. As Liendhardt finds out, ―the Dinka believe that the sky, where ―Divinity‖ is
located, and earth, where man dwells, were at one time contiguous, the sky lying just beneath
the earth and being connected by a rope, so that men could move at will between the two
realms. There was no death and the first man and woman were permitted but a single grain of
millet a day, which was all that they at the time required. One day the woman, of course,
decided out of greed, to plant more than the permitted grain of millet, and in her avid haste
 5

and industry accidentally struck Divinity with the handle of the hoe. Offended, he severed the
rope, withdrew into the distant sky of today, and left man to labour for his food, to suffer
sickness and death, and to suffer separation from the source of his being, his Creator‖
(Lienhardt, 1961: 28-55;2 Geertz, 1973: 106-107). Such mythological inquests into the origins
of death might sound rather primitive and trivial for some, but both myths seem to explain
why, from the onset, the culture institutions of the Ethiopian kingdom or later dynastic
Egyptian took a celestial orientation in their quest for eternal life. Moreover, the former
group‘s claim to northern or north-eastern descent of Azania is supported by their mythical
employment of the ―Tortoise‖ to compose the hymn of their [lament] for having left their
ancestral land following the devastation of that land and its cultural institutions by successive
economically induced colonial incursions from abroad.
This Moab group, in particular, again maintain to have originated from the same paternal
ancestor, whose four wives gave birth to Seven sons—who not only became the Seven
Sages/Stars of the national council of the ―Twelve Elderly,‖ but also the seven days of the
Egyptian calendar of twelve months (the Month in Moar is synonymous with the Star or
Moon).
Thus, if anything, it should by now be clear that this thesis‘ interpretation of most local
myths, legends, and oral narratives and many of the terminologies that shall be used herein are
primary and therefore authentic, especially given that the Semitic idiom that was later used in
the decipherment of demotic texts of the dynastic Egypt was a latecomer in the ancient
Ethiopian or later ancient Egyptian culture (not to mention Ancient Egyptians secrecy with
their knowledge system). Champollion‘s use of the Hermetic tradition and Coptic in his
decipherment of the hieroglyphs also found mention in Martin Bernal‘s Black Athena Volume
I (BAI) chapter V (footnote 47). However, while, in crediting the authenticity of local
sources, the author bears the sole responsibility for the interpretation of the indigenous
mythologies and mythical terms used in this research—most of which were [originally] orally
transmitted and already familiar to the academic world, their originality should rightly be
attributed to the culture custodians of the Bantu-Ethiopian Kingdom (henceforth called
Azania). Despite attributing the originality of the current interpretation of local mythologies,
legends and narratives, to the indigenous Elderly (the Sages)—the original embodiment of the
social and culture history of the Azanian people; who, unfortunately most contemporary
academic authorities have often overlooked in their [superficial] inquest into social history of
the indigenous Azanians, it should be added that the author of this doctoral thesis does not

2
G. Lienhardt, 1961. Divinity and Experience. Oxford.
 6

boast or pretend to have direct access to the ―Elderly Twelve‖ of local culture institutions in
this ongoing attempt to analytical derive a homogeneous culture for the Azanians as whole.
Nevertheless, the fact of having been brought up among the Azanians (and having dedicated
my research activities to the history of their social growth or identity formation) should give
this academic contribution the merit of critical review—for following others in purporting
that the indigenous populace of [what is now formally] Africa was once a homogeneous
ethno-cultural national community.
As a matter of fact, in contemporary nationalist literature the principle cleavage among
theorists of ethnic and national identities is between those who posit that such identities are
enduring and culturally based (primordialists/ethnosymbolists) and those who view them as
constructions and instrument for gain without deep roots (constructivists, circumstantialists,
functionalist or instrumentalist). The primordialist/ethno-symbolist approach, in particular,
view ethnic identity as intrinsic and constant and that attachment to an ethnic group can be
objectively and culturally defined. This perspective assumes that the pre-existence of ethnic
identities in form of gemeinsame culture, myths, religion, language and kinship ties, and [an
original homeland/territoriality] help explain the ethnic origins of nations (Smith A., 1986). In
his explanation of the potency of ethnic identity Paul Brass 3 sees human beings as an
essentially social, group oriented species, and on the basis of this has passionate attachment to
self.
Of course, genuine/culture nations are well known for their resilience to any change that has
the potential of undermining their ardent quest for self-identity, unity, and ultimate freedom.
While the Azania[n] national model differs little from others in this regard, it stands out for
critical review when it comes to materializing those core nationalist objectives (self-identity,
unity and ultimate freedom). As noted earlier, special about the Azanian nation is its
conceptual equation of real freedom with life—that is, Manfour (infinite phenomenon), and
knowledge with right, the key to attaining the former. Azanians belief that the culture
predisposions of Ptah—their part of mother Earth—is a sacred vehicle in their ardent and
relentless quest for ultimate freedom thus go along confirming why cultural nationalists see in
territoriality a natural pre-condition for their contribution to (or realization of) the purpose of
life. In other words, natural autonomous homelands as self governing entities are crucial to
the realization of nationalist projects since it is in them cultures are cultivated and or
renovated towards nationalists objective of ultimate freedom. Sir Roger Casement, a Irish
nationalist during his trial for treason in 1916 is quoted by the postcolonialist theorist Robert J
3
Brass P R., 2004.‗Elite Interests, popular passions, and social power in the language politics of India.‘ Ethnic
and Racial Studies 27, 353-75.
 7

C. Young as arguing that: ―Self-government is our right – thing no more to be doled out to us
or withheld … than the right to feel the Sun or smell the flowers or to love our kind.‖ (Young,
2003: 121). As Margaret Moore also points out, ‗collective self-government is an important
good in that it gives expression to moral communities; it reflects people identity; it is a form
in which autonomy can be expressed; in which people are empowered to shape the content in
which they live and realize their political aspirations. When a group of people is deprived of
its territory, it is also deprived of the main institutional conditions or means to exercise its self
government‘ (Moore, 2001: 167-9). And I will now add to contribute, uniquely and
purposefully, to the service of life. After all, if the Earth is not only a sacred vehicle for
humanity‘s realistic cause for ultimate freedom, but a platform from which distinct nations
could make use of their naturally endowed intellects/knowledge in the service of life, it then
follows automatically that any attempt to deprive nations of their natural habitat is tantamount
to denying them the right of being a legitimate party to humanity‘s curious (but legitimate)
inquest into the profound depths—the culture custodians of the Ethiopian Kingdom would
paint their deities black and modern scientists would allude to Schwarze-Löcher (black-
holes)—that hold the secrets of eternal Existence.
It is precisely such unconventional views from the culture institutions of the then Bantu-
Ethiopian Kingdom—e.g. Bunkper, Hiku-Ptah, Napata, Meroë, etc.—that make the over-all
concept of Azanism/Azania worthy of critical review, especially at a time when proponents of
pseudo-nationalism are blatantly calling for the destruction of genuine nations (as in Arab
pseudo-nationalists colonial efforts in northern Azania or Al Qaeda‘s appeal to empty colonial
Sudan of its indigenous population). This notwithstanding, it should be noted that ethnic
groups or nations are well capable of co-existing peacefully with each other, based on
reciprocal reception of and respect for each other culture authenticity and national territories,
but damaging factors such as the malign intentions of political elites often tend to manipulate
ethnic identities for the purpose of achieving political and economic goals (Stewart, 2006: 2).4
This is particularly true in terms of understanding the early perception of enduring instability
characteristic of African politics today.
For example, after meticulously scrutinizing the process by which Eritrea forged its national
identity, and on the basis of which it eventually achieved statehood, and Somaliland‘s
apparent route to secession, Dominique Jacquin-Berdal came to the conclusion that in both
cases it was the ―colonial self‖ rather than ethnicity that provided the basis for secession,
while it was ―war‖ that proved to be the catalyst of nation formation. Three key events are
4
Stewart, F., 2002. Horizontal Inequalities: a Neglected Dimension of Development. Oxford: Queen Elizerbeth
House.
 8

important in her analysis of the formation of Eritrea in particular: The first was the creation of
Eritrea as a colonial state, an event which not only provided Eritrea with its name and
geographical identity, but with a history distinct from that of Ethiopia. The second was the
period of Federation (1952-62) during which Eritrea acquired the institutions and symbols of
autonomy, and finally the liberation war itself, during which the nationalist struggle gradually
spread from a small elite to encompass the Eritrean masses. It was also during this period that
Eritrea‘s identity was cemented and given its present characteristic by the ―dominant
Movement,‖ the EPLF. In short, while Dominique‘s position seems close to the ethno-
symbolist perspective that one cannot make bricks without straw (Anthony D. Smith, 1986:
―Ethnic Origins of Nations‖), in her analysis of the African national states that straw was not
ethnic. So, in her critique of the ethnic interpretation of the origins and spread of nationalism
her argument is simply that in much of Africa, ethnicity as much as nationalism is a modern
creation. She maintains accurately that, the colonial administration‘s need to ―map‖ the
population under its control led to the establishment of categories whose contours were in
many cases substantially different from those that had previously prevailed (Jacquin-Berdal,
2002:135-138). This is almost like suggesting that the colonial legacy pulled in two opposite
directions towards the creation of an official statist theory of territorial national state which
for the past endured, if seldom in condition of much instability or welfare; and towards a
communal and ethnic ordering of society, which in few cases has metamorphosed into viable
political order and in many other has become the agency of disorder and intra-state conflicts.
There is indeed no shortage of references supporting the argument that the history of the
African states has been characterized by violent subjugation and domination; while intra-state
conflicts, violent political crises, political instability and state failure characterize the post-
independence African politics. ‗By all considerations the colonialism of the nineteenth
century Africa was, among others, highly competitive and governed after the 1884/5 Berlin
doctrine of effective occupation. This not only required that the subject population bear the
brunt of its own subjugation, but also facilitated the creation of artificial command structures
reminiscent of the Westphalian natiotnal state model. The command structures which resulted,
even though its expatriate superstructure was modest, achieved unchallenged hegemony by
World War I (WW I), and enjoyed an ascendancy sufficient to appropriate significant fraction
of the meagre income of its subjects and direct a large amount of labour into economic
pursuits desired by the colonial state for fiscal and other reasons (export crop cultivation,
plantation labour, mining work force etc). Although some authors viewed the colonial state as
weak, relative to its vocation of low-cost domination (―decentralized despotism, in the apt
 9

phrase of Mahmood Mamdani‖5), prior to WW II the scope of its authority was striking. In
the most part, brute force and violent subjugation was at the core of its survival strategy, and
this became more apparent as genuine nationalist sentiments began to fuel resistance.‘ 6
Eventually, the colonial state was compelled by events of WW II to relinquish, at least
formally, partial control of most part of its command structures to local intermediary groups,
post colonial African leaders, who for their part have, until this day, been unable to turn the
wheel in favour of genuine nationalist demands for (self-identity, unity, and ultimate
freedom). In this sense, it might be argued that there was a tacit incorporation of the legacy of
the colonial state legacy into the post-colonial African nation-state system. Hence some
authors paint a rather bleak future for both the concept of colonial Africa and its associated
territorial states.
W. Alade Fawole, for one, argues that ―the African national state model which was initiated
through the colonial fiat, until circumstances of WW II made the grant for independence
unstoppable, was…arguably set for eventual collapse.‖7 And it is true that since independence
much of Africa has been virtually consumed by warfare—e.g. in the Great Lakes and Sudan
since the 1950s, and Liberia, Sierra Leone and Mauritania since the 1980s (but with far
reaching political ramifications for the region as a whole). 8 According to Stephen Ellis, many
of the ongoing conflicts in Africa are just the latest twists in a long and bloody history that
goes back to the circumstances of decolonization (Ellis, 2005: 140-141). In his study On the
Postcolony (2001), the postcolonial theorist Achille Mbembe, stressed that ―the forms of
governance established in many sub-Saharan African countries by colonial powers did not
simply lay the foundations for the form of political sovereignty and civil society modelled on
the modern European nation-states such as Britain, France and Germany. Hence, ―the colony
is primarily a place where violence and upheaval is lived, where violence is lived into
structures and institutions.‖ Consequently, colonialism undermined rather than enabled the
possibility of economic and political sovereignty in the postcolony (Morton, 2007: 174). It is
for this reasons that Mbembe questions the optimism often associated with decolonization:

5
Mahmood, Mamdani, 1996. Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of late Colonialism.
Princeon, NJ: Princeton University Press.
6
Crawford, Young, 2004. The End of the Post-Colonial State in Africa? Reflection on changing African Political
dynamics. African Affairs 103, 23-49.
7
Fawole W Alade, 2004. ―A Continent in Crisis: Internal Conflicts and External Interventions in Africa.‖
Affrican Affairs. 103, 297-303.
8
One of the early perceptive Africanist scholars to apprehend the impact of colonial rule on the conflicts in
African States was James O‘Connell and he had concluded as early as the 1960s that the mode of independence
for the new countries sowed the seeds of later trouble (See, James, O‘Connell, 1967. ―The Inevitability of
Instability.‖ Journal of Modern African Studies 5, (2), 181).
 10

―Is there any difference – and, if so, of what sort? – between what happened during the colony and ―what
comes after?‖ Is everything really called into question, is everything suspended, does everything really
begin all over again, to the point where it can be said that the formerly colonized recovers existence,
distances him-/herself from his/her previous state?‖ (Mbembe, 2001: 196-97; Morton, 2007: 170).

From the foregoing, then, constructivists are in some sense right to assert that ―ethnicity and
nationalism‖, in specific reference to African politics, is a modern construct. This is not only
true of the Eritrean politics discussed earlier, but also what led to the 1994 Rwandan (and/or
the ongoing genocide in Congo, Sudan/Darfur, and Mauritania). In Rwanda‘s case, Moya
Collett maintains that ‗Belgian colonialism was responsible for solidifying, if not creating,
oppositional ethnic identities which had previously been malleable and relatively unimportant
to Rwanda‘s social existence.‘9 Essentially, Moya‘s argument goes along confirming
constructivists perception that ―ethnic identities are activated depending on the actor‘s
subjective perception of the situation in which s/he finds himself‖ and ―the salience s/he
attributes to ethnicity as relevant factor in that situation‖(Okamura, 1981: 454). In Ivory
Coast, for example, the French deliberately forged four politically relevant ethnic groups
(Mande, Voltaic, Krou and the Akans: now crystallized by post-colonial local leaders into
South [Christians] versus North [Moslems]) out of the 60 or more dialects/sublanguages, the
overall result of which is the current Ivorian crisis. The same is true of present day Nigerian
politics where English colonialism succeeded in forging the so-called Ibo-Hausa-Yoruba
political syndrome, thereby pitching Africa‘s so-called political relevant groups against each
other (for the control of Africa‘s seemingly depleting natural resources amidst the natural
upshot of the native population).10
As observed earlier, the pathological drive to prevent any form of unity from emerging in
Africa does not necessarily obliterate the possibility of the persistence of a blanket pre-
African—that is, Azanian identity conscience, which could be revoked for critical analysis
had scholars genuinely wanted to understand the complexity of social growth or identity
formation in that part of the world. Herein, thus, lie some of the shortcomings of the
constructivists arguments. One major problem with the Constructivists position, especially,

9
Moya, Collett, 2006. ―Ivorian Identity Constructions: Ethnicity and Nationalism in the prelude to civil war.‖
Nations and Nationalism 12 (4), 613-629 (esp., 614).
10
In Nigeria‘s case, for example, colonial governor, Sir Hugh Clifford, pursued a deliberate policy of ethnic
separateness by adopting a style of administration that, according to him, should secure to each separate people
the right to maintain its own identity, its individuality and its nationality, its chosen form of government; and the
perculiar political and social form, which have been evolved for it by the wisdom and accumulated experience of
generations of its forebears. Quotation taken from J S. Coleman (1958), ‗Nigeria: Background to Nationalism.‘
Berkeley: Berkeley University Press; and recited in Okwudiba Nnoli, 1978. ‗Ethnic politics in Nigeria.‘ Enugu,
112.
 11

when it comes to discussing the social history of Africa, is the often erroneous attempt to
(selectively) reduce the legacy of African colonialism to the recent event of the 1884/5 Berlin
conference. Such deliberate reductionism for formal political reasons fails because there is
credible evidence to sustain nationalists claim that [even] the concept of Africa is not
necessarily indigenous (Williams C., 1987: 65); and that Arabs only gained control of the
North of Africa as late as the 7th and 8th Century AD. (One must not forget that it was not until
the late 16th and early 17th century that Egypt became largely Arabized, an assimilation
process reminiscent of what is currently underway in Sudan and Mauritania respectively. In
this light, it suffices thus to argue that prior to indigenous Africans encounter with
colonialism there should have been some form of ethno-cultural convergence or integration
without which the concept of Azanian Nation would be unthinkable.

Indeed, there are those who think there are good reasons to believe in pre-Africa culture
homogeneity; and the fact that the indigenous populace had, in the past, acted concurrently to
external colonial threats. In fact, as recently as 500 BC the great Persian warrior, Cambyses,
while invading Egypt, planned an expedition against the Ethiopians; but before proceeding
upon the belligerent enterprise sent out:

Spies in the first instance, who were to see the table of the sun, which was said to exist among the
Ethiopians, and besides, to explore other things, and, to cover their design, they were to carry presents to
the king … When the messengers of Cambyses arrived among the Ethiopians they gave the present to the
king, and addressed him as follows: Cambyses, the king of the Persians, desires of becoming your friend
and ally, had sent us, bidding us confer with you, and he presents you with these gifts, which are such as
himself most delights in.

But the Ethiopian king knowing that they came as spies spoke thus to them:

Neither has the king of Persia sent you with these gifts to me because he values my alliance, nor do you
speak the truth, for you come as spies of my kingdom. Nor is he a just man; for if he were just he would
not desire any other territory than his own; nor would he reduce people to servitude who have done him
no injury. However, give him this bow, and say these words to him: King of the Ethiopians advices the
king of the Persians, when the Persians can …easily draw a bow of this, then to make war on the
Macrobian Ethiopians with more numerous forces; but until that time let him thank the gods, who have
not inspired the sons of the Ethiopians with the desire of adding another land to their own (Blyden (1871)
quoted in Kedourie E. 1970: 267-269)
 12

This well formulated argument of territorially induced ethnic nationalism advanced by the
Ethiopian leadership here; and their later efforts to recover lost territories to foreign colonial
occupations (and their local pseudo-nationalist collaborators) is also briefly compressed in the
following statement:

―...one Prince rules in Avaris, another in Ethiopia, and here I am, associated with an Asiatic and a Negro.
Each has his slice of Egypt, dividing up the land with me. … .None can rest in peace, despoiled as all are
by the imposts of the Asiatics. I will grapple with them, and cut open their belly: I will save Egypt and
over-throw the Asiatics‖ (Smith, 1986: 51).

Interestingly, these quotes above seem to strengthen the previous position on the persistence
of ethno-cultural national consciousness among the Ethiopians prior to their encounter with
colonialism. For instance, the idea of ―the Table of the Sun‖ among the Ethiopians by
Cambyses men presupposes a socio-ethical norm that not only gives the Ethiopian kind its
unique moral course, but, in general, encodes the Ethiopians perception of the world around
them. But who were/are these Ethiopians?
Blyden, for one, traces the origin of Ethiopia in the word ham (derives from Cham/Kem). And
Prof. Rev. A.H. Sayce argues that prior to the conquest of Lower Egypt by the ―Hyksos‖;
and/or the arrival of Semites most popular ―immigrant‖, biblical/koranic Abraham, in Ancient
Egypt, the original inhabitants of Egypt were indeed Hamites (Sayce, 1895: 20). The root of
the word Ham, in Hebrew Hamam, Blyden asserts, conveys the sense of hot and swarty. So
the Greeks called the descendants of Ham, from their black complexion, the ―Ethiopians,‖ a
word signifying ―burnt‖ or ―black‖ face. Herodotus…tells us that there were two divisions of
Ethiopians, who did not differ at all from each other in appearance, except in their language
and hair; ―for the eastern Ethiopians, he says are straight haired, but those of Libya (or Africa)
have more curly than any other people‖ (Blyden, 1871; Kedourie 1970: 254). Ernst Cassirer
in his The Myth of the State also has the following to say about the Ethiopians: „…die Dichter
und Mythenschoepfer gaben der gewoehnlichen Versuchung der Menschen nach; die
Aethiopier, sagt Xenophanos, machen ihre Goetter Schwarz und stumpfnasig“ (Cassirer,
1949; 2002: 73). Jan Knappert sounds rather undeterred when he specifically stresses on the
expression of the unique Bantu features of the Ethiopian type stamped on the Sphinx of
Ancient Egypt (Knappert, 1997). By similar analytical token, one could also reasonably argue
that the relentless drive by the Ethiopians, in the course of their social history, to recover
Kem/Cham, their ancestral land (northern Azania), from foreign colonial occupations should
have been analysed within the contours of genuine nationalists culture endeavour (or demands
 13

for self-identity, cultural unity, and total freedom). In any case, since the Ethiopians were the
original inhabitants of the land of Cham/Kem and rest of pre-colonial Africa, where in those
days colonialism had not yet demonstrated its destructive potential, those grappling with the
intricacies of the national phenomenon should have at least strived to find out whether the
Ethiopians had—prior to the introduction of divisive politics in Africa—indeed shared a
gemeinsame culture that could qualify them as a genuine national community?

In his Old Africa Rediscovered, Basil Davidson, for one, has incisively and persuasively
insisted on such a profound culture interpenetration and interdependence among the
indigenous Azanians, which not only have the potential of elucidating the complexity of
social growth and identity formation in that part of the world, but, in general, also indicates
that the indigenous Azanians, even in conventional wisdom, would have acted culturally as
homogeneous ethnic community. As he observes, ‗the greatest of all ancient Egyptian temples
of Nubia—of the southern land that would later become the kingdom of Kush—was built by
an eighteenth dynasty Pharoah (Amenophis III, 1407-1370 B.C., and he, just like Tutmosis
III.., had Nubian blood in his veins) at Sulbe on the west bank of the Nile. Its avenue of
approach was guided by ‗rams‘ and ‗lions‘ caved in granites. Both rams and lions were taken
to temples at Barkal near Napata on the Nile, by kushite pharaohs of the twenty five
dynasty—they who had [re]conquered Egypt from the south. Thereafter the ram symbol of
Amon/Amun also found its godlike way along (what is now called) the west coast of Africa
right across all the people of the region. (It is important to note that in the picturesque table
below, Amon is represented as source of eternal life—even though later ‗self-proclaimed‘
Pharaohs were notorious for reinterpreting the original indigenous-national culture politically
to suit their pseudo-nationalist ambitions, as the accompany miniature script also confirms):

Image from the Temple of Luxor, depicting Amenhotep III applying to his own human wife the Legend of Thoth announcing to Neith (the
primordial Waters) that she would become pregnant with Ra (the Sun-God or King of the Sky/heaven), the actual impregnation delivered by
Knoph and Hathor via the ankh, leaving Neith ―ever virgin,‖ the subsequent birth over a birth brick, and the praise raised to the child by her
 14

courtiers and the gods. the form of Ra at this point was Ra-Amun, who was becoming identified as Horus. The Child that is consequently as
being Ra/Horus, went on to become Akhenaton (Amenophis IV). 11

The Mandinka of present day West Africa consider that the God of storm (water) and thunder
(fire) takes earthly shape as ram. The Yoruba national God, Shango, appears with a ram‘s
mask, and is equally God of storm and thunder. The Baoulé of present day Ivory Coast
represent Nianné, the personified sky with a mask of ram.12 For the Fon people of Dahomey,
the God of lightening is also a ram. Divine rams in one guise or another, with one meaning or
another, carry on right down through the Cameroons into the remote basin of the Congo.
Carvers of wood are making them until this day. In Davidson‘s words, these traces of cultural
interpenetration can be many times multiplied, and are fresh proofs of that great unity in
diversity which gives so much of Azania (pre-colonial Africa) its characteristic quality of
resonance, complexity and age‘ (Davidson, 1959; 1970: 67-68). Wainwright, G. A. has shown
―how priestly breastplates, from Yoruba areas in southern Nigeria of the medieval period,
recall similar models dedicated to Amon/Amun in dynastic Egypt‖ (Wainwright, 1951;
Davidson, 1959/70: 68). ―The divine kingship‖ of Jukun of Benue River, in present day
Nigeria, recalls the ―divine kingship‖ of Kush and Egypt; and is far from being alone in that
respect (Davidson, 1970: 68).
In her latest study of the beliefs and legends of the Akan people of Ghana (Nŋhana), Mrs.
Meyerowitz, E.L.R has suggested ―parallels between the old beliefs of the dynastic north and
cults of the Moon-god and Sun-god and other divinities of the Akan people of Ghana, so that
the philosophy of the human origins of the one comes to seem remarkably close to the same
kind of pondering of the other‖ (Meyerowitz, 1958; Davidson, 1959/70: 68).
In essence, I share C.A.Diop emphasis that, Ethiopia and Africa interior have always been
considered by the Egyptians as the holy land from which their forebears had come. Quoting a
passage from Chérubini he refers to the enthusiastic reception of an Ethiopian king, Shabaka,
by the Egyptians in the closing days of Egypt‘s cultural prominence:

―In any event, it is remarkable that the authority of the king of Ethiopia seemed recognized by Egypt, less
as that of an enemy imposing his rule by force, than as a guardianship invited by the prayers of a long-
suffering country, afflicted anarchy within its borders and weakened abroad. In this monarch, Egypt found
a representative of its ideas and beliefs, a zealous regenerator of its institutions, a powerful protector of its
independence. The reign of Shabaka was in fact viewed as one of the happiest in Egyptian memory. His

11
For similar accounts of divine births associated with the Pharaohs see Clayton, Paeter A. 1994. Chronologies
of the Pharaohs: The Reign-by-Reign Record of the Rulers and Dynasties of Ancient Egypt. London: Thames and
Hudson; O‘ Conner, David and Silverman David, 1995. Ancient Egyptian Kingship. New York.
12
It is worth adding that the committed culturalists among the Baoulés still refrain from eating the meat of rams.
 15

dynasty, adopted over the land of the Pharaohs, ranks twenty-fifth in the order of succession of national
families who have occupied the throne‖ (quoted in C.A.Diop, 1974:146) 13.

As Diop rightly assert, the kinship of Egypt and Nubia, of Mesraim and Kush, both sons of
Ham/Cham, is revealed by many events in Egypto-Nubian history.
Succinctly, until the close of Egyptian Empire, the kings of Nubia (Sudan) were to bear the
same title as the Egyptian Pharaoh, that of the Hawk of Nubia. Amon and Osiris were
represented as coal-black; Isis was a Black goddess. And, as noted earlier, only the indigenous
populace had access to the cult of Min (Diop, 1974: 146-147). In other words, only the
indigenous population had originally the legitimate right to become a Pharaoh, the king of
Kings.
―The god Kush had alters in Memphis, Thebes, Meroë under the name of Khons, god of the
sky to the Ethiopians, Hercules to the Egyptians.‖(Pedrals, 1950: 2914) In Wolof, Khon means
―rainbow‖; it means ―to die‖ in Serer. ―Khon being understood to mean: die in the other
world, but not yet having attained the divine condition.‖ There is also a land name Khons on
the Upper Nile (Diop, 1974: 147).
Accordingly, Nubia appears to be akin to Egypt and the rest of Black Africa. In fact, right
after the end of Egypto-Nubian Antiquity, the Empire of Ghana soared like a meteor from the
mouth of Niger to the Senegal River, circa the third century A.D. Viewed in this perspective
Africa history proceeded uninterrupted. The first Nubian dynasties were prolonged by the
Egyptian dynasties until the occupation of Egypt by the Indo-Europeans, starting in the fifth
century B.C. Nubia remained the sole source of culture and civilization until about the sixth
century A.D., and then Ghana seized the torch from the sixth until 1240, when its capital was
destroyed by Sundiata Keita; which herald the launching of the Mandingo Empire. … In
listing this chronology, we have simply wanted to show that there was no interruption in
African history. It is evident that, if starting from Nubia and Egypt, we had followed a

13
Chérubini alludes to this passage from Diodorus of Sicily: ―The Ethiopians call themselves the first of all men
…It is generally agreed that, born in a country and not having come from elsewhere must be judged indigenous.
It is likely that located directly under the course of the Sun, they sprang from the earth before other men… The
Ethiopians also say that they instituted the cults of the gods, festivals, solemn assemblies, sacrifies; in short, all
the practising by which we honour the gods. One of the ancient and most respected poet in Greece renders them
this homage when he introduces Jupiter and other gods en route to Ethiopia (in the Iliad) to attend the feast and
annual sacrifices prepared for them all by the Ethiopians:
Jupiter today followed by all the gods,
Receives the sacrifies of the Ethiopians (Iliad, I, 422)
―They claim that the gods have rewarded their peity by the important blessings, such as never having been
dominated by any foreign prince. In fact, thanks to the great unity that has always existed among them, they have
always kept their freedom. Several very powerful princes, who have tried to subjugate them, have failed in that
endeavour. … Bacchus and Hercules, after crossing the whole earth, abstain from fighting the Ethiopians, either
through fear of their power or respect for their piety. … (Cherubini, M.S. Histoire Universelle, Bk. I, 337-341.)
14
Pédrals, Denis Pierre De, 1950. Archéologie de l‟Afrique Noire. Paris.
 16

continental geographical direction, such as Nubia-Gulf of Benin, Nubia-Congo, Nubia-

Mozambique, the course of African history will still appear uninterrupted (Diop, 1974: 147-
148).
In order to summarize the perception of cultural interpenetration and interdependence let us
stress further on some of the points made earlier about the Mōab(s). (Note, this ―Gur‖ people
is also called ―Pata-gruman‖ in Chancellor William‘s Destruction of Black Civilization: The
Great Issues of Race [1987]; and he lists them among the federations of the former Mossi
Empire (Williams, 1987: .209-219), which emerged out of the ruins of Nŋhana (ancient
Ghana). This research has also proven that the ―Naba/Nabé‖ (King) of Mossi consider his
family to be part of the family tree of Mōlé. (And Pédrals also ―refers to a monarch who once
reigned over a part of Nubia with the name Naba.‖15)). The distinction between Mōar and
Mōlé is a matter of semantics, but if anything, it does confirm the early perception about the
proliferation of the Gur people in general. With regard to the Mōab/Moar Sun-god, Hyen-
Nu/Hyeru (―One-hand‖), it should now be emphasized that the most significant symbols for
the Ancient Egyptian myth of Heru/Horus are ―One-Eye,‖ ―One-finger,‖ ―One-hand,‖ ―falcon
or Sun-God.‖ And the same is true of dynastic Egyptian mythology of Amon/Amun. In fact,
Amon/Amun could be derived from Moar as denoting the heat of the Sun-god. ―Mu‖ in Moar
means fire. So the term A+Mon (Amon/Amun) is derived from the entwinement of the
personal pronoun of a second person = ‗A‘ (you)—in our present case the personified Sun-
god (Hyen-Nu/Hyeru) in its eternal glowing manifestation, while the ‗mon/mun‘ merely
describes the red-yellowish colour of fire, thereby furnishing a complex mythical expression
that combines a second person‘s personal pronoun, its predicate and adjective to mean You-
are-yellowish-red. The same combination can be made for ‗A+ton‘ (‗ton‘= heat or hot) as was
later transformed by Akhenaton whose birth was depicted above. In addition, the black cobra
often used to encircle the Sun-god of dynastic Egypt in its eternal glowing manifestation
should stand for eternity (in that fire cannot devour complexity of blackness).
The latter emphasis leads us to the Southern part of Azania where we encounter in Shona the
Sun-Hero Makome in a fierce survival struggle with a giant snake; and Ditutwane in in Venda
and Metsing in Khoisan. As C A. Diop convincingly attest, ‗the falcon and crocodile symbol
of present day Zimbabwe echoes the divinities of dynastic Egypt‘ (Diop, 1956, 1974: 35).
Another very significant cultural factor confirming the previously discussed cultural
interpenetration and interdependence among the Azanians is in the linguistic sphere,
especially with regard to the invention of complex words for culturally impelling divine

15
ibid., 36.
 17

objects in the history of language development. Christopher Eyre, for one, attributes the
earliest of such development to the culture institutions of Dynastic Egypt (Eyre, 2002: 1-10).
While Eyre statement is compelling, there are good reasons not to overlook the culture
significance of such culturally impelling names of the Mōabs. Kari(n)-wan-ta in Moar, for
instance, could be translated as meaning settle down and I (e.g. Hyen-Nu) will show you! But
it can also be used for ―corn or maize.‖ So, show what? Is it the culture route to eternity?
In any event, the Bantu Ethiopians as sedentary agricultural communities deserve no further
elaboration than the great cultural and artistic accomplishments known about the children of
Cham/Ham, the undisputable great builders of the colossal Azanian monuments in honour of
Ptah (and Amon). Moreover, the culture symbolism of corn in the history of ancient Egypt
also found expression in later biblical narrative and scholarly speculations. Similarly, the
ancient Ethiopian myth of ―Bata,‖ in which the cultural attributes of corn, cows and
crocodiles are prominent had been shallowly discussed but hardly intensively explored. Of
course, in Moar, corn without—the primordial—water will almost be culturally irrelevant.
And just as water was for the dynastic Egyptians, especially during the Old Kingdom,
―nun/nyun,‖ this very indigenous name has retained its validity among this particular Azanian
group. In viewing this, ‗is there any case one may emphasize for supposing a one way traffic
in the diffusion of ideas and ideologies from the valley of Nile right across the whole Azanian
people (nation) other than that these people acted together as a homogeneous ethnic
community? To reiterate Davidson‘s apt phrase, ―these traces of cultural interdependence and
interpenetration can be many times multiplied and are fresh proofs of that unity in diversity
which gives so much the Azanian (pre-colonial African) culture its characteristic quality of
resonance, complexity and age. As he puts it, whatever the true values of these parallels may
be, they are undoubtedly useful in emphasising the great complexity of social growth in
ancient Africa (Azania)‖ (Davidson, 1959/70: 69).
Following Basil Davidson‘s incisive analysis, it should thus be concluded that this particular
doctoral research has the main aim of emphasizing that great complexity of homogenous
social growth in pre-colonial or pre-political Africa—that is, Azania. For this purpose, the
thesis will be structured as follows: Having dedicated the foregoing to the Introduction (Part
I), the succeding section (Part II) will take critical issue with the contemporary debates about
the origin of the national phenomenon. In particular, the following questions will be critically
examined: (1) In what ways are nationalist sentiments derived from cultural cleavages
between groups? (2) In what ways are they rational responses to immediate (or spontaneous)
identifiable incentives? (3) And if such identities are constructed who or what constructs
 18

them? Answering these questions should allow us, on the one hand, to have a critical
overview of the major theoretical debates about the nationalist problematic. On the other
hand, their answerment would be crucial in terms of exploring the Azanian national model
since in the view of this work the enduring instability gradually consuming the post-colonial
African nation-states—as is presently the case in Congo, Somalia etc.—is symptomatic of a
struggle between those who see their future as intrinsically linked with their ancestors culture
heritage (the genuine nationalists or the Azanians) and those who think they can forge a future
out of the colonially imposed rootless African states, the Pan-Africanists.16

In addition, given that contemporary African politics cannot be fully appreciated without
taking into account the political developments to the North, that is in Europe; the gradual or
reluctant emergence of a realistic national model in the form of the culturally converging
European (national) union, with her inherent culture appeal for the rejection of the blood
stained swords of the heroes of the Westphalian Leviathan (or the national state system)—
without which the artificial African states are unthinkable—impels the need to investigate
what is realistic about cultural nationalism and unrealistic about political nationalism (Part
III). Distinguishing between the reality of culture nations and the surreality of political nations
is ineluctable in terms of explaining the socio-cultural, -economic, -political, -psychological,
and historical factors that in the recent past nourished the pseudo-nationalist canons, first, in
Western Europe, and then later in other parts of the world. Indeed, Europe‘s role in the spread
of political nationalism into the Americas in the 17th and 18th centuries and later Africa (in the
20th century) is a well known fact that deserves critical attention.
The genuine nationalist perception that Azania‘s future cannot be devoid of cyclical
development—that is, a developmental pattern that pays genuine tribute, and not merely lip
service, to the Manfou(i)r culture institutions of the ancestral past—thus eventually boils
down to the main theme of this doctoral research, namely: ―The critical review of the Mytho-
reality complexity of the Azanian nation‖ (Part IV). As hinted elsewhere, the main interest
here will be the analytical reinvigoration of the cultural/ideological premise that led to the
erection of the aforementioned culture institutions—e.g. the institutions of Hiku-Ptah, Thibe,
Napata, Zimbabwe et cetera. Their reintegration into an authentic culture school, as opposed
to the conventional wisdom condoning the heterogeneity of African cultures, is to illustrate

16
In the words of the leader of South Africa‘s Youth Communist League, Castro Ngobese, the cultural practice
in honour of the Zulu King Shaka makes women ―chained prisoners of backward traditions‖ (Such
internationalist arguments was cited on: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-2/hi/africa/7635543.stm (accessed
September 25, 2008).
 19

the contiguousness or homogeneity of the local culture prior to the indigenous

Ethiopians/Azanians encounter with colonialism. In a nutshell, because this dissertation will
be delving considerably on the culture basis of nations, and shares those academic views that
purport the homogeneity of pre-political African culture, it could, in some sense, be also
viewed as validating those perceptions.
Finally, the last section (Part V) shall then seek to reintegrate the key arguments raised in the
previous chapters with the aim of demonstrating not only why the authentic knowledge of the
indigenous culture is concomitant to materializing the key nationalist demands for unity, self-
identity, and ultimate freedom, but also the reality of the culture institutions of the Azanian
national model in particular.
 20

II. THE ONGOING DEBATE ABOUT THE ORIGIN OF NATIONS

2.1. In what ways are nationalist and ethnic sentiments derived from cultural cleavages
between groups?

2.1.1. Primordialist Response

Before we explore the key arguments of the primordialist school with regards to the
constitution of the national phenomenon, let me first explain what is meant here by
primordialism. ‗The term ―primordialism‖ as it is commonly used in the studies of
nationalism designates much to a related family of concerns and approaches as to a specific
theory. By primordialism is meant those academic approaches to nationalism, that emphasis
one or some combination of the following:

a) Dominant themes of common descent, territorial belonging and shared language in

discourse of national identity;

b) historical depth—the idea that nations generally evolved organically out of a pre-
existing substrate of ethnicity;

c) underlying emotional bounds and feelings of attachment and their evocation through
nationalist language and symbols.

Important about these three dimensions of variation in the primordialist school is that they all
offer the conception of ethnicity as the [basis for] the extension of nationalism. As Jonathan
Hearn remarks, Primordialists tend in general to make ethnicity central, in a causal sense, to
their understanding of nationalism, and thus nationalism is understood as late development of
a much older processes of ethnicity‘(Hearn, 2006: 20-1).
One such position is represented by the American Anthroplogist, the late Clifford Geertz, in
his 1973 book: The Interpretation of cultures. In this work, especially in chapter 10, the
author discussed the ―ethnic‖ and ―cultural‖ roots of nations in light of the general political
tensions in the new states after their ascension to independent nation-states after World War
II. Of particular importance about Geertz incisive analysis of the primordial dimension of
nationhood to this particular research is that, while his work is largely concerned about such
political tensions—between traditionalist and forces of modernism—in the new states of
Africa, Asia and the Americas, it leaves considerable room for those interested in the origin of
 21

the national phenomenon to be able to cross-analyse the Old States, especially with the view
to strengthening the primordialist position. Further, Geertz work also permits the conception
of pseudo-nationalism introduced in this dissertation in that it tends to shed light on the
ambiguity of some traditionalist invocation of traditional culture or ethnic norms and values
in their opposition to colonialism and their continuing maintenance of the colonialist ideal
(the state nation) thereafter. In a nutshell, while Clifford Geertz work will be central to this
analysis of the primordial aspect of nations, in attempting to elucidate and strengthen his
position this research will draw on other encompassing sources as well.

Interestingly, Geertz began his conception of the national phenomenon with the novel concept
of a ―terminal community‖, that is, the kind of politically accepted norm of modern social
order where different groups compete for political control and economic influence, the nation-
state (Geertz, 1973: 261). It is in such tension, say, between primordial and modern
dimensions of social order that Geertz thinks is the central driving forces in the national
evolution in the new states as well as one of the greatest obstacles to such evolution (ibid,
258). Amidst such apparent contention Geertz devised the concept of ―self sustaining
maximal social units‖ of both ―ethnic‖ and ―civic‖ provenance and then seek to find out if
such components are the ideal candidates for nationhood; since in his view such loyalties
based on ties to class, party, business, trade unions, profession etc., are more satisfied with the
idea of ―terminal community‖ and therefore fall short of being self sustaining maximal social
unites or ideal candidates for nationhood (ibid, 261). Importantly, Geertz explicitly
acknowledges the potential of both ―ethnic‖ and ―civic‖ components of ―nationness‖, but
seems to incline to the persistence and durability of the ethno-cultural dimension—that is, the
primordial component of nationhood. Thus while both national candidates or competing
communities of social order might be self sustaining maximal social units capable of attaining
the status of nationhood, ‗the ethnic dimension‘s homogeneity and continuity is based on calls
to ―blood‖ and ―land‖ (and not every land [but an original] ancestral territory). The civic core,
on the other hand, national unity is maintained not by calls to ―blood‖ and original
―homeland‖ but by vague intermittent, and routine allegiance to ―civil state,‖ supplemented
to a greater or lesser extent by government use of police powers and ideological exhortation‘
(Geertz, 1973: 260). In the latter case, original territoriality or homeland is of no essence
because of the sheer economic inclination of its key advocates.
Before expounding further on Geertz rather interesting and convincing observation of the
constitution the national phenomenon, let‘s first briefly consider what is so central to both
 22

national variants membership policies as this tend to shed light on why Geertz seems so
inclined to the primordial aspect of nationness. Since membership loyalty to the civic
component of nationhood is based in large part on cohesion by sword and economic
compensatory schemes (welfare provisions and or bribes) its continuity and durability is less
attractive in many ways. A case in point would be the sudden collapse of the Palestinian
authority in the Gaza strip in 2007 amidst violent concurrence from Hamas. In this specific
instance, had the Western donor nations not stifled off the Palestinian national authority
income sources Fatah would have stood up for a fight in the defence of [Philistine] Palestine.
Otherwise, it makes no sense to die for Palestine with empty pockets. Why should they, for
the well-informed/educated part of Fatah leadership, as president Abbas, in his address to his
followers in West Bank shortly after the Hamas take-over in Gaza, admits, Arabs are after-all
late comers in Palestine. It is also stated clearly in the Quran that ―Allah granted the land of
Isreal to the children of Israel and ordered them to settle therein‖ (Sura 5: 21). So, well
informed Arabs are aware of the fact that the change of name from Judaea to Palestine by
Emperor Hadrian of the Roman Empire (ca. 135 CE) was more or less a concerted political
attempt to erase Jewish presence in the region. Only the ill-informed ones continue to uphold
the highly politicized thesis that Arabs were divinely elected to spread the word of Allah
unconstrained by sword into foreign territories. It thus follows from the foregoing emphasis,
that for the civic component of nationhood to survive it must rely on a platform of linear
economic development, which in essence entails an eventual destruction of the very raw
material basis of its very existence by the time it will have attained its most advanced state of
development. But can any development do without the prime resources—that is to say, the
primitive culture resources of its very existence?
Foremostly, this seems an unlikely scenario. However, as we shall see later, because the civic
dimension of nationhood has historically relied on economic compensatory schemes (e.g.
bribes) and or intimidation by sword, it has until now, in most cases, succeeded in convicing
or coercing certain key elements, especially the aboriginal ones, of the ethic core of
nationness for its expansive and subversive economic and political activities. This at best
explains the maintenance of the colonial ideal by the leaders and elites of the newly
independent states in Africa, the Americas and Asia. In fact, this is what Geertz has to say
about a social unit based solely on primordial attachments:

By primordial attachment is meant one that stems from the ―givens‖—or more precisely, as culture is
inevitable in such matters, the assumed given—of social existence: immediate contiguity and kin
connection mainly, but beyond them the giveness that stems from being born into a particular religious
 23

community, speaking a particular language, or even a dialect of a language, and following a particular
social practices. These congruities of blood, speech, custom religion and so on, are seen to have an
ineffable, and at times, overpowering coerciveness in and of themselves. One is bound to one‘s kinsmen,
one‘s neighbour, one‘s fellow believer, ipso facto; as a result of not merely a personal affection, but at
least in great part by virtue of an unaccountable absolute import attributed to the very tie itself. The
general strength of such primordial bonds, and the types of them that are important, differ from person to
person, society to society and from time to time. But for virtually every person in every society, at almost
all times, some attachment seen more from a sense of natural—some would argue spiritual—affinity than
from social interaction (Geertz, 1973:259-60).

Thus from the above perspective, Geertz merely assumes that such primordial ties based on
blood, language, customs, religion and territory have a naturally ingrained potential of social
integration capable of animating a nation. Put it another way, unless there is a much more
powerful social integration force that [tacitly or openly] stands on the way of primordial
aspect of social order, its core proponents have always preferred it to be the legitimate basis
for the demarcation of political units. And the thesis that truly legitimate authority flows only
from the inherent coerciveness such attachments are conceived some how to possess, is
frankly, energetically, and artlessly defended:

―The reason why a unilingual state is stable and multi-lingual state is unstable is quite obvious. A state is
built on fellow feeling. What is this feeling? To state briefly it is a feeling of corporate sentiments of one
ness which make those charge with it feel they are kith and kin. This feeling is a double edge feeling. It
is at once feeling of a ‗consciousness of kind‘ which, on the one hand, binds together those who have it
so strongly that overrides all differences arising from economic conflicts or social gradiations, and on the
other, servers them from those who are not of their kind. It is a longing not to belong to any group.
The existence of this fellow feeling is the foundation of a stable and democratic state‖ (B, Ambedkar,
1955;17quoted in Geertz, 1973: 60)

Indeed, Ambedkar‘s democratic vision based on reciprocal respect, and recognition of each
language potentiality in contributing positively to a translinguistic but homogeneous socio-
cultural (or political) unit reminds us of the contemporary development in Europe, which I
shall be referring to later. But for now, let‘s expand further on Ambedkhar‘s [cultural]
linguistic dimension of nationalist argument so as to invoke similar positions, which seem to
emphasize Geertz appeal for the need to differentiate between ethno-cultural and civic
dimensions of nationhood (and their different approach to culture).

17
Ambedkar, B.R., 1955. Thought on Linguistic States, 11.
 24

Ambedkar is not idiosyncratic in his use of homogeneous culture based on language to

demarcate modern political nations; the use of linguistic traits to recover a ―lost‖ national
identity is also contemporaneous with the enunciation by a German nationalist ideologue,
Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803), who in his celebration of the German culture in 1783
attests that:

―Has a nationality anything dearer than the speech of its fathers? In its speech resides its whole thought
domain, its tradition, its history, religion and basis of life, all its heart and soul. To deprive a people
of its speech is to deprive it of its one eternal good…With language is created the heart of a people.‖
(Herder, 1783 cited in Hearn, 2006: 33)

A nationalist vision Fichte and Schleiermacher would later heighten to a frankly metaphysical
level: ―the language and nation express aspects of Divine Truth. A ‗nation‘ was an irreducible
and original quality, an almost transcendent reality, which we could best grasp through
mother tongue and national literature. What is cogitated in one language can never be
repeated in the same way in another‖ (Bhabha, H., 1990: 231-2). Of course, the patriotic
version of linguistic nationalist rhetoric employed in Herder‘s celebration of his German
culture and the complementary maternal dariole evident in Fichte and Schleiermacher
nationalist language have both proven useful, as we will later see, for both the state centric
and primordial variants of the nationalist cause. Important about Herder‘s [primordial]
position on language, though, is that he was more concerned about the virtue of national
languages in general, without any preference to Germany in particular. As Hearn rightly
observes, language was for Herder a means through which distinctive peoples come to know
God, their natural world and themselves, and the ideal social arrangement was one in which
language, nation and government were congruent, developing together (2006: 33). In general,
Hearn argues that Herder‘s views are congruent with the current ideas of multiculturalism,
and defences of inherent values of cultural traditions often espoused by anthropologists than
they are to the racial existentialistic, xenophobic and chauvinistic ambitions of fascism (ibid).
If anything, Hearn‘s statement about Herder‘s interpretation of language boils down to Roger
Bubaker‘s distinction between ―cultural‖ and ―civic‖ nationalisms in Germany and France
respectively and the effect of these dimensions of nationalism on their coordination of citizen
policies today:

―In the French tradition, the nation has been conceived in relation to the institutional and territorial
frame of the state. Revolutionary and Republican definitions of nationhood and citizenship—uni
 25

tarist, universalist, and secular—reinforced what was already in the ancient regime an essential political
understanding of nationhood

While in Germany:

The German understanding of nationhood has been Volk-centered and differentialist. Since national
feeling developed before the nation-state, the German idea of nation was not originally political, nor was
it limited to abstract idea of citizenship. This pre-political German nation in search of state, was conceived
not as in search of universal political values, but as an organic, culturally linguistic or racial
community—an irreducible particular Volksgemeinschaft‖18

Important about Brubaker‘s distinction between the ―Franco-civic‖ nationhood and the pre-
political ―Germano-ethnic‖ nationhood for the present analysis is that the former, which
departed from the ―Parisien-core‖ of the French state, has a long history of assimilating
outlying populations both legally and culturally, while the German tradition draws a deeper,
―natural‖ distinction between Germans and others, and is [therefore] less equipped for
assimilation (Hearn, 2006: 90). The anti-assimilationist virtue characteristic of the ethno-
cultural nationalism should not be confined to the linguistic sphere alone, as the following
arguments presented by Marcus Garvey against the grand colonialist and politically induced
assimilation project of the American state system in the early 20th century also suggest. For
Garvey, ―there is room enough in the world for the various human species (or racial groups)
to grow and develop by themselves without seeking to destroy the creator‘s original plan by
the constant introduction of the mongrel types as in the colonies. In his view, the white race
should uphold its racial purity and perpetuate itself and that the black should do likewise.
Since the Negroes of Americas have the same culture with those of their original home
nation…, they must return there to make their unique contribution to humanity as whole
(Garvey [1924], Pecora (ed), 2001: 237-240).
Evidently, the assimilation and anti-assimilation stance characteristic of both the ―civic‖ and
―ethnic‖ conceptions of nationhood tendentiously implies that these distinct national
candidates have different approaches to [national] culture too. We shall be discussing at
length the overwhelming importance of culture for the survival of both the civic and ethnic
strands of nations later. But in order to bring the foregoing analysis to close, let us invoke
Ambedkhar‘s democratic arguments so as to grasp the present state of the assimilation
policies associated with civic nations, as human conscience (mental evolution) becomes

18
Brubaker R., 1992. Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany. Cambridge, MA: Harvard university
press, 1.
 26

relatively much more matured in terms of dealing with complex social orders of linguistic
plurality [but] of the same authentic culture origin, as examplified by the contemporary
cultural and political developments in Europe after the Second World War
.
There is no doubt that the experimental democratic pendulum at the European (national) level
generally tilts in favour of the anti-assimilationist camp, at least, in the linguistic sphere. This
is particularly true of Europe‘s stance on its member states national languages. The fact alone
that Europe now explicitly recognizes language (or sub-languages of a compact mythical
origin) to be the genuine criterion for a state-nation—at least by virtue of the equal
representation of its member states dominant languages at the European level—generally
implies that sooner or later the politically disadvantaged sublanguages of Europe (e.g.,
Basques, Corse, Catalans, the Romas/Gypsies et cetera) would eventually join the culture boat
of Europe‘s linguistic salvation. This in turn would not only strengthen Ambedkhar‘s
egalitarian democratic arguments noted earlier, but would in large also encourage academic
debate about what should constitute a national language of larger nations with different
sublanguages such as the European nation. For instance, should a European national language
entail a compact mythical character (i.e. for sustainable reasons) that pays genuine tribute to
its authentic Graeco-European culture with a distinctive and clearly defined objective
orientation, thereby enabling its sublanguages (e.g. Basque, English, French, German, Gypsy,
Spanish et cetera) or institutions to process their policies accordingly?
In as much as the arguments of Magisterarbeit/Master‘s Thesis (Summer 2006) is concerned,
‗the only culturally induced compact language the European nation seems to, at best for now,
understand is a pro-life-democratic language—given the fact that Europe now vehemently
repudiates the linguistic assimilation policies noted earlier of the ―Parisien-core‖ (civic
nation), while at the same time urging its member states to reorient their institutional
behaviour towards the consensualized objective of a European national discourse that is based
on the mutual respect and recognition of each of its members states (or regional bodies)
natural ability to contribute constructively to the persistence and durability of the European
nation.‘19

19
Raul Diaz, G., 2006. How Democratic is the EU-Common Agricultural Policy. Thesis (Masters). Hamburg
University, Germany.
 27

2.1.2. The cultural symbiosis of hominid development

As observed elsewhere, culture is ineluctable in terms of the survival of both the civic and
ethnic strands of the national phenomenon. And by placing culture at the very centre of the
process of human evolution Geertz not only strengthen this position, but also confirms the
primordial aspect of nationhood (and hence nationalism). In fact, in positing culture as
intrinsic to humanity‘s natural development, Geertz explicitly defends the thesis that the
biological evolution of modern man will have been unthinkable without predisposed cultural
ornaments (accessories). As he puts it, ‗the innate generic constitution of modern humanity
(‗human nature‘) appears to be both cultural and biological products rather than her/him
anatomically…slowly discovering culture at a later stage of its development. In other words,
Geertz is simply suggesting that in the entire life-line of hominid evolution culture has and
will continue to be central to humanity‘s existence. The Pleistocene period20, the argument
goes, with its rapid and radical variations in climate, land formations and vegetations would
not only have been ideal for the speedy efficient evolution for humankind, but also a period in
which cultural environment increasingly supplemented the natural environment in the
selection process so as to further accelerate the rate of hominid evolution to unprecedented
speed. The Ice-Age appears not merely to have been a time of receding brow ridges and
shrinking jaws, but the time in which were forged nearly all those characteristics of [hu]
mankind‘s existence which are most distinctively human—his thoroughly encephalitic
nervous system, his incest taboo based social structure, and his capacity to use and create
symbols. The fact that these distinctive features of humanity emerged together in a complex
interaction with one another rather than serially as for long supposed 21 is of exceptional
importance in the interpretation of human mentality because it suggest that man‘s nervous
system does not merely enable him to acquire culture, but it positively demands that it does so
if it is going to function at all. Rather than culture acting to supplement, develop, and extend
organically based capacities logically and genetically prior to it, would seem to be ingredient
to those capacities themselves‘ (Geertz, 1973, ch.3: 68). The human brain, in general, is

20
This is a period from approximately two million to 10.000 years ago, marked by alternating cold and warm
climates and increased glacial activity. Four major glacial advances—when Ice covered as much as two thirds of
North America in-depth reaching 3000 meters—are recognized during the Pleistocene period. From the oldest to
the youngest are the Nebraskan, Kansan, the Illinoian, and the Wiscousin collectively referred to as the Ice-Age
(see, Marc, Mc Cutcheon, 2000. Descriptionary 2nd ed. New York, 117.
21
One such supposition is Freud‘s thesis that human thought processes he called ―primary‖(substitution,
reversal, condensation and so on) are phylogenetically prior to those he called ―secondary‖ (directed, logically,
ordered, reasoning and so on) (Freud, Sigmund, 1938. ―The Interprretation of Dreams.‖ Translated in the Basic
Writings of Sigmund Freud and edited by A A. Brill. New York, 179-548; Sigmund, Freud, 1946. ―Formulations
Regarding Two Principles in Mental Functioning.‖ London, ch. 4: 13-27.
 28

thoroughly dependent upon cultural resources for its very function; and those resources are,
consequently not adjunct to, but constituent of mental activity (ibid, 73).
By intrinsically linking culture to the very nature of humankind, Geertz seems to contests that
culture has a transcendental effect across the life-line of human history—that is, from the so-
called period of Australopethicus right through to the present day. As he puts it, ‗with the
unequivocal triumph of the homo-sapiens and the cessations of glaciations, the link between
organic and cultural change was, if not severed, at least greatly weakened. Since that time
organic evolution in human line has slowed down to walk, while the growth of culture had
continued to proceed with an ever increasing rapidity, hence it is, therefore, unnecessary to
postulate either a discontinuous ―difference-in-kind‖ pattern of human evolution or a non-
selective role of culture during all phases of hominid development‘(ibid, 69-70). In as much
as humanity is concerned culture has been an inevitable part of its existence.
But if culture is, indeed, a transcendental phenomenon intrinsic of human existence as the
primordialist Geertz would have us believe, why has it become such a potent phenomenon
and unavoidable part of our lives at all times? To this effect, Geertz begun by positing culture
as an acted document (1973: ch.I), that is, some form of extra-somatic phenomenon of
creative genius of an original knowledge, predisposed to have a significant impact on primate
advancement (ibid, ch.II). Interestingly, the idea that humanity itself (or the other universal
organisms, including planetary bodies and so on) might be merely cultural products of an
authentic knowledge simply begs the conclusion that what humankind after-all does in its
cultural creativity—in such a complex and intricate milieu of predisposed cultural material—
is a matter of supplementing or adhering to the principles of that culture induced universal
existence of which s/he is part (emphasis added). Thus from the standpoint of humanity‘s
cognitive ability, the most perplexing challenge or phenomenon that compels it to embrace
culture institutions is ―life‖ and ―death.‖ In other words, by virtue of humankind‘s recognition
of the limits of her/his cognitive ability in such a complex transcendental universal existence,
s/he realizes that her/his security cannot be left at the mercy of spontaneity, but instead in an
organized and orderly manner. Therefore by virtue of existential reason (or common sense)
and through the guidance of cultural artefacts (e.g. myth, language, ideas, symbols, emotions,
rituals, and art) humanity sets out in its innate quest for the purpose of life (Geertz, 1973: 79-
80). At this juncture, a definition of culture much familiar with that purposive mission of life
is necessitated:
 29

Culture is an historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, a system of inherit-

ed conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by meanings of which men communicate, perpetuate and
develop their knowledge about and attitudes towards life (Geertz, 1973: 89)

He then proceeds to argue that cultural pattern sets of symbols have a special dual nature.
They function simultaneously as ―models of‖ reality, representing what is, and as ―models
for‖ reality, guiding appropriate social action in that reality (ibid, 90-4). As Hearn rightly
observes, here ‗one seems to be dealing with the unity of descriptive and prescriptive
functions of culture (Hearn, 2006: 171), a point we shall explore in detail below in order to
illustrate why culture is the most potent source of social integration capable of rooting real a
nation.

2.1.2.1. Religion as a cultural system

What can further be said about the above analysis is that Geertz places culture within the
gambit of system of patterned inter-working meanings incited by socio-psychological stresses
or strains. In other words the socio-psychological stresses of mankind‘s interpretation of the
complex existential universe or her/his immediate environment is expressed (moulded) in
symbolic forms. Geertz uses symbol here to denote any physical, social, or cultural act or
object that serves as a vehicle for conception. Symbolic elements are thus tangible attitudes,
judgements, longings, beliefs. Cultural acts, construction, apprehension, and the utilization of
symbolic forms are, in his words, social events like any other—they are as observable as
agriculture (Geertz, 1973: 91). Cultural patterns, that is, systems and complexes of symbols
are, for Geertz, extrinsic sources of information that can be used to give meaning to existence.
By extrinsic source of information is meant only that—unlike genes, which are predominantly
intrinsic source of information, for example—they lie outside the boundaries of the individual
organism as such in that inter-subjective world of common understanding in which all
individuals are born. By intrinsic sources of information is meant only that—like genes—they
provide blueprint or template in terms of which processes external to themselves can be given
a definite form. In this sense cultural patterns (e.g. religious, ideological, philosophical, and
aesthetic) are programmes; they provide template or blueprint for the organization of organic
processes (Geertz, 1973: 216).
Cultural patterns which are ―models of‖ have intrinsic double aspect: they give meaning, that
is, objective conceptual form, to social and psychological reality both shaping themselves to it
and by shaping it to themselves. Models of—linguistic, graphic, mechanical, natural, etc.,
 30

processes which function not to provide source of information in terms of which other
processes can be patterned, but to represent those patterned processes as such, to express their
structure in an alternative medium—are rarer [cultural assets] and may be confined, among
living animals, to humankind. ―‗Models for‘, as the gene example suggests, are found through
the whole order of nature; for whatever there is a communication of pattern, such programmes
are, simply logically, required‖(Geertz, 1973: 94). Hence the intertransposability of ―models
for‖ and ―models of‖, which symbolic formations make possible, is distinctive characteristic
of human mentality. For Geertz there are indeed good reasons why humankind cannot do
without cultural resources or extrinsic sources of information. First, as a higher animal
humankind needs to find out in detail about the environment prior to behavioural
performance; and second, but given the high degree of generality of information intrinsically
available to the organization from genetic resources cultural patterns are unavoidable for the
patterns of her/his behaviour. Simply expressed, the extreme generality, diffuseness, and
variability of humankind‘s innate response capacities mean that the particular pattern her/his
behaviour takes is guided predominantly by cultural rather than genetic templates, the latter
something the overall psychological content within which precise activity are organized by
the former. As Geertz further stressed, the tool making, laughing, or lying, animal
(humankind), is incomplete—or more accurately self completing animal. As agent of her/his
own realization s/he creates out of her/his capacity for the construction of symbolic models
the specific capabilities that define her/him (1973: 200ff.). Indeed, as we observed earlier, the
Hamitic Bantu Ethiopians with their distinctive national territory, using the ―Sun-plate‖ as the
measure of their culture endeavour painted their diets in their own image (schwarze und
stumpfnassig). And this is also true of the Pygmie ―Ptah‖ of dynastic Egypt, who began his
journey as man before eventually yielding to the [green] Amon of Thebes (emphasis added).

In any event, the perception that extrinsic source of information is crucial for
directing/guiding human social behaviour is not less true of religion than language. While the
centrality of languages to the national phenomenon has already been discussed, the
effectiveness of religion, as a cultural system with even trans-linguistic potential or remedy in
terms of social integration, also found a similar convincing elaboration in Geertz‘s analysis.
Interestingly, Geertz began his critical observation of religion with the belief system of a
unique social group he termed his ―animalistic informants‖ (1973: 100ff.). As he remarked:

They seem to be constantly using their beliefs to explain a phenomena; or, more accurately to convince
themselves that the phenomena were explainable within the expected scheme of things, for they
 31

commonly only had a minimal attachment to the particular sound possession, emotional, disequilibrium,
taboo, infringement or bewitchment hypotheses they advance and were ready to abandon it for some other
in the same genre, which struck them as more plausible given the facts of the case. What they were not
ready to do was to abandon it for no other hypothesis at all; to leave events to themselves. And what is
more important, they adopt this nervous cognitive stance with respect to phenomena that had no
immediate practical bearing on their own lives, or for that matter on any one‘s (ibid, 102).

Albeit the reservation that some of these dragomen have, in certain instances of
anthropological enquiries, proven to be either aboriginal elements of the societies concern and
are often willing to feed the ears of their inquisitive or intrusive foreigners with the right kind
of (fantastic) information that could yield the maximum economic incentive, two main points
from above quote—especially with regards to what constitutes a communal religious body
and why such a body could serve as the foundation of nation—deserve immediate critical
attention, namely the universal communal acceptance of an authentic scheme within which a
phenomenon (e.g. universal existential phenomenon, etc.) is explored, interpreted or
explained; and the unanimity of the genre within which the scheme is improved,
adjusted/modified or otherwise abandoned depending on the lucidity or opacity of the
phenomenon in question. It is at this analytical juncture that Geertz made explicit his
transcendental view of culture. Religious symbolism, he argues, is often directed at some
transcendental truth. What any religion affirms about the fundamental nature of reality may be
obscure, shallow, or all too often, perverse; but it must, if it is not to consist of the mere
collection of received practices and conventional sentiments we usually refer to as moralism,
affirm some thing (Geertz, 1973, ch. 4: 89-95ff). Berger who has written extensively about
religious worship thus asserts: ‗all [true] worship is a difficult attempt to reach out to the
transcendence. It is this reaching out that must be symbolized, by whatever resources a
particular tradition hand has at hand. The chosen form will certainly have a communal aspect.
But the community itself is not the object of the exercise; at best it is subject (Berger, 1992:
96).22
Thus the quest for lucidity or transcendental truth about how things ought to be in such a
complex and perplexing phenomenon such as the universal existence within a communally
defined and idiosyncratically accorded social format not only lay the basis of an ethnic (or
culturally defined) nation, but seem to confirm Geertz emphasis earlier that humanity well
understands that for its own security it cannot do otherwise, but approach the phenomenon of
life in an orderly manner. So, Geertz again:

22
Berger, P L., 1992. A Far Glory: A Quest for Faith in an Age of Credulity. New York: Doubleday.
 32

―[man] can adopt himself to any thing his imagination can cope with; but he cannot deal with chaos.
Because his characteristic function and highest asset is conception his great fright is to meet some
thing he cannot construe. … Therefore our most important assets are always the symbols of our general
orientation in nature, on earth in society and what we are doing: the symbols of our Weltanschauung
and Lebensanschauung… Consequently in primitive society, a daily ritual incorporated in common
activities, in eating, washing fire making, etc., as well as pure ceremonial; because the need for asserting
the tribal moral and recognising its conditions are completely felt. In Christian Europe the Church brought
man daily into their needs to enact if not to contemplate their assent to the ultimate concepts‖ (Geertz,
1973: 100)

Hence the central religious rituals (be it mass pilgrimage, a corroboree) are symbolic models
(here in form of activity than words) of a particular sense of divine, a certain sort of
devotional mood, which their continual re-enactment tends to produce in ―attitudes,‖
―sentiments‖, etc. with respect to how people conduct their daily life (Geertz, 1973: 206). In
religion sacred symbols function to synthesize a people‘s ethos—the tone, character, and
quality of life, its moral and aesthetic style—and their world view—the picture they have of
the way things in sheer actuality are, their most comprehensive idea of order. In religion the
belief and practice of a group‘s ethos is rendered intellectually reasonable by being shown to
represent a way of life ideally adopted by the actual state of affairs the world view describes,
while the world view is rendered emotionally convincing by being presented as peculiarly
well arranged to accommodate such way of life (ibid., 90-95). The concrete symbols
[involved]—one or another mythological figure materializing in the wilderness, the skull of a
dead household hanging censoriously in the rafters, or disembodied ‗voice in the stillness‘
soundlessly chanting enigmatic classical poetry—point in either direction: they both express
the world climate and shape it, so Geertz (ibid., 95).
Finally, while religion on the one side anchors the power of symbolic resources for
formulating analytical ideas in an authoritative conception of world shape of reality, so on the
other side it anchors the power of our also symbolic resources for expressing emotions
(moods, sentiments, passions, affections, feelings). For those able to embrace them, Geertz
asserts, religious symbols provide cosmic guarantee not only for their ability to comprehend
the world, but also to comprehending it, to give a precision to their feeling, a definition to
their emotions which enable them, morosely or joyfully, grimly or cavalierly to endure it
(Geertz, 1973: 104-105). Accordingly, religion in general tunes actions to an envisaged
cosmic order and projects images of cosmic order onto the plain of human existence. Hence
he defines religion as ‗(1) a system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive,
 33

long lasting moods (―reverential‖, ―solemn‖, or ―worshipful‖) and motivations—that is, a

persistent tendency, a chronic inclination to perform certain sorts of acts: fast in the
wilderness, or conduct solitary raids on enemy camps and thrill at expectation of counter
coup, and experience certain sorts of feelings in certain sorts of situations in man (Geertz,
1973: 96) (2) by formulating conceptions of general order of existence (3) and clothing these
conceptions with such an aura of factuality (4) that the moods and motivations (the two main
dispositions induced by religious activity) seem uniquely realistic (5)‘( ibid., 90ff.). Not
surprisingly, religion (albeit ―true‖ and ―politicized‖ ones) is such a potent culture good for
the formation of trans-linguistic nations.

2.1.2.2. Ideology as a culture system

It is the unity of ‗descriptive‘ and ‗prescriptive‘ functions of culture as basic to the very nature
of culture, as shown in the analysis above, that Hearn sees a close affinity between culture and
ideology in terms of the prescriptive aspect of cultural symbols (Hearn 2006: 171). Without
further ado it is thus obvious that ideologies, including politicized ones, are culturally
determinable. In this sense, let‘s briefly explore contemporary political ideologies for the
purpose of re-integrating them in the original cultural fold.
As a matter of fact, in contemporary political discourse the most familiar terms often
associated with the concept of ideology includes—conservatism, liberalism, communism,
Fascism, Darwinism and so on. This political dimension of ideology has been rightly
compressed by Andrew Heywood as follows:

―coming into existence in the nineteenth century, political ideologies are a kind of ‗world view‘ made up
of collection of doctrines, theories and principles which claim to interpret the present and offer a view of
desired future. These more or less systematic sets of ideas provide the basis for some kind of organized
social action; they may defend the existing social order, advocate its reform or improvement, or propose
its revolutionary overthrow and replacement‖ (Heywood, 1994: 7-823; Hearn 2006: 171).

As Heywood accurately remarks, such narrow political sense of ideology is, however,
embedded within and linked to larger and more diffuse networks of ideas. In fact ―ideology is
often used in a much broader sense to characterized society wide patterns of thought, in ways

23
Heywood, A., 1994. Political Ideas and Concepts: An Introduction. Basingstoke/New York: Palgrave
Macmillan.
 34

that makes it indistinguishable from the concept of culture‖(Wuthnow, 198724; Hearn 2006:
171). It is Clifford Geertz who thus expounded further on the subject with the view to
shedding light on the affinity between culture and ideology.
As with religion, he defines ideology as systemic symbols of interaction or patterned inter-
workings of meanings incited by socio-psychological stresses. In other words, ideology is a
system of interaction of symbols or patterns of inter-working meanings nourished or incited
by socio-psychological stresses/strains. In order to elaborate on what he meant by socio-
psychological strains in symbolic forms, Geertz departs from the concept of ―extrinsic
theory‖, in which ―thought consists of the construction and manipulation of symbolic systems
which are employed models of other systems (physical, organic, social, psychological etc.); in
such a way that the structure of this other systems (and in favourable case how they may
therefore be expected to behave) is understood.‖25 Importantly, the concept of extrinsic theory
is extendable to the effective side of human mentality as well (Geertz, 1973: 216):

Imaginal thinking is neither more or less than constructing an image of the environment running
the model faster than the environment, and predicting that the environment will behave as the
model does…The first step in the solution of a problem consist in the construction of a model or
image of the ―relevant feature‖ of the [environment]. These models can be constructed from many
things, including part of the organic tissue of the body and, by man, paper and pencil or actual arte-
facts. Once a model has been constructed it can be manipulated under various hypothetical condi-
tions and constraints. The organism is then able to observe outcome of those manipulations and project
them into the environment so a prediction is possible (Geertz, 1973: 78)

It is this point that reflective thought consists of matching of states and processes of symbolic
models against the state and the wider world, that it is stimulus ‗deficit‘ which stimulates
mental activity and stimulus discovery which terminates it.26 Motivational problems begin in
puzzlement and ends either in the abandonment of the enquiry or the resolution of the
puzzlement: ―The function of reflective thought is to transform a situation in which there is an
obscurity of some sort into a situation that is clear, coherently, settled and harmonious.‖ 27 In
all, Geertz assert that human intellection in a specific sense of directive reasoning depends
upon the manipulation of certain kinds of cultural resources (e.g. cognitive or expressive
symbols or symbol systems) in such a manner as to produce (discover, select) environmental

24
Wuthnow, R., 1987. Meaning and Moral Order: Exploration in Cultural Analysis. Berkeley. CA: University
of California Press.
25
E. Galanter and M. Gerstenhaber, 1956. On Thought: Extrinsic Theory. Psychol. Review 63, 218-227.
26
J. A. Deutsch, 1953. ―A New Type of Behaviour.‖ British Journal of Psychology 44, 304-317.
27
J. Dewey, 1939. ―Intelligence and the Modern World.‖ In: J. Ratner, ed. New York, 851.
 35

stimuli needed—for whatever purpose—by the organism; it is a [constant] search for

information. And this search is more pressing because of the high degree of generality of the
information intrinsically available to the organism from genetic sources (1973: 79 ff). Hence
cultural patterns (e.g. religious, ideological, philosophical, aesthetic etc.,) are so crucial to
human existence. For Geertz, it is through the construction of ideologies and schematic social
order that humankind makes her/himself for better or worse a political animal (ibid, 200 ff).
In the general sense of political nationalism or nationalist ideologies, ‗one essentially observes
a….continuum from cultural to ideological conception of the governing patterns of symbols
and ideas at play‘ (Hearn, 2006: 171), ―given that nationalism has in the narrow sense of
political ideology promiscuously combined with other such ideologies as fascism, liberalism,
democracy and so on.‖28 But does this not merely imply that nationalism from its inception
was indeed culturally inclined.

2.1.3. Is there a pre-political cultural nationalism?

In his path-breaking Article29 concerning the issue of European cultural nationalism—as

distinct from political nationalism with its state-centred objectives—Joep Leerssen tends to
share this idea about the precedence of cultural nationalism. He hilariously points to ‗the
oddness of phrases such as ―cultural liberalism‖ or ―cultural socialism‖, and the sheer
soundness of a phrase such as ―cultural nationalism.‖ This is precisely so because the very
concept at the heart of nationalism, that of nation, refers to an aggregate of people whose
―peculiar character‖ is at least in part constituted by cultural factors such as language or
historical awareness, he remarks. Further, he remarks that nationalist often advance the right
to national self-determination, cultural survival, cultural self-expression, as a self-evident and
ethically autonomous principle, alongside (not derived from) equality, justice and political
stability. In this sense nationalism sees the state as a means to an end: ―the state should
embody its constituent nationality, and derives its right to exist in part from that function‖
(Leerssen, 2006: 560).
Leerssen‘s argument seeks to substantiate Miroslav Hroch‘s early work (1968, 199630) on
[sub] national movements across Europe, especially with regards to Czech‘s ―national
revival‖ [from a pan-European national perspective]. Hroch‘s work focuses primarily on the
28
Benner, E., 2001.―Is There a Core National Doctrine?‖ Nations and Nationalism, 7 (2), 155-74.
29
Published in Nations and Nationalism 12 (4), 2006.
30
Hroch, Miroslav, 1968. Die Vorkaempfer der nationalen Bewegung bei den Kleinen Voelker Europas. Eine
vergleichende Analyse zur gesellschaftlichen Schichtung der Patriotischen Gruppen. Praha: Universita Karlova;
Hroch, Miroslav, 1996. In the National Interest. Prague: Charles University; Hroch, M. In: John A. Hall, ed.
1998. Ernest Gellner, The State of the Nation. Cambridge:CUP, 91-104.
 36

cultural consciousness raising aspect of such national movements. Here the author devises a
three phase model of nationalist activities, with the main idea of the model being that:
―cultural preoccupations do not positively ‗reflect‘ or ‗follow‘ social developments or
political movements, but rather tend to anticipate them‖ (Leerssen, 2006: 562). As Leerssen
rightly observes, ‗the cultural pre-occupation of what Hroch terms ―Phase A‖ nationalism
makes the nation thinkable as a focus of political loyalty; while, the social demands of ―phase
B‖ nationalism, and the separatist activism of ―Phase C‖, follow and indeed seem to
presuppose a cultural consciousness raising.‘ By and large, Hroch‘s model has demonstrated,
fundamentally, that separatist movements often begin in the study, that the schoolmasters and
poets who collect proverbs and folktales are unwitting avant-garde for social and political
activists, and that, while the precise nature of phase A-, or B-, or C-nationalism may differ
from country to country, cultural preoccupations stand at the beginning of the alphabet. Thus
in placing cultural consciousness-raising at the vanguard of developing nationalist/separatist
movements, Hroch singles out of the specificity nationalism among other ideologies.
Nationalism stands out of other ideologies in that it formulates a political agenda on the basis
of a cultural ideal; following Hroch we may point out that in its historical gestation, too,
nationalism is always, in its incipience at least, cultural nationalism (ibid, 562).

2.1.3.1. Nationalism and culture and its cultivation

The idea that political activities (or ideologies) are often fuelled by pre-established cultural
norms inevitably begs the conclusion that Europe‘s cultural activism antedates European
national states divisive political activities. Hence, in the following analysis Leerssen prime
interest is in pan-European cultural activities that originally transcended state-nation‘s
frontiers to encompass—what could be termed—a European national consciousness-raising
movement, whose primary focus was with traditions, patterns and practices of popular
(demotic) European culture. This is particularly true of the works of cultural nationalist
activists such as Sir Walter (creative writer and historian); Jacob Grimm (lexicographer,
grammarian, legal historian, folktale collector, editor of old literary texts); or archivists such
as Leibniz and Muratori, who worked in a shared institutional and social framework and
intellectual template, mainly philological (—as originally enunciated by Giambattista Vico
in his La Scienca Nova of 1724, which draws largely on scholarly investigation of man-made
certainties (or truths) and world-views, as articulated through language, poetry, mythology,
history, law and institutions: For Vico these were originally a single undifferentiated whole
 37

from which primeval poets, law makers, historians, and priests articulated their universal
definition of a nation‘s culture and world-view) (Leerssen, 2006: 567ff.). For Leerssen such
European centred [or national] cultural activities based mainly on letters and learning (or
cultural exchange) precedes political nationalism in that it was only on the basis of ―cultural-
consciousness-raising-movement‖ that political activism could raise territorial claims on the
‗local‘ of those traditions and practices, thereby unleashing competing and conflicting
geographical demands in (once) mixed regions (e.g. Romanic vs. Germanic; or Greek-
Albanian, -Macedonian frontiers etc.).
But even after the successful demarcation of political frontiers the outgoing separatist state-
nation relied to a greater extent on the compactness of the original culture—hence nationalist
scholars, creative and political propagandists were concerned with language, folktales,
history, myths and legends, proverbs, ancient tribal/legal antiquity, mythology, antique
heirdoms and so on. These, as Leerssen observes, then undergo, at a specific historical
juncture, crucial transformation: they are lifted from their context of origin by a
professionalizing philological intelligentsia and recontextualized and instrumentalized for
modern needs and values; they are studied as organic growth processes and data for the
historical track-record of the nation in a prevailing intellectual climate of historicism…; and
as a result are invested with a fresh national symbolism and status (ibid, 568). Otherwise, the
territorial indistinctiveness of cultural nationalism means that all European national states can
be immediately juxtaposed, compared, and brought together into [mutual] neighbourly
contact, so Leerssen (2006, 565-66).
Naturally, Leerssen‘s systematization of ―culture and its cultivation‖ departs primarily from a
collected data31—on activities termed ―cultural‖ in the critical literature—on early European
cultural nationalism. These include a variety of practices and endeavours, e.g. the compilation
of dictionaries, and grammars, the erection of commemorative monuments, the establishment
of news papers and university chairs, the edition of ancient documents (legal, historical or
literary), the writing of historical novels or patriotic verse, the composition of national music,
the opening of museums and reading rooms et cetera. The first line of systematization
involves the cultural field in question; and four of these seem to cover most of the data in a
meaningfully differentiated way (ibid, 569ff.):
a) Foremost among these four is clearly that of language. From Herder to the generation of
Humboldts, Schlegels and Grimms, language came to be seen as the essential soul of nation‘s
identity and position in the world. Or put it rather more radically a bridge between a given

31
www.hu-m.uva.nl/philology.
 38

nation and the sacred. An extra-ordinary number of cultural nationalist initiatives are
concerned with language: from grammar writing to purism, from language revivalism to
language planning.
b) Closely attendant on this is language twin sister in the mindset of emerging philology: the
discursive realm of literature and learning. One thinks primarily of novels, theatre and verse,
but this should not exclude the more referential genres of disquisition such as antiquarianism
and cultural criticism. A critical important genre is history writing, which in romantic decades
immediately preceding its professionalization begins to focus on the nation at large as its main
protagonist.
c) Outside the field of language and discourse we can identify a category of ―material
culture‖: artefacts such as painting, sculptures antiquities, monuments, architecture; symbols
such as flags and heraldry; public buildings.
d) Finally, that leaves the performance of ―immaterial culture‖: cultural practices, involving
folkdances, past times and sports, manners and customs (and least but not last) music.
On the whole, while Leerssen acknowledges some overlaps between these fields, he attests
however, that the division along the lines suggested here provides a workable sorting grid for
further comparative analysis.

His second line of systematization concerns the ―cultivation of culture.‖ Here specific
reference is made to the agenda on the part of nationalist actors and activists, and their
intended instrumentalisation of the national culture. The data suggest a division into some
three types of endeavour, which might be called salvage, fresh productivity, and propagandist
proclamation respectively (ibid, 570ff.).
The first of these (possibly the earliest in time, with an appreciable pro-romantic run-up in the
eighteenth century) is content with mere inventorization (of language, discourse, artefacts or
practices, as per the first four fields listed above). Cultural studies in Romantic period often
follows a salvage paradigm; particularly so if the cultural topic is of an informal, popular and
vernacular provenance. It is part of a romantic mindset to celebrate specimens of ancient
tradition as ―the last of their kind,‖ final remaining samples of a vanishing, almost vanished
inheritance. Manuscripts are seen as the surviving vestiges of a pre-Gotenberg world eroded
by disposal and lost; oral poetry is stereotypically snatched from the lips of aging folk with
one foot in the grave; folktales and folk music are invariably part of lifestyle swept away by
modernization. (Ironically, this modernization process is feared as a threatening, eroding force
by the very scholars whose work it enables and facilitates.) A similar salvaging impulse,
 39

reaching out to a receding antiquity from a modernizing vintage point, concerns ancient
buildings, monuments, historical sites or historically invested landscapes; or superstitions,
past-times and performative traditions. The link between the emergence of folklore and of
nationalism is well established. In sum, a primal urge in the cultivation of cultures is that of
inventory and salvage.
A second type of activity involves fresh cultural productivity: contemporary initiatives
emerge, inspired historicist inventories and remembrances. Linguist no longer just inventorize
language by means of dictionaries and grammar, they argue about orthography,
standardization, the status of dialects versus central norm. Often the ambitions of a vernacular
language to literary prestige are signalled by initiatives to translate the Bible (or other world
classics). We see the uniting of a patriotic or historical verse, or narrative or drama; the
emergence of a new type of national history-writing, taking ―the nation‖ for its collective
protagonist rather than the deeds of the Monarchs and generals. Literary criticism and literary
history-writing formulate a canon and an agenda for a literature now understood as a national
pursuit... In the field of material culture we encounter the establishment of national museums
and restoration of ancient buildings. In the music culture, there is the rise of schools of
―national composition‖—which, tellingly, means two things: (a) nationally distinctive, in that
it makes the nation stand out amidst others, and (b) drawing for that purpose on the idiom of
demotic, non classical musical traditions (folk music and folk dances). The life-style of the
peasantry inspires the genre of rustic—‗realist‘ narrative, full of local and folkloric colour,
which takes over after the romantic historical novel has played itself out. Traditional sports
and pastimes, or even traditional dress, may be revived or cultivated by clubs and
associations.
Thirdly, the national culture thus salvaged and perpetuated may be used for propagandist
proclamations: drawn upon to suffuse the public sphere with a sense of collective national
identity. The vernacular (national) language is thought, or used in, or spread by means of
education. National history becomes a school subject, as does the nation‘s literature. Peasants,
ceremonies, historical monuments and pantheon claim the nation rootedness and presence.
―Historicist‖ architecture (neo Goethic or otherwise) is used; newly-built streets are given
dedicated names taken from the nation‘s past. Festivals, awards and other public
manifestations are held involving linguistic, literary, historical or folkloristic agendas.
This gives a differentiated idea of how nationalism can position various aspects of culture,
and aspects of cultivation. If we juxtapose these two dimensions ―culture and cultivation‖ into
a matrix the ―cultivation of culture‖ takes on the shape in Table 1:
 40

Table 1. ‗Culture‟ and its „cultivation‟ arrayed in a matrix

TYPES OF CULTIVATION
salvage productivity propagation
CULT
language language activism,
URAL Language maintenance
description language planning
FIELD
S translations, literature, education, festivals,
discourse text editions
language history-writing, criticism commemorations

material monument protection, dedicatory investment

culture archeography musealisation, architecture of public space

practices folklore revival, national

performe Folklore folk pageantry
music, rustic literature
d studies

To properly accommodate this model to the available data, two other categories have been
identified. These are not specific to any given pursuit/field set out here, but rather function as
a facilitating framework to all of them. One is the social ambience (the public organization of
cultural pursuits), and the other institutional infrastructure created by modern state. One is
―bottom-up‖, generated by an urban sociability most strongly represented among the
professionals and middle classes, involving the establishment of associations, city academies,
book rooms, reading societies and clubs, and the establishment of news papers and
periodicals. The other is ―top-down‖: initiated, funded and/or overseen by the authorities,
involving the establishment and management of state-controlled institutions such as archives,
libraries, universities or university institutes, national academies, museums or galaries; or else
government sponsored surveys of the national culture or of documentary sources of a nation‘s
history (Leerssen, 2006: 571-572).
Once these two institutional/social frameworks are factored in, the resulting matrix is shown
in Table 2.
 41

Table 2. A matrix coordinating aspects of the cultivation of culture in nationalism

3:PROGATION
1: SALVAGE, RETRIEVAL PROCLAMATION IN
2: FRESH CULTURAL PRODUCT-
INVENTORY THE PUBLIC SPHERE
IVITY
LANGUAGE dictionaries, grammar orthography debates, language activism
standardization/dialectic debates, language planning
language purism language education

L1 L2 L3
DISCOURSE edition of older translations/adaptations(Bible, classics), history education
-literary texts national/historical drama, novel, poetry, historical pageants,
-historical documents national history-writing, commemorations,
-legal sources literary history, criticism events/festivals/awards
D1 D2 D3
ARTEFACTS, archeography monuments protection policy monuments,
MATERIAL monumental remains historicist architecture, design dedication of public spaces
CULTURE symbolically invested sites restorations, museums

A1 A2 A3
PRACTICES, editions of oral literature, rustic-realist literature, revived or invented traditions,
PERFORMATIVE proverbs, superstitions, traditional sports/pastimes revived, events/festivals/awards
CULTURE pastimes, folklore manners and national music composed (folklore, sports, music)
customs, folkdances/music
P1 P2 P3
SOCIAL associations, congresses, academies; publishing ventures, reading societies, book clubs, periodicals
AMBIENCE

INSTITUTIONAL universities/chairs, libraries, archives, state museums, state academies, government agencies
INFRASTRUCTURE

From the foregoing, Leerssen thus assert that cultural nationalism, at least in European
context, is an international movement and not just the cultural fallout of separate political-
nationalist movements. It is as international a movement as Romanticism, with ideas and
initiatives from one country picked up, imitated or applied elsewhere in a swirl of cross-
border intellectual traffic. For example, the nineteenth century revival of the medieval jeux
floraux festivals spread from Toulouse and Occitanian France, first to Barcelona and
Catalonia, and then to Galicia; they inspired each other, and tapped into a shared
remembrance of the great days of courtly poetry in Romance languages before the hegemony
of Castilian and the Langue d‘Oïl (Leerssen, 2006: 563-73). The actors who carried it were
concerned, not just with a single nationality or cultural tradition to the exclusion of others, but
with a philology and taxonomy of Europe‘s diversified cultural landscape, involving a
 42

reassessment and revalorization of the various individual, vernacular cultures. In the process,
however, they bequeathed to their political fellow-travellers a discourse, rhetoric and mental
template concerning their nations‘ roots, specificity and autonomous cultural status.
The cultivation of culture configures and articulates cultural traditions in the diverse European
landscape as ‗national‘; it transmutes them from informal vernacular/demotic practices to
discrete elements in structural systematics of a European continent considered as a set of
nations. In this respect, cultural nationalism is a central, fundamental and persistent aspect of
nationalism across Europe throughout the last two centuries. It pursues concerns of its own,
which should not be seen merely as a side issue in the margin of political nationalism. While
its chronological development is connected with known factors of nation-building and state
formation—such as the rise of middle-class sociability, the spread of literacy, the penetration
of mass print and the centralized organization of universities, libraries and institutions of
learning—it also follows a chronology and dynamics of its own, influenced by intellectual
factors such as the rise of philology and of literary historicism.
What is more, cultural nationalism is territorially much more free-floating (in that the
upholders of this consciousness were more European centric) as opposed to social movements
and their political demands (Leerssen, 2006: 573).

2.1.3.2. Europe‘s re-embracement of cultural unity an indictment of political nationalism

Europe eventual [even if reluctant] re-embracement of homogenizing culture after its prolong
and destructive wars of demarcated frontiers instigated by political nationalism seems to
confirm Leerssen‘s argument that deep beneath the political mantle Europeans are, after-all,
of the same culture origin. Indeed, while the socio-cultural and political trend of the post-war
and post-communist Europe is insufficient to speak of a culture unity among the Europeans,
especially with regard to the (pockets) of political tensions in south and south east of Europe,
but, as noted earlier, there is good reason now to argue that the ideological pendulum of
today‘s Europe has tilted significantly in favour socio-cultural (re)integration in asmuch as the
rejection of violent conflicts is concerned.
It is in such an ideological volte face of events that one could make sense of Geertz argument
that ‗ideologies or the various sorts of cultural symbolic systems…most crucially come into
play where the particular kind of information they contain is lacking, where the institutional
guides for behaviour, thought, feeling or sentiments are weak or absent. It is when neither a
society‘s most general cultural orientation nor its most down-to-earth pragmatic ones suffice
 43

any longer to provide an adequate image of political process that ideologies begin to become
crucial source of socio-psychological meaning and attitudes.‘ ―The function of ideology is to
make an autonomous politics possible by providing the authoritative concept that render
meaningful, the suasive images by means of which it can be sensibly grasped (Geertz, 1973:
218 ff.). As he puts it, the French revolution would not have been the incubator of extremist
ideologies—both progressive and reactionary—had the central organizing principle of the
political life then, the divine rights of kings, not destroyed‖ (ibid, 220). From this analytical
perspective it suffices thus to conclude that Europe reluctant [but certain] re-embracement of
the culture of unity today is itself a serious indictment for political nationalism with its central
concern of economically induced divisive political entities.

2.1.3.3. Is the nationalist ideal a nomenclature for cyclical development?

Geertz argument that pre-modern and modern political ideologies would have been
unthinkable had their culture antecedents not been overwhelmed by socio-political, -
psychological and historical circumstances; and Europe‘s apparent embracement of
homogenizing culture in terms of its identity process after World War II automatically impel
such reasonable question as to whether the nationalist ideal is not after all a nomenclature for
cyclical development—that is, a social development that pays genuine tribute to its authentic
culture heritage? In the unique case of the European nation the re-embracement of its original
culture from the Graeco-European social history.
The urge for the maintenance of idiosyncratic aesthetic dimension of a people‘s culture is
symptomatic of Heidegger‘s insistence for an original repetition of the mythical origin of
European national (occidental) history (in his Parmenides lectures on the History of Being:
―Being and Word‖; ―Being and Ratio‖; ―Being and Time‖ in winter 1942-3). For Heidegger
the Greek origin of European (Western) history remains incomparable—or in the words of
Dostovsky ‗lux de oriente‘, that is, the harbinger of authentic community beyond alienation
—because it constitutes the original Being, the birth of the presence (Nancy) which manifest
the mystery of creation, the mystery of origin (Roberts 1999: 28-33). Important here is that
the Greek origin departs from a divine aesthetic creative genius (nature), that is, the Ursprung
(the first creative leap of God/gods). Hence origin—the encounter between Being and
History—signifies for Heidegger the totality given form: the Gestalt of work of art. As
Roberts point out, art for Heidegger is the archetype of truth because it constitutes the origin
of history, the original Dasein of a people. In other words, Heidegger comprehends art,
 44

especially the mythical art of a community, in relation to the people—that is, a national
community united by a language: a language that inevitably bears testimony to the mythical
consciousness of the original divine work of art (1999: 19-34). As Heidegger asserts, history
does not develop from the inconspicuous beginning. On the contrary all greatness of historical
knowledge lies in the understanding of the history of beginning and that the knowledge of the
original history (Urgeschichte) is the province not of science but mythology (Heidegger 1983:
164-5).
In the Greek beginning ―Being‖ reveals itself in the Mytho-poetic word, which would later be
transformed by Plato and Aristoteles into Logos thereby inaugurating the history of
metaphysics, in which logos became ratio. With this history is announced Being (Nature) and
Time: time points to the more original origin, that is, the origin of the Greek origin. As a
primordial ground for the World time announces the more original beginning, destinal for
occident, the event and advent (Ereignis) which can [only] occur in occidental people of poets
and thinkers. The German people thus incorporate the site of the history of Europe (or the
West), which holds concealed a world fate (Roberts, 1999: 34).
Interestingly, Heidegger had envisaged earlier in his Hölderlin‟s lectures (1934-5) an essential
opposition in the European people that would eventually lead to the transmutation of the
Greek historical beginning into nature by the Germans in order to give birth to a new
beginning. ―Greek achieved its identity through the Apollonian mastering of the Dionysian:
Germany, the west, will attain its identity when its occidental Apollonian endowment of order
and organization is infused with Dionysian power, when, as Heidegger puts it, it is seized by
Being. To formulate it another way, if the Greek mission was to transform nature into history,
the German mission is to transform history—the exhausted history of the first beginning—
back into nature in order to inaugurate the new beginning‖ (Heidegger, 1980: 290-292;
Roberts, 1999: 19-34). And such a mythical re-foundation of history in nature, in the abyss of
the native earth, will be one with Germany‘s nativity. Germany will give birth to the coming
god, Dionysus, and the coming god, the seizure of [Being], will give birth to Germany.
Heidegger thus situates himself in the hour of Germany‘s destiny, the great time of the world-
historical turning of the Occident, in the tradition of the ‗new mythology‘, which reaches from
the French Revolution to German Revolution, and in which Germany‘s birth, identity and
mission are conceptualized in terms of a two fold struggle with antiquity and modernity
(ibid). ‗Out of this twofold struggle between Greek nature and art and modern history springs
the quest for the aesthetic state‘ (Chytry, 1989): the coming god of the new mythology is also
the god of the aesthetic state, the total work of art (Gesamtkunstwerk) which will redeem
 45

modernity though the union of nature and history (Roberts, 1999). As Roberts thus sums up,
‗at each stage of Franco-German history (of Europe) between 1789 and 1933 the coming birth
of Germany is announced (ibid, 27).
Of course, the aesthetic state direct role in the cataclysmic events of both World Wars (WWI
and II), and the obvious [even if reluctant] re-embracement of homogeneous culture in Europe
today, after the zahlreiche separatist pro-polis (or state centric) European wars, seems to
suggest that that nostalgic longing for authenticity… is as lively as ever among the European
populace. In this sense, Heidegger was indeed right to assert that ―the great times of the
turning of a people comes from the abyss [Abgründe] and a degree that a people reach down
into it, that is the earth and possess home‖ (ibid, 19-34).
If the nostalgic longing for authenticity in a community‘s historical advances towards the
transcendental truth simply imbues some sense of cyclical development…, especially in terms
of its umgang [procession] with national culture of a mythical provenance, let‘s expand
further on Heidegger‘s concept of ―electability‖—that is, his notion that the ―event‖ and
―advent‖ (Ereignis) of World destiny can only occur in the ―occidental people‖ of poets and
thinkers—of the European populace (with a divine mission) in order to bring to close our
interpretation of primordialist understanding of the national phenomenon. But is Heidegger
alone in that traditional nationalist perception of an elected type in a people—that is, a people
chosen, in the words of Charles Blattberg, ‗to receive the gifts of aesthetic aspiration‘32—with
a sacred language of mythical origin that must be maintained [at all cost] in their quest for
transcendental truth (or lucidity)?

Indeed not. In fact, the appropriate place to begin, in terms of seeking to understand
Heidegger‘s concept of divine election of the Graeco-European national artisans is with the
literary document of Genesis I. Eric Voegelin, who has extensively researched on people‘s
historical advances in the quest for lucidity (in what he basically terms the ―community of
Being‖ or ―It-reality‖—that is, the mysterious consciousness of the complex whole of God
and the World, man and society), is credible referenced for the discourse of the Genesis I.
Essentially, Voegelin analysis generally confirms the argument made earlier that even modern
political ideas evolved out of pre-established culture norms of early societies with
transcendental ambitions. Voegelin began his investigation by placing the literary work of the
Genesis in the historical context of the Middle Sixth and Fifth centuries B.C., that is, the post-
exilic history of the Jews people. Hence he acknowledges the importance of external culture
32
Charles, Blattberg, 2006. ―Secular Nationhood? The Importance of Language in the Life of Nations.‖ Nations
and Nationalism 12 (4), 597-612.
 46

influences (Egyptian, Babylonian et cetera) on the conscience of those who authored the
Genesis. As a literary document, Voegelin observes, that the Genesis I opens the story of
mankind from its beginning in creation, through the history of the patriarchs, of captivity and
exodus, of Philistine (later Palestine) settlement, of Davidic-Solomonic Empire, of kingdoms
and their catastrophe, of exile and return, down to Deutero-Isaiahic dream of a world Israel,
under the guidance of God‘s covenant with man. Thus through Israel the history of man
continues the creational process of order in reality—as part of the comprehending story [of
the mysterious] It; and the point at which arrives in the event of the Genesis derives its
significance from the revelation of the truth the epiphany structure in reality culminates in the
attunement of human history to the command of pneumatic word (Voegelin, 2000: 38ff).
Voegelin then proceeds to discern the creative genius of the pneumatic word. ―In the
beginning, so said the book of Genesis I, God created the Heaven and Earth.‖ ―God said, let
there be light and there was light.‖ As Voegelin finds out, the spoken word, it appears, is
more than a mere sign signifying something; it is a power in reality that evokes structures in
reality by naming them. This magic power of the [commanding] word can be discerned even
more clearly in Genesis I: 5: ―God called the Light: Day! And the darkness he called: Night!
And there became evening and morning: a Day‖ (ibid, 33-34).
In a situation created by the question what is the kind of reality where the spoken word evokes
the structures of which it speaks? They, the authors the Genesis document, had to find the
language symbols that would adequately express the experience and the structure of the
mysterious It-reality. The answer to this question is found in Genesis I: 2: ―The Earth was
waste and void; darkness on the face of the deep; and the spirit [breath] of God was moving
over the face of water.‖
As Voegelin observes, over an emptiness over the formless waste of something there moves,
perhaps like a storm, the breath or spirit, the rauch of God, or rather a plural divinity, elohim.
Here the It-reality is symbolized as a strong movement of spiritual consciousness imposing
form on a formless and non-conforming countermovement, as a tension between a pneumatic,
formative force (rauch, in later Greek translation pneuma) and at least passively resistant
counter-force. Moreover, the tension in the ‗It‘ is definitely not a human consciousness in its
struggle with reality for its truth; it is recognize as a non-human process, to be symbolized as
divine; and yet it has to convey an aura of analogy with human process because man
experiences his own acts, such as the quest for truth, as acts of participation in the process of
It—that is, in the mysterious It-reality that encompasses the consciousness of divinity and that
of mankind (ibid, 34ff).
 47

Of particular importance about Voegelin‘s incisive analysis of the literary work of Genesis I
is the assertion that: ‗by the differentiation of the pneumatic struggle as the beginning of the
mysterious epiphany of all structure of reality, the authors of the Genesis document reveals
the presence of its consciousness in the compact language of early mythospeculations on the
Beginning, such as in various cosmogenies, anthrogenies, and theogenies. Hence he urges us
to consider the Genesis document as one of the great literary documents in the historical
process of advance from compact to differentiated consciousness and the corresponding
advance from compact to differentiated language. In this view, if we lose this understanding,
we lose the larger historical horizon of the differentiated advances, as for instance the
equivalence between the symbolization of the Beginning in Genesis and its symbolization as
the imposing of form on a formless chora in Plato‘s Timaeus. And if this larger historical
horizon of advances is lost, we lose the possibility of recognizing the pneumatic
differentiation of Genesis the compact presence of noetic structure of consciousness, the
presence of the compact consciousness reality-language‘ (ibid, 37).
To the question what do the story and the truth mean in terms of experience and
symbolization? Voegelin referred to ‗the event of the quest as being part of a story told by ‗It‘
(the first Creator), and yet a story to be told by a human questioner, s/he wants to articulate
the consciousness of his quest as an act of participation in the comprehending story. The story
thus emerges as the symbolism that will express the awareness of the divine-human
movement and countermovement in the quest for truth. As Voegelin aptly points out, the great
quest for truth in which the consciousness metaleptic story becomes differentiated—be they
the priestly quest of Genesis with the prophetic quest in background, or the Judaeo-Christian
quest, or the Zoroastrian, the Hinduist and Buddhist, the Confuscian and Taoist quest, or
finally the noetic quest of the Hellenic philosophers—do not occur in a vacuum. They occur
in social fields, constituted by older experiences of order and symbolization of their truth,
experienced by the questioner to have fallen into disorder and decline. The quest of truth is a
movement of resistance to the prevalent disorder; it is an effort to attune the concretely
disordered existence again to the truth of the It-reality, an attempt to create a new social field
of existential order in competition with fields whose claim to truth has become doubtful… For
the quest, if successful, imposes on the fields the previously not existent characteristics of
falsehood or lie; this imposition will provoke movements of resistance from the adherents to
the older, more compact truth, as well as from the discoveries of varieties alternatives to both
the older and the new truth; it will furthermore meet with the social obstacles of spiritual
 48

dullness and indifference; and it will encounter movements of scepticism aroused by the new
plurality of varieties. The quest, thus, is not only its own beginning‘ (ibid, 38-41).
Interestingly, Voegelin informative analysis not only confirm nationalist activities in
traditional resistance, but also seems to want us believe that the human questioner, of the
divine story being told, does not always question the object of her/his own consciousness, but
only that of (pre-established social) orders—as would… the authority behind the authorship
of Genesis I document to the Manfour ideology of the Hiku-Ptahian culture institutions of
Cham/Kem or, in Graeco-European context, the Memphetic philosophy of Aegyptos/Ancient
Egypt in its artful composition of God‘s invention of the story of Joseph and his brothers in
ancient Egypt (northern Azania). If we are to agree with Voegelin that the human (outsider)
questioner, whose own [dubious] quest for the It-reality often sets her/himself… against the
original social order of national communities, then, it suffices to summarize that without the
compact consciousness of the mythical beginning of a people‘s national culture and/or history
33
(e.g. Azanians, Graeco-Europeans, et cetera), the entwined dialectic of mythopoesy would
never have come to fruition, let alone Plato‘s philosophical discourse of mythical caves of

33
In den glaenzenden Kapiteln des ersten Bandes seiner Paideia, die der Tragodie der Aischylos bis Euripides
gewidmet sind, nennt Werner Jaeger, ―die jaehrlichen dionysischen Festspiele das Ideale Nationale theatre, wie
es seither wieder erstrebt und nie wieder verwirklicht worden ist‖ (Jaeger, 1954 Bd. 1. Berlin, s.319); vgl. Gregor
Sebba, Peter Weber-Shaefer (Hrsg), 1969. Das Politische Leben der Griechen. Muenchen, ch.2, s.25). Wie
Sebba weiterhin bekanntgabe, diesem nationalen theater wurde als Fest an dem sich das Volk an kleinen, grossen
und grössten Schoeffungen der dichterischen Vorstellungskraft zu einem neuen Selbstverstaendnis und
Selbstbewusstsein heranbilden konnte betractet. Die Tragodie des Aischylos und des Sophokles ist fuer Jaeger
eine geistige Verkörperung des neuen Menschentums das in diesen athenischen fuenften Jhrdt erwuchs; eine
Verkoeperung auch der erzieherischen Kraft, die die Dichtung damals in hoechsten mass besass. Sie war der
hoechste Ausdruck eines Bewusstsein, dem Kunst, Religion und philosophie noch unloesbar eins waren. Die
Macht der Tragodie wurde von den Zeitgenossen sogar als so gross empfunden, dass sie den Tragikern die
hoechste Verantwortung fuer das Wohl der Polis zuschrieben—jene Verantwortung, die spaeter Platon und
Aristoteles dem an der Philosophie geschulten und von ihr geformten staatsmann zu messen (ibid, 25).
Werner Jaeger verweist auf der Tatsache, dass eben in der Zeit vor Aischylos in 6 Jhrdt. vor Christus, der
Mythen aufgehort hatte, Traeger grossen idean zu sein (Jaeger, W., Paideia, Bd.1, s.307ff [ über Aischylos]; s.
187[über Solon]; und s. 206ff[über Jonische philosophische Speculation]: vgl. hierzu kapitel von Sebba, in Peter
Weber-Schaefer (Hrsg), 1969:30ff). Zugleich begann die sich entwickelnde Philosophie und Erzählprosa Jonians
der geistigen Aufgaben der Dichtung zu übernehmen, den sie konnte in rein intellektueller Sprach sagen, was
bisher in der Bildsprach des Mythos zum ausdruck gekommen war. Aber mit dem Niedergang dem
Unglaubwürdwerden der Mythen war auch ihre dichterische Form, die epische Erzählung veraltet, sie war die
Darstellung der erregenden, noch gar nicht klar erkannten neuen Einsichten und fragen nicht gewachsen. Da
schritt nun Aischylos zur überraschenden Tat. Er macht der Tragodie, die noch mehr als halb epische war, zum
Drama; den Stoff an dem die neue Wahrheit zu zeigen war, fand er da, wo man am wenigsten erwarten würde:
im alten Mythos. In diese zur blassenden Legende oder poetischen Erfindung (wenn nicht gar zum Aberglauben)
Geschichten goss er das Lebensblut oder heldenhaften Haltung des Athens der Perserkriege und gabe ihnen
dadurch neuen, bisher ungeahnten Sinn. So entsprang die unerwartete wiedergeburt des Mythos jener neuen
Aufassung von Mensch und Welt, die Solon den Athenern gegeben hatte. Aischylos hob sie zur höchsten
ethischen, religiösen und politischen Höhe. Seine Tragodie gabe Antwort auf die drängenden neuen Fragen über
dem Sinn des Lebens, über das rechte Handeln, über das Wesen der neuen politischen Gemeinschaft. Der
erhobene Stil entsprach der Gröss der Aufgabe. So bestimmt Jaeger der Tragodie des Aischylos als politische
Dichtung, die eben aus ihrer politischen Wesenheit der erzieherischen Kraft bezieht, denn in der allumfassenden
Polis sind Ethik, Religion, und das ganze menschliche nur Aspekte einer grossen Einheit (Peter Weber-Schaefer
(Hrsg), 1969: 30)
 49

human ―ascension‖ to lucidity as in Plato‘s Republic. But are we not merely affirming Geertz
previous argument, that without competing (and, in most cases, destructive) social forces of
external provenance—as exemplified earlier by the political situation in the new states—the
ethno-cultural communities of compact consciousness… are indeed the authentic candidates
for nationhood? (Geertz, 1973: 260)
Even some of those who emphasize on agency to assert the origins of nations and nationalism,
Isaiah Berlin for one, seems to concede to the idea of culturally rooted nations and/or
nationalism as distinct from and antecedent to nation-states. As Berlin also admits, ―modern
[political] nationalism arose in response to patronizing or disparaging attitudes towards the
traditional values of society, the result of a wounded pride and sense of humiliation in its most
socially conscious members, which in due course produce anger and self assertion. In other
words, given the insecurities felt by certain elites in a newly modern context, they are said to
react in a very way that psychologically or sociologically speaking, meets the challenges
posed.‖ (Berlin, 1979:34634; Blattberg, 2006:598) This is almost like stating that the key
proponents of Germany‘s Third Reich made sense of the harsh and unnecessary conditions of
the Versailles Peace—some would say War Declaration—Treaty by exploiting the sympathy
of German nationalists for their ambitious economic project of mehrraum (geographical
space) in the hay days of political nationalism. Or the current abuse of confuscianism or
Chinese nationalism by the current CPP leadership to legitimate its [communo-capitalist]
economic agenda of contemporary China—even though its policies since the early 1950s have
so far proven more destructive to indigenous Chinese culture than had any external political
force. In this respect, the main issue should not be whether the original national Art was/is
faked or distorted for sheer rational ends; or whether the rice seed being currently watered to
feed the growing Chinese population, amidst the deliberate destruction of China‘s agricultural
landscape for infrastructural developments, is genetically modified, but instead whether the
original seed could indeed be said to have been free from synthetic additives. If this is
confirmed, then, Geertz incisive analysis of the primordial aspect of nationness and/or
nationalism must be considered among the consistent and lucid contributions to the ongoing
debate about the origin of the national phenomenon—even if his original intension was
merely to highlight the inherent tensions between traditional and modern forces in the
―terminal communities‖ of modern politics.

34
Berlin, I., 1979. ‗Nationalism: past neglect and present power.‘ In H. Hardy, ed. Against the Current: Essays
on the History of Ideas. London: Hogarth Press, 333–355.
 50

2.1.4. Ethno-Symbolists Perspective

Evidently, the apparent tensions in modern polities between traditionalist and forces of
modernization is crucial to understanding the prevailing ambivalence—that is, the apparent
fracture, namely ―ethnic/cultural‖ and ―civic/political‖ variants (or the primordialist versus
modernist strands)—in nationalist literature. It is such fracture that a key proponent of ethno-
symbolism, Anthony D. Smith, has made central to his interpretation or understanding of the
national phenomenon. Since, as noted earlier, the concept of ethnicity and cultural symbolism
is critical to the primordialist conception of nations; the notion of yet another ethno-
symbolism in nationalist discourse would automatically impel clarification so as not to
confound the latter with the ethno-cultural symbolism evident in primordialist arguments.
Therefore, the novel concept of primordialist core should serve as the basic criterion for such
a distinction. This is inevitable not only because of the centrality of ethnicity to Smith‘s
ethno-symbolic approach to the concept of nationhood and nationalism, but also because
some key upholders of the modernist school (Gellner 1996a: 366; Breuilly 1996: 150-1) had
labelled his ethno-symbolic perspective primordialist. Despite Smith consistent rejection of
attempts to label him as a primordialist; and the consistent attempts to posit himself simply as
―a critic of the idea that nations lack pre-modern antecedents‖ (Smith, 1986:1-18; Hearn,
2006), there are those who still refer to him as a ―reluctant primordialist‖ (Hearn 2006: 42).
Notwithstanding, Smith has tirelessly tried to clarify his position by presenting arguments
which seem to attest some minimal degree of distinction from the primordialist core, as in the
following statement:

The perennialist might be right about the antiquity of collective cultural ties and sentiments,
nevertheless their claim fall short of the presumption that such ties are universal (let alone natural as
primordialist assert). Or if they assume about universal human characteristics like the need to belong or
religious community, they fall short in linking such needs with the formation and persistence of nations
and nationalism (Smith, 1986: 12-13).

Evidently, Smith is after all not criticising the primordialist (or perennialists) position outright
other than the shortcomings he observed in that quote. As a matter of fact Smith himself
began in the 1990s to label his own approach as ―ethno-symbolic.‖ Reflecting on the
development of his ideas he remarks:
 51

―Given the many economic and political ruptures between pre-modern and modern collective
cultural identities in the same area, any continuity between ethnie and nation had to be located in the
cultural and symbolic spheres. This in turn led to the adaptation of the term ‗ethno-symbolism‘ for an
approach that sort to establish nations between the different kinds of collective cultural identity by
focussing on elements of myth, memory, value, symbol and tradition that tended to change more slowly,
and were more flexible in meaning, than the process in other domains‖ (Smith, 2004:196; Hearn, 2006).

It is important to note, however, that because of the socio-cultural determinants in Smith‘s

approach, there is some similarity with Geertz conception of culture (Hearn, 2006: 172ff). So,
without further ado let‘s critical discern Smith‘s ethno-symbolist perception of nations.
In general, Smith‘s approach describes ethnies and nations as [being] composed out of ―myth-
symbol-complex‖ and more specifically ―mytho-moteurs‖ a term he borrows from Armstrong
(1982: 8-9). The former is the given repetoires of given cultures, while the mytho-moteur
more specifically designates a ―conservative political myth‖ that defines identity in relation to
a specific polity while also legitimating it (Smith, 1986: 58). Mytho-moteur (or ethnic cores)
comes in various broad types, namely dynastic and communal. Dynastic mytho-moteur
attaches to the office of the ruler by extension to ruling house and dynasty (Smith, 1986: 58;
Hearn, 2006: 172ff). Typical of both the ancient imperial polities of the Middle East (e.g.
Assyria, Persia et cetera) and the medieval kingdoms of Europe (e.g. Normans, Charlemagne,
etc.), such mytho-moteurs are generally fused with religion, connecting dynastic lineages to
ancestral religious figures, and infusing the dynastic dominion with an aura of sacredness, and
its inhabitants and their ruler with a chosen role in realizing the divine will (Hearn, 2006).
Communal mytho-moteurs, on the other hand, are nurtured by the strata and focus on an
image of the whole community rather than a privileged lineage or a state institution (Smith,
1986: 61). ‗Here Smith contrast two forms, namely: A more political form, exemplified by the
Hellenic city states of the Fifth century B.C., in which cultural pride revolving around a pan-
Hellenic religious pantheon, shared heroic myth and linguistic continuity was focused on
individual city states with their local deities, political institutions and aesthetic achievements.
And a more religious form, in which collective identities revolved a special relationship
between people and their God (e.g. the Jews). After a long period of episodic kingdom
building, from the destruction of the first temple and the Babylonian Exile (586 B.C.) the
history of Jews became one repeatedly politically destabilized by large predatory
neighbouring empires. In this context, the role of the priesthood, the prophets and
subsequently the rabbis and synagogues, and of law and Tora, with its boundary preserving
 52

rules of intermarriage, circumcision and deitry laws, served to reinforce communal identity‘
(Hearn, 2006: 172-178). According to Smith:

When the synagogues took over the function of the Temple, the democratization of religious self-
conception was complete; the rabbi was a teacher and an expounder of the Tora, not an intermediary, and
the oral law embodied in the Misnah, was designed for the whole community of believers. Similarly, any
restoration of the exile became increasingly geo-communal rather than geo-political: it involved the return
of the whole community of Israel to Zion, its sacred center, more than the restoration of the rule of the
home of David in Philistine/Palestine, and the Messianic era was centred less on the person of the
anointed one than on universal justice and peace which Israel restoration will bring. Priestly and prophetic
denunciation of the institutions of the monarchy had paved the way for a more theocratic and communal
conception of the basic mytho-moteur of the Jewish people (Smith, 1986: 64)

As Hearn rightly observes, part of Smith point here is that these mytho-moteurs are flexible
and evolving, and that the Jewish communal-religious type evolved out of an earlier more
dynastic type, under the vagaries of historical circumstances. He suggests a similar
development of the Hellenic communal political ―mytho-moteur‖ into a more religious
communal one under the Ottoman Empire as the Greeks became millet (an ethno-religious
population with distinctive legal and administrative status under the system of the Ottoman
rule) socially organized especially by the patriarchate of the Greek Orthodox church (ibid).
By the same analytical token ancient Egypt is viewed as more of an ―ethnic state‖ with
overarching religious practices and a relative unified ruling class, but economically localistic
and with profound social barriers between nobles and commoners; whereas ancient Israel in
the second Temple period seems to have a fairly integrated system of law and religious
practices, uniting the social hierarchy, and intensified by collective hardship, periods of
religious reform and strenuous claims to territory (ibid, 36-42).
Important about Smith distinction between the Dynastic/Aristocratic (or political) and the
rather more communal oriented ethnies or ethnic ties is his concept of ―lateral‖ and ―demotic‖
ethnic cores, both of which also furnish the two main routes by which nations have been
created. In order to better understand the centrality of the ethic cores to the creativity of both
the ethno-cultural and/or political nations, let‘s explore in detail Smith‘s conception of
nations.
Essentially Smith began by positing nations as culturally rooted social categories with
relatively profound historical background. In other words, nations, as we know them today,
could be both appanage of deliberate and spontaneous (circumstantial) historical social
entities. Smith does not entirely reject the constructivist or political dimension of modern day
 53

nation-states—but he also reminds us not to lose sight of their deeply entrenched cultural and
historical roots. In particular, it is through the cultural dimension of nationness that a group‘s
appeal to unconditional universal sentiment carries much weight, he believes. Accordingly,
vital for a nation is the spread of ―national sentiments‖ and usually downward through the
strata of the population. National sentiments in this way is no construct, it has a real, tangible,
mass base. At its roots is a feeling of kinship, of extended family, that distinguishes national
from every other kind of sentiment (Smith, 1981: 63-86; Horowitz, 1985: 55-92). It is in and
through the myths and symbols of the common past that such national sentiments find
expression; and these may develop over long periods:

―The nation, in this sense, is not a once-for-all, or all-for-nothing, concept; and that historical nations are
ongoing process, some times slow in their formation, at other times faster, often jagged and discontinuous
as some features emerge or are created, while others lag. In some parts of the world nations have a far
reaching historical background and in others recent. In either ways however, objective factors outside
human control and will and action, go into creation of nations. Geopgraphical, environmental, and
political accidents of warfare but whether it may subsequently do so, may depend on how far a group or
its ruling classes become conscious of their identity and reinforce it through education, legal codes and
administrarive centralization‖ (Tilly, 1975: 3-163).

Thus Smith perception is that while nations might be constructs or visions of nationalist (or
other) elites, they could equally be seen as real, historical formations that embody a number of
analytically separable processes over long time span. In other words, nationalist cannot, and
do not, create nations ex-nihilo. There must be, at least, some elements of the chosen
population and its social environment which favours the aspirations and activities of
nationalist visionaries. To achieve their goals—autonomy, unity and identity—there need to
be some core networks of associations and culture around which nations can be ―built.‖
Language groups are often regarded as the basic networks of nations; but religious sects, like
the Druse, Sikhs, Maronites, may also form the starting-point for ―reconstructing‖ the nation.
So may certain kind of historical territory (Smith [1989], Pecora, 2001: 335).

2.1.4.1. The real ethnic core and the persistence and durability of nations

Apparently, the above emphases suggest that Smith is generally aware of the aesthetic
objective dimension of both the cultural and political streams of nations. Important though, he
attests that the political variant of the national phenomenon [alone] has little prospects of
survival without recourse to the cultural antecedent (or more accurately to the real ethnic
 54

core—that is, the demotic component of nationess), ‗as those behind the failed aristocratic
political ambition to revive ancient Persian culture in the period between 531-579 A.D
(Chosroes I) know this pretty well‘ (Smith [1989] Pecora, 2001: 339):

―As with other urban civilizations that lacked real roots in the countryside, the results were grand and
artificial, in theology as in architecture; and Moslem conquest cut the entire tradition in the Seventh
century, just as Alexander‘s victories had earlier the high cultures of Achaemenides‖ 35

But not all in the aristocratic [camp] of ―lateral ethnie‖, those mainly behind the projects of
political nations, seem so ignorant about the overwhelming importance of the demotic
component to the durability and persistence of nations, as the following statement by Pope
Boniface of the thirteenth century France historical search for a compact national identity also
confirms:

―…like the people of Isreal…the Kingdom of France [is] a peculiar people chosen by the Lord to carry out
the orders of heaven‖ (Davis, 1958: 289-313)36

It is precisely this artful skill to adapt, especially by the politically induced lateral ethnies of
both the ancient, medieval and modern worlds, in the creativity (or re-creativity) of nations,
that Smith seems to want us make sense of contemporary ―dialectic entwinement‖ of modern
nation-states. Otherwise, wholly ethno-cultural variants of nationess which survived the
predatory encroachment of the former—that is, the civic/political dimension of nationhood,
have maintained their compact character.
Smith does not provide us with any concrete example of such an ethno-culture nation
untainted by politics in today‘s context other than his assertion of the persistent desire (and
ability in some cases) by proponents of the [rein] ethnic core and, of course, those in between
to resuscitate and institutionalize the original compact culture passed down across generations
in their nation‘s turbulent history, as exemplified by the revival of the modern Jewish nation-
state. Herein lies the durability of the real ―ethnic core.‖ As Smith remarked, because nations
embody ethnic as well as civic components they turn to form around ―pre-existing‖ ethnic
cores. The fact that pre-modern eras have been characterized by different ethnie is therefore
vital to our understanding of the ways modern nations emerged. The number, location and
durability of such ethnies are crucial for the formation of historical nations. The relations of

35
Mc Neill, William H., 1963. The Rise of the West: A History of Human community. Chicago: Chicago
University Press, 400.
36
Davis, R H C., 1958. A History of Medieval Europe. London: Longmans, Green & Co.
 55

power and exploitation between different kinds of ethnie also help to determine the basis for
historical nations. It is this latter circumstance that provides an essential key to the process of
nation formation in modern times (Smith (1989) Pecora, 2001: 341).
The exploitation of the authentic compact ethnic core by proponents of the politically inclined
lateral ethnie eventually provokes reactionary counter-measures from the real Guardians of
the ethnic core—that is, the demotic/vertical component of nationhood, as exemplified early
by Jewish cultural mobilization and strenuous resistance of the encroachment of predatory
empires earlier. With respect to the modern Jewish nation-state Smith does not rule out
rational political substance in its present constitution—albeit persistent traditional hopes for
messianic restoration to Zion of generations of the Orthodox community. Simply put, left
alone on the political/state-centric component of the Jewish nation-state—one must not forget
that had the Orthodox Jews not overwhelmingly turned down the grand political ambitions of
Theodor Herzl and his followers, they almost accepted Argentina and Uganda as an
alternative to their sacred homeland (Theodor Herzl (1896) in Pecora (ed.) 2001: 185-9)—the
Jewish people (nation) would quite certainly have wandered permanently without ever putting
foot on that promise [fulfilled] land, let alone Heru-sale[m] (Jerusalem). In this case, for the
Orthodox Jews who rejected Herzl‘s grand and ambitious political project by risking
permanency in hostile exilic conditions—laden fully with exterminatory menaces overhead
(e.g. being massacred or burnt alive en mass by European crusaders of politicized nationalism
in the 11th century AD; or lately in Koeln in the 1840s; or more recently in the gas chambers
of Hitler‘s Third Reich)—in that persistent hope of messianic restoration to Zion, other than
condoning the expropriation of the primordial homelands (nations) of others only confirms
the reality of the demotic ethnic core. In this sense, when my Jamaican, Haitian, Cuban
friends, would rather give-up their current respective states to the indigenous population in
order to return to Azania, even without formal identification documents, not only reaffirms
the reality and undiminished faith in the real ethnic core, but also reminds us why the real
ethnic core is such a contested culture asset for both the cultural and political variants of
nationalism (emphasis added).
So, the assassination of Yitzak Rabin by an Orthodox Jewish student in the 1990s reminds us
again of the sacred-secular dichotomy in contemporary Israeli politics. For the Orthodox
Jewish, the true Guardians of the authentic ethnic-core, Heru-Salem is not only a promised
fulfilled land, but a ―sacred rock‖ in their communal quest for the transcendental truth; hence
carving out any part of it to contemporary political forces misappropriating Philistine for
Palestine is like condoning ‗the destruction of the Second Jewish Temple by Titus (Emperor
 56

Vespasian‘s elder son) in the 70 CE‘ (Pagels, 1995: 3-34). It is by recognizing the sacred
dimension of the real ethnic core one could account for the tendency of primordial nationalist
to affirm their ideology in an anti political way, that is, one that favours force over dialogue as
a means of responding to conflict of historical truth.37 But is this Israeli example
idiosyncratic?
Similar tensions between proponents of ethno-cultural and political variants of nations could
be endlessly resurfaced across the broader political spectrum, as the following statement by a
Sri Lankan Monk tends to suggest:

Interestingly, one of the concepts that disturbed the Bhikku was an activity that Westerners
(proponents of the nation-state system) regard as cardinal strength of political system: the ability
to respond impartially to demands of variety of groups. The political expediency of given in to particular
demands of a particular interest, e.g. such as those of the Tamils, was cited by the Bhikku as evidence of
the government immorality. He felt that such politicians were incapable of standing up for the truth in the
face of competing interests, selfish interests, and their impartiality indicated they ultimately only cared
about themselves.38

Of course, true primordial (ethno-cultural) nationalists, who often consider their distinctive
nations as divinely inspired to fulfil a transcendental mission, would rather not compare their
nation‘s ultimate object with mere mundane political interests that could be abandoned once
their temporal validity expires. Instead, the ultimate object in question is a timeless reality that
must never be left out of sight or imagination. And it is precisely this resilience by some to
solemnly rely on a compact and authentic ethnic core in their pursuit of the timeless reality,
that makes the ―ethnic core‖ so attractive to [even] those with short term political agendas.
Hence the tendency by proponents of the aristocratic lateral ethnie to incorporate other strata
of the population in their grand state-centric political ambitions, Smith would have us believe.

2.1.4.2. Bureaucratic incorporation of the ethnic core

So far, this thesis has tentatively tried to affirm the overwhelming importance of the real
ethnic core to both the demotic and lateral streams of the national phenomenon. And as
―Chosroes I‖ failed attempt to revive ancient Persian culture earlier did warn us, those
advocates of lateral ethnie who overlook the centrality of the real ethnic-core in their grand

37
Chowers, E., 1998. ―Time in Zionism: The Life and Afterlife of temporal Revolution.‖ Political Theory 26 (5),
652-82.
38
Juergensmeyer, M., 1994. ―Religious Nationalism confronts the Secular State.‖ 2nd ed. Delhi: Oxford
University Press, 21.
 57

political projects only do so at their own peril. And this seems to be what Smith wants us to
believe when he stressed that aristocratic ethnies have the potential for self perpetuation
provided they can incorporate other strata of the population. Even George Bush Jr., the
president of the self proclaimed remaining military super-power of the 21st century, was
forced to invoke crusadic language in his attempt to galvanize support for his war on terror
after the event of 9/11/01. ―A good many of these lateral ethnies (e.g. Hittitis, Philistines,
Mycenaeans, Assyrians and so on) which failed to do so disappeared alongside their culture
with the demise of their states‖ (Saggs, 1984: 117-21; Smith (1989), Pecora, 2001). Other
lateral ethnies survived by changing their character (post-Islam Persians, Egyptians, Ottoman
Turks), while preserving a sense of common descent and some dim collective memories.
Still others grafted new ethnic and cultural elements on to their common fund of myths,
symbols and memories, and spread them out from the core area and down through the social
scale. They did so, of course, in varying degrees. For example, the efforts of Amhara kings to
spread Orthodox Christianity imposed on them by the Byzantine Empire were rather limited
in scope; yet they managed to retain their Monophysite Abyssinian Identity in their heartlands
(Atika 1968; Smith (1989), Pecora, 2001: 342). That of the Castilians was more successful.
They managed to form the core of a Spanish state (and empire) that expelled Moslem rulers
and almost united the Iberian Peninsula. Yet, even their success pales before that of their
Frankish Norman counterparts.
With these latter examples, Smith simply wants us to have an in-depth critical view of the
politico-aesthetic journey of the nation-state (or, accurately, the state-nation). In all three
cases, lower strata and outlying regions were gradually incorporated in the state, which was
grounded upon a dominant ethnic core (ibid). ―This was achieved by administrative and fiscal
means, and by mobilization of sections of the populations for interstate warfare, as in Anglo-
French wars‖(Keeney, 197239). ―An upper class ethnie, in other words, managed to evolve a
relatively strong and stable administrative apparatus, which could be used to provide cultural
regulation and thereby define a new and wider cultural identity‖ (Corrigan and Sayer, 1985).40
In practice this meant varying degrees of accommodation between the upper-class culture and
those prevalent among the strata and peripheral regions; yet it was the upper-class that set its
stamp on the state and the evolving national identity (Smith (1989), Pecora, 2001: 333-354).

39
Keeney, Barnaby C., 1972.―Military Service and the Development of Nationalism in England 1272-1327.‖ In
Leon Tipton, ed. Nationalism in the Middle Ages. New York: Hort, Rinehart &Winston, 87-97.
40
Corrigan, Philip and Sayer, Derek, 1985. ―The Great Arch: English State Formation as Cultural Revolution.‖
Oxford: Blackwell.
 58

A clear cut example is afforded by British developments. As there had been an Anglo-Saxon
kingdom based originally in Wessex before the Norman conquests the former could not be
considered simply as a servile peasantry. Consequently, we find considerable intermarriage,
linguistic borrowing, elite mobility and finally a fusion of linguistic culture, within a common
religio-political frame work (ibid).
In other words, bureaucratic incorporation of subject ethnies entailed considerable measure of
cultural fusion and social intermingling between Anglo-Saxon, Danish and Norman elements,
especially from the thirteenth century on. ―By the time of Edward III and the Anglo-French
Scottish wars, linguistic fusion had stabilized into Chaucerian English and ―British‖ myth
served to weld the disparate ethnic Communities together‖(Seton-Watson, 1977: 22-3141;
Smith (1989), Pecora, 2001).
In these analyses Smith is by no means assuming that an English nation was fully formed by
the late fourteenth century. There was little economic unity as yet, despite growing fiscal and
judicial intervention by the royal state. The boundaries of the kingdom, too, both with
Scotland and France, were in dispute. In no sense can one speak of a public, mass education,
even for the middle classes. As for legal rights, despite the assumption behind Magna Carta,
they were common to all only in the most minimal senses. ―For the full development of these
civic elements of nationhood one would have to wait for the Industrial Revolution and its
effects‖(Reynolds, 1984: 250-331).42
The ethnic elements, on the other hand, were well developed. By the fourteenth century and
slightly later, a common name and myth of descent, promulgated originally by Geoffrey of
Monmouth, were widely current, as were variety of historical memories (Mac Dougall, 1982:
7-17).43 These were fed by fortunes of wars in Scotland and France. Similarly a sense of
common culture based on language and ecclesiastical organization had emerged. So had a
common strong attachment to the homeland of the Island Kingdom, which in turn bred a
sense of solidarity amid highly visible internal cleavages. The basis of both unitary state and
compact nation had been laid, and laid by a lateral Norman-origin ethnie that was able to
develop its regnal administration to incorporate the Anglo-Saxon population.Yet the full idea
of Englishness had to wait for late-sixteenth and seventeeth-century developments, when the

41
Seton-Watson, Hugh, 1977.―Nations and States: An Enquiry into the Origins of Nations and the Politics of
Nationalism.‖ London: Methuen.
42
Reynolds, Susan, 1984. ―Medieval Origines gentium and the Community of the Realm.‖ History, Vol. 68,
375-90.
43
Mac Dougall, Hugh, 1982. ―Racial Myth in English History:Trojans, Teutons and Anglo-Saxons.‖ Montreal:
Harvest House.
 59

old British myth gave way to a more potent middle-class ―Saxon‖ mythology of ancient
liberties (Mac Dougall, 1982, ch.2-4; Smith (1989), Pecora, 2001).
A similar process of bureaucratic incorporation by an upper class lateral ethnie can be
discerned in France. Some fusion of upper-stratum Frankish with subject Roman-Gallic
occurred under the Christianized Marovigians, but a regnal solidarity is only apparent in
northern France at the end of the century. It was in this era that earlier myths of Trojan
descent, applied to Franks, were resuscitated for all the people of northern France. At the
same time, the Pays d‟Oc, with its different language, customs and myths of descent,
remained for the time outside the orbit of northern bureaucratic incorporation (Reynolds,
1984: 276-89; Smith (1989), Pecora, 2001: 344).
As a matter of fact, Capetian bureaucratic incorporation from Philip II onwards was able to
draw on the glory and myths of old Frankish kingdom and Charlemagne‘s heritage. And this
was partly because the kingdom of the Eastern Franks came to be known as regnum
Teutonicorum, with a separate identity. However, it was also due to the special link between
French dynasties and the Church, notably the archbishopry of Rheims (Smith (1989), Pecora,
2001: 344). There was a sacred quality inhering dynastic mytho-moteur of the Capetians and
their territory that went back to papal coronation of Charlemagne and papal legitimation of
Pepin‘s usurpation in A.D. 754, which the Pope called a new kingdom of David. The religious
language is echoed centuries later, when at the end of the thirteenth century Pope Boniface
declared: ―….like the people of Israel…the French populace is a peculiar people chosen to
fulfil the will of God‖ (see, footnote: 26 above).
As Smith assert, though there is much debate as to the feudal nature of the Capetian
monarchy, the undoubted fact is that an originally Frankish ruling-class ethnie managed after
many vicissitudes to establish a relatively efficient and centralized royal administration over
north and central France (and later southern France). So it became able to furnish those
―civic‖ elements of compact territory, unified economy, and linguistic and legal
standardization that from the seventeenth century onwards spurred the formation of a French
nation as we now know it today. The process, however, was not completed until the end of the
nineteenth century. Many regions retained their local character, even after the French
Revolution. It required the application of Jacobin nationalism of mass education and
conscription under the Third Republic to turn, in Eugen Weber‘s much celebrated phrase,
―Peasants into Frenchmen‖ (Weber, 1979, 1976;44 Smith (1989), Pecora, 2001).

44
Eugen Weber‘s 1976 Peasants into Frenchmen has become one of the corner-stone of nationalism literature.
He has shown how long it took for a clear French national identity to really spread through the population of
France. Despite the upheavals of French Revolution and the Napoleonic Empire, at the last quarter of the
 60

An even more radical ―change of character‖ attempted by bureaucratic incorporation by a

―lateral‖ ethnic state is provided by Spain. Here it was the Castilian kingdom that formed the
fulcrum of Christian resistance to Moslem power. Later, united with the kingdom of Aragon,
it utilized religious community as an instrument of homogenization, expelling those who, like
the Jews and Moriscos, could not be made to conform. Here, again, notions of limpeza de
sangre bolstered the unity of the Spanish crown, which was beset by demands on several
sides from those claiming ancient rights and manifesting ancient cultures. Quite apart from
the Portuguese secession and the failed Catalan revolt, Basques, Galicians and Andalucians
retained their separate identities into the modern era. The result is a less unified national
community, and more poly-ethnic state, than either Britain or France. With the spread of
ideological (or more accurately political instigated) nationalism in the early nineteenth
century, these ethnic communities felt justified in embarking on varying degrees of
autonomous development, whose reverberations are still felt today (Smith (1989), Pecora,
2001: 345).
Not surprisingly, modern nation-states (or state-nations) owe a profound legacy to the
development of England, France and Spain. This is usually attributed to their possessing of
military and economic power at the relevant period, the period of burgeoning nationalism and
nations. As great powers of the period, they inevitably became models of the nation, the

nineteenth century rural France was still a patchwork of regional languages, dialects and cultures—of Peasants
economically tied to the land. By the 1860s perhaps half of the population still did not speak the standard French
of Paris. Weber describes the gradual penetration of a modern standardized school system into the countryside,
and the numerous obstacles it encountered. Fundamental brakes on this process were the poor roads and means
of transportation necessary to get rural children to school, and the high demand for child-labour keeping children
away from school. Regarding the dissemination of Parisian French more specifically, there were other problems:
the lack of trained and qualified teachers who commanded the standard language variety themselves; and high
levels of adult illiteracy, and the exclusion of girls from school, which impeded language reinforcement and
reproduction in the home.
In this context draconian methods were often used to try to cultivate the use of standard French. Children caught
speaking their native tongues were forced to display a ‗token of shame‘ (a cardboard ticket, stick peg, ribbon,
etc.; even holding a brick out at arms length). A child saddled with such a ‗symbol‘ kept it until he caught
another child not speaking French, denounce him, and passed it on (1976:313). But it took more than such brutal
treatment to make the acquisition of French more appealing to rural people. In the time people began to
recognize the opportunities that literacy afforded in an expanding market economy, not only in the agrarian
sector, but for the next generation achieving upward mobility into state jobs and better opportunities in military
careers. Thus education, literacy and standardized French became means for rural family prosperity, rather than
diversions of precarious household labour.
…From this point on it became possible to use texts and practices in the class room to inculcate national values
and identity. Children were now increasingly exposed to hexagonal image of France on wall maps, to description
of the land in geography texts, to romances and national heroes in history texts and to prescriptions for patriotic
behaviour in civic contexts. Weber cites an example: ―Society (Summary) (1) French society is ruled by just
laws, because it is a democratic society. (2) All French are equal in their rights; but there are inequalities
between us that stem from nature or from wealth. (3) These inequalities cannot disappear. (4) Man works to
become rich; if he lacked this hope, work would cease and France will decline. It is therefore necessary that each
of us should be able to keep the morney he has earned‖ (1976: 331; Hearn, 2006: 82-3).
Weber, Eugen, 1979. Peasants into Frenchmen: The Modernization of Rural France, 1870-1914. London:
Chatto and Windus.
 61

apparently successful format of population unit, for everyone else. Yet to the case of England,
France, and to a lesser extent, Spain, this was not accidental. It was the results of early
development of a particular kind of ―rational‖ bureaucratic administration, aided by
development of merchant capital, wealthy urban centres and professional military forces and
technology. The state formed the matrix of the new population unit format, the ―nation‖. It
aided the type of compact, unified, standardized and culturally homogenized unit format that
the nation exemplifies today (ibid).
Some would say that the state actually ―created‖ the nation, that royal administration, taxation
and mobilization endowed the subjects within its jurisdiction with a sense of corporate loyalty
and identity. In Smith‘s view, even in the West this overstates the case. The state was
certainly a necessary condition for the formation of national loyalties we recognize today.
However, its operation in turn owed much to earlier assumptions about kingdoms and
peoples, and the presence of core ethnic communities around which these states were built up.
The process of the ethnic fusion, particularly apparent in England and France, which their
lateral ethnies encouraged through the channels of bureaucratic incorporation, was also
possible because of a relatively homogeneous ethnic-core. We are here talking about actual
descent, much less about ‗race‘, but about the sense of ancestry and identity that peoples
possess. Hence the importance of myths, memories, symbols and values, embodied in
customs and traditions and in artistic styles, legal codes and institutions. In this sense of
‗ethnicity‘, which is more about cultural perceptions than physical demography, albeit rooted
perceptions and assumptions, England from an earlier date, and France some what later, came
to form fairly homogeneous ethnies. These ethnies in turn facilitated the development of
homogenizing states, extending the whole idea of an ethnie into realms and onto levels
hitherto unknown, to form the relatively novel concept of the nation—that is, the nation-state
(ibid., 345-346).

2.1.4.3. Revivalist rediscovery of the ethnic past

Smith assert that in contrast to the route of bureaucratic incorporation by lateral ethnies, the
process by which demotic ethnies may become bases for nations is only indirectly affected by
the state and its administration. This is either because they were subject communities—the
usual case—or because, as in Byzantium and Russia, the state represented interests partially
outside its core ethnie. This subdivision also produces interesting variants on the constitutive
political myth, or mytho-moteur, or vertical ethnies (Smith, 1986a: 47-68). Here, the general
 62

point is that in all these communities, the fund of culture myths, symbols, memories and
values was transmitted not only from generation to generation, but also throughout the
territory occupied by the community or its enclaves and down the social scale. The chief
mechanism of this persistence and diffusion was an organized religion with sacred, lithurgy,
rites and clergy, and some times a specialized secret lore and script. It is the social aspect of
salvation religions, in particular, that have ensured the persistence and shaped the contours of
demotic ethnies. Among Orthodox Greeks and Russians, Monophysite Ethiopians and Copts,
Jews, Catholic Irish and Poles, myths and symbols of descent, and the ritual and the sacred
texts in which they were embodied, help to perpetuate the traditions and social bonds of the
community.
Thus from a revivalist standpoint, especially those under the encroaching shadows of the
lateral/aristocratic ethnies and are now seeking autonomy, their communities was already, and
had always been nations. Indeed, according to some definitions they were: They possessed in
full measure, after all, the purely ethnic components of nation. Arabs and Jews, for example,
had common names, myths and descent, memories and religious cultures as well as an
attachment to an original homeland, and a persisting, if subdivided, sense of ethnic solidarity.
Did this not suffice for nationhood? (Smith (1989), Pecora, 2001: 346) ―All that seemed to be
necessary was to attain independence and state for the community‖(Baron, 196045).
From the foregoing arguments, it thus becomes obvious that two very distinct dimension of
nations could be extracted for further critical analysis. The first one, if not under the
assimilative shadows of the civic political (state-centric) variant, is wholly culturally derived,
with an original homeland, a distinct cultural identity (common names), history (myths of
descent and memories), sense of ethnic solidarity and certain unique cultural attributes such as
language and religion. This national variant with its uncompromising concern for culture
authenticity is less susceptible to aggression and assimilative encroachment. The civic
political one, on the other hand—because of its reliance on sword and economically
compensatory scheme for survival—, is the direct opposite of the former, only relying on
cultural attributes such as religion, language etc. for sheer political and economic reasons, as
exemplified by Arabs use of the Islamic religion to legitimate their continuing military
occupation of northern Azania (what Bin Ladin and his followers would call Arab Maghrebi:
Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco). This is particularly true of the royal family in
Morocco which continues to base the legitimacy of the monarchy on the assumption of direct
descendancy from the prophet‘s family. What this all means, in terms of Smith earlier

45
Baron, Solo W., 1960. ―Modern Nationalism and Religion.‖ New York: Meridian Books.
 63

assertion that the [real] ethnic-core is the genuine basis for compact nationhood, is that, even
within distinct ethnic-cores, there are forces with expansive political ambitions who would
exploit the authenticity of their community‘s ethnic core for political and economic gains.
Thus religion, in this sense, loses its original purpose of transcendental truth and becomes
merely an instrument for political and economic capital, as also exemplified in the following
extracts of Monk and Fulcher echoing Pope Urban II speech at Clermont (1095 AD) in an
effort to galvanize support for the first Crusade:

―… oh, race of Franks, race from across the mountains, race beloved and chosen by God—as is clear from
many of your works—as set aside from other nations by the situations of your country as well as by your
catholic faith and the honour which you render to the holy church: to you our discourse is addressed, and
for you our exhortations are intended…
From the confines of Jerusalem and from the city of Constantinople a grevious report…, namely, that a
race from the kingdom of the Persians, an accursed race, a race wholly alienated from God, a generation
that set not their heart aright and whose spirit was not steadfast with God, violently invaded the lands of
those Christians and has depopulated them by pillage and fire. …The Kingom of Greeks is now
dismembered by them and has been deprived of a territory so vast in extent that could be traversed in two
months time.
On whom, therefore, is the labour of avenging these wrongs and of recovering this territory incumbent, if
not upon you, you upon whom, above all other nations, God has conferred remarkable glory in arms, great
courage, bodily activity and strength to humble the heads of those who resist you? Let the deeds of your
ancestors encourage you and incite your minds to manly achievements—the greatness of Charlemagne,
and his son Louis, and other monarchs, who have destroyed the lands of Turks and have extended the
sway of the Church over land originally occupied by pagans.

Urban II then proceeds to tell his followers, the great children of Frankish Normans: the
Germanic warriors who pioneered dynastic and military aristocratic states across Europe, why
it was extremely necessary to recover those territories lost to the Persians:

―.… for this land which you inhabit, shut in on all sides by seas and surrounded by the Mountain
peaks, is too narrow for your large population; nor does it abound in wealth; and it furnishes scarcely food
enough for its cultivators. Hence it is that you murder and devour one another, that you wage war amongst
yourself, and that very many of you perish in intestine strife.

Another of those present at the council of Clermont, ―Fulcher of Chartres‖, thus reports this
part part of the Urban‘s speech:
 64

―Let those who have formerly been accustomed to contend wickedly in private warfare against the faithful
fight now against the infidel, and bring to victorious end a war which ought already to have been begun.
Let those who have hitherto been robbers become soldiers. Let those who have formerly contended
against their own brothers and relatives now fight against the barbarians as they ought. Let those who
have formerly been mercenaries at low wages now gain eternal rewards. Let those who have been
exhausting themselves to the detriment of both body and soul now strive for two fold reward (see a
complete translation of Fulcher‟s report of Urban II speech in Translation and Reports, Vol.1. No.2)

Monk version then sums up Pope Urban‘s politicized religious speech:

―…enter upon the road to the holy sepulcher, wrest that land from the wicked race, and subject it to your-
selves. That land which, as the scripture says, ‗floweth with milk and honey‘ was given by God into the
power of the Children of Israel. Jerusalem is the centre of the Earth; the land is fruitful above all others,
like another paradise of delights….
This royal city, however, situated at the centre of the Earth, is now held captive by enemies of Christ and
is subjected by those who do not know God, to the worship of the heathen. She seeks to be liberated
…From you especially she asks succour, because as we have already said, God has conferred upon you
other nations great glory in arms. Accordingly, undertake this journey eagerly for the remission of your
sins, with the assurance of the reward of unperishable glory in the kingdom of heaven.‖ 46

Essentially, this compressed but relatively extended quotes from Pope Urban II speech depite
their overwhelming political connotation confirming the previous argument about the
instrumentalization of culture by proponents of political nationalism also summarize two key
Smithonian ideas with regards to the symbolic construction of communal identity, namely the
idea of ―golden ages‖ and that of ―elected types‖ reminiscent of revivalist language. Further,
it could also be used to discern the inherent fluidity of lateral/aristocratic ethnies membership
loyalty, which in turn sheds light on those ethnies inability to dispense with the [real] ethnic
core. This is particularly noticeable of the random recruitment policies inherent in Fulcher‘s
version of Pope Urban II speech which is undoubtedly reminiscent of the language of political
nationalism, especially when combined with the economic compensatory mechanisms meant
to entice members‘ loyalty as in Monk version of that speech. The foregoing thus lends more
meaning to Smith‘s apt phrase that: ‗the sense of common ethnicity went wherever Normans
sailed and Persians arms conquered‘ (Smith (1989), Pecora, 2001: 339). Not surprisingly, in
the later days of the disintegration of the Bantu-Ethiopian Kingdom we had Assyrian, Greek,
Roman and Persian Pharaohs using all means to assert their political power on the culture
institutions of the Azanian nation (emphasis added).

46
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/urban2a.html
 65

This notwithstanding, in purely culture revivalist sense of ―golden ages‖ and or the ―elected
type‖, Smith assert that ethnie and nation-building frequently draw on ideal periods in a
community‘s past [and] often characterized by heroic figures and great culture achievements
(Smith, 1986: 191-200). A typical example of modern recovery or reconstruction of a golden
age is found in Finnish Kalevala—a collection of ballads and poems assembled and combined
in 1835, which inspired contemporary artists and intellectuals estranged by Swedish culture
and Russian political domination in the later nineteenth century, with its tales of heroic
ancestral deeds (Smith, 1991: 66). These golden ages are not simply treasured objects of
collective memory, but serve important functions. They articulate the defining moral and
aesthetic standards of cultural groups; they provide hope and inspiration for cultural
regeneration and national rebirth; they indicate, through lineal heritage, the inherent capacity
of a group to recapture its glorious past, and, above all, they provide guidance for action in the
present, justifying people‘s sacrifices for national cause (Smith, 1999: 263-264).
Thus, on the whole, it is this apparent contention in the makeship of nations—that is, the
marriage of convenience inasmuch as the lateral component of nationhood is concern or, on
the part of the demotic ethnic core, a misfortunate marriage—that sums up Smith‘s
interpretation of contemporary nation-states. Otherwise by merely detaching the conceptual
ambiguity of modernity—that is, the political state from the ethno-cultural nation, the nation
per se has indeed a profound historical background that antedates antiquity, Smith would
argue.

2.2. In what ways are they rational response to immediate identifiable incentives?

2.2.1. Modernist Perspective

Unlike the primordialist and ethno-symbolist scholars, who until now have insisted on the
overwhelming importance of ethnicity in the interpretation of the national phenomenon,
modernists generally tend to defend the modernity of nationalism and nations. Subsequently,
most modernists claim that nations and nationalism have appeared as a consequence of the
processes that mark modern period of social development. Therefore, before we explore the
core arguments of the modernist school concerning the national phenomenon, it will be
important to briefly highlight the key themes of that school of thought.
According to Jonathan Hearn the ‗term modernist‘ tends to encompass an array of
approaches that are more coherently unified than those of the primordialist. He lists three
main themes to support his assumption about the inherent unity of modernist arguments:
 66

a) The demands of industrial economies in generating unified national identities. A

major sub-theme in this regard is the idea of ―uneven development‖ (the tensions
between the core and the periphery relations) as stimulus for modern nationalism;

b) the modern state as a bureaucratic and legal institution generating new conception
of citizenship. A particular important sub-theme is the concept of ―civil society‖;

c) the spread of literacy, linguistic homogenization and standardized education as the

cornerstone of mass culture and unified national identity.

As Hearn found out, modernists generally emphasize all these themes in combination. The
main variations concern how different theorists place accent on these themes in their
conceptions of modernization and its role in creating nationalism (2006: 67-78ff). In the
words of Atsuko Ichigo et al., ‗a crude division of modernist theories could be made between
those who see the period of transition to modernity as erosion of traditional structures that had
to be replaced by new ones, which in turn would result into a new form of stability in now
modern societies. The latter explains the transition ―from below‖—as a set of social changes
that would eventually substitute the broken social bonds of population dragged into modernity
by redefining social relationship and develop new forms of a new national culture.
Hence critics of modernist approaches have generally labelled these theories, among others,
structuralist, functionalist, constructivist or instrumentalist. The first two terms indicate that
the modernist approach is concerned mainly with structural changes in the transition to
modernity and the influences of social institutions on social change. This approach
emphasizes the reconstruction of old dysfunctional institutions and the formation of new ones
that have brought a new equilibrium in the society. This equilibrium is achieved at the level of
social system, in which institutions are seen as actors. Hence, the emergence of nations and
nationalism are seen as unintended consequences of broader social processes. In such
interpretation the nation is formed ―from above‖, the population is moulded into a new
community, whereby actors are constrained by dominant structures‘ (Atsuko, I. et al., 2005:
9-13).
Those critics who see some of the modernist theories as constructivist or instrumentalist
emphasize their so-called upward conflation, where the changes in social structure are
explained by unconstrained actions of agency. For instance, concepts such as ―invention‖ and
―imagination‖ only assume the role of social actor that radically changes the social structure
 67

and culture in transition. In this sense, socio-cultural integration is explained as a result of an

agency‘s free will. Subsequently, the emergence of the nation is explained as a result of
agent‘s interests and agendas. In these theories the agency appears as unconstrained by
previous social structures and cultures. Thus it would seem that the new community of nation
is created ab ovo (ibid, 13).
Importantly, the central themes recurrent in modernist conception of nations and nationalism
are economic development (industrialization), the state and modernity. Therefore, unlike
primordialists and ethno-symbolists whose interpretation of the national phenomenon often
cast a wider net across different communities, modernist theories are unavoidably
Eurocentric. As Atsuko et al. observed, those modernist theories that offer some explanation
of the rise of nations in non-European societies (e.g. Kedourie (1971) and Anderson (1983))
are mainly engaged in applying the developed European model to those communities. The
explanation of a phenomenon such as the nation is firmly grounded in one specific geo-
political area in a specific historical period (eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Europe)
marked with an equally specific set of social processes known as modernity. Consequently,
the explanation of the same phenomenon in different places and times requires a creation of
different typologies (Atsuko, I. et al., 2005: 13). As a matter of fact, Ernest Gellner, for one,
is adamant that ―modernist theories do not necessarily have to be concerned with the navels of
the national phenomenon when dealing with the example of Western Europe‖ (Gellner, 1996:
366-370). Therefore, Gellner‘s positon will be central to the ongoing attempt to critically
discern modernist conception of the national phenomenon. Vincent Pecora also reminds us of
the fact that, ‗Gellner was for some time the leading voice among those who adopted a
―modernist position‖, on the nation, arguing [as had Lenin] that it is a function of economical,
technological, and industrial forces emerging in Europe at the end of the eighteenth century,
and that the ethnic national traditions often invoke to establish modern nation-state are largely
imaginary constructions of the fact‘ (Pecora, 2001: 292 ff). Those who consider Gellner‘s
argument as instrumentalist suggest that his work is the most complete modernist theory of
nationalism (Moore, 2001: 76).

2.2.2. Nationalism and nations as discussed by Gellner

Perhaps, the appropriate place to begin in terms of seeking to understand Gellner‘s

interpretation of the national phenomenon is with his conception of nationalism. Gellner
defines ‗nationalism as a striving to make culture and polity congruent, to endow a culture
 68

with its own political roof, and not more than one roof at that. Put it another way, nationalism
invents or creates nations‘ (Gellner, 1983: 43). Gellner‘s response to the question why
[modern] nationalism would make the marriage between culture and polity (or the endowment
of every distinctive culture with its own political roof) its principal task can be discerned from
the following statement:

During the agrarian epoch of human history the high cultures or great traditions became prominent,
important, and in one sense, but only one sense—that is, cultural sense, dominant. Though they could not
altogether impose themselves on the totality, or even the majority of the population, nevertheless, they
generally succeeded in imposing themselves on it as authoritative, even if (or because) they were
inaccessible and mysterious. They some times strengthened and competed with the centralized state. They
could also deputize for that state, when it is weakened or disintegrated during times of troubles (pale or
dark) age. A Church or a ritual system could stand in for the shadow of a past or a ghost Empire. (In
agrarian age the distinctive high cultures some times had political support and benefited from it, but at
other times could dispense with political protection, and that was indeed one of its strengths. In the pale
ages when anarchy prevailed and the king‘s peace was no longer kept, Christian or Buddhist monasteries,
dervish Zawayas and Brahmin communities could survive and in some measure keep alive the high
culture without benefit of protection by sword). But these high cultures did not generally define the
political unit, and there are good reasons why, in the agrarian age they should not have been able to do so
(Gellner, 1983: 50-1)

Our present interest in Gellner‘s arguments should not be whether the original Guardians or
proponents of the (said) high cultures had the least interest of demarcating economically
induced political units (boundaries) that would transcend or undermine their already existing
cultural boundaries or were simply unable to do, but instead concentrate on whether different
sublanguages could share the same culture without recourse to the protective sword of the
Leviathan? It would seem even in a pan-European context they did, as Di Fabio‘s
interpretation of culture in a post-modern context also suggests: ―Kultur… sei vor allem
raumuebergreifende, gemeinsame (westliche) Lebenspraxis. Kultur gebe einen Deutungs- und
Handlungsrahmen vor, den wir mit unserem persoenlichen Lebensentwurf lediglich
ausfuehren‖(Di Fabio, 2005: 2).47 Following Di Fabio‘s culture verstaendnis one could thus
reasonably foresee that culture has the potential of binding different sublanguages in their
distinctive geographical locations without recourse to protection by the sword.
It follows from the above emphases that Gellner‘s earlier assertion that genuine cultural
entities could indeed outlive political entities unavoidably begs for the conclusion that the

47
Udo, Di Fabio, 2005. Die Kultur der Freiheit. Muenchen: Verlag C.H. Beck.
 69

former communities do indeed antedate or even anticipate the civic-political states. And
Gellner‘s distinction between ―wild‖ and ―garden‖ cultures seems to confirm just that:

The agrarian man can be compared with a natural species which can survive in the natural environment.
Industrial man can be compared with an artificially produced or bred species which can no longer breathe
effectively in the nature given atmosphere, but can only function effectively and survive in a new,
specifically blended and artificially sustained air or medium. Hence he lives in specially bounded and
constructed units, a kind of giant acquarium or breathing chamber. But these chambers need to be erected
and serviced. The maintenance of the life-giving and life-preserving air or liquid within each of these
giant receptacles is not automatic. It requires a specialized plant. The name of this plant is the national
education system. It‘s effective keeper and protector is the State (Gellner, 1983: 52).

Gellner‘s sudden transition from artificiality to national education system seems to confirm
that he had at last realized that humankind in its entire history, at least the documented one,
has yet to wholly construct, synthetically, any life object (and not even the state) that could
stand the test of time in the natural environment without that maternal care of nature itself,
from whence the word natio derives—hence his conception of the national education system.
Eventually, if, as Gellner (1983) assumes, the state is the manifest ultimate destiny of the
synthetic industrial (or economic) man; and that national states were not the manifest ultimate
destiny of ethnic or cultural groups, by simply detaching the objective synthetic substance of
the economic man, the state system, from the national phenomenon, one is left to endow the
pre-state ethno-cultural groups, at least in their bounded communal sense, with the concept of
nation. If anything, the perception of pre-state bounded communities of national inclination
also found confirmation in Gellner‘s own words:

Where existing political boundaries and those of old and crystallizing high cultures with politi-
cal aspirations, fail to be in harmony, another kind of conflict so highly characteristic of the age
nationalism breaks out (Gellner, 1983: 53).

Another point which confirms Gellner‘s reluctant admission of the existence of pre-state
nations or national communities is his notion that languages could serve as the genuine
criterion for nationhood. Indeed, Gellner himself did not explicitly endow each language with
its own nation; why should he, because according to his model the language grinding
machineries of the economically induced nation-states will eventually crush many (especially
the aboriginal ones) on their ambitious project of permanent (or lineal) economic
development. But by provisionally accepting language as an authentic culture good (Gellner,
 70

1983: 43-45), he implicitly admits that each language, at least, those able to defend their
bounded pre-state national communities from the assimilative encroachments of the economic
and political states could definitely engender a nation.
At this juncture it makes absolutely no sense to spend more time pondering on what
constitutes a national language, at least not in the context of the national state system, since
the mythical pre-state national languages of ethno-cultural communities or provenance also
had a compact (or homogeneous) character—even if hierarchically diffused. Even in today‘s
context not every one is considered a specialist. What should thus be said of Gellner‘s incisive
arguments is that he was after-all not entirely rejecting the precedence of the cultural
nationalism; but only that in its modern economically incline and territorially sensitive sense,
political nationalism could have been more a facilitator of the marriage of convenience
between the state and the nation, the nation-state. In fact, another staunch defender of the
modernist school, Charles Taylor, also sees the need to distinguish between political and
cultural nationalism:

French-Canadian nationalism, from the nineteenth into the twentieth century had two forms, of which the
dominant one was turned away from the state, and promoted non-state institutions, especially the Church.
The more state familiar centred mode was also there, at least since the rebellion in 1837, but remained the
less powerful strand; that is until the turnover of 1960, after it has taken over the whole field, with the
resultant rise of independentism, and the identity switch from ‗Canadian-Francais‘ to ‗Quebecois.‘
Nevertheless, during those many decades before 1960, there were people whom everybody, including
themselves, referred to as nationalities who lacked the state focus. The emotional and moral sources they
drew were different…. We gain nothing by excluding this phenomenon from our purview of definitional
fiat (Taylor (in E. Gellner), 1998:196)

In terms of modern conception of the national state, Taylor thus rightly perceives a sort of
dialectic entwinement of the state and nation. Accordingly, it is not just that nations
(especially those with political ambitions) strives to become states; it is also that modern
states in order to survive strive to create national allegiances to their own measure (ibid, 191-
218).
Importantly, Taylor also realized that even the great founding fathers of secularism—that is,
the French and American revolutions, had backward-looking character in that while
propagating or preaching horizontal social order against the hierarchical institutions of the
high cultures of the past often legitimate their novel constitutions on the basis of the past
heritage (i.e. European national descent of creative genius). In his words, the importance of
pre-modern revolutions up to and including the English civil war, of the backward look of
 71

establishing original law, come from this sense that the political entity is in this sense action-
transcendent. It cannot create itself by its own action. On the contrary, it can act as an entity
because it is already constituted as such; and that is why such legitimacy attaches to returning
to the original constitution.
Accordingly, the American Revolution took a backward looking spirit in the sense that the
colonialists were fighting for their established rights as Englishmen. Furthermore, they were
fighting under their established colonial legislatives associated with the congress. But out of
the whole process emerges the crucial fiction of ―we, the people‖, into whose mouth the
declaration of a new constitution is placed. Here, the idea is invoked that a people, or, as it
was also called at the time, a ―nation‖ can exist prior and independently of its political
constitution.—So that these people can give itself its own constitution by its own free action
in secular time. Of course, the epoch-making action comes rapidly to be invested with images
drawn from older nations of high time (cultures). The Novo Ordo Saeclorum just like the new
French Revolution calendar draws heavily on Judaeo-Christian apocalyptic. The constitution
founding came to be invested with some thing of the force of a ―time of origins‖, a higher
time, filled with agents of a superior kind, which we should ceaselessly try to reproach [in our
studies of the modern nation-states] (ibid).
Reproaching some of these superior agents of the hierarchical order of the agrarian age
(feudalism) suggests that some of these characters, which Gellner entrusted with the
Guardianship of the so-called higher culture, were indeed already economically and
politically operational; and only saw in culture a source of legitimacy and enrichment for their
socio-economic and political status. And as Blattberg also observes, in the agrarian age of
high culture, society was connected to the transcendent through mediating institutions—above
all the Church and the Monarchy, with the latter, of course, Dei Gratia Rex Regina (Blattberg,
2006: 597-612). The economic and political aspirations of these superior characters have been
critically brought to light by Bob Catley and Cristaudo, who further stressed that in the feudal
hierarchical social order of Christendom the state power tends to be the preserve of the
landowning elite which use the arm forces for internal control, and, where possible, external
expansion. Here a hierarchical ideology religious and submissive to the authority in question
is often used to enforce this order. This was particularly true of the medieval Church, which
did its best to create a system of social control based on the local Church, landownership, the
confession and political passivity of Christ (Catley and Cristaudo, 1997: 61ff).
In this sense of rational manipulation of culture (e.g. religion) for sheer economic and
political reasons, one could then add that the interests contention which was to later erupt
 72

between the imperial papal authority in Rome and some of its monarchical agents (e.g. King
Henry VIII of England—one must not forget that in those days the imperial papal authority in
Rome referred to King Henry VIII as the true Guardian of the Catholic faith); and later Martin
Luther King on the European mainland, thereby sparking a European-wide social movements
of divisive politics (ibid., 62) only goes along confirming the early perception that many of
these so-called superior characters—that is, the so-called true Guardians of high culture, were
indeed more of economic and political agents than genuine culture custodians. And just as the
imperial papal authority in Rome had done earlier with peasants lands to become the
dominant landowner in Europe, so did King Henry VIII also redistribute the land seized from
the Church to his own loyalists; and even took that future oriented culture initiative to found
the Anglican Church. Unsurprisingly, the centralizing state that was to later emerg from the
partial ruins of the highly hierarchical social order of feudalism—with its purported horizontal
ambitions of modern industrialisation—also played a central role (e.g. in the Enclosure
Acts48) in the expropriation of Peasants land.
Only in this way one could make sense of Gellner‘s notion of uprooted peasants seeking
identification with the strongest forces of the newly established politico-economic social
orders, the nation-states (below). Otherwise, a meticulous review of the social circumstances
which in those days compelled the Romano-Celtic rulers of the British Isles to seek the
military aid of Germanic mercenaries (Angles-Saxons, Teutons, Jutes), who, as previous
accounts did show, later conquered the Isles for themselves, suggest the prior existence of a
[demotic] ethnic-core whose claims to original habitation was not necessary guaranteed by the
constant guard of the Leviathan sword.
In the words of Margaret Moore, ‗the material basis that Gellner provides in his theory of
nationalism (below) does not make such a phenomenon reducible to economic interest, but it
does explain why national and cultural forms of identity become politicized in the modern
industrializing societies of the national state system. Gellner theory provides a material
explanation, in terms of life chances, of people‘s commitment to their own cultural/national
group. For many people, their participation in cultural life of the community, their
employability, their status, and their skills are all acquired in an all embracing education
system operating in the context of a standard cultural milieu supported by the state. This
instrumental argument about the salience of these identities, holds even if the historical story
that Gellner tells is not absolutely accurate, as long as the connection he makes between the
economic, political, and cultural dimensions of life are roughly right (Moore, 2001: 72ff.).
48
T.E. Ashton, 1961. ―An Economic History of England: the Eighteenth century. London: Methuen; E. P.
Thompson, 1968. The Making of English Working Class. Harmsworth: Penguin.
 73

But has Moore‘s accurate remark about Gellner‘s work not further strengthened the early
postulation of a pre-political cultural nationalism.
Since despite these factors Gellner still seems undeterred by the ideas of a pre-political
cultural nationalism and or ethno-cultural nations, let us hand back the podium to him to
elaborate on the modernist case. Gellner began his defense of the modernist position by
drawing largely on the philosophy of history. He thus categorically shrugs off any idea, that
―nations‖ are there, in the very nature of things, only waiting to be ―awakened‖ (a favourite
nationalist expression and image) from their regrettable slumber, by nationalist
―awakener‖(Gellner, 1983: 48). As he puts it, the high ratio of determined slumberers who
would not rise and shine and who refused to be awoken enable them (modernist) to turn the
tables on nationalism as-seen-by-itself. Nationalism sees itself as a natural and universal
ordering of the political life of mankind, only obscured by that long persistent mysterious
somnolence. As Hegel expressed this vision, ―nations may have long history before they
finally reach their destination—that of forming themselves into states. Hegel immediately
goes on to suggest that this pre-state period is really pre-historical (sic)‖49: So it would seem
on this view that the real history of nation only begins when it acquires its own state (Gellner,
1983: 48-9ff). However, if we invoke the sleeping beauty nations, neither possessing a state,
nor feeling of the lack of it, against nationalist doctrine, we tacitly accept its social
metaphysic, which sees nation as the fabric of which mankind is made up. Nations as natural
God given way of classifying men, as an inherent though long delayed political destiny, are
myth; nationalism which some times takes pre-existing cultures and turn them into nations,
some time invent them, and often obliterates pre-existing cultures: that is a reality, for better
or worse, and in general inescapable one (ibid).

2.2.3. The transition to the age of nationalism

So, if, as Gellner suggests, nationalism is neither the awakening nor assertion of the prior
conscience of the supposedly mysterious natural units of social order, he postulates the period
of transition from agrarian to industrial societies as its point of inception. Mankind, Gellner
asserts, is irreversibly committed to industrial society, and therefore to a society whose
productive system is based on cumulative science and technology (Gellner, 1983: 40ff.).
Hence nationalism is rooted in a certain division of labour, one which is complex and
persistently cumulatively changing (Gellner, 1983: 24). This society alone can sustain
49
G W F. Hegel, 1975. Lectures on the Philosophy of World History. Translated from German by H B. Nisbett
Cambridge, 134.
 74

anything like the present and anticipated number of inhabitants of the planet, and give them a
prospect of the kind of living which man now takes for granted, or aspires to take for granted.
Therefore it makes no sense, for practical purpose, in discussing the charms and horrors of the
cultural accompaniments of the agrarian age, they are simply not available. We do not
understand the range of options available to industrial society, and perhaps we never shall; but
we understand some of its essential concomitants. The kind of cultural homogeneity
demanded by nationalism is one of them, and we had better made our peace with it. It is not
the case, as Elie Kedourie50 claims, that nationalism imposes homogeneity; it is rather that
homogeneity imposed by objective, inescapable imperative eventually appears on the surface
in the form of nationalism (Gellner [1983], Pecora, 2001: 293).
Most of mankind enters the industrial age from agrarian stage. …The social organization of
agrarian society, however, is not all favourable to the nationalist principle, to the convergence
of political and cultural units, and to the homogeneity and school transmitted nature of culture
within each unit. On the contrary, as in medieval Europe, it generates political units which are
either small or much larger than cultural boundaries would indicate; and only very
occasionally, by accident, a dynastic state which corresponded, more or less, with a language
and culture, as eventually happened in Europe‘s Atlantic seaboard (Gellner, 1983: 40). In
other words, in the onset of industrialism, the rigid, localized social structures and traditional
societies stood on the way of industrial modernity, and ought to be weakened or dismantled.
In their place develops a new more fluid society, in which the population is much more
―modular‖, able to switch function as the economy demands (Gellner, 1995; Hearn 2006: 69).
Here, as the social structures of kinship, caste, differential property rights etc. became less
able to functionally integrate society, a new culture develops to do the job. Mass education
spreads literacy and common language to the general population—especially to those
aboriginals who would dare trade their languages/culture in exchange for economic
compensation—helping to facilitate their mobility and inter-changeability. In ancient agrarian
states clerics were an elite group specific to the state bureaucracy in modern society every one
is a clerk (Gellner, 1964: 160; Hearn 2006: 69ff.). Thus, if a modern society has an official
language, a state sponsored, state inculcated and state defined language and culture (say of the
dominant group), in which both the economy and the state function; for those originals, who
will never and cannot trade-off their cultural identities in exchange for mere economic
incentives, will demand to redraw the boundaries of the state, so that they can set up a new

50
Elie, Kedourie, 1960. Nationalism. London.
 75

polity/economic order where their language will become official. In this way the nationalist
imperative is born (Gellner, 1998: 193-194).
This being so, the age of transition to industrialism was bound, according to our model, also
to be the age of nationalism, a period of turbulent readjustment, in which either political
boundaries, or cultural ones, or both were being modified, so as to satisfy the new modernist
imperative which now, for the first time, was making itself felt. Because rulers do not
surrender territories gladly (and every change in political boundary must make some one a
loser), because changing one‘s culture is very frequently a most painful experience, and
moreover, because there were rival cultures struggling to capture the souls of men, just as
there were rival centres of political authority struggling to suborn men and capture territory:
given all this, it immediately follows from our model that this period of transition was bound
to be violent and conflict ridden. Industrial society did not arrive on the scene from a divine
fiat. It was itself the fruits of developments within one particular agrarian society, and these
developments were not devoid of their turbulence. When it then conquered the rest of the
world, neither this global colonization, nor the abandonment of empire by those who had been
carried forward on the wave of industrial supremacy but eventually lost their monopoly of it,
were peaceful developments. All this means that in actual history the effects of nationalism
tend to be conflated with other consequences of industrialism. Though nationalism is indeed
the effect of industrial social organization, it is not the only effect hence it is necessary to
detangle it from other developments (Gellner, 1983: 40ff.).
This problem is illustrated by the fascinating relationship between reformation and
nationalism. The stress of the reformation on literary and scripturalism, its onslaught on
monopolistic priesthood (or as Weber51clearly saw it, its universalization rather than its
abolition of priesthood), its individualism and links with mobile urban populations, all make it
a kind of harbinger of social features and attitudes which, according to our model, produce the
nationalist age. The role of Protestanism in helping to bring about the industrial world is an
enormous complex and contentious topic; and there is not much point in doing more than
curiously alluding to it here. But in part of the globe in which both industrialism and
nationalism came later and under external impact, the full relationship of protestant-type
attitudes and nationalism is yet to be properly explored (Gellner, 1983: 41).
Apart from the link between the protestant and nationalist ethos, there are the direct
consequences of industrialization itself. … Early industrialism means population expansion,
rapid urbanization, labour migration, and also economic and political penetration of
51
Weber, Max, 1976. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism . 2nd ed. (Talcott Parsons transl.).
London.
 76

previously more or less inward turned communities, by a global economy and a centralizing
polity. It means that the at least relatively stable and insulated Babel system of traditional
agrarian communities, each inward-turned, kept separate by geography sideways, and by an
enormous social distance upwards, is replaced by quite a new kind of Babel, with new cultural
boundaries that are not stable but in constant and dramatic movement, and which are seldom
hallowed by any kind of custom (ibid, 42-3; Pecora, 2001: 294-95).
There is also a link between nationalism and the process of colonialism, imperialism and
decolonization. The emergence of industrial society in Western Europe had its consequence
the virtual conquest of the entire world by European powers, and some times by European
settler populations. In effect the whole of Africa, America, Oceania, and very large parts of
Asia came under European domination; and parts of Asia which escape this fate were often
under strong indirect influence (ibid). In this particular instance nationalism emerges as
traditionalists (and aboriginal traditionalists) in the colonized new world eventually rose up
against colonialism and/or imperialism.

2.3. If such identities are constructed who (or what) constructs them and why?

2.3.1. Are National Identities constructed or real?

From the onset of the foregoing (part II), this research has delved analytically through the
arguments of the main schools of ethnic and nationalist politics, namely the Primordialist, the
Ethno-symbolist, and the Modernist. Quite reasonably, the research began with Geertz‘s
incisive and convincing arguments about the inherent tensions between traditional forms of
social organization and modernization that is responsible for the evolution of nations in the
newly independent states. The primordialist school has—with specific reference to the
political crises of the new states—demonstrated convincingly that most political challenges to
traditional forms of social order often originate from economically induced external
interventions, whose leaders in the real sense of national culture have neither the slightest idea
nor interest in the traditional norms or values of the conquered people. In other words, modern
political activities are generally action transcendent in that they traditionally breed on the
presumed shortcomings of pre-existing (predisposed) ethno-cultural communities or social
orders. As Voegelin rightly points out, all historical quests for the transcendental truth do not
occur in vacuum, but in social fields constituted by older experience of order and
symbolization of their truth, to be experienced by the [outsider] questioner to have fallen into
disorder and decline. This is particularly true of the socio-cultural institutions of the Bantu-
 77

Ethiopians/Azanians (e.g. Manfour, Hiku-Ptah, Thibe, Napata, Meroe and so on), whose
authentic quest for the transcendental truth was to later attract mainly economically induced
colonial/political interventions from the Hyksos (Philistines?), Persians, Assyrians, Graeco-
Romans, Arabs and later Greco-Europeans.
By similar analytical token, Anthony D. Smith has demonstrated convincingly how the
political interaction between the inward-looking authentic ethno-cultural communities of
nations and the economically induced outward-looking polities (civic political states)—with
the support of the aboriginal elements of these traditional social orders—had given rise to the
modern concept of nation-states, first, in Western Europe and later in other parts of the earth.
According to this model, while modern nation states owe a profound legacy to the political
developments of modern England, France and Spain, it must also be noted that such political
developments were themselves anticipated by medieval political contentions, a chain of socio-
political events that goes as far back to the authentic culture of the Greco-European social
history.
Simply put, ―the supposedly primitive and barbaric Germanic people, whose quest for
individual freedom bravely set them against one of Europe‘s early highly professionalized
imperial and patrician military machine (the Roman Empire)—e.g. the great invasions of the
Roman Gaul by the Franks in the Fifth and Sixth centuries AD…; the Norman conquests in
the tenth century AD, and whose political artistry the origin of France (Franks), Burgundy,
Lombardy and subsequently Normandy is rightly attributed, which in turn anticipated modern
European states like England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain (Renan [1882]; Bhabha, H.,
1990:9-21), were, without doubt prior to their grand and ambitious political endeavours,
members of an ethno-cultural and hierarchically organized pre-political Germanic
Volksgemeinschaft of European provenance (Bhabha, 1990: 23-43 especially, 24-25). Only in
this way was it feasable in those days of Europe‘s political history to mount a coordinated
response to the predatory encroachment of the Roman Empire, which eventually led to the
disintegration of that empire and the emergence of modern Europe.
This in turn raises such question(s) as to whether the dynastic and militarized aristocratic
monrchies, which the Frankish-Normans pioneered across Europe after the disintegration of
the Roman Empire, suffice to erase the authentic ethnic-core of European national conscience.
In other words, should the malign intentions by political elites to manipulate ethnic identities
for the purpose of achieving political and economic incentives—either in the new or old
states—be allowed to overshadow the national consciousness of ethno-cultural communities?
As we will later see, the culture reintegration of Western Europe after the Second World War
 78

suffices a reminder to critics that informed Europeans are generally aware of their people‘s
common origin. Consequently, prior to discussing the Azanian national model, let‘s seek to
distinguish between realistic-nationalism and pseudo-nationalism.

III. ATTEMPT TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN REAL- AND PSEUDO-NATIONALISM

3.1. Exploring the origin of pseudo-nationalism in restrospect to Europe’s political

history

3.1.1. Demystifying the Nation-state symbiosis

In the preceding contesting and at times complementing interpretations of the national

phenomenon we might have noticed that certain defenders of the modernist school tend to
attest the congeniality of nation-state phenomena, as if the two are synonymous or one could
naturally substitute the other. Modernist interpretation of the constitutional nation-state which
is largely derived from a normative standpoint contest that territorial and social boundaries of
nation-states are contingent—that is to say, it is up to historical contingencies, to the
accidental cause of events, normally the arbitrary outcomes of wars or civil wars, who finally
seizes power and thereby gains the power of defining the territory and social boundaries of a
political community (Habermas, 1995: 286-288). Unsurprisingly, the modernist school treats
the nation-state as an overarching modern principle of social organization. In this view there
is no clear cut distinction between the nation and state, both seem congenial.
Modernists may be right to claim that the ongoing political marriage [of convenience]
between the national phenomenon and state system is a recent political development—and
some would say attributed in large part to the political genius of the French revolution. But
even so ‗this claim to popular representation and national sovereignty by the national state, as
it had developed since the French Revolution right through the nineteenth century, was the
result of the combination of two factors that were still separated in the eighteenth century and
remained separate in Russia and Austria-Hungary, namely nationality and state‘ (Arendt,
1958, 1969: 229). Therefore, the modernity of the merger between the nation and the state
system should not necessary imply that both entities have modern roots. Further, while the
state component of the nation-state constitution can be attributed to different historical
advances of economic societies, the nation is by its very nature rightly attributed to the culture
genius of a distinct people and as a result morally constraining than the state system. It is thus
 79

understandable why both Heinrich von Treitschke and Max Weber ―locate the state in the
arena of constant struggle between nations‖(Guibernau, 1996: 39).
For Treitschke ―the grandeur of history lies in the perpetual conflict of nations, and it makes
no sense to desire the [complete] suppression of their rivalry (Guibernau, 1996: 8). War is
political science par excellence. Over and over again has it been proved that it is only in war a
people becomes in very deed a people. It is only in the common performance of heroic deeds
for the salvation of the fatherland that a nation becomes truly and spiritually united.‖52
Here, we are once again not only being reminded of the precedence of the culture organism,
the nation, but how it could be politicized to expand at the expense of other nations. ―The
nations are themselves growing. No one can say with absolute certainty when the small
nationalities will decay internally, or when, on the other hand, they will exhibit an unexpected
vital energy.‖ (Guibernau, 1996: 11) If Treitschke perception about the perpetual conflicts of
nations merely evinces their natural durability, his pessimism about the general cause of the
history of nations in the shackles of the state system goes along confirming the simple fact
that the latter‘s continuity or durability is maintained through coercion.
―States, he asserts, do not arise of people sovereignty, but are created against the will of the
people; the state is the power of the stronger race (or nation) which establishes itself
(Treitschke, 1914:3953; Guibernau, 1996: 7). The state is power—that is, the state is people
legally united as an independent power; hence the state is always above individuals and has
the right to be omnipotent above them. In Treitschke‘s view, no moral law exist for the state
system. Rather it is the state itself that establishes law in its own domain and requires legal
obedience from the individuals or the various nationalities it embodies. In this sense, the state
is a moral community of the dominant race or nation.‖(Guibernau, 1996: 7)
Moreover, ―since states are founded upon the possession of territory, say of the different
nationalities they embody, states exert power through war. It is this inherent right of arms that
distinguishes the state from all other forms of corporate life‖ (ibid).
Treitschke‘s brief but lucid analysis of the state system seems to contest an abstract prime
allocation of bounded geographical regions or territories for the different nations; after all,
they are culture imperatives and must be dependent on land for the cultivation of their distinct
national cultures. Certainly, ―nations entered the scene of history and were emancipated when
people had acquired a consciousness of themselves as cultural and historical entities, and of
their territory as a permanent home, where history had left its visible traces, whose cultivation
was the product of the common labour of their ancestors and whose future would depend
52
Davis H W C., 1914. The Political Thought of H. von Treitschke. Constable and Company, 150
53
Treitschke v. H., 1914. Selections from Treitschke lectures in politics. London: Gowan and Gray
 80

upon the course of a common civilization. In modern European context, wherever nation-
states came into being, migrations came to an end, while on the other hand, in the East and
South of Europe the establishment of nation-states failed because they could not fall back
upon firmly rooted peasant classes‖ (Arendt, 1958; 1969: 22954). Hence the nation-state was
the body politic of the European emancipated peasant class, whose ―‗national state army‘ was
the ‗point of honour‘ with the allotment farmers, who themselves later turned into landowners
abroad, the newly acquired allotments becoming fatherlands,‖55 and the defence of which
promulgated modern European nationalism. Evidently, in a wholly cultural sense, even
Europe had originally the potential of actualizing its terminal communal status as an organic
nation-being had it not been the divisive political interventions in the course of its social
history.
Subsequently, ‗while national consciousness might be comparatively a modern political
construct, the structure of the state, for example, was derived from centuries of monarchy and
enlightened despotism‘(Arendt, 1969: 230). Jürgen Habermas has also stressed convincingly
that modern states had existed long before ‗nation‘ in the modern sense came about; and that
it was not until the eighteenth century that both entities melted into the shape of modern
nation-state (1995: 282-283). In this sense, despite the artistic merger and or attempts at the
inter-state level to blur or ignore the distinction between these contending principles of social
organization, it then follows that neither the national phenomenon nor state system have
modern roots. In terms of a brief distinction, ‗the nation is a community whose membership
are bound together by a sense of solidarity, a common culture and a national consciousness;
while the state, on the other hand, is a political organization with the power to acquire
obedience from its members; that is, the different nationalities the state embodies (Seton-
Watson H, 1977: 1-5).
Importantly, while Seton-Watson‘s definition acknowledges the objective impulse of both
social entities, it would seem the former impulse is morally constrained, for example one is
morally committed to a distinct communal cause (e.g. ethno-cultural) at all times. In the latter
instance, that genuine moral imperative not only loses its objective significance, but is
deliberately substituted by forces of permanent contention for power and economic
dominance. These dominant politico-economic forces are supposedly divinely chosen to
determine the course of political events within the boundary of a given nation-state. A specific
instance is what Roberto Dainotto, in the context of contemporary European developments,
describes as the North-South dialectic between the hegemonic north and non-canonical
54
C A. Macartney, 1934. National States and National Minorities. London, 432ff.
55
Karl Marx, 1898. The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. English translation by De Leon.
 81

counter-hegemonic voices from the south, which has accompanied Europe‘s economic [and
cultural] discourses since the eighteenth century until recently.56

3.1.2. Economic Determinism of European nationalism

If Treitschke‘s incisive arguments earlier deserve a thorough review, then it is because of his
inclusion of war in the activities of states. ―War, he argues, is a sharp medicine for national
disunion and waning patriotism57; it is the political ideal that demands war.‖58 (Guibernau,
1996: 8) There are good reasons why war and violence are intrinsic of a political system
founded upon the accumulation of the territories of different nationalities Treitschke would
have us believe. ―If a state loses its independence, it ceases to be a state. Consequently, the
chief tasks of the state derived directly from its power involve the administration of justice,
the creation of moral law, and war. The exertion of power constantly requires sufficient
material resources for self defence and absolute sovereignty. Sovereignty of the state is above
that of its individual members. The individual must forget her/his ego for ... the welfare of the
whole. The individual must sacrifice her-/himself for a higher community of which s/he is a
member; but the state is itself the highest in the eternal community of men.‖59(Guibernau,
1996: 8)
Indeed, Treitschke does not exclude war from the domain of nations, but acknowledges that it
has a ―sacred dimension‖60 (Guibernau, 1996: 8). So in as much as the life of nations is
concerned the sacredness of war cannot and must not transcend that objective quest for real
freedom—a ‗national freedom which must be defended, at all times, with the blood not of
mercenaries (e.g. Blackwater, Légionaire Francais, or the Gurka of Nepal) but that of the
children of the soil‘ (Habermas, 1995: 286-287). On the part of the state, however, if the
sacredness of war is to be taken seriously it is only because the 'secular nation-state—since its
inception from the French Revolution—preserves a residue of a sacred transcendence of the
pre-political nation' (ibid).
Apart from the exploitation of national symbols and disingenuous members of culture nations
by key advocates of the state system for the purpose of safeguarding the state institutions and

56
Roberto Dainotto, 2008. Europe (In Theory). Political Theory Vol.36 No. 1, 158-160; Roberto, M. Dainotto,
2007. Europe (In Theory). Durham/London: Duke University Press.
57
Davis H WC., 1914. The Political Thought …, 107.
58
ibid, 153.
59
Treitschke‘s Selections, 23, 32.
60
Treitschke von H., 1916. Politics Vol.1, 29
 82

their material fortunes—―I would annexe the planets if I could‖61; the inclusion of
mercenaries in the national state army today, in this age of quasi-denationalized and
globalizing economic order, also makes economic sense because of the high cost of
maintaining the national constituency in particular (as we will later see). This might further
explain the tendentious exploitation of the most powerful race or national group by
proponents of the state system in the different historical advances of the nation-states.
For example, when the freedom loving Anglo-Saxons succeeded in putting end to English
commercial imperialism in North America they not only inherited the helm of the institutions
responsible for the ‗oppressing of native/indigenous Americans and other nationalities within
the American Federation‘62, but wasted no time in incorporating French and Spanish
controlled territories of North America into the USA as the Napoleonic war machine was
systematically disabled from its business of aggression in Europe. Even the state-centric
messiah of workers liberty in Europe, Karl Marx, as Catley and Cristaudo find out, ―approved
that the so-called lesser nations of Europe, including the Slavs, might have to be colonized by
the more advanced ones (e.g. the Germans) to get them on the lineal path of economic
progress‖ (1997: 18-19). However, since the Germans could not accomplish that grand
economic mission without a united front, Treitschke also acknowledged that his appeal in
1864 for a united Germany would only come to fruition under the leadership of the then most
powerful German state, Prussia. In Treitschke words, ―…for Germany there is only one hope
for salvation, that is: a united and indivisible monarchy (the „Hohenzollern‟63). Prussia, then,
has no choice … but to triumph with the help of the German people.‖(Guibernau, 1996: 9)
Interestingly, a people naturally incline to resist subjugation:

das deutsche Volk ist ein Volk vom Freien, und deutscher Boden duldet keine Knechtschaft. Fremde,
Unfreie, die auf ihm verweilen macht er frei.64

And if Henning von Tresckow (1943) equivocation of Prussia with real freedom—―Vom
wahren Preussentum ist der Begriff der Freiheit nicht zu trennen‖—is to be taken seriously,

61
Cecil, Rhodes, 1897. A Biography and Appreciation (by Dr. Jameson); S. Getrude, Millin, 1933. Rhodes.
London, 138.
62
Haywood W. Burns, 1990. In: David Kairy, ed. The Politics of Law. New York, NY: Pantheon Books, 115-
120.
63
Although the Hohenzollern monarchy ascended on Throne in the 18th Century, that monarchy‘s history goes
way back to the Frankish Kurfürsten (elected principalities) (Spiegel ‗Special Geschichte‘ March 2007, 27-28.
64
Jacob Grimm (1848) in einen Antrag für die Frankfurter Versammlung. Spiegel Special Geschichte 3/2007,
118.
 83

then the dissolution of the ―predatory Prussian state‖65, after Hitler's political attempt to
‗instrumentalised Prussia‘66for his pan-Hellenic-Aryan European (national) mission confirms
that the state system per se is an economic ideal which must never be confused wth the
national ideal. In short, as noted earlier, if unconstrained by the moral imperatives of its
various nationalities or material and other factors, the materially insatiable state system could
expand indefinitely; and in most cases at the expense its own source.

As Hannah Arendt further expounds, ‗Expansion as a permanent and supreme aim of politics
is the central political idea of imperialism, which was born when the ruling class in capitalist
production came up against national state limitations to its economic expansion.‘ And she is
rather explicit about the central role economic agents and their pseudo-nationalist accomplice,
within the nation-state constitutions, played in such early expansive endeavours.
‗Conquest and empire building had been carried out successfully only by state forms (or
governments) which, like the Roman Empire (Republic), were based primarily on law, so that
conquest could be followed by the integration of the most heterogeneous peoples by imposing
upon them a common law. The [nation-] state, however, based upon a homogeneous
population‘s active consent to its government, lacked such unifying principle and would, in
the case of conquest, have to assimilate rather than integrate, to enforce consent rather than
justice, that is, degenerate into tyranny.
In contrast to the economic structure the political structure cannot be expanded indefinitely,
because it is not based upon the productivity of man, which is, indeed unlimited. Of all forms
of governments and organizations of people, the nation-state is list suited for unlimited
growth because the genuine consent at its base cannot be stretched indefinitely, and is only
rarely, and with difficulty, won from conquered peoples. No nation-state could with a clear
conscience ever try to conquer foreign peoples, since such a conscience only come from a
conviction of a conquering nation that is imposing superior law upon barbarians.67 The nation,

65
Als Kurfürsten Friedrich III sich, vom eigenhändig und nur vom Gottes Gnaden am 18 Januar 1701, zum
König Friedrich I krönt, herrschte er über ein zerriessenes, ärmliches Staatsgebiet mit rund 1.5 millionen
Einwohnern das aus einigen Herrschaften am Rhein, der Mark Brandenburg, Hinter Pommern und Ost Preusen
bestand. Aber hundert Jahr später war die Monarchie der mächtigste Macht Nord Europa, das Staatsgebiet hat
sich fast verdreifacht, der Bevölkerung versechsfacht (Spiegel Special Geschichte, March 2007, 7-8). Und noch
wichtiger ist dass, nicht nur Friedrich I als Soldaten König berühmt wurde, sondern in Worten seines
Nachfolgers, Friedrich II, „sei Preussen ein Militärstaat,― und alles muss darauf eingetellt sein (ibid, s.10).
66
Der Nationalsozialismus darf mit fug and Recht behaupten, dass er Preussentum sei. Die Idee, die wir tragen ist
Preussisch (Joseph Goebbels cited in Spiegel Special Geschichte March 2007, 16). Und nach Vom Klaus
Wiegrefe, war Preussen immer von Mythen und Legenden unterschiedlicher Art gut. Auf den Hohenzollern
Staat beriefen sich in den letzten 300 Jahren Reformer und Reaktionär, Monarchisten und Demokraten, Junker
und Industrieler, Liberale und Konservative, Nationalsozialisten und Widertandkämpfer (ibid).
67
This bad conscience springing from the believe in consent as the basis of all political organization is very well
described by Harold Nicholson, Curzon, 1934. The Last Phase 1919-1925. Boston/New York, NY in discussing
 84

however, conceived of its laws as an outgrowth of a unique national substance which was not
valid beyond its own people and the boundaries of its own territory.
Therefore whenever the nation-state appeared as a conqueror, it aroused national
consciousness and desire for sovereignty among the conquered people, thereby defeating all
genuine attempts at empire building. For example, the early British ―empire builders‖ putting
their trust in conquest as a permanent method of rule, were never able to incorporate their
nearest neighbour, the Irish, into the far flung structure either of the British empire or the
British Commonwealth of Nations; but when, after the last war, Ireland was granted dominion
status and welcomed as a full-fledged member of the British Commonwealth, the failure was
just as real, if less palpable. The oldest ―possession‖ and the newest dominion unilaterally
denounced its dominion status in 1937 and severed all ties with the English nation when it
refused to participate in the Second World War. England‘s rule by permanent conquest, since
it ―simply failed to destroy‖ Ireland (Chesterton), had not so much aroused her own
―slumbering genius of imperialism‖68as it had awaken the spirit of national resistance in the
Irish.
The inner contradiction between the nation‘s body politic and conquest as a principal device
has been obvious since the failure of the Napoleonic dream. The Napoleonic failure to unite
Europe under a French flag was a clear indication that conquest by a nation led either to the
full awakening of the conquered people‘s national consciousness and to consequent rebellion
against the conqueror, or to tyranny. And though tyranny, because it needs no consent, may
successfully rule foreign peoples, it can stay in power if it destroys first all the national
institutions of its own people‘ (Arendt, 1958, 1969: 124-128).
Furthermore, many national leaders collusion with agents of European imperialism in the
defence of national economic interests abroad explains how disingenuous these really were to
genuine nationalist cause of blanket freedom, as Arendt again assert. ‗The complicity of all
parliamentary parties in imperialist programs is a matter of record. The history of the English
labour party in this regard is an almost unbroken chain of justifications of Cecil Rhodes
prediction:

British policies in Egypt: ―The jurisdiction of our presence in Egypt remains based, not upon the defensible right
of conquest, or on force, but on our own believe in the element of consent. That element, in 1919 did not in any
articulate form exist. It was dramatically challenged by the Egyptian outburst of March 1919.‖
68
As Lord Salisbury put it, rejoicing over the defeat of Gladstone‘s First Home Rule Bill, during the following
twenty years of Conservative—and that was at the time imperialist—rule (1885-1905), the English-Irish conflict
was not only not solved but became much more acute. Also see Gilbert K. Chesterton, 1915. The Crimes of
England, 57ff.
 85

―Workmen find that although the Americans are exceedingly fond of them. …yet are shutting out their
goods. The workmen also find that Russia, France, and Germany today are doing the same, and the
workmen see that if they do not look out they will have no place in the world to trade at all. And so the
workmen have become imperialist and the liberal parties are following‖ (Arendt, 1969: 151).

In Germany ―the liberals (not the conservative party) were the actual sponsors of the famous
Naval Policy which contributed heavily to the outbreak of the First World War.‖69 The
Socialist Party wavered between active support of imperialist naval policy—it repeatedly
voted funds for the building of German Navy after 1906—and complete neglect of all
questions of foreign policy. Occasional warning of Lumpenproletariat, and the possible
bribing of section of the working class with crumbs from imperialist table, did not lead to a
deeper understanding of the great appeal which the imperialist programs had to the rank and
file of the party. In Marxist terms the new phenomenon of the alliance between mob and
capital seem so unnatural, so obviously in conflict with the doctrine of class struggle, that the
actual dangers of the imperialist attempt to divide humanity into master races and slave races,
into higher and lower breeds, into coloured people and white men … were completely
overlooked.
The curious weakness of popular opposition to imperialism in Europe, the numerous
inconsistencies and the outright broken promises of liberal statesmen, frequently ascribed to
opportunism or bribery, have other deeper causes. … Half consciously and hardly articulately,
these men shared with the people the conviction that the national body itself was deeply split
into classes, that the class struggle was so universal a characteristic of modern political life,
that the cohesion of the nation was jeopardized. Expansion again appeared as a lifesaver, if
and insofar as it could provide a common interest for the nation as a whole, and it is mainly
for this reason that imperialist were allowed to become ―parasites upon patriotism.‖70 From
the very beginning the imperialist adventure of expansion appeared to be an eternal solution
because expansion was conceived to be unlimited. Moreover, imperialism was not an
adventure in the usual sense because it depended less on nationalist slogans than on the
seemingly solid basis of economic interests. Since the dominant and owning classes had
convinced everybody that economic interest and the passion for ownership was a sound basis

69
In Germany, for example, the liberals and not the right side of the parliament were the supporters of the Naval
policy (See, Alfred, von Tirpitz, 1919. Errinnerungen. Berlin). See also Danial Fryman (Pseud. for Heinrich
Class), Wenn Ich der Kaiser wär 1912: ―The true imperial party is the National Liberal Party.‖ Fryman, a
prominent German chauvinist during the First World War, even adds with respect to the conservatives: ―The
aloofness of conservative milieu about race doctrines is also worthy of note.‖
70
Hobson, J A., 1990. Capitalism and Imperialism in South Africa. Contemporary Review; Imperialim (1905),
Unrevised edition 1938.
 86

for the body politic (the state system), even non-imperialist statesmen were easily persuaded
to yield when a common (national) economic interest appeared on the horizon. Hence modern
European nationalism developed so clear a tendency toward imperialism, the ―inner
contradiction‖71 of the two principles notwithstanding.‘(Arendt, 1958, 1969: 151-153)

3.1.3. How Economic Agents undermined the Cultural Course of European Nationalism

If Hannah Arendt lucid and incisive analysis not only merely confirm the previous
characterization of the state system as an economic ideal, but, on the whole, urges us to
reconsider the role economic forces and factors played in undermining the attainment of a
culturally homogeneous European nation, then she would most probably have understood that
the merger between nation and state was a mixed blessing that would eventually have a
negative impact on their distinctiveness in the long-run. For instance, the rational acceptance
of the culture of the dominant race or nation by the economic upholders of the state system,
even if half-heartedly…, inevitably implies a reciprocal acceptance of the economic
institutions and policies of the state system (and/or the cultural institutions of the newly
incorporated but subordinated nationalities of the state system) by some of the culture
custodians of dominant nation. However, since the incoming subordinate nationalities are not
morally obliged to relinquish their indigenous culture heritage or to totally adhere to the
culture and economic institutions of the nation-state, it follows that their commitment to the
culture and economic institutions of the nation-state would depend largely on either
sustainable economic compensation (i.e. permanent golden ages of economic performances)
or irresistible coercion by stealth; after all culture and politics are incongruous. Indeed,
‗political societies are always formed partly through coercive force, by which powerful
groups impose membership and governance on unwilling populations. But because no ruler
has ever had enough coercive power to hold a whole community together by force alone,
people always have to form political communities in part through the voluntary cooperation of
a critical mass of members, which in essence imply the use of persuasive stories of economic,
cultural and political natures‘ (Smith, 2008: 287-288). The result is a total aberration from the
ideal of the nation for a quasi abstruse political entrapment the disengagement from which has
in the past proven cataclysmic for the Europeans and the world at large. Concerted political

71
Hobson was the first to recognize the fundamental opposition of imperialism and nationalism and the tendency
of nationalism to become imperialist. He called imperialism a perversion of nationalism ―in which nations …
transform the wholesome stimulative rivalry of various national types into the cut-throat struggle of competing
empires‖(ibid., 9).
 87

efforts by pan-Hellenic-Germanic and pan-Slavic nationalists to liberate their people from

such early entrapment, that is, the early liberal political tenancy of homogenous national
cultures and economic individualism—contemporaneous with the present global economic
arrangement (of course, the currency in the nation-states of the global order is
multiculturalism and economic individualism)—were not only forced to rely on the artificial
institutions of the nation-states they both set out to undo, but ended up provoking the two
most destructive wars in modern European social history (the so-called First and Second
World Wars).
The main beneficiary of such conflicts, in as much as today‘s globalised, hyper-privatised,
and expressively individualized world is concerned, are the conmen of economic and political
liberalism. Their eclectic multicultural stance of this global economic age is fully suspect;
they are generally disingenuous to culture—in fact, their allegiance is as superficial and
tenuous as the economic institutions that flirt across the global economic landscape amassing
profits and exploiting cheap labour at the expense of the environment. But ‗only at the time of
greatest need do these agents of the calculating state switch their rhetoric to the ―sacred
language‖ of primordial nationalism. For example, ‗when the besieged Joseph Stalin in 1941
switched his rhetoric from ―workers‖ and ―peasants‖ to ―Russian motherland‖‘ (Catley and
Cristaudo, 1997: 18), after waves of surrender by his Soviet Red Army units, he knew then
(as any politician does today) that the suicidal sacrifice required to repel Hitler‘s Aryan
European forces could not come from mundane agents of secularism. In an enlarged political
context (e.g. the vision for a world state), the examples are prolific, and merely reiterate what
Senator Mc Cain, the Republican nominee for the 2008 US presidential election, once
publicly claimed about Israel—infront of Pastor Hagee‘s convention audience: ―If the US
72
government fails Israel where else would it ever succeed.‖ This later eristic statement not
only overtly condones George W. Bush post-9/11 ―Divine Providentialist‖ foreign policy
rhetoric‖ (Smith M., 2008: 273-300), but certainly anticipates a positive response from the
Right-Wing Christian base of the Republican electorate. With such inconsistencies
epitomizing the general character of the economically driven political personalities across the
spectrum, it becomes obvious that the state system could not have genuine moral commitment
beyond its economic activities.

A critical review of Hannah Arendt accusation of government officials, especially the civil
servants, for deliberately confusing the concept of imperialism with nationalism in modern

72
http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/gods.Warriors
 88

European context (Arendt, 1958, 1969: 153-154) serves to elucidate the foregoing point.
Accordingly, the civil servants were not only responsible for providing the agents of
European imperialism/colonialism with the necessary human resources for their pseudo-
nationalist endeavours abroad, but in large saw in the colonization of non-European nations
the validation of their status as the true servants of the state system. This might help explain
why ―when European imperialism entered the scene of politics with the scramble for Africa in
the nineteenth century it was welcomed by a large section of European educated class.‖ 73
(Arendt, 1969: 147) It also explains why academic institutions have evolved to be pro the
secular state despite their affinity with [national] cultures. In Malowe Faustus:

―Oh, what a world of profit and delight, of power, of honour, and omnipotence, is promised to the
studious Artisans.
All things that move between the quite poles shall be at my command; emperors and kings are but obeyed
in their several provinces; But his dominion that exceeds in this, stretcheth as far as doth the mind of
man‖ (Sidney, 1904: 29-30)

Even romantic scholars and philosophers (e.g. Fichte and Hegel), who generally spoke in the
language of determined spiritualist/idealist, ended up being ardent materialist for supporting
the accumulative machinery of the state system (Cassirer, 1949, 2002:186). Thus that the state
system and nations are considered to be symbiotically related—as Hegel was quoted earlier as
suggesting—has much to do with the fact that ‗states have, since their inception, been
incorporating many of the traditional institutions and values for rational purpose of political
and social compliance‘ (Catley and Cristaudo, 1997: 11-15). In any case ‗the psychological
breadth and complexities of traditional experiences and their unintended secular effects must
be studied in detail in order to understand the social evolution of states‘ (ibid, 1997: 58).

Inasmuch as the modern secular nation-state evolved from traditionally established social
norms, ‗there are four major kinds of societies which underpin states in their different stages
of historical advances, namely, agricultural, industrial, service based, and information based
societies‘ (ibid, 60). Moreover, the incorporation of traditional institutions and values by
agents of the state for political and social compliance intuitively implies that these different

73
According to J.A Hobson ―…expansion of the empire appeals powerfully to the aristocracy and the
professional classes by offering new and ever-growing fields for the honourable and profitable employment of
their sons.‖ It was ―above all … patriotic professors and publicists regardless of political affiliation and
unmindful of personal economic interest‖ who sponsored the outward imperialistic thrusts of the 70ies and
80ies.‖ See also, Carlton J. H. Hayes, 1941. A Generation of Materialism. New York, 220.
 89

historical stages of nation-state transition were naturally permeated by violent turbulences

(ibid., 1997: 310-340):

The human spirit has flung itself in multiplicity of social directions as people have cooperated, conquered,
surrendered, built, destroyed, argued, compromised, dreamed, hoped, erred and some times understood
what they have been doing. Violence and force has been the constant companion of social life as groups
have plundered, killed, co-opted, and coerced others to do their will. Violence is intrinsic to the political
history of sexes, races, nations, empires and tribes. Political power is first experienced as something brutal
and terrifying, as something in which a power greater than single person is unleashed. The earlier law
codes available to us from Mesopotamia and Assyria belie the ferocious brutality which is marshalled
against those who dare to transgress what the law lays down. Torture, amputation, burning, violent death
are not at the margins of social and political organization. In short, political power is first experienced as
something bestial.

And in specific reference to Europe, the revocation of the founding myth of the Roman
Empire (to be discussed later) should show that the violent conflicts which in the past
overshadowed European identity process—since ‗its inception from the Greek culture‘
(Burns, 1989: 75-76)—were more or less brotherly conflicts provoked by hedonic sentience
rather than any genuine nationalist endeavour.—A point expounded articulately by Strayer:

The early Germanic kings had destroyed the Roman Empire in the West, but then went on to destroy each
other, with new invaders coming along to help the process. The Franks conquered rival kingdoms in
Roman Gaul and Germany only to find themselves split by civil war and shaken by attacks of the
Northmen. The Ostrogoths and Vandals were wiped out by the Eastern Empire, the Visigoths by a
Moslem invasion. The Danes put an end to most of the Anglo-saxon kingdoms. Only in the tenth century
did the sole survivor, the Kingdom of Wessex, gained control of most of England. But after 1000 A.D.
those sweeping changes became rare. The chief surviving kingdoms, that of England, the Kingdom of
West Franks, which became France, the kingdom of Eastern Franks, the nucleus of Germany, were to
endure in one form or another down to our present day. The same thing happened at local level; the great
noble families took root in specific places instead of wandering about seeking power and plunder. No
longer could a count from the Rhineland become ruler of Western France, as the ancestors of the
Capetians had done; no longer could a Viking leader make himself master of French province as Rollo
had done in the Normandy… (1970: 16-17).

Strayer‘s position thus anticipates Sue‘s critical review of the exploitative nature of the
political arrangements of Agrarian/Feudal Europe:

For the secular power elites, identity was linked to class. Land and population were the property of class
and could be conquered, inherited or acquired by dynastic marriage. No state boundaries were rigidly
 90

fixed. Territory could change hands either through force of contract. The highest echelon of this class
could become part of the ruling elite in any region of Europe. Most members of the aristocracy married
and inherited locally, but at the apex of this class, marriage, inheritance and feudal relationship happened
at a pan-European scale. This made it psychologically easy for the group to see itself as a polyglot ruling
class which knew each other, who used one or more of the limited prestige language varieties, and who
were horizontally differentiated from the peasant masses. … The peasant class and the nobility from one
locality might fight as a unit, but the impermeability of the ruling class and the chasm between classes
would prevent a single from becoming predominant … (2000: 19ff).

And Renan never shied away from the fact that although ―the difference between noble and
serf was as sharply drawn as possible, but it was in no sense presented as an ethnic difference;
it was presented rather as a difference in courage, customs, and education, all of which were
transmitted hereditarily; it did not occur to anyone that the origin of all this was conquest. The
spurious system according to which nobility owed its origin to a privilege conferred by the
king for services rendered to the nation, so that every noble was an ennobled person, was
established as a dogma as early as the Thirteenth century. The same thing took place in almost
all the Norman conquests. After one or two generations, the Norman invaders no longer
distinguish themselves from the rest of the population, although their influence was no less
profound because of this fact; they had given the conquered country a nobility, military
habits, and a patriotism that they had not known before‖ (Renan, 1882; cited in Homi
Bhabha, 1990: 11). But why such seemingly expedient and serene interminglement, if the
Germanic groups … were genetically different from the Southern Europeans or the
levantines?
Rationally, Renan attributes the relatively serene interminglement of the conquering
Germanic groups (e.g., Franks, Burgundians, Goths, Lombards, and Normans) from Europe‘s
north and central parts with the Levantines of Europe South to two main factors, namely that
this particular historically ―ambivalent‖74 Germanic groups often fought without their own
women (or with very few of them)—hence their chiefs while marrying women of their own
race had to settle with Levantine concubines; and so too the rest of the group. So by the time
the Germanic groups established themselves … had to adopt the language of the conquered
people. Subsequently, the grandsons and daughters of Clovis, Alaric, Gundebald, Aloin and
Roland became Latin speakers with time.

74
Ambivalent in the sense that its incursions into Southern Europe was provoked by the Roman Empire military
inroads into Germanic settlements; and as a Befreiungsvolksgemeinschaft against Roman aggression ended up
emulating the conquering ethos of Roman imperialism.
 91

3.1.4. Racial Creed in Greek Philosophy and its Impact on European Political Nationalism

Despite the undeniable political relevance of Renan‘s rational interpretation of Europe

political history, he unintentionally or deliberately overlooked the overwhelming importance
of the racial idiom of early Greek philosophical speculations, which was to be later
appropriated by geneticists of Hitler‘s Third Reich in their quest for a European superior race.
According to Simona Forti, ‗there is no shortage of Nazi and pre-Nazi ideologues who
stressed on the Nordic essence of Hellenic-Germanic brotherhood‘ (Forti, 2006: 14ff). In
Forti‘s exponential reading of Alfred Rosenberg‘s Der Mythus des XX Jahrhunderts und
Gestalten der Idee, ―the Aryans of antiquity are the Greeks, the people who have given form
to their soul, who have produced the Darstellung (representation) or the Gestaltung
(configuration) of their race in the absolute delineation of artistic form. In this view, Greek
Aryans art is an organic art that generates life. Germany must repeat the Greek achievement
of giving life to the political body, to the people, as a work of art, as a fully achieved form of
a German soul, as an identification and realization of the racial Type. Plato provides the
mythical power of an idea of a political body that is achieved in a living work of art, to be
composed not only with the material offered by language, traditions, and customs, but also
with the material provided by blood and soil‖(Forti, 2006: 16).
While this form of pre-Nazi and Nazi‘s interpretation of Plato‘s works undoubtedly runs
through the political culture of German romanticism, scholars of classical culture, like Werner
Jaeger75, and nationalist propagandists and ideologues, have borrowed Plato‘s philosophical
speculations to legitimate their calls for a European superior race. In Paideia, for instance,
one finds sinister affinities with pre-Nazi and Nazi platonic interpretations. In the introduction
to the first edition of Paideia, we can find statements that emphasize the value of platonic
philosophy not as a ―set of abstract ideas‖, but rather as a ―work whose goal is living reality;
more specifically the formation of a superior race … that can succeed in preserving and
propagating its physical and moral type‖ (Jaeger76; cited by Forti, 2006: 16). This kind of
Platonic heritage is perfected in a ―nationalistic‖ way in the context of Stefan George Kreis.
One may refer, for example, to the work of Kurt Hildebrandt, Platon: Der Kampf des Geistes

75
Werner Jaeger, 1934. Paideia: Die Formung des Griechischen Menschen. Berlin: W.de Gruyter (Werner,
Jaeger, 1945. Paideia: The Ideals of Greek Culture. New York: Oxford University Press); V., Loseman, 1977.
Nationalsozialismus und Antik. Hamburg: Hoffman and Camp.
76
Jaeger, Paideia, 1-20.
 92

um die Macht.77Authors such as Bannes and Gabbler even go as far as identifying directly and
explicitly the ideal of the Platonic state with the Third Reich78‘(ibid, 16).
In Forti‘s words, Hans F K. Günther‘s works are outstanding in this regard for providing an
exemplary instance of the way in which some conceptualizations of Western philosophical
traditions were used by Nazi pseudo-metaphysics. Guenther texts are valuable because they
seem to address the crucial question, what is human for the Third Reich? The answer he
provided—in his books Platon als Hüter des Lebens (1928)79 and Humanitas (1937)—is
much simpler than those put forward by Rosenberg. Arguing in a transcendental manner in
these books, he clarifies ―the conditions for participating in the ideal, in the type, in the soul;
that is in the myth of the people.‖ (Forti, 2006: 16-17)
In Günther‘s Platon als Hüter des Lebens, we find that everything confirms the ―Nordic
essence‖ of the Greek Philosopher. … ―The Nordic race, unlike the other European races, is
marked by a strong individuality, by loyalty to his group, by his ability as a doer and
producer, by qualities of his judgement, by his aristocratic Führer Geist, and by his warrior
virtues. These features assume their full relevance when contrasted with the oriental
Mediterranean race; especially the Jews race (a race devoid of Soul). Once again we find the
idea that ancient Hellenes represented the highest example of ―Nordic character,‖ which was
later corrupted through widespread of interbreeding of peoples. Plato must now serve as a
warning to Germany, so that it must not repeat the errors that led to the decadence of the great
Greek civilization. The German people must revive, indeed bring back to life in a still more
authentic form, the Greek original potentiality of true European culture; it must finally give
shape to Platonic anthropology, politics, and philosophy.‖(Forti, 2006: 16-17)
As Forti points out, Günther‘s textual references to Plato are especially to Book V of The
Republic, The Statesman, and the Laws. For the Nazi anthropologist, ―the platonic ideal that
coincides with the perfect examplar of human being is attainable, and at the same time
―operative,‖ if spiritual purification coincides with biological selection, with the choice of an
elite that becomes transparently Nordic, and which the blonde image of divinity may be
reflected.80 Beauty and goodness are part of truth once they become real or ―embodied.‖ This
is the kagathia—the Greek ideal of the inextricable connection of being good and being
beautiful—in which the Third Reich must take step from idea to reality, transmitting the ideal

77
K. Hildebrandt, 1933. Platon: Der Kämpf des Geistes um die Macht. Berlin: Bondi.
78
J. Bannes, 1933. Hitler und Plato. Berlin-Leipzig: de Gruyter; A Gabler, 1934. Platon und der Führer. Berlin-
Leipzig: de Gruyter.
79
H K F., Günther, 1928. Platon als Hüter des Lebens. München:Lehemanns Verlag.
80
Guenther, Platon als Hüter des Lebens, 30.
 93

of individual perfection into a humanity made pure and perfect by the process of selection.‖
(ibid, 18)
This racial idealism presents itself as ―metaphysics of form,‖ of Gestalt, of the perfect identity
of the body and soul. … Race thus becomes a phenomenon perceived by our senses as an
expression of the soul that, according to the words of Phaedo, is related ―to divine, immortal,
rational, uniform, indissoluble and always identifiable to itself.‖81 As Forti asserts, unlike the
Sophists, Günther‘s thought is oriented toward action. It wants to intervene effectively in the
political crisis brought about by Peloponnesian war in which Athens and Sparta lost the
flower of their Nordic youth. ―True philosophy is therefore that which re-establishes order in
the chaotic democratic city and gives form once again to what is shapeless, selects purity out
of the mixture of races that is true cause of decadence. Plato‘s virtue cannot be thought; it is a
matter of race.‖82 (Forti, 2006: 18)
Forti sees Günther‘s monism as built on a system of dual separations and oppositions that re-
establish and start a selective mechanism and that transform the selection into a true
dialectical process of askesis, necessary for reaching the one. ―Life is the form union of body
and soul, which must prosper, maintain itself and grow, and which can achieve its full
expression only if the life of the ghenos (race) prospers, maintains itself and grows—in other
words, if the life of the type prospers. The form here fixes the features of the soul and the
somatic characteristics in a univocal system of correspondences. To allow the best to prosper
and to suppress the worst is always for Plato the criterion that must guide political
legislation.83 The death sentence of the unworthy is therefore related to the purification of the
race and to the health of the polis: a conception that adheres to Greek thought as it does to
Roman and Germanic thought.84
Plato‘s heritage may therefore be picked up only by Germany, which knows that the
distinction between noble and non-noble is not a social, education, or class issue, but rather an

81
Plato. Phaedo, 78c-80c.
82
Günther. Platon als Hüter des Lebens, 22-28. Here ghenos and ethnos are translated as race.
83
Günter‘s references to Plato‘s arguments include especially those contained in the Republic, 450-460: ―the
best men should have sex with the best women as often as possible, whereas for the worst men and the worst
women it should be the reverse. We should bring up the children of the best, but not the children of the worst, if
the quality of our herd is to be as high as we can make it … The children of the inferior parents, on the other
hand, or of any deformed species born to other group, will be removed from sight into some secret and hidden
place, as is right‖(Plato. Republic, 157-158). And also Laws, 735b-c: ―In dealing with a flock of any kind, the
shepherd or cowherd, or the keeper of horse or any such animals, will never attempt to look after it until he first
applied to each group of animals the appropriate purge—which is to separate the sound from unsound, and the
well-bred from the ill-bred, and to send off the later to other herds, while keeping the former under his own care;
for he reckons that his labour could be fruitless and unending if it were spent on bodies and souls that nature
and ill-nurture have combined to ruin, and that bring ruin on a stock which is sound and clean both in habit and
body—whatever the class of the beast—unless a thorough purge be made in the existing herd‖(R. G., ed. 1951.
Plato‘s Laws Vol. I. London: Heinemannd, 348-351.
84
Günther, Platon als Hueter des Lebens, 72.
 94

opposition of pure and impure, and therefore an ontological issue.85 One cannot escape from
the soul of the race, because nobody can escape from his own body, which is precisely an
expression of the Type. For the Hellenes—the Nordic race of antiquity—there was nothing
spiritual which did not affect the body, nothing corporeal which did not also affect the soul.
This is the spirit of the Nordic race. The medieval Church has dangerously inculcated in the
Western man the idea that the body belongs to the domain of sin. This is the spirit of the
Levantine race.86(Forti, 2006: 19-20ff)
Essentially, true superior values of Hellenic culture finally become authentic the moment they
are ―embodied.‖ It is the duty of the Nordic spirit, ―nowadays‖ incarnated by the German
people, to suppress, once for all, the contradictions between body and soul, between race and
people, between people and the nation, to finally realize the truth of the idea, of the Type, of
the one and eternal soul.87 This is how a Volk is created Günther seems to conclude‖ (Forti,
2006: 21).
The core appeal of Günther‘s second book, Humanitas, was the unity of Europe on racial
basis. Accordingly, it obsessively returns to the theme of ―German-Hellene brotherhood,
based on common origin of Nordic stock, located in central Europe in the Neolithic age.‖88
89
The greatness that has developed, ―thanks to the uninterrupted process of selection,‖
starting from exemplary families in Greece and Rome is, and will always be, the ideal
representative of the Nordic race. The value of Humanitas lies in this greatness, made true and
fortified by racial selection. ―The Hellenic Roman value of Humanitas, Indogermanic
spirituality directs itself once again towards the racial ideal of the strong, noble and beautiful
man.‖90
In general, ―Hellenism is a culture of ―reaction‖ to decadence, and of racial interbreeding: a
reaction to a surrounding world that is increasingly de-Nordified and degenerate.91 Authentic
humanitas is progressively eroded in its noble meaning of a hymn to life by the process of de-
Nordification (Entnordung) and degeneration. The Hellenic-Germanic concept is aristocratic:
It demands the victory of man over any lowly tendency that is in him, over any physical or
hedonistic slackening. It demands firmness, contempt for utilitarian values, sense of measure,
and a sense of reserve. And to this inner dignity and nobility there corresponds a brave and

85
ibid., 40.
86
ibid., 56.
87
ibid., 88.
88
Günther. Humanitas, 10.
89
Günther. Humanitas, 24.
90
ibid., 24.
91
ibid., 22.
 95

proud body: the Nordic type with blue eyes and blond hair, tall and upright, a high and wide
forehead with a frank and straight face‖92 (Forti, 2006: 21-22).
Humanitas is therefore the ideal of the Nordic purity that can always be improved; it is the
Platonic ideal. … But Nazism, unlike the philosophies of the past, offers the historical
possibility of ―embodying‖ these absolutes, of phenomenalizing them. ―The idea of humanitas
corresponds to the same Indogermanic ideal of the noble man who in Hellas, in a more strictly
selective context, produced the two conceptions of eugeneia and kalokathagia.‖ This value is
lost when it is transformed into an ideal of individual perfection. ―The falsification of
Humanism took place in the epoch of late Roman world: the immigrant Levantines, especially
the Jews, who pretended to be Hellenes and Romans to avoid the ancient contempt of
foreigners, in fact tried to pervert humanism into doctrine of brotherhood and equality, in the
name of an abstract man who does not exist.‖93 True Humanism ―is a duty to be carried out, a
model to be reached…, an ideal of racial and marital selection, because only a conception that
distinguishes between the best and the worst can preserve true ethics and ideals, an
aristocratic conception… a conception which is the knowledge of the true blood that must be
increased and the worst blood which must be purged.94 These are the words to be written on
the tombstone of the Greek and Roman worlds; and from them meaning arises for us, as
descendants of those Germanic peoples who belong to the same race of the Hellenes: Mihi
natura dedit leges a sanguine ductas‖95(Forti, 2006: 22-23ff). And such identity forging
process is indeed univocal with Hitler‘s European ideal.96 In fact Hitler‘s description of his
preferred European personality/identity does not leave the least doubt:

So erzählt Adolf Hitler, wie er als 18 jährige 1907 nach Wien zog, wo er sich häufig in Rotlichtviertel
herumtrieb und wütend über ―Juden und Ausländer‖ schimpfte, die dieses „ekelhafte, lasterhafte Treiben―
anführten, das „unschuldige jungen blonden Mädchen verdarb― und „Gift― in die Adern Deutschlands
infiziert (Adolf Hitler97; deMause, 2002, 2005: 47)

In Forti‘s apt formulation, this ―European personality is the macroanthropos who will start
the ascending path of the synagogue, the process of approximation and conforming to the
idea, which is at the same time always and already the return to the one. This will happen

92
Günther, Humanitas, 30.
93
ibid., 30.
94
ibid., 18.
95
ibid., 37.
96
This reference to the Nazi Movement as the frontrunner of modern political endeavour to unify Europe also
found its expression in Jörg Haider arguments quoted in Henning Scharsach, 1992. Haiders Kampf. Wien, s. 7f
97
Adolf, Hitler, 1971. Mein Kampf. Boston: Houston Mifflin, 59.
 96

through the selection of the material (Gold, Silver or Bronze) through which the people are
made, and through the purging of those bodies that are an expression of evil soul, or those
bodies that only simulate the Type and that try to falsely insulate themselves into the limbs of
the great body of the ethnos (race)‖ (Forti, 2006: 23).
When we now add these type of political interpretations of Plato‘s polis-centric philosophical
discourse to the hierarchical political tenancy of Agrarian Europe, in which the nobility was
by nature supposedly as white as the white clouds underneath the blue sky in a Sunny summer
day—after all Plato‘s ascending journey from Hades (the abode of the dead) was narrowly
conceptualized to take aim at the golden Sun of eternal life, while the European peasant
masses a bit darker (again echoing Plato‘s ideal of Hades), we are bound for an ideological
Molotov which (in modern European context) could be easily appropriated by pseudo-
nationalists and pseudo-scholars alike, Simona Forti seems to conclude (emphasis added).

3.1.5. The culture deficit of the Greek Polis and its impropriety for the national ideal

This critical review of the culture orientation of Plato‘s Politeia/Republic (discourse of the
Polis), the harbinger of European nation-states, should serve repel any culture attempt to
appropriate the Socratic-Platonic ideal of a ―perfect society‖ for a European nation. As a
matter of fact, the opening discourse of the Republic stated clearly that Plato‘s contemporary
Piraeus (Hades) was without doubt in a state of conflicting cultures, especially between the
―dominant Thracian‖ and the ―splendid local culture,‖ when Plato and one of the interlocutors
of his Republic, Glaucon (the Sophist), descended to offer prayers to the goddess Bendis and
watch festival in her honour (Republic [327] Lee, 1955: 51). Interestingly, as a staunch
defender of the Greek polis, Plato was no longer interested in reviving that ―splendid local
culture‖ he hinted later to his modern European political nationalist; this would probably have
meant a return to the darkness or the intricacies of Hades, where only the culturally
constrained mythical mind—with its innate inclination to detail—is capable of recovering
from the concoction of the then highly politicized Piraeusian culture the authentic local
genius. This domain seemed too esoteric for the economically minded political philosopher—
hence it must be left as quickly as possible for a narrowly conceptualized focal point of
ascension. In other words, the politically minded Socratic-Plato helpless in terms of reviving
his splendid local culture from the utter melange of his contemporary Greek political culture
opted for an abstract constitution conducive to the then political reality. Even though Plato
acknowledged (in his Republic) the need to adhere to the culture prelude in terms of the quest
 97

for transcendental existence—indeed intelligible life must attain immortality, but that should
not substitute the fact that the constitution of his Republic was construed to accelerate the
journey out of the socio-cultural and political intricacies of Hades (Earth): for the Republic
seems to forbid any return to the past. Such a narrowly conceptualized one-way ascending
journey seems to imply abandoning the culture inevitability of Hades for yet another
supposedly habitable celestial province whose exact location in his contemporary Greece was
still uncertain. To use George W. Bush Jr. Providentialist language, ―And the light shines in
darkness. And darkness will not overcome it‖ (Smith M., 2008: 285). But are we not too naïve
with this form of leucomanic or nyctophobic attitudes by ignoring the primordiality of
darkness on Earth?
In Hesiod‘s Theogony we are told in a song inspired by the Muses that: ―the sweet words
flowed effortlessly from their lips singing about the past, present, and the future.‖ These
(Muses) who were born in Pieria had Zeus as their Father and Memory (Mnemosyne) as their
Mother… to allow the oblivion of evils and relief from all worries…‖ ―…with the passing of
the time Mnemosyne gave birth to nine daughters, united in heart and purpose... There they
dwell with grace, dances, and desire. …Festively they celebrate and sing and … glorify the
wise laws and virtues agreeable to us all … rejoice, daughters of Zeus, let me sing an
enchanting tune to relate how the gods were first created, then land and the rivers and the Sea;
[How] the vast heavenly expanse and the lofty bright stars … [were created]. Tell me of the
beginning of things, what came first‖?
And they modestly responded:

―In the beginning there was Chaos

and then broad-bosomed Earth
and Eros the most handsome
among the immortal Gods
secured (for man) a foothold in eternity

Out of Chaos,
and (out of the) darkest Night the day
and the sky came forth:
the Earth first gave birth to her equal
 98

to the sky with its constellations and to the lofty mountains…‖98

Even modern scientists who generally tend to discredit such divine inspiration as myth have
only recently conceded to the fact that without the primordial water or green-
crown/vegetation of Hades (Earth) human life is not sustainable in any of these virtually
uncountable celestial provinces. Moreover, the container tubes being currently used to
transport the green-houses of the international space station (ISS)—in their quest for a
habitable celestial province—are originally from Hades/Earth. In this sense, it should be
reemphasized that past efforts by European aristocracy to trample on the inhabitants of
Hades—what National Socialist leaders would later call echte Volksgemeinschaft and the
Marxist, proletariat—in their hasty quest for eternal life in the illusionary blue sky above our
heads resulted in Europe‘s two devastating conflicts of the past century.

Evidently, the role ―race‖ and ―class‖ thought played in modern European nationalist (and
internationalist) movements and continue to play in modern European thought has been
elaboratively explored in Forti‘s readings of political nationalist interpretation of Greek
literature earlier. Since Forti‘s informative analyses reaffirmed the quasi-uninterrupted
development of European social history and or socio-political thought from an original Greek
culture template, those familiar with ancient Greek epic literature concerning the hostile
reception of Prometheus (Greek god of Hand-workers) in the hands of the Olympian gods of
aristocracy should therefore have no difficulty correlating that early epic narrative with
Marxist interpretation of history as the struggle between classes. The commonality between
Aichylos seizure of Prometheus as the real saviour and martyr or the true representation and
lawyer of Greek popular front against physical and spiritual enslavement and Marxist seizure
of the proletariat; and or Nazis seizure of the Volksgemeinschaft, against the economic
injustices of the liberal tenancy of class structured society… should have urged the studious to
make peace with the common historic and cultural heritage of the Europeans.
This now being the case, one should then add that the early exploitation of the European
Masses—through divisive politics—by advocates of the Greek Polis (City-states); the
imperial Roman state; Feudal/Agrarian and/or modern European nation-states was for the
sheer purpose of hedonic sentience associated with economic and political power. Renan has
also remarked that ―the emergence of an individual Germanic identity occurred only a few
centuries B.C; prior to this time, mingled with Slavs, in the huge indistinct mass of
98
Hesoid Theogony 116; See also Michael Kalopoulos, 1995, 2003. Biblical Religion: The Great Lie, 22-23. In
a footnote to page 22 n.17, Kalopoulos described Hesiod and Homer as the greatest epic poets of Greece.
 99

Scynthians, they did not have their own separate identity.‖(Homi B., 1990: 15) And the
German art historian, Joseph Strzygowski, has also discovered that, ―the so-called Nordic race
(Indogermans) is composed of the amalgam of Germans, Ukranians, Armenians, Persians,
Hungarians, Bulgarians, and Turks.‖99 In viewing this, are we not right to ascribe Friedrich
Wilhelm political method—the random kidnapping of European youths (albeit physical
selection)—of replenishing his depopulated Prussia as an authentically pan-European
initiative.100 After-all [even] Zeus, one of the numerous Greek aristocratic deits, method of
rescuing Europa from experiencing the unavoidable tragic fate of her Phoenician ancestor‘s
divisive politics… was to set the stage for what would later become synonymous with
European identity process (one must not forget that Paris was also involved in the kidnapping
Helena).
However, such overwhelming evidence in favour of a culturally homogeneous European
national identity did not dissuade pseudo-scholars, subservient to the divisive nation-states (of
modern European nationalism), from their ability to distinguish between Hellenic-Germanic
groups from other Europeans. ―The society of medicine in Paris (France) not only published a
report on the discovery of ―polychesia‖ (excessive defecation) and ―bromidrosis‖(body odour)
in German race, but propose urinalysis for the detection of German spies; German urine was
―found‖ to contain 20 percent non-uric nitrogen as against 15 percent for other races.‖101 In
the apt phrase of Hannah Arendt, ‗we owe it to these scientific preachers rather than any
genuine scientific findings that today no single science is left into whose categorical system
race-thinking has not deeply penetrated. As a matter of fact, the Sophists deliberate confusion
of ―Might‖ with ―Justice‖ in that famous political dialogue with the Socratic-Plato in the
Republic/Politeia later found its classical expression in Spinoza‘s ―Might-Right‖ correlation,
which in turn permeated natural science and produced the ―Law‖ of survival of the fittest
(1958, 1969: 159-160).
With such economically induced pseudo-scholarship at the permanent service of divisiveness
in European social history, we had better not waste time accusing the bestiality of Romulus
for the violent death of his twin brother Remus—these brotherly characters, who were
supposedly raised by a female Wolf, are the prominent characters of the founding myth of the
Roman Empire); the Anglo-Saxon Bristish Lion; the Prussian Adler (Eagle); the Anglo-
American Eagle; or even the architects of the Third Reich for wanting to deify the ―blue-eyed

99
See his Altai, 1917. Iran und Völkerwanderungen. Leipzig, 306-307.
100
In ganz Europa entführten Friedrich Wilhelms sogenannte weber junge Männer. In London z.B. musste die
preussische Gesandt seinen Platz räumen, weil er heimlich an die brutal Verschleppung beteiligt war (see,
Spiegel Special Geschichte 3/2007:8-9).
101
E.g. Jacques Barzun, 1937. Race. New York, 239.
 100

and blond-haired‖ Aryan Europeans. The deliberate misinformation the leadership of this later
―classless‖ (echte Volksgemeinschaft) European group was relegated to such utter monstrosity
deserve critical attention than is currently the case. Even aside the quasi-satanic and racist
proclamation in the Talmud (or later Old Testament) that the reason for divinity‘s curse of
Ham/Cham‟s descendants (the Bantu-Ethiopians) was their Blackness‖102; the political notion
that the biblical God should be whitened to the likeness of the white clouds hanging under the
illusionary blue sky above the Swabian Alps (the locality of the Hohenzollern castle) serves to
explain the National Socialist leadership disdain for the supposed superiority of non-Aryan
Europeans, the black haired Europeans/Levantines. This in turn begs for such pressing
question as to why is the survival strategy of the nation-state based upon the deception of the
nationalities and citizens of its own constitution; why do the economically induced political
agents of the expansive state system within the nation-state constitutions deliberately deny the
majority of the nationalities and citizens of these constitutions the right kind of knowledge
about their own cultures (or in that matter cultures of others) given such unpredictable
political events as the rise of the ―Third Reich‖ or more recently ―Al Qaeda and/or Islamic
Talibanism‖?
Before turning to this rather exigent question, it is worth emphasizing that left alone on the
natural instincts of the she-Wolf that supposedly raised the vicious Romulus of the Roman
Empire after he and his twin brother Remus were abandoned by their original mother, both
brothers would not suffice a genuine meal. Therefore, let‘s assume that the culture template of
the newly evolving European nation—that is, the choice of the ―Minosian Bull‖, the mythical
animal that Zeus had originally used in his rescue of Europa—is judiciously or cognitively
intended to emphasize the humanistic side of European politics; then, the resilience of
Europe‘s culture nationalist deserve our recognition and applause despite such political
difficulties as the recent decision by Irish voters to turn-down the Lisbon Treaty on the
intensification of Europe‘s reintegration. This latter mythical animal of Europe‘s reintegration
makes cultural sense because had Zeus originally metamorphosed into, say, a carnivorous
lion, tiger, wolf, bear, etc.—echoing the blood stains of the ―Leviathan sword‖, there would
probably be nothing left of Europe today. In other words, the prospects for envisaging Europe
as a distinct national entity depends in large on its people recognition of the fact that the blood
that streams the veins of their nation‘s mythical animal (the Minosian Bull) stems wholly

102
Harold Blackman, 1977. ―The Ebb and Flow of Conflict: The History of Black-Jewish Relations Through
1900.” This Unpublished 632-page PhD Dissertation (University of California) takes a lengthy issue with the
Jewish Invention of the Hamitic Myth found in the Jewish Babylonian Talmud. (However, that this particular
proclamation was made by certain politically compromised Jewish leaders in their Babylonian exile makes it
unreasonable to blame the entire Jewish people for the racist remarks of such leaders (emphasis in asterix)).
 101

from vegetation and not from the blood of supposedly weaker nations to be devoured by a
monstrous Behemoth. In fact, European history has also warned us that even those members
of the ―classless‖ European society, whose leadership quest for a stake in modern capitalist
socio-economic-tenancy of exploitative class structured social-order was to later force
European leaders to make such a reasonable culture volte-face (after 1945), were [supposedly]
too weak economically to engender any serious threat to the artificiality of the European
nation-states. In this sense, any naïve attempt by agents of the ―global creed‖ to over trivialize
the culture demands of the various nations is bound once again to provoke nationalist
resistance.

3.2. Reaffirming the Politico-economic Origin of European Divisions from the Greek
Culture

That prior to the introduction of the concept of the divisive Polis system in ancient Greece the
Greeks did indeed share some sense of homogeneous culture despite tribal differences is aptly
compressed by Alfred Burns (1989: 75ff):

… oral [mythical] poetry had been the medium perpetuating the national tradition of the Greeks. It had
created a common language which through its rhythms and images provided an aesthetic pleasure and
transcended the boundaries of tribal dialects. Homeric poetry provided the Greeks with a collective
identity. When alphabets 103arrived in Greece, it was used not only to record the poetic tradition but, since
no establishment controlled the oral heritage or the new literary, it stimulated the creation of new poetry
and the expression of personal sentiments and individual identities.

One such individualistic and highly politicized sentiment found its ardent poetic expression in
Pericles funeral oratory:

We live under a constitution that does not have to be envious of anybody else‘s. We set an example to
others rather than imitate them. Ours is called democracy because it serves the interest not of the few, but
of the majority. According to law, the same opportunities are open to all regardless of individual
differences. According to public judgement, a person is valued highly more for his ability than his
inherited position, nor if some one can make a good contribution to the community is he hindered by the
lack of means or reputation. We are just as liberal towards each other in our private life as we are in our
political affairs. We hold no grudge against our neighbour if he does as he pleases...
It is up to the same people to carry on their private business and to make public policy, and up to those
occupied with their labours to have adequate knowledge about public affairs…

103
It is widely assumed that the Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabets about 1105 BC (see, B L. Ullman,
How old is the Greek Alphabet? AJA 38, 359-381; The Antiquity of the Greek Alphabet, AJA 37, 1933:27; Joseph
Naveh, 1978. Some Semitic Epigraphical Considerations on the Antiquity of Greek Alphabet, AJA 77, 1-8.
 102

In sum, I say that Athens as a whole is the educator of Greece and I believe that our citizens, man for
man, each for himself, among their other gifts in every respect show the most versatile and self-restraint
personality. And that this is no idle boastful talk, but the … truth, is proven by the power of our city.
(Thucydides, Histories, 2.37 cited in Burn, 1989: 87-88)

Setting aside the political suppression of female voices in such a grand sentimental patriotic
delirium about Athens male dominated democratic constitution and/or its divine ―elected
status‖ among Greek city states; Thucydides arguments may be partly justified not only
because of Athens powerful status among other Greek city states then, but, most importantly,
its military victories over the powerful Persia. However, that Athens superiority in those days
only owed much to its abstract legal genius or political power tends to reaffirm the apparent
conviction that at the apogee of its supremacy Athens was no longer operating by the rules of
Greek‘s authentic culture. Following Nietzsche, ―the constitution of the Polis system was
authentically not Greek, but a Phoenician political genius.‖104 A position shared by
Burckhardt J. who also acknowledges that, ―prior to the birth of the Greek Polis there were
already similar constitutions with the Pheonicians‖ (Burckhardt, 1962; 105 Urte Sperling et al.,
2004: 74ff). It is in Gobineau‘s emphasis that both views found their ardent and radical
compression:

In der europäischen Kultur sind die Griechen mit ihrer blinden Bewunderung für die Polis für das falsche
Ideal des Patriotismus verantwortlich. In Griechenland wurde das Individuum von Gesetz regiert. Das
Vorurteil, die Authorität der öffentlichen Meinung zwang jeden Einzelnen, dieser Abstraktion alle seine
Neigungen, seine Ideen und Gewohnheiten, selbst sein Glück und seine intimsten persönlichen und
menschlichen Beziehungen aufzuopfern. Aber die Griechen hatten dieses Ideal nicht ersonnen; sie hatten
es von der Semiten entlehnt. Um zusammenzufassen: Patriotismus ist nichts als eine „Kanaanäische
Monstrosität.―(Gobineau;106 Cassirer, 2002: 312).

But if, as Gobineau further stresses, abstract legal genius and military Might alone was
insufficient to salvage the [eventual] disintegration of [even] the Roman Empire:

das römische Reich hatte seine stärkste Grundlage im römischen Recht. Das Recht war die einzige
bindende Kraft im römischen Leben geworden. Es wurde gesammelt, kodifiziert, erklärt und analysiert.
Nach Gobineau ist die ganze Konstruktion des römischen Rechts in genau gleichen Fall wie die Griechen
Polis. Es ist eine bloße Abstraktion. Die Römer machten aus der Not eine Tugend. Sie mussten ein

104
Dermandt, Alexander, 1995. Antik Staatsformen, Eine vergleichende Verfassungsgeschichte der Alten Welt.
Berlin, 353.
105
Griechische Kulturgeschichte, 4Bde., Darmstadt (Gesammelte Werke Bd. V-VII), 1, 57, 76.
106
Essai Sur l‟inegalité des races humaines, 2. Aufl. Paris, 2vols., Conclusion générale, 548, übers. v. Ludwig
Schemann, Stuttgart, 1922, 4Bde.
 103

künstliches Band zwischen den verschiedensten Elementen schaffen. Das konnte nur durch eine
Gesetzgebung des Kompromisses geschehen, das einzige, unter einer Bevölkerung möglich war, die aus
der Hefe aller raßen bestand… Auf keinem Gebiet der menschlichen Kultur war Rom produktiv oder
original. Es hatte nichts Eigenes—keine Religion, keine Kunst, keine Literatur. Alles war von anderen
Völkern entlehnt (Gobineau, cited in Cassirer, 1949, 2002: 312-313);

then the glorious days of Athens superiority in the social history of the Greco-Europeans were
naturally bound to be numbered. And as Burns rightly observes, the funeral of the first
victims of the Peloponnesian war already foreshadowed Athens approaching catastrophe. And
just as in the tragedies the occasion of Thucydides previous speech celebrated Athens
greatness questions of self praise projected themselves in the opposite light. How was such a
disaster possible? How did the Athenians go wrong to deserve such a tragedy? Which of their
character traits and actions brought them down? These questions were to echo throughout
Socratic-Plato‘s philosophical speculation (Burns, 1989:88-89), especially the discourse of
the Republic (emphasis added).
As a early critical observer of the rise and fall of political constitutions (e.g. timarchy,
oligarchy, tyranny, et cetera) of his contemporary Greece, the Socratic-Plato turned inwards in
his search for answers to the misfortune of democratic Athens. For him, ―the worst human
soul is likely to produce the same constitution just as a deformed soul would also produce a
deformed body; hence unconstrained liberty is most likely to degenerate into tyranny‖
(Cassirer, 2002: 93). Hence Plato‘s approval of constitution of the golden soul/spirit; in fact
the amalgam of gold, silver and bronze which was the main source of Piraeus decadence was
too corrupt to be of any good:

Good and unity constitutes the fundamental character of God. Without the appropriate projection of one‘s
own gods mankind would be unable to organize and regulate his worldly (affairs) accordingly. Therefore
if we continue in the contemporary mythical traditions that the gods are always at each other throats,
seeking the destruction of each other, we would be unable to purge evil from our constitutions. Hence it is
necessary to replace the contemporary mythical gods with the idea of the absolute good/truth. Oh friend,
Callicles, the wise men … said that heaven and earth are intrinsically interrelated, and that only through
friendliness, propriety, insightfulness and justice can the universe function harmoniously (Cassirer,
2002:87-88 (my English translation from German)).

Here Plato not only confirm the conflicting state of his contemporary Greece, but seems to
want to create out of the apparent melange of gold, silver, and bronze an abstract constitution
of the golden spirit/soul, which is by nature the endowed leadership spirit. ‗In a state, virtue
should be the chief aim, and unless philosophers become rulers, or rulers become students of
 104

philosophy, there will be unceasing troubles for the states and humanity at large. And as the
Ideal state is modelled upon the individual soul, and just as the soul has golden, silver, and
bronze parts, so also should the state have three parts: the rulers, the warriors, and workers‘
(Republic VI, 490; V 478; III, 415; G.G.M. James, 1954, 2001: 99). The requirement of
soldiers in the constitution of the Platonic Ideal goes along confirming, on the one hand, the
earlier statements about the importance of war in the activities of the artificial and culturally
indifferent state system and, on the other hand, with the mention of Callicles it becomes
obvious that not everyone in the then democratic Athens was convinced about Plato‘s ―Ideal
Constitution‖; at least, not the Sophists, who were more concerned about immediate human
challenges of mundane political matters.
According to Burns, when in the 5th century BC Athens had become the centre of Greek
political and cultural life it was also only natural that the various strands of inquiry be drawn
together there. Pericles, the father of Athenian democracy, deliberately tried to attract the best
minds of Greece to his side, and many, such as Anaxagoras, the city planner Hipodamus, and
the sophist Protagoras, joined his cycle. Eventually most of the Sophists who found the
financial and intellectual climate of Athens stimulating appeared for more or less prolonged
visits in Athens. They were to make a considerable contribution to literacy and to give human
centred concerns a more purposeful direction, especially in their anthropological and
sociological speculations (Burns, 1989: 90ff.).
For Werner Jaeger107 ―Sophists most important contribution to Greek literary tradition was
their theory of education and culture‖ (Burns, 1989: 90). As Burns assert, they were the first
(in the Greco-European context) to make a formal statement of the nature nurture
problematic:

In the aristocratic tradition which had found its most vigorous expression in the poetry of Theognis and
Pindar, excellence (arête) was a quality to be inherited through noble birth and ancestry; it could neither
be acquired nor thought. But inquiries into nature (physis) by Ionian thinkers, the ―physists‖ and medical
writers, the physians, had established man as a product of nature with the physis of its own, and thus
subject to physical inquiry. The nature of his body could be improved through physical exercise and
through the ministration of a physician.

The Sophists extended the concept to include the human mind and its motivations.
Accordingly, the natural endowment, the quality of the physis of each individual, was
important, but to attain its full potential it had to be developed through the proper education.

107
Werner, Jaeger, 1945. Paideia: The Ideals of Greek Culture. New York, 305-311.
 105

Without education a gifted nature might go to waste while a less well endowed nature under
the right educational care might reach the higher level of accomplishment. Plutarch later drew
on this sophistic argument in his classical analogy of farming: a good harvest requires a good
soil, a good seed, and a good farmer. In education the physis of the pupil is the soil, the
teacher is the farmer, the instruction is the seed. The image was later taken up by the Romans:
agri cultura, the tilling of the soil, inspired the metaphor animi cultura, the tilling of the mind,
and also influenced Cicero‘s combination of Natura et Doctrina. Importantly, the Sophists
promised to produce ―cultured‖ individuals for fee to participate in Greece political life
through the mastering of convincing oratory (Burns, 1989: 91-93). In the process they laid the
foundation of study of semantics and stylistics, and raised the use of language to a more
conscious level; that is to say, rational and logic use of language (ibid).
Furthermore, their concern with human relations and practical matters and their disdain for
abstract transcendental theories was also well pronounced. Gorgias‘ expressed his disdain for
the abstract and universal in his dissertation ―On Nature and not Being: Nothing exists. If it
existed, it would be incomprehensible. What counts in life is the right action at the right time
(Kairos); to do what is required to the thing requiring it (to deon toi deonti).
Protagoras famous statement that ―man is the measure of all things‖ was probably a reaction
against such ―other world‖ concepts. To be successful in life man had to deal with his
immediate world, his human environment. For the Sophists the various cosmic theories were
interesting because they sharpen one‘s reasoning powers and sceptical outlook. But because
these theories often contradict each other and there was no way of proving one against the
other it was up to each individual to form her/his opinion. In other words, morality is a matter
of conventions, the result of a natural evolution, and not God-given as often speculated by
these various comic theories (Burns, 1989:93-94f.).
Since it is almost impossible to determine with exact precision where God-given ends and
natural evolution begins, let‘s expeditiously use the above contrast as again affirmative of the
Socratic-Plato and Sophistic dichotomy; and that both contesting positions had the tendency
of rationalizing the mythological foundation of Greek culture philosophically. However, that
said, a critical review of the views of such Sophists, as Callicles and Thrasymachus, which
amounted to advocating that ―Might‖ makes ―Right‖—that is: that laws of the Polis must have
been devised by the stronger and more intelligent racial groups or individuals to dominate the
weaker or ill-informed groups/individuals (as stated in the Republic), also demonstrates the
gravity of social implosion that celebrated the birth of the Greek Polis. But how was it
possible that the authentic Greco-European culture, which, like any other authentic national
 106

cultures (e.g. the Manfour/Memphetic Bantu-Ethiopian ideal), begun in form of a univocal

oral mythology synchronous with the hymn of eternal existence, degenerate into such a
miserable state—that is, a breeding ground for speculative philosophy subservient to the
economic and political agents of Greek city-states?
E.A Havelock108, for one, sees the introduction of literacy in Greek culture as a catalyst for
such development.—A development which Burns also rightly attributes to ―Hellenic Racial
endowment‖ (1989: 75-76). Arnold Gehlen, for his part, has stressed convincingly that ‗due to
its profane origin the literary tradition remained for a while outside the doors of indigenous
Greek temples‘ (Gehlen, 1986: 299-300ff.).
Inasmuch as the distinction between realistic and pseudo-nationalist endeavours is central to
the present analytical discernment, the resuscitation of the mythical language of the Greco-
European national conscience should show that given its innate inclination to the original
hymn of eternal existence, that einmalig culture and its associated cultural-remedies could be
also equitably shared by the sub-language groups of contemporary Europe without recourse to
the bleeding sword of the monstrous Leviathan or Behemoth. In other sense, the prevailing
political notion of ―Democratic Crusade‖ has nothing in common with the inward-looking
national cultures. ―Liberty, George W.Bush said, is both the plan of Heaven for humanity, and
the best hope for progress here on Earth,‖ and that as part of this plan, America has a ―mission
to promote liberty around the world.‖109 (Smith, M., 2008: 285) Such politicized ―divine
providentialism‖ sounds more interventionist than anything nearing the language of true
defenders of liberty. Such highly politicized arguments are at worse imperialistic.
What nationalists in general understand about liberty is to allow the Greco-European culture
to flourish synchronously—without any external political influence—with that original hymn
of eternal existence. Succinctly, if the equitable demands by nationalist for the fruits of their
distinctive national cultures suggest that each national member is worthy of attaining the
eternal purpose of life, then we are here not talking in terms of the freedom to participate in
the temporal elections of political guardians of a ―hyper privatized‖ global economic order,
but instead in terms of a national leadership structure, which, by virtue of its revered

108
Haverlock, E A., 1953. Preface to Plato. Cambridge, MA; The Muse Learns to write, New Haven, 1986.
109
George W. Bush, ―Remarks at the 20th Anniversary of the National Endowment for Democracy,‖ November
6, 2003, at http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/11/20031106-2.html, (accessed May 21, 2007). What
is most troubling about this political dissemination of liberty or global democratic mission is the statement by
Joseph Smith, the director of ―Blackwater USA, on 3SAT ORF (November 28, 2007) ‗that the Blackwater
mercenary or private military establishment is continuing the Western political ideal of spreading democracy by
sword.‘
 107

knowledge of local/traditional culture, is entrusted with the keys of a nation‘s culture

institutions housing the seeds of the Great Trees of life.
With regards to the mythological stipulation of the Greco-Europeans about the origin of life,
Cassirer thus confirms that ancient Greek mythology, like many other contemporary
mythologies in the Euro-Asian region, ―begins with the story of a great flood which Zeus sent
to destroy humanity. However, Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha survived the flood by clinging
to the top of mountain Parnassus; here they were again commanded by Zeus to cast their
mother‘s legs behind them. Deucalion was the first to discover the meaning of such a divine
creational oracle; and immediately picked some stones from the ground and cast them on his
back and out of those stones evolved the second generation of human race‖(Cassirer, 2002:
30). Michael Kalopoulos, who seems more concerned about the similarity between the
Deucalion‘s Myth and the Noah‘s Arc, argues that Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha and children
who survived Zeus destruction of the first generation of humanity and founded the second
generation followed Zeus advice to construct a boat which should be used to carry the binary
pairs of all the species that shared the earth with human beings (Kalopoulos, 2003: 45-57).
Essentially, those with critical insight of mythological stipulations should have observed,
especially the first narrative, that such seemingly primitive … narrative(s) convey early
attempt to cognitively explore the interaction between different cosmic agents/bodies in the
creativity of humankind. Moreover, as to whether Deucalion and his family‘s prime
knowledge of the secret behind divine creation of human beings suffices for their Dei gratia
position on Mountain Parnassus, where, hierarchically, they would be much more closer to
the aristocratic Zeus deserves no further elaboration than a mere contrasting of this particular
location with the royal castle of the [now defunct] Hohenzollern monarchy on Swabian Alps.
Even in today post modern context, enlightened scientists often look beyond the blue-sky in
their quasi-superstitious or metaphysical quest for extra-terrestrial life (UFOs). In sum, if the
prime knowledge of divine source of life constitutes the criterion for legitimate leadership of
nations, as Homer seem to contest (below), then the contending leadership structures or
constitutions of pre-Socratic and post-Socratic eras—e.g. the contesting political deities of
Greek city states; and or the timarchic, oligarchic, liberal democratic, tyrannic or aristocratic
constitutions of Greece—were generally disingenuous to the authentic and legitimate
leadership structure of ancient Greek culture institutions, as this is particularly true of the
Dionysian cult:

Dionysus has no special place in Homer‘s Olympian gods. Dionysus is conceived to have arrived on
Greek religious scene from an Asian cult of the north, probably from Thrace.
 108

In the Dionysian cult one finds no authentic trace of Greek cultural genius (Cassirer, 2002: 57-58)

And the same is true of Attis and Adonis. Important here is that with the ascension of
Dionysus on Greek culture scene, one notes a leadership structure of a wholly politicized
culture vying for the control of the hearts and minds of the local population—by claiming
decendancy from … Zeus—in order to create a novel identity:

… The history of Dionysus Zagreus was the product of Orphic Theology—a theology, which portrayed
Dionysus as the son of Zeus and Semele. While the young Dionysus was exclusively loved and adored by
his father, he was equally hated by Hera, who unleashed demonic titans after him. After several failed
metamorphic attempts to escape the demons, the young Dionysus was eventually … killed and eaten by
the demonic titans. The revenge of Zeus for the untimely death of his son came in form a thunder stroke,
which blotted out the demonic titans; and from whose ash it is assumed the novel Greek identity was
remoulded. Hence the novel Greek identity is composed of the melange of both good [the Dionysian
component] and bad [component of the titans] of its constitution (Cassirer, 2002: 59).

This idea of usurping generations of jealous and suscipious gods constantly seeking the
overthrow and destruction of those in power for the purpose of recreating novel identities
should thus be seen as customary of the Greco-European socio-cultural and political history.
―Homer110, antedating Hesiod, recorded Oceanus111 as the first God of Greek Theogony. After
keeping company with the human race for an indefinitely long time, Oceanus withdrew
silently abdicating authority to his son Uranus. The latter, however, was overthrown, after a
fierce battle with his son Cronus, who after a long reign was overthrown himself by his
powerful son Zeus. Therefore Oceanus-Uranus-Cronus-Zeus is the main theogonic lineage
handed down to us by Greek Mythology‖112 (Kalopoulos, 2003: 23-24). Similarly, Hesiod
recounts the violent separation of the celestial provinces from the earth. This later narrative is
again worked into the history of usurping generations of powerful gods through to the arrival
of Cronos. As with his predecessors, Cronos was supposedly filled with hatred and envy of
his successors and therefore obviated them before hand. It was only with the assistance of
Zeus cunning mother that Zeus succeeded in slaining Cronos. Exponentially, this later
―history of usurping generations of gods had long been interpreted by some scholars as

110
Homer. Iliad 14, 246.
111
―Oceanus served as seed for the whole creation.‖ (Kalopoulos, 2003: 23 n.23)
112
With the period of the god Oceanus, a long peaceful coastal food collecting period is implied. Uranus
probably designates a period of astronomic achievements, indispensable to seafaring. Cronus (Gr=Time)
probably reflects the period of comprehension of the natural periodicity of the seasons, a natural consequence of
knowledge obtained during seafaring and through the study of the skies. Finally, the period of the prolific Zeus
probably reflects the increasing comprehension of the natural cycles of rebirth, deification of nature‘s
polymorphism and respect for the sacred fertility of life (ibid, 2003: 24 n 24).
 109

reflecting the victories of [Indo] European ancestors, who migrated to Europe via the Balkan
Peninsula ca. 2000 B.C., over the indigenous inhabitants of the Mediteranean region‖ (Fritz,
1982: 22-23ff.). In this sense, Dainotto is right in his early assessment that ‗the dialectic of
hegemonic and counter-hegemonic voices from North and South of Europe is intrinsic of the
historical and political process of European identity.‘113

3.2.1. Rediscovering the culture essence of the Homeric charm

Despite the apparent contradiction and or sometimes the explicit acharnement of the general
evolution of the Greco-European social history, there is another aspect of the Greco-European
culture which merits resuscitation for the contemporary European conscience, as in Homer‘s
abnegation of the ―red-crown‖ of politics in some his earlier epics; and more succinctly his
appeal to the Greeks to relate respectfully to their gods:

Ihr seid Gottinnen und waren bei allem zugegen und wisst es, wir aber hören nur Gerücht und wissen
(vom Selbst) nichts (Homer II 485 f.; Fritz, 1982: 33-34 ff.)

Here we observe a hierarchically structured social order based solely on the prime knowledge
of one‘s culture institutions, which, in modern European context, had been simply overlooked
by those subservient to the materially insatiable and culturally divisive national state system.
But not everyone, as Fay rightly observes, ‗indeed for centuries benevolent men have been
trying to get the Homeric charm into English:

―All grave old men, and soldiers then had been, but for age now left warres; yet counsellors they were
exceeding sage.
And as in well growne woods, on trees, cold spinnie Grasshoppers sit chirping and send voices out that
scarce can pierce our eares. For softness and their weake faint sounds; (so talking on the towre)
These seniors of the people sate, who, when they saw the power of beautie in the Queens ascend, even
those cold-spirited peers, Those wise and almost witherd men, found this heate in their veares That they
were forc‘t (those whispering) to say…‖ 114

Pope, impatient, or finding that readers of his time got clogged in Chapman‘s magniloquence,
hurries along in pentameter‘:

113
Robert Dainotto, 2008. Europe (In Theory). Political Theory. Vol. 36, No.I, 158-160.
114
George Chapman‘s Translation of Homer‘s Iliad (Book III, published 1611); for both quotes see H.C. Fay,
1952. Greece and Rome, Vol. 21, No.63, 104-111.
 110

―There sat the seniors of the Trojan race; chiefs, who no more in blood fights engage, But wise through
time, and narrative with sage, In summer-days like grasshoppers rejoice, A bloodless race that send a
feeble voice.
They cried, no wonder, such celestial charms
For nine long years have set the world in arms!
What winning graces! What majestic mien!
She moves a goddess, and she looks a queen.
Yet hence, oh heaven convey that fatal face
And from destruction save the Trojan race.‖‘115

There is no doubt that the replacement of the ―red-crown‖ with a ―green-crown‖ might,
indeed, be tilting toward the Bantu-Ethiopian or ―Hoi Aiguptoi‖ culture ideal of the ―Green-
Amon‖ (or the Memphetic sacred Bull ―Apis‖; or later ―Mnêvis‖ of Heliopolis) as will be
discussed later. Consequently, Ernst Cassirer is right when he accused Homer for deliberately
‗suppressing the traditional ―good-evil‖ dichotomy customary of most ancient Greek
mythologies‘ (Cassirer, 2002:57) by rationally purporting knowledge based culture that is
subservient to life in his social discourse. And it also seems some of the Sophists and or the
informed Greeks understood the rational behind the Homeric charm when Critias (460-403),
for one, wrote: ―the idea of imminent gods was probably devised by an intelligent individual
who wanted to deny humankind from committing crimes [even] outside the watchful eyes of
artificial laws‖ (Fritz, 1982: 34ff.). Such accusation sounds almost like that of an author who
was under the shadows of the watchful eye of Hyen-Nu/Heru (Horus). George G.M. James,
for instance, while not specifying Homer, has convincingly shown how most pre-Socratic
and post-Socratic Greek philosophers and thinkers had aptly incorporated ancient Egyptian
mythologies in their contemporary epics and philosophical speculations (1954, 2001: 55-130).
Specifically, he notes that the Osirian God or Sun worship (ca. 5000 B.C.E or more) of the
Egyptians was represented in all Egyptian temples by a symbol of an Open Eye—to indicate
not only sight that transcended space and time, but also omniscience, as the Great Mind which
created and which still directs the universe: ―All seeing Eye‖ (ibid, p.100-101). A position
Eberhard Orthbandt further expounds, by extracting some of Homer‘s epics, especially the
Iliad, from a predisposed Ionian dialect, which he argues had been heavily influenced by
ancient Egyptian mythology (Eberhard, 84-85). This notwithstanding, Homer originality
confronts us with an alternative reading of Greek or Greco-European culture which can be
appropriated for the post-World War II European national conscience.

115
ibid.
 111

What makes the Homeric charm such a singular contribution to the culture foundation of a
realistic European nation is that, unlike most pre-Socratic and post-Socratic Greco-European
thinkers, the Homeric genius refrains from equating the natural qualities of humanity with that
of ferum (wild-beast)—e.g. Wolf, Lion, Tiger, Eagle and so on. Left alone to Homer, the
Minosian Bull which Zeus had used in the rescue of the beautiful Europa … must condone
the ―green-crown‖ of genuine culture. More importantly, it would also seem the colour of the
Zeusian bull, at that particular time of the rescue mission—that is to say, the time the Greco-
European culture custodians would have succeeded in discovering the appropriate seed of the
tree of life—matters less to Homer. That ―sacred bull‖ could be whitened to the likeness of
the white clouds hanging underneath the blue-sky above mountain Parnassus; or it could be
blackened to the likeness of the black matter that holds all the celestial provinces together, the
preferred colour of the Bantu-Ethiopian sacred Bull Apis. What would probably have
mattered most to this undeniably well informed individual, Homer, must have been, as human
beings—that is the intermediary between the eternal purpose of universal existence and that of
Hades/Earth (the abode of death)—one should be intuitively elevated enough to be able to
conceive the source of her/his blood from the green-crown of the national cultures. If
anything, Amon of the Bantu-Ethiopian (or Hoi Aiguptoi) culture institutions did not attain its
green colour by default, but by virtue of the knowledge of the appropriate seed of the Great
Tree of life. Therefore, the highly intuited or well educated human constituencies of the
different nations across the earth must first find their place in the hierarchy of the knowledge
of the eternal universal existence. Not surprisingly, Homer is quoted as describing ―Ate as a
temporary mental dullness and bewilderment of the normal consciousness … a sort of mental
delusion …often prescribed to an external demon which was generally common to the
average Greek:

Medea, for instance, claimed she did not kill her own children out of her own free will but had been
forced by her Thumos” (Dodds, 1964: 5116; deMause, 2002, 2005: 286).

Consequently, not Zeus, the murderer of Cronos, alone would later intuitively perceive the
culture essence of the green-crown—as evidenced by his choice of the Minosian Bull in his
rescue mission of the beautiful Europa, but also early Christian theologians, who, as we will
later see, generally condoned the destruction of the culture institutions of Amon/Amen, later

116
E R., Dodds, 1964. The Greeks and the Irrational. Berkeley: University of California Press.
 112

conceded that the ―Lion and Ox‖ shall one day eat straw together.‖117 Otherwise the
Leviathan sword alone, with its guilt of the blood of others, cannot save the Homo-Trojano.
When today the Guardians of nuclear arsenals to the North of the Atlantic are increasingly
becoming paranoid or suspicious of the prospects of agents of Islamic-Jihad or Talibanism
acquiring similar technological knowledge, they merely accentuate what Homer and his
Bantu-Ethiopian mentors would have understood thousands of years earlier—that ―fortune
des armes” alone is insufficient to determine the destiny of men. And this ‗fact was bitterly
experienced by the alliance of Franco-European aristocrats at Valmy in a futile attempt to
stave off the agents the French Revolution‘ (Arendt, 1969: 164).

3.2.2. How the alliance between state- and agents of institutions of pseudo-culture derailed the
early attainment of a European nation

While the historical location of a realistic European nation from the standpoint of an authentic
Greco-European culture foundation is highly contestable, the centrality of the French and the
American Revolutions for our modern and post-modern concept of nationhood and
nationalism deserves no further elaboration than Renan‘s earlier contention that ―it was the
particular contribution of the French Revolution to have proclaimed that a nation exists of
itself‖ (Renan 1882; Homi B., 1990: 29ff.). And it is also true that ―the French army fought in
Valmy on 20th September 1792 shouting the battle cry ‗vive la nation‘‖ (Sue, 2000: 38). Yet,
as Homi B. rightly points out, Renan‘s fundamental position was that the principle of
nationality was the creation of both recent period (1813-1815) and a more distant one—the
period of Germanic invasions of the Roman Empire in the fifth and sixth centuries AD (ibid).
In this regard, Pope Urban II early proclamation of European crusaders … as a national
audience not only lends considerable weight to the relative profundity of the principle of
nationality in the European context, but in large also confirms his place among the
frontrunners of European pseudo-nationalism (a point to be expanded on later). Seton-Watson
is also quoted as arguing that ―in 1200 AD neither a French nor English nation existed, but in
1600 AD both were important political realities‖ (Sue, 2000: 12). Thereby anticipating Sue‘s
argument that, it was not until the late Middle Ages that ethnic groups in Europe began to
acquire self-awareness that propel them into distinct national communities (ibid, 12). Also,
Liah Greenfeld has stressed convincingly that it was in Tudor‘s England the term ‗nation‘
came to be applied both to the elite and the masses:
117
August, C. Krey, 1921. The Fisrt Crusade: The Accounts of Eyewitnesses and Participants. Princeton, 280-
281; this document can also be retrieved from: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/fulk3.html.
 113

This semantic transformation signalled the emergence of the first nation in the sense in which the words is
used today and launched the era of nationalism (Greenfeld, 1992: 6; Sue, 2000: 12)

In general, Liah‘s position thus further accentuates and strengthens Habermas early
distinction between previously espoused notions of aristocratic and popular nations in
European social history (1996: 133-134).
If the nationalization of fractures in Europe merely exhibits the divisive genius of politics, the
politicization of national cultures (e.g. language, religion etc.) for the purpose of solidifying
the economic institutions of the nation-states of Europe [or in that matter elsewhere] serves to
remind us of the misappropriation of culture institutions by economic agents. With this later
political development we seem to be catapulted onto an ideal platform for the dissemination
of pseudo-nationalist policies. And, of course, the French Revolution was not entirely devoid
of sacred texture. The French Revolution Renan wrote, ―was a great heroic rash‖ 118; ―it was
the French epic‖119; he also wrote of ―the great sacred intoxication in its early days.‖(Homi
B.,1990: 29) Hence that particular Revolution was [supposedly] divinely chosen to liberate
every people of every colour under the French flag (Arendt, 1969: 162).
Practically, if this later isolation of culture institutions from the expansive economic ones has
the intention of strengthening the prevailing perception that culture, at least in its humane
context, must be subservient to life; then, such sanguine religious cults, which in the past had
dominated the political scene of ancient Greece—unfortunately, right through to the modern
European period—should have no place in our conception of real [national] cultures. So, let
us reasonably ask ourselves what is cultural about the human sacrificing practices of the
Artemis cult?
In the mythology of Artemis we are told …, in their passionate love for each other Komaitho
and Melanippos violated the sanctuary of Artemis. And forthwith the wrath of Artemis began
to destroy the inhabitants of Greece; the earth yielded no harvests and deadly epidemics
devastated the whole land. When the local population appealed to the oracle at Delphi the
Pythian priests accused Komaithos and Melanippos for their ingratitude to traditional moral
values; and ordered them to be sacrificed to Artemis.—A ritual which found its annual re-
occurrence with the lives of the most fairest Greek youths and maidens. 120 With Artemis we
are not dealing with an isolated tragic case of political cannibalism, instead ―most of her
contemporary Greek goddesses were notoriously sanguine and violent and only relied on the
118
J E., Renan. La Monarchie Constitutionelle. Oeuvres Completes Vol. I, 478-479.
119
ibid., 486.
120
http://www.theoi.com/cult/ArtemisCult2.html.
 114

blood of others for their own psychological existence‖ (Roger, 1989; 121 de Mause, 2002: 287-
291). In fact, those familiar with the violent nature of European social history would have
foreseen that attributing Artemis murder of Komaithos and Melannipos, the children of
Nione, or Aktaion, Orion, Iphigeneia etc. to genuine culture is bound to encourage such
destructive political statements as Xenophon ―preference of a wild beast over his own
mother‖ (de Mause, 2002: 287). Whether or not such violent sanguinary measures were
politically intended to dissuade the Hellenic frontrunners of European nationalism from
resuscitating that splendid national/local culture Socratic-Plato failed in his discursive
philosophical attempt for an Ideal Constitution remain buried in the ruins of the divisive Polis.
Nevertheless, their overall impact on the mental evolution of European personality should not
be simply overlooked, especially given Pope Urban II early admission that cannibalism had,
until the later days of European Crusades, permeated the general conscience of the Europeans.
Sayce thus describes how Greek and Karian soldiers of Psammetikhos III. (in occupied
Egypt) had slaughtered the sons of Phanês over a huge bowl in the sight of their father, and
after mixing the blood of the boys with wine and water, had savagely drunk it and then rushed
into battle (Sayce, 1895: 234-241). Of course, such a genuine political acharnement of utter
barbarism must have discouraged any disingenuous nationalist; but not Komaitho and
Melannipos. In other words, if culture must be subservient to life and not vice versa, then
such individuals as Komaitho, Melannipos and Homer should be the harbinger of genuine
European nationalism. Why also Komaitho and Melannipos? Their sacrificial defiance of the
sanguine political intimidation apparent in the murderous reach of the Artemis cult must be
rightly ascribed to the rim of genuine nationalism.
Furthermore, with the life serving purpose of national cultures it is thus reasonable to approve
nationalist defence of the homogeneity of national cultures. For example, when some
politicians of the resurging European nation (or Union in political sense) contest that Europe
by cultural definition is a Judaeo-Christian exclusionary club because of Turkey‘s pending
membership application, they not only acknowledge the precarious state of Europe politicized
culture (the so-called Multiculturalism), but simultaneously celebrate the univocal language of
national cultures. Following directly from the Homeric culture criterion of the ―Green-
crown‖, one could reasonably argue in defence of monolithic national cultures because the
core mythical language of these national cultures leave room for only those incoming world-
views at the service of life. One must not confuse this latter concession by European
nationalists to imply that genuine/culture nationalists are being intimidated by the fate of

121
Roger, Just, 1989. Women in Athenian Law and Life. London/New York, 21.
 115

Komaithos and Melanippos, but rather because they see in their monolithic national cultures
an ideal foundation for the unadulterated service of life. In this sense, the advocates of those
economically driven liberal institutions are generally out of touch with the culture essence of
nations when they erroneously accuse the national ideal for being a ―members-only‖ social
club.
The notion of ―liberal nationalism‖ as purported recently by modern scholars is simply too
vague and at variance with the culture foundation of nations. Will Kymlicka, for one, alludes
that nationalism can be compatible with and even support liberalism as ―an important basis
for the achievement of liberal ideals of justice and liberty.‖122 This seemingly catch-all
political scenario of nation-states generally lacks the univocal mythical language of real
culture so that these later political/socio-economc tenancies are permanently at the mercy of
the forces of divisions. Unsurprisingly, the political advocates of the Greek Polis; the imperial
Roman Empire; and more recently the modern European nation-states, had been intuitively
urged to unconditionally return the eternal culture flame to the upholders of the resurging
European nation.

3.2.3. Politicisation of Culture and its impact on European Identity Process

As indicated above, that the state system since its inception from a Greco-European culture
has remained a threat to the advancement of that particular culture and hence the attainment of
a common national identity lies in its inherent economic background and the related
divisionism that it engenders. As an economic ideal one should have noted that the predatory
imperial Roman state unambiguously inherited most of the policies of the divisive Greek
Polis system, especially with regard to its customary quest for the foundation of colonies
abroad. The use of Remus blood to lay the foundation stone of the Roman Empire by
Romulus123is so analogous with the previous idea of usurping generations of imperial Greek
goddesses … that the consolidation of the imperium Romanum must undoubtedly have
marked the beginning of end of the Greek polis. By similar analytical token, the foundation
ritual of the imperial Roman state was thus also imbued with the symptoms of its eventual
demise. And as Barbara H. Rosenwein observes, in its later days the Roman Empire had to
fend it-self against both internal and external forces seeking its dissection; especially, during
the ―Crisis of the Third Century‖, internal political crisis of succession saw more than twenty

122
Will, Kymlicka, 2002. Contemporary Political Philosophy: An Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 267.
123
http://www.roman-empire.net/founding/founding-index.html
 116

men claim, and lose with their lives, the title emperor between the years 235 and 284.
Frequented by such predatory visits from the Germanic and other so-called barbarian tribes
from the North and central Europe, beyond the Rhine and Danube rivers; and Persians from
the East, the fate of the once mighty imperial Roman state was cealed for the worse. And
eventually it did indeed succumb to forces of divisionism; and out of its ruins emerged
Europe‘s feudal/agrarian social order, which in turn cemented the foundations of the
Westphalia state model.
Having briefly examined the political characteristics of the imperial Roman state, let‘s now
thoroughly explore its procession with the cultures of its diverse population—since the
boundaries of that vast imperial state extended beyond the territory of mainland Europe. In
any event, that the ―red-crown‖ of politics alone was insufficient to hold together the vast
territorial possessions of the imperial Roman state resulted in one of the most dramatic and
large scale culture-U-turn in the political history of pre-modern Europe. This came with the
conversion of Emperor Constantine to Christianity. What is so unusual about Constantine‘s
conversion to Christianity is that historical records suggest that the relationship between the
then predatory Roman Empire and one of the abtrünnig branches of Chaldeao-Jewish
religious cult, which would later become the official religion of the Roman Empire, amounts
to what the Bantu-Ethiopian culture institutions would mythologically simplify as ―Wolf
versus Rabbit‖, ―Crocodile versus Bull or Lion versus Ram‖ survival dichotomy, in which the
blood of the weaker is by nature supposedly predisposed for the survival of the powerful
(Pagels, 1995: 3-34; Barbara, 2001: 20 [with emphasis added]). So why would an emperor of
such a vicious and once powerful state system like the Roman Empire later turn to an
enfeebled Jewish cult, whose symbolic figure Christ was supposedly born on a Ranch of
symbolic Amon (Rams), and whose members, according to Elaine Pagels, ‗could not even
defend their own sacred sites from the plunderous and destructive‘ reach of that Empire (ibid),
for the salvation of his intractably degenerating imperial state?
In his book The Rise of Christianity124 the sociologist Rodney Stark explores how an obscure
sect of just 40 converts in the year AD 30 became the official religion of the Roman Empire
by AD 300. His conclusion is that emperor Constantine had a vision which led to his
conversion and an embrace of Christianity. Stark also show the flaws in this ―great man‖ idol
of the Roman history.
Let‘s first contend ourselves with Rodney Stark‘s visionary explanation and assume that the
salvation of the Roman Empire must have been the core motive of Constantine‘s conversion

124
Stark, Rodney, 1997. The Rise of Christianity. San Francisco, California: Harper.
 117

to Christianity. But even so, this does not entirely explain why the once mighty and quasi
invincible imperial Roman state was to later turn to such an enfeebled and economically and
politically (or militarily) insignificant Jewish cult for salvation. There must have been some
special trait about the mental state of early Christian personality that would have prompted
Constantine‘s cunning political move.
The psycho-historian, Lloyd de-Mause (2002), who has researched extensively on the mental
states of pre-Christian and early Christian personalities, asserts that until the early Christian
era machismo had already been a deeply entrenched popular fantasy of human communities.
―The Gladiators often voluntarily fought with each other in the Arena in order to kill or to be
got killed or just to demonstrate their wounds for public applause.‖125 Wars were often fought
for simple reasons of demonstrating men braveness and their willingness to pour blood in the
defence of their newly gained patriarchal dominance (emphasis added)). In other words, the
transition from the ―red-crown‖ of matriarchal social order (e.g. Artemis, Ashera, Lilith etc.)
to patriarchal rule in the Antiquity also involved enormous human sacrifices on the part of
men. In Babylonia, for example, Tiamat was slain by the arrow of her son Marduk in a violent
battle for power. In the Judaeo-Christian context, the defeat of Leviathan by Yahwe (sperm)
did not necessarily put end to human sacrifices. On the contrary, in the foundation history of
Israel we are told by the biblical narrators that Abraham was commanded by Yahwe 126 to
offer his only son Isaac—before a blood brotherly meeting—in the foundation of Israel. And
although the poor Isaac was this time extremely lucky that the foundation of Israel took place
on a foreign territory originally accustomed to the Bantu-Ethiopians Hyen-Nu/Amon
culture127 (hence the politicized use of the sacred ram in the place of Isaac), it once again
reminds us that the violent usurpation of the political authority in Antiquity by men did not
necessary put an end to human sacrifices and cannibalism.
In the early Christian period the practices of human sacrifices continued unabated with
Christ‘s death on the cross being the most prominent example. But the death of Mami/God‘s
only son—as had the death of Zeus adopted son Dionysus—had been now politically
envisioned to redeem humanity of the Christian world from its sins. Even such mother
murderers as Marduk (Babylon) and Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus (Roman Empire)
deserve the compassion and forgiveness of Mami/God‘s government, who although defeated
on Earth had been now relocated in the celestial province (Heaven), but, in the context of

125
Carlin, A. Barton, 1993. The Sorrows of Ancient Romans: The Gladiator and the Monster. Princeton:
Princeton university press, 13.
126
It is true that Yahweh first found mention in Jewish scripts when Moses was sent to deliver the Jews from
their so-called Egyptian captivity or bondage (for emphasis see Kalopoulos, 2003: 292).
127
It might be true that Hyen-Nu/Heru is peaceful/Salem (Hjeru-salem).
 118

Constantine‘s political sophistry, provided men relive the suffering and endurance of the
crucified Christ. Okatvius describes Mami/God‘s joy to see her own children suffering: ―what
an appropriate spectacle when God see her own children under arduous pain.‖128 Pope Urban
who sounds more politically eloquent is quoted by Lloyd deMause as issuing the following
statement to the first crusaders:

―We give you this war only with the glory reward through martyrdom; because only martyrs would go to
heaven prior to the return of Christ‖ (my English interpretation)

So, while the vampire goddesses of Antiquity were entirely dependent on the blood of
children for their psychological survival, the early Christian God loved to see her own
children under enormous pain and deadly sacrifice (de-Mause 2002: 291-293). In this sense,
one could reasonably argue that Emperor Constantine, like many other economically driven
political agents, saw in the explicitly retarded mental state of early Christian personality—as
the use of suicide bombers in the destruction of public schools in Afghanistan by Al Qaeda
and Taliban today also partly reveals—a quasi ―human reservoir‖ of martyrs for the salvation
of his then degenerating imperial state. If anything, the following arbitrary statement from the
bible might have appealled to any imperial soul with transnational political calendar:

Thou art Peter [Petros, or ―Rock‖ in Greek], and upon this Rock I will build my Church and the gates of
hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And
whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose
on earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven (Matthew 16.18-19 cited in Barbara 2001: 21).

Compounded with the retarded mental state of the average Christian personality observed
earlier it thus becomes obvious that Emperor Constantine‘s conversion to Christianity was
genuinely politically motivated and therefore deliberate and rational. And, indeed, the
‗Empire of Constantine was the Roman Empire restored: The wars over succession ceased
with the establishment of Constantine‘s dynasty, and internal political stability put an end to
the border wars (Barbara, 2001:18-19). With Constantine‘s conversion and privileging of
Christianity it was simply a matter of time before most people considered it both good and
expedient to convert. Though after Constantine‘s time several emperors espoused
―heretical‖—unacceptable forms of Christianity, and one (Julian, the ―Apostate‖) professed
paganism, the die of centralization had been already cast. In 391 emperor Theodosius (r 379-

128
Judith, Perkins, 1993. The Suffering self: Sin and Narrative in early Christian era. London: Routlege, 39.
 119

395) declared Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. All other cults were
outlawed and pagan temples were smashed. Soon at Carthage in 401, Saint Augustine (354-
430) bishop of Hippo, and the most influential of the Church fathers, was telling his
congregation that all superstitions and pagans and heathens should be annihilated. … In this
way, through legal coercion and conviction, a fragile religion hailing from one of the most
backward of provinces triumphed everywhere in the Roman world‘(Barbara, 2001: 20).
However, as Barbara soon finds out, with the triumph came again competition and even strife.
Who would control and direct this new religion with its all-powerful-God? Who would
determine what was holy? Who would know when the old gods, now classified as demons,
might reclaim to be gods again? Vigilance was therefore necessary. After Constantine, after
the persecutions, Christians fought each other over the doctrine and over the location of the
holy (ibid., 21).

3.2.4. Post-Constantine Sacred-Secular political tensions

That these foregoing conflicts were indeed not necessarily cultural but wholly political in
nature only became evident as sacred and secular European factions fought each other, not
only for the control of the wealth of the degenerating Roman Empire, but also for the control
of the mind of European personality. Exponentially, Hobbes, for one, traces ―in Behemoth”129
the cause of English civil war to the schism between papal authority and emperor generally
known as the investiture. ―The initial impulse for the schism can be traced back to the synod
of Sutri in 1046.‖130 ‗Having deposed three rival popes and installed another, the holy Roman
emperor, Henry III, offended sections of the clergy who believed it their right to appoint the
Pope, and who saw the papacy under threat. This imperial act of papal appointment was to
have a costly price. Not only did the offended members of clergy demand that the imperial
and other secular powers had no right to appoint the pope that it was a matter for the
cardinals, but the right of the investiture of bishops became a major political issue between
Pope Gregory VII and Emperor Henry IV, starting off centuries of protracted violence in
Christendom. With the papal dictates of Gregory VII in 1075, it was clear that the spiritual
struggle was also saturated with secular implications and consequences. Amongst the twenty-
seven dictates of Gregory were the following claims made on behalf of the papacy: the

129
Thomas, Hobbes, 1990. Behemoth or the Long Parliament. Chicago University Press, 1.
130
Eugen, Rosen-Stock-Huegen, 1969. Out of Revolution: Autobiography of Western man. Argo, Norwich VT,
530; on the investiture see Harold Berman, 1983. Law and Revolution: The formation of Western legal tradition.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
 120

Roman bishop alone is by right called universal; he alone may depose emperors and other
significant powers.
In effect Gregory had proclaimed in the papal Will the legal supremacy of the Pope over all
secular authorities, including emperors. In other words, the pope alone held supreme spiritual
sway and the successors of Charlemagne and the Ottos were his delegates, even as he himself
was the delegate of God, the Pope was the overlord of the rulers who, with their under-lords,
administered an empire that was continuous with that of the antique Roman world‘ (Catley
and Cristaudo, 1997: 187-188). Left alone to ‗the papal authority, every human creature must
be subject of the pope. It was proclaimed, moreover, that the temporal sword of the emperor
was held only ―ad nutum et patientiam sacerdotis‖—―by the assenting nod and forbearance of
the pontiff‖: so spake the ambassador Innocent III to the King of France (Boulting, 1908: 24-
25).
Given that these mediaeval Caesars were unwilling to submit tamely to such arbitrary
limitations to their secular authority, from the eleventh century the swords of the pope and
emperors were stained with blood; for the princes and barons and townships also took sides to
advance their own interests and neither the pope nor the emperors had sufficient power to
establish their claims or control over their followers‘ (ibid., 25).
Of particular importance about the different stages of papal revolution, that is ‗the different
balance of power and the concessions made by each party in the turbulence of bloody
skirmishes, and the tumult of changing allegiance, is how the character of politics and
political philosophy within Europe was radically transformed; and again set another stage for
later European conflicts right through to the 20th century. Especially feeding into these
tensions was the classical doctrine of natural law which was first developed by Plato and
Aristoteles (Catley & Cristaudo, 1997: 187-189).
Tapping from the classical teaching of Aristoteles John of Salisbury131, a staunch defender of
papal supremacy, argued that emperor was mere a hangman, someone who carries out the
dirty necessities of political life, but whose contribution to good is the elimination of the
worst men and their actions. When the earthly ruler (e.g. emperor or king) oversteps the mark
and when he creates more misery through the misapplication of his powers, a subject has the
duty to disobey, and in most extreme cases kill him.
The pope is for Salisbury (and Thomas Aquinas) God‘s earthly representative and hence a
force for good in a way that the emperor can never be. But since both men share the powers of
divided sovereignty caused by the papal revolution, there must be an hierarchical arrangement
131
John of Salisbury, 1990. Policraticus of the Frivoloties of Courtiers and the Footprints of Philosophers.
Translated by Cary J.Nederman. Cambridge: Cambridge university press.
 121

which ultimately results in the superiority of one of the sovereigns—in their partisan
preference, the pope—as a resolution of the problems of the political instability caused by the
divided sovereignty‘(Catley and Cristaudo, 1997: 190).
In contrast, one of the early spokesmen of earthly powers, Marsiglio of Padua, who puts the
entire blame of Italy‘s internal political conflicts to the division caused by the papal
revolution, thinks the only way for maintaining peace is the establishment of a unified form of
sovereignty under the power of an earthly authority. In his Defensor Pacis132, a book
dedicated to Louis of Bavaria, Marsiglio of Padua ‗declared boldly, that rulers, whether of the
church or of the world, possess but delegated authority derived from the people; the Church,
as represented by general assemblage of its most intelligent members, is supreme over popes;
and moreover, since popes have been known to misuse their temporal powers as well as err in
spiritual matters, the property of the Church may be regulated and even confiscated by the
state‘ (Boulting, 1908: 29). While Marsiglio worked closely with the natural law doctrine of
Aristotle, he pioneered the legal theory which would be developed further by Thomas Hobbes
and known in the twentieth century as legal positivism. Law, in this sense, is a coercive
command issued by an earthly authority: that and that alone is real law (Catley & Cristaudo,
1997: 190ff.).
For another radical secular contender, Marchiavelli, who seems to share Marsiglio blame of
the pope for the divided allegiance in Italy, there is nothing Roman about Christianity. ‗Rome
had a culture to sustain a strong imperial republic because its religion taught a much more
worldly range of virtues than Christianity. If a republic is to endure, it must be built upon a
strong and vigorous culture—a culture of the love of magnanimity, ferocity, courage, men of
action, bodily strength and boldness. The contrast between Christianity and the religion of the
ancient Romans is so obvious to be confused:

―Compare the magnificence of their sacrifices with the humility that characterizes ours. The ceremonial in
ours is delicate rather than imposing, and there is no display of ferocity or courage. Their ceremonies
lacked neither pomp nor magnificence, but, conjoined with this, were sacrificial acts in which there were
much shedding of blood and much ferocity; and in them great numbers of animals were killed. Besides
the old religion did not beautify men unless they were replete with worldly glory: army commanders, for
instance, and rulers of republics. Our religion has glorified humble and contemplative men rather than
men of action. It has assigned as man‘s highest good humility, abnegation, and contempt for mundane
things, whereas the other identified it with magnanimity, bodily strength, and everything else that

132
Marrsilius, Defensor Pacis [1324]. Translated by A. Gewirth, 1956. New York, NY: Columbia university
press, vol.1 xii, S1-3.
 122

conduces to make men bold. And if our religion demands that in you be strength, what it asks for is
strength to suffer rather than strength to do bold things‖ 133

Hence for Machiavelli what ―has made the world weak‖, ―effeminate‖, and unpatriotic are the
virtues of delicacy, lack of ferocity, humility, contemplation, abnegation, contempt for
mundane things, and a condemnation of the strength that is needed not only to experience but
to inflict suffering‘ (Catley and Cristaudo, 1997: 162).
In all, since these latest eristic partisan arguments of early modernity merely reiterate the
polis-centric classical views observed earlier, whose cultural authenticity and motives were
generally deemed suspect, let‘s now briefly critically review the culture essence of these latter
phrenetic views of early modernity. So, what is cultural about Hobbes Leviathan or the
Machiavellian Prince? For example, the heroic and patriotic qualities of the Machiavellian
Prince, who was charged with delivering Italy from foreign occupation (in the Prince), ―are
based not on reflection, but action, not temperance but guile, not on stability of
contemplation, but the ceaseless life of manoeuvring and calculating, not justice but
willingness to employ violence…, not self knowledge, but the willingness to sell one‘s soul
for the fatherland. But such qualities, as Machiavelli himself admits, are not authentically
human, but bestial‖ (ibid., 1997: 157-163). Simply formulated, real politics is bestial. But
what is then cultural about the bestiality of politics in the human context?
Sidney Halpern, for one, argues that ―culture is the work of a hero: someone who has the mut
(courage) of killing his own mother in order to create a new order in the world.‖134 Otto Rank,
for his part, contest that ―Hero is someone who has the courage to rebel against the father and
in the end victoriously over-come him.‖135 That there is anything cultural about the political
mores of the Roman Empire—e.g. Emperor Nero‘s assassination136 of his own mother in AD
59 in order to consolidate his own power-base—is not only a derogation from human
characteristics, but goes along undermining the human conscience as whole; as if ascribing
the original source of culture to a mentally deranged personality, a psycho- or socio-path. In
fact, the scientifically espoused notion of the conquest of nature, as if human kind is secluded
from it, is too economically penchant and jejune and ipso facto unfortunate for humanity‘s
innate quest for total freedom. Assuming the resurgent ‗European nation did not arrive timely

133
J G A., Pockock, 1975. The Machiavellian Moment: Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic republican
Tradidition. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 128-129.
134
Sidney Halpern, 1965. ―The Mother-Killer.‖Psychoanalytical Review 52, 73.
135
Otto Rank, 1922. Der Mythus von Geburt der Helden: Versuch einer psychologischen Mythendeutung.
Leipzig: F. Deuticke.
136
http://www.roman-empire.net/emperors/nero.html.
 123

to rescue Germany‘137 from its economically derived politicized social act of covering
Germany with concrete, Steel and glass mausoleums in the name of myopic economic
development (as now evinced by the economic logic of Chinese leadership in today‘s global
context), by the time the Germany population will have attained the two hundred million
Mark there would probably be no more suitable land left for the cultivation of culture. In the
sense of humanity‘s quest for real freedom, the state system could rightly be considered as a
de facto lacrimae rerum. Therefore that politics is by its very nature bestial inevitably implies
that non-fictitious or genuine human culture should be preserved specifically for the national
domain. And it also seems Machiavelli had this mind when he proposed Chiron (the centaur),
the teacher of Achilles, to be the model mentor of the rulers of his principalities (princedoms).
Simply put, Humanism and Bestiality are divergent natural attributes of advancing mental
states towards the transcendential truth.
Similarly, Thomas Hobbes Leviathan, despite its patriarchal and modern connotation, merely
reiterates ―the monstrosity of the sanguine violence associated with the matriarchal societies
of early antiquity‖ (deMause, 2002: 290-291); that is to say, Hobbes was merely ―using old
words of statecraft in his construction of the Leviathan‖ (Catley and Cristaudo, 1997: 197).
However, permeated by the multicultural tendencies of the free-choice of one‘s sacredness,
which, in light of the English civil war, was necessary to appease the economic demands of
warring European factions, it was just a matter of time before the Leviathan gave birth to yet
another monstrous Behemoth. And even though this Behemoth arose from the extreme liberal
tenancy of the Weimar Republic, it certainly reaffirms the prevailing arguments that the state
system, even in its utter bestiality (the Third Reich138), is by no means a cultural ideal, but an
abstract legal institution of economic provenance based on the Will of dominant race or class
(its customary exploitation of national culture notwithstanding). Therefore, the prevailing
perception that Europe is culturally a Judaeo-Christian exclusionary club is not only
erroneous, but politically envisioned to dissuade genuine European nationalists from making
peace with the green-crown of the Homeric charm.

3.3. Politics and the consolidation of modern European Pseudo-nationalism

Perhaps the appropriate place to begin in terms of explaining how the triumph of the apolitical
in Europe‘s social history—after the protracted political conflicts between the sacred and

137
Milward, Alan S., 2000. The European Rescue of the Nation State. New York, NY: Routledge
138
See, Franz Neuman, 1942. Behemoth: The Structure and Practice of National Socialism. London: Victor
Gollanz.
 124

secular forces—directly influenced the course of a European nation is to reinstate the

Romantic-Germanist dichotomy of modern Europe thought. Of central importance about this
later political development is its contribution to the escalation of ―race‖ and ―class‖ politics in
Europe as various economic agents (e.g. liberals, fascists, communists et cetera) fought the
decisive battle for the control of Europe‘s political and identity process. As noted briefly
elsewhere, in as much as Marxism/Bolschevism and Nazism are concerned, race and class
thoughts could be substituted banally for internationalism and nationalism. In terms of the
racial creed, which is central to our present analytical discernment, it should be noted that
contrary to conventional wisdom often associating racism with Nazism, racism was an ever
present shadow accompanying the development of nation-states in Europe. In some cases,
especially in European colonies, European liberals, socialists, and monarchists alike were
even more racist than the upholders of the Nazi Movement. We do not necessarily have to
reinstate the ―genocide of the hundreds of million of the indigenous people in the Belgian
Congo or German East Africa and so forth‖ (Ben-Jochannan, 1989: 99) in order to fully grasp
the racial politics of pre-Nazi Europe. As Arendt reminds us, ‗racism was an ideological tool
employed by all European imperialists‘ (Arendt, 1958, 1969: 159-161). Thus, if the political
notion that the Levantine race, especially the Jews, is an inferior European race is ―thousand
years older than the Nazi-Movement‖ (Simona, 2006: 13-14), then any thorough inquest
concerning the origin of the racial creed and its pseudo-nationalist implications in modern
European context should first confront the rational political ponderings of the Eighteenth
century France.
Comte de Boulainvilliers pro-aristocratic political writings are outstanding in this sense for
celebrating the feudal tenancy of his contemporary France. The term ―feudal government‖ or
―feudality‖ was first used to describe the nature of social order in Boulainvilliers 1727 History
of the Ancient Government of France, with Fourteen Letters on the Parliament or Estates-
General139(Homi B., 1990: 26). This spokesman for French nobility, who must have
anticipated the erosion of noble privileges prompted by the monarch‘s call for a national
unity, began his interpretation of the history of France as that of two different nations of
which the one, of Germanic origin, had conquered the older inhabitants of the ―Roman-
Gaules‖, had impose its laws upon them, had taken their lands, and had settled down as the
ruling class, the ―peerage‖ whose supreme rights is solely based upon the ―right of conquest‖
and ―the necessity of obedience always due to the strongest.‖140 In order to regain uncontested
primacy for the nobility, Boulainvillier proposed that his fellow noblemen deny any common
139
M. Bloch, 1965. Feudal Society. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, Vol.I, p.xvii.
140
Compte de Boulainvilliers, 1727. Histoire de l‟Ancien Gouvernment de la France. Tome I, 33.
 125

origin with the French people, break up the unity, and claim an original and therefore eternal
distinction.141 Boulainvillier denied any predestined connection with the soil; he conceded
that the ―Gaules‖ had been in France longer, and that the Franks were strangers and
barbarians. However, as a student of Spinoza, he based his doctrine solely on the eternal right
of conquest and found no difficulty in asserting that ―Friesland‖ had been the cradle of the
French nation. For him the natives of France were ―subjects‖—not of the king—but all those
whose advantage was descent from the conquering Germanic people, who by right of birth
were to be called ―Frenchmen‖ (Arendt, 1969: 162-163).
By changing Spinoza‘s ideas of Might into the concept of conquest, which then acted as a
kind of unique judgement on the natural qualities of men and nations, Boulainvillier thus set a
theoretical premise for later naturalistic transformation of Might-Right doctrines (ibid). For
example, Darwin‘s evolutional theory of ―Survival of the Fittest‖, which was at the core of
European imperialistic policies and European Pseudo-nationalism in both Europe and abroad,
would never have gained its actual status had it not received the official blessing of English
monarchy and its political and educational establishments. Hence Boulainvilliers germanist
interpretation of France history, especially his ―attack of the re-Romanization of the French
state under the Capetian monarchy, and [above all] his lamentation of the destruction of the
free society founded by the Franks, with its elective kingship and its annual aristocratic
assemblies‖142 was to become an ambivalent mouthpiece for the contesting forces of modern
European politics in the past centuries.
In an attempt to refute Boulainvilliers position, the Abbé Dubos published (1734) a critical
History of the founding of the French monarchy, which claimed that ―the Franks had not
entered Gaul as military conquerors but rather as close allies of the Romans. This argument
reiterated in the 1860s and 1870s by Fustel de Coulanges meant that the rise of the French
monarchy could not be regarded as a Roman aberration from sound German beginning.
Clovis pre-eminence among the Franks could then be seen to derive from the fact that he was
a Roman officer, and Justinian cession of the crown, around AD 540, had made the Frankish
kings the direct heirs of the Caesars (Homi B., 1990: 27). This latter Romanist contradiction
of Boulainvilliers Germanist thesis, as Homi rightly observes, not only served to bolster the
cause of absolutism, it also could be used later to the claims of the Gallo-Roman Third Estate,
which in 1789 spearheaded the French Revolution‖ (ibid).

141
Montesquieu‘s 1748, Esprit des Lois, xxx, ch.x also remarked that Comte de Boulainvilliers History was a
political weapon against the Tier-Etats (Third Estate).
142
F L., Ford, 1953. Robe and Sword: The Regrouping of French Aristocracy after Louis XIV. Boston: Harvard
University Press, passim.
 126

Importantly, despite the popular character of this later Revolution, it should again be noted
that ‗if its key advocates identified themselves mentally with Rome it was not because they
opposed to the ―Germanism‖ of their nobility, the ―Latinism‖ of the Tier Etats but rather
because they felt they were the true spiritual heirs of Roman Republicans‘ (Arendt, 1969:
164). But are we not misappropriating the national movement for the French Revolution given
its key advocates unambiguous celebration of Roman Republicanism?
In short, that the Napoleonic wars were merely the elaboration of the imperialistic ambitions
of the upholders of the French Revolution also imply that that Revolution was by no means a
genuine nationalist movement, but instead the result of a cumulative civil contentions going
back to the political decadence of the Roman Empire. But does the same not hold true for the
intra-Germanic/Protestant and Romantic/Catholic rivalries on the British Isles, which
cemented the foundation of the Anglo-Saxon nation-state model? We must not forget that
―the Anglo-Norman kings prior to their retreat to the British Isles—following the succession
war between king Edward III and the Franco-Frankish monarchy, Philip de Valois—had
owned territorial possessions on mainland Europe‖ (Sue, 2000: 33-34). And if they lost their
mainland territorial possession to the Frankish monarchy in France, it was simply because ―all
the Germanic groups, the Franks, the Visigoths, Burgundians, and the Normans alike, were
equally vigorous and expansionist‖ (ibid)—hasting to increase their mainland territorial
possessions from the ruins of the Roman Empire (emphasis added). One may also refer to
William Boulting for details about the land possessions of the Roman Catholic Church in
Europe and elsewhere (1908: 23). Not surprisingly, ―Augustine Thierry, as Cattaneo143 critic
of Thierry‘s book on Norman conquests remarked, regarded the English people as an
amalgam of Angles, Saxons, and Danes and forget that they had themselves earlier been the
conquerors of the Gaels and Britons. In Cattaneo‘s views, the Norman conquest had not been
a struggle between nation and nation, but the continuous increase of a religious and patrician
confraternity that was bit by bit woven out of mixed fragments of the Roman, Celtic,
Germanic, and Slav peoples‖144 (Homi B., 1990: 28ff).
Since, genuinely speaking, there was nothing nationalistic about the intra-European conflicts
responsible for the retardation of the emergence of a European nation, it is foreseeable that
forgery was to become the political norm. In her study, Briton: Forging the Nation 1707-
1839145, Colley asked why the Welsh, the English, and the Scots could feel that their

143
Cattaneo, Della Conquista d‘Inghilterra pei Normani [1839], Scritti Storici e Geografici, Vol.II. Bari: Laterza,
1957: 64-125.
144
ibid., 65.
145
Linda, Colley, 1992. Britons: Forging the Nation 1707-1839. London: Pimlico, 11-54; 322-323.
 127

Welshness, Englishness, and Scottishness was consistent with also being British, and the Irish
could not. Colley‘s conclusion is that the Irish were effectively excluded from developing a
British national identity because Protestanism was absolutely central to Britishness,
particularly in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In any event, Colley is not
idiosyncratic for implicitly asserting that the highly politicized culture conflicts of the post-
Roman period hold the key to the emergence of modern European pseudo-nationalism.
For instance, Christopher Clark and Wolfram Kaiser, whose edited work146 took a critical
issue with the intricate link between religion and modern nationalism, argued convincingly
that the passionate commitment to a specific concept of nation was one of the central
escalatory mechanisms of the cultural war era. According to this view, the equation of
secularism with modernity, which passed via the protestant national liberal political theorist
(Max Weber) into the fabric of modernization theory that has written so much of the most
authoritative writing on European history since the 1960s, may well be the most enduring
legacy of [the] European culture wars. What makes Clark and Kaiser‘s edited work—about
the nineteenth century European conflicts between organized religion (Catholicism) and the
secular state—one of the outstanding contributions to modern European nationalism is its
comparative nature. The volume covers almost all European societies which had experienced
waves of secular-religious conflicts during this period. It deals specifically with key examples
such as France, Germany, Italy, the UK, and the Netherlands, while also taking into context
other European countries as well (e.g. Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, Austria and Hungary). In
this way, the volume explores the Pan-European nature of such conflicts, the similarities in
aims and ambitions driving the participants, or the form of organization and communication
that the conflicting parties used.
Otto W. Johnston‘s equally important work, ―Der Deutsche Nationalmythus-Ursprung eines
politischen Programmes‖(1990), is rather more articulate with regard to the consolidation of
modern European pseudo-nationalism. This later author takes issue with German Nationalism
during the Napoleonic wars. Interestingly, unlike the romantics, who would originally
secularized sacred motives and traditional Christian values in their conceptualization of a
national spirit with transcendental objectives, we are told that the national model that was
supposed to liberate Prussia from the yokes of the nineteenth century Napoleonic occupation
was expected to suffuse political motives with Providentialist language. Succinctly, instead of

146
C. Clark and W. Kaiser, ed. 2003. Culture Wars: Secular-Catholic Conflict in Nineteenth Century Europe.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
 128

secularizing religious motives as Schlegel, Schleiermacher, Novalis, or Hegel147 had earlier in

their writings, German poets and scholars were contracted by wealthy aristocratic politicians
and landowning Junkers to do exactly the opposite—that is, to permeate political motives
with sacred language. These contracted German writers were told to make the liberation
struggle against the Napoleonic occupation look like a sacrosanct messianic mission by
deliberately canonizing it be morally binding (Johnston, 1990: 17-19 [my English
translation]). Here, one observes genuine politics at work seeking to reinstate the power base
of German aristocracy and its wealthy landowning entourage. Consequently, the national state
that was to emerge out the language of contracted literature was not only culturally too
superficial, but, even worse, also too selective in its historic/heroic characters:

… käm es ihnen nicht darauf an, das, was im Preussen bestand, noch zu retten, sondern das, was sein
könnte herbeizuführen. Diese Mitarbeiter an Nationalmythos schauten nicht zurück, sie lehnten es ab,
Friedrich den Grossen oder das goldene Zeitalter zu preisen; in der deutschen Vergangenheit suchten sie
Vorbilder, die dazu verhelfen sollten, einen künftigen besseren Staat zu errichten—eine geeinte deutsche
nation, deren politische Vereinigung einen natürliche Folge der Selbstbewusstsein Kulturidentität und
deren mustergültiges Leitbild ein reformiertes Preussen geworden wäre (Johnston, 1990: 20-22).

But as Johnston further found out, that particular politicized nation-state so disingenuous to
local culture and history was from the onset also permeated with agents of divisionism:

Katholiken und Protestanten konnten gemeinsam am Ruhm eines Hermanns oder Dietrichs teilhaben, sich
allerdings über Luther und Friedrich den Grossen wieder zerstreiten. Das Traumbild einer politischen
geeinten Nation der Deutschen wurden von einigen strikt abgelehnt, von anderen in einen geistig-
ästhetischen Bereich verwiesen.
In den Jahren zwischen 1807 und 1813/14 forderte eine durch Grossbritanien finanziell unterstützte
Fraktion der preussischen Staatsfuehrung jene durch Schriftsteller ausgeschmuckte und promulgierte
mythopolitische Struktur, die nach der Reichsgründung neu belebt und bearbeitet und in den
ideologischen Überbau eines Preussen-Deutschlands integriert wurde. Statt auf Militarismus hatte die
Tätigkeit einzelner deutscher Dichter, Philosophen, Theologen und essayisten in napoleonische Zeit
darauf abgezielt den Begriff „Vaterlandsliebe― in einen politischen motivierenden sozialpolitischen
Mythenkomplex hinein zu dichten wo er sich von propaganda auf einer Seite, Ideologie auf der anderen
abgrenzen liess (1990: 22-23).

In this sense, Johnston is right to argue that modern German nationalism was a bifurcated
social phenomenon with both pseudo-cultural and political ambiguities. This flirtatious

147
Eric Weil, 1998. Hegel and the State, Baltimore/London: John Hopkins University Press. ISBN:0-8018-5865-
8.
 129

character of the agents of modern European nationalism not only confirm their
disingenuousness to the national ideal, but also reiterate how modern European nationalism
was in general too political to be realistic.
To fully appreciate Johnston‘s compelling arguments, it will be important to expand our
inquest to include pseudo-nationalist activities in European colonies, especially in the
Americas, as this later political development was crucial in terms of national consciousness
awakening among the Azanian/Ethiopian-Americans; and the central role these would later
play in the formation of the Pan-African Movement. This summarizing analyses will not only
elucidate the proliferation of European pseudo-nationalism abroad, but will, on the whole,
also demonstrate how out of the divisions that so long haunted Europe‘s social history a
national model is reemerging that implicitly begs for the resuscitation of the einmalig Greco-
European culture.

3.3.1. Exporting European Pseudo-nationalism into Colonies North of the Atlantic

The role Western Europeans played in the political history of the Americas deserve no better
elaboration than a cursory review of how European descendants heritage of Europe‘s political
and culture conflicts mentioned elsewhere impacted on the identity politics in that part of
world. As noted earlier, despite its civic character the Anglo-American nation-state model
owes its actual tenancy to an underlying [supposedly pre-political] ethnic core, namely the
Anglo-Saxon core, which, as we shall soon see, was itself merely the brainchild of Medieval
England‘s sacred-secular political tensions. In their edited Volume148, Allen J. Frantzen et al
also generally consider the Anglo-Saxon identity process to be the construction of creative
human agents in response to the exigencies of contemporary life. This is almost like
suggesting that creative human agents, especially politicians, are often prone to inventing
ethnic identities to suit their myopic interests. Succinctly, this mainly bisected work tends to
reaffirm the divisive tendencies of early modern European politics. The first section by Allen
Frantzen takes issue with ―Medieval and Renaissance Anglo-Saxonism,‖ and examines the
social construction of Anglo-Saxon history in England in the Medieval and early modern
periods. Frantzen contrast ‗Bede‘s Seventh century treatment of Gregory‘s praise of Anglian
boys in a Roman market with the Sixteenth century reinterpretation of the incident by the
reformation historian John Bale. While the Catholic Bede viewed Gregory‘s remark as a hint
of English election—signifying English special relationship with Rome; the Protestant John
148
A J. Frantzen and J D. Niles, ed. 1997. Anglo-Saxonism and the Construction of Social Identity. Gainesville:
university press of Florida.
 130

Bale by contrast saw the Pontiff‘s remarks as evidence of how sexual perversion, inflamed by
celibacy of Catholic priests, reached all the way to the very heart of the Roman Catholic
Church.‘149
The second section looks at similar developments in the Scandinavia, Britain and the United
States of America (USA) in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Here, the issue of identity
construction by historically grounded personalities is expanded further in Robert Björn‘s
essay on the seminal role played by Scandinavians in the scholarly development of
seventeenth and eighteenth century Anglo-Saxonism. Interestingly, Björn‘s sums up with a
description of how English writers later appropriated this scholarship in the early nineteenth
century and deleted Danish patriotic references. It is Gregory Van Hoosier-Carey‘s essaic
contribution which deals with the volte-face in southern American attitudes towards Anglo-
Saxon during the American civil war. Whereas the Southerners viewed themselves as
aristocratic Norman civilizers and considered the Anglo-Saxon northerners as Barbarians, in
the post-war period, Southern intellectuals came to identify themselves with Anglo-Saxons as
the oppressed, but the true holders of liberty and democracy.
In general, John Niles concluding assessment that historical agents generally are not shaped
by the past, but instead act to appropriate it for their ends accords perfectly with the idea of
social identity construction. For Niles Anglo-Saxon is not more than what has been perceived
by historically grounded human beings.150
Eric Kaufmann informative Article thus expounds on Niles emphatic remark regarding
identity construction by historically grounded personalities in the Anglo-American context.
Kaufmann‘s article takes specific issue with the rise of American ―nativism‖ from an Anglo-
Saxon ethnic-core. Accordingly, ‗the general idea that pre-conquest Anglo-Saxons had known
a primitive form of freedom that had its roots in the German forests was obviously continuous
with the socio-cultural and political language of sixteenth century England. Some of the more
radical variants of the theory held that the Anglo-Saxons carried a desire for freedom in their
veins, and had a destiny to realize this impulse. These ideas later found audience in the
Eighteenth century America; and influenced prominent pro-independent writers and
interpreters of English history. As Reginald Horsman151 also observes:

―The various ingredients in the myth of Anglo-Saxon England, clearly delineated in the host of
Seventeenth and Eighteenth century works, now appears again in American protests: Josiah Quincy Jr.

149
ibid., 24.
150
ibid., 209
151
Horsman Reginald, 1981. Race and Manifest Destiny: The Origin of American Racial Anglo-
Saxonism.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 12
 131

wrote of the popular nature of the Anglo-Saxon militia; Sam Adams stressed of the Old English freedom
defended in the Magna Carta; Benjamin Franklin stressed the freedom that the Anglo-Saxons enjoyed in
emigrating to England; Charles Carroll depicted Saxon liberties torn away by William the Conqueror;
Richard Bland argued that the English Constitution stemmed from the Anglo-Saxon period … George
Washington admired the pro-Saxon history of Catherine Macaulay and she visited him at Mount Vernon
after the Revolution‖‘ (cited in Kaufmann, 1999: 447)

That most of the personalities mentioned in this quote above are historically grounded
personalities deeply involved in the habitual political business of identity construction deserve
no further elaboration than Thomas Jefferson‘s eloquence: ―Has not the restitution of the
ancient Saxon laws had happy effects. Is it not better now that we return at once into that
happy system of our ancestors, the wisest and most perfect ever yet devised by the wit of man,
as it stood before the 8th Century?‖152 In addition Thomas Jefferson had also proclaimed to
John Adams in 1776 that ―Americans were the children of Israel in the wilderness, led by a
cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night; and on the other side, Hengist and Horsa, the Saxon
chiefs from whom we claim the honour of being descended, and whose political principles
and form of government we have assumed‖153(Kaufman, 1999: 448). Another eloquent
celebration of Anglo-Saxon myth by Anglo-American political (or pseudo-nationalist agents)
is the instance in which ―a New England town meeting was likened to the Anglo-Saxon tribal
Witenagemot (council), while the statements of Tacitus regarding the free and egalitarian
spirit of the Anglo-Saxons he encountered were given American interpretation‖154
(Kaufmann, 1999: 448).
If Jefferson‘s appropriation of a common Anglo-Saxon and Levantine ancestral origin for the
purpose of a novel American identity here sounds rather conciliatory, a thorough review will
show that the general state of pre-independence and even early post-independence
confessional relationship in the Americas to the north was generally continuous with the
traditional dichotomy observed earlier of Europe‘s political conflicts. In fact ―by the early 18th
century a tradition of anti-Catholicism had become well established in ―Anglo-Saxon‖
Britain, forged through protracted warfare with France and fanned by a stream of pamphlet
literature‖155(Kaufmann, 1999: 441) so that the first European settler communities would have
disembarked (in the so-called New Found Land (NFL)) with the confessional conflicts of
mother Europe. And true, ―prior to 1700 only Rhode Island … gave Catholics full civil and

152
Horsman. Race and Manifest Destiny, 22.
153
ibid., 22.
154
Anita, Haya Goldman, 1992. ―Reconciling Race and Rights: Emerson and the Construction of Nationality.”
Thesis (PhD). Harvard University, 246.
155
Linda Colley, 1992. Britons: Forging the Nation 1707-1839, 40-42.
 132

religious liberty in the new settlements of North America. After the Revolution most states
continued to carry anti-Catholic status in their books.156 The French and Indian War of 1754-
1763 helped to ignite anti-Catholic sensibilities. The treatment of Acadian expellees illustrates
the degree to which an exclusive Anglo-Protestant consciousness operated in the period just
prior to independence:

Lawrence original intention was to scatter the [Acadian] exiles throughout the British North American
colonies … But … fear, hatred, and acute distrust for all things French dominated in the hearts and minds
of the Atlantic seaboard settlers, such that at no time were the Acadians exiles given more than grudging
acceptance.157

The Acadian language and religion made them pariahs in American colonies, where they were
nearly irrespective of location, forced into indentured servitude and reduced to extreme
poverty. Roughly a Third died of disease and exposure, prompting the rest to migrate after a
sojourn in France, to Catholic French-speaking Louisiana during 1765-1785‖ (Kaufmann,
1999: 441).
Since the hostile reception of the Franco-Catholic Europeans by their Anglo-Saxon Protestant
brothers in the Americas merely reveals the nature of a political state in search of a dominant
culture, it should be expected that those groups who were not militarily strong enough to
defend their newly acquired territorial possessions abroad either suffered the fate of Remus or
were coerced by the grinding machine of the Anglo-American melting pot. After-all
assimilation in the colonies was perfectly concomitant with the nationalist benchmark of the
motherland (e.g. France, the U.K, Germany et cetera): It couldn‘t be an Anglo-American
exception. Therefore, in addition to the assimilation of the enslaved Azanians/Ethiopians,
other European groups, including Protestant groups (the Germans), also became prey to the
political ―process of Anglicization.‖
As Kaufmann finds out, ―the origins of ―Anglo-Conformity‖ could be traced back to the pre-
Revolution era with the society for propagating Christian knowledge among Germans.
Founded in the mid-eighteenth century by Benjamin Franklin and Anglican minister William
Smith, the society pursued what it called the ―Anglicization‖ of Pennsylvania‘s large German
population.158After the Revolution attempts to have federal laws printed in German (1796)

156
Ray, Allen Billington, 1938. The Protestant Crusade, 1800-1860: A Study of the Origins of American
Nativism.. New York, N.Y: Macmillan, 9, 21.
157
James, H. Dormon, 1983. The People Called Cajuns: An Introduction to an Ethnohistory. Lafayette, La.:
Center for Louisiana Studies, 16-17.
158
Lucy, Eve Kerman, 1983. Americanization: The History of an Idea, 1700-1860. Thesis (PhD). University of
California, Berkeley, 8, 36.
 133

and or to gain official status for German in schools and courts (1837) were rebuffed. The
result was the gradual assimilation of Pennsylvania‘s German population. This was especially
pronounced among the Mennonites, whose close theological affiliation with the Quakers
rapidly created an ―extended cousinage‖ among the different communities of eastern
Pennsylvania.159
Other groups to undergo assimilation included the Welsh and Scots, whose language were all
but dead in America by early nineteenth century, as well as the Huguenots, who in the
nineteenth century disappeared entirely.160 A similar fate befell the Dutch and Swedes: The
majority of Dutch descent of mid-eighteenth century New York had to succumb to the
English language. The younger generation scarcely ever spoke anything but English, and
there were many who became offended if they were taken for Dutch because they preferred to
pass for English.‖161 (Kaufmann, 1999: 450) A rather perfect political volte-face, of course,
given the Dutch-Boers supposed superior elected status in colonial South Africa.
In viewing these—i.e. the argument advanced earlier by Thomas Jefferson with regard to his
freedom loving Anglo-Saxon ancestors from the German forest in central Europe; the later
transformation of their descendants into a language crushing political community in an
occupied foreign land et cetera—are we not right to ascribe this latter political activism to the
realm of pseudo-nationalism. It should be noted that only those disingenuous to nationalist
demands for total freedom would allow the Anglo-American [imperial] state to pass for the
national ideal. There is no doubt that the Europeans and/or the Azanians/Ethiopian constitute
legitimate national constituencies of the imperial Anglo-American state. And while it is also
true that the Europeans currently constitute the dominant national community in North and
South America alike, such dominance, especially in the USA and Canada, is likely to last long
provided the other European sub-language groups accept the predominance of the English
language.
The circulating rumours about the prevailing challenges to the predominance of the English
language from Franco-Canadians and/or Spanish speakers in the USA would most certainly
provoke unintended consequences. For instance, the Bantu-Ethiopians, whose Azanian
sublanguages were systematically destroyed during the colonial period, could also demand for
separate culture institutions so as to reinstate the use of ancient Ethiopian (or later Egyptian)
or Meroetic alphabets; and/or Hausa and Swahili as their national lingua-Azanica. But if in

159
David, Hackett Fischer, 1989. Albion‟s Seed: Four British Folkways in America. New York/Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 423.
160
Jon Butler, 1983. The Huguenots in America: A Refugee People in New World Society. Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 71, 198.
161
Richard Conant, 1980. The Course of the Melting pot Idea to 1910. New York: Arno Press, 52.
 134

support of a common economic interest, the other Europeans rescind from their challenge to
the predominance of the English language in North America …, then they are merely
confirming that external threats encourage national unity—albeit this time in an occupied
foreign land.162 In this sense, it is reasonable to agree with the conclusion advanced by C.
Clark and W. Kaiser in their analysis of European culture wars in the nineteenth century,
which generally purports that while the conflict between the nation-state and organized
Catholicism can be conceived as a struggle for hegemony within a rapidly changing European
societies; it was not a struggle either of them could win out right, but one in which both
parties were transformed in a significant way.163
It is hard to predict exactly how such transformation could influence the resurgent European
nation. But we already know that liberal institutions and their media outlets erroneously
accredit Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern (the former Irish Premier) with the outcome of the
Northern Ireland peace agreement. These latter liberal arguments are too disingenuous to the
culture norms of the resurgent European nation. Indeed, the Northern Ireland Peace Treaty is
possible today not because of Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern‘s political genius, but rather by
virtue of the fact that both parties of the Protestant-Catholic-Divide have finally judiciously
recognized that the European culture unambiguously repudiates the sanguine reach of their
distinctive confessions. As a matter of fact, when the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr.
Rowan Williams, recently propose the introduction of Sharia Law in the U.K164, he implicitly
admits that Britain is after-all not a nation but a multicultural state; and that any group—e.g.
pseudo-cultural, economic, political etc.—could assert itself within that system provided it
has the material resources and resilience necessary to challenge it to the core. But does this
latter political development not have serious implications for the enfeebled African states,
which, as observed earlier, owes their very existence to the 1884 Berlin Conference divisive
deliberation; and, even worse, now dependent on their former colonial masters economic and
military assistance for their very survival?

162
The Azanian Americans are therefore urged to heed to the nationalist proclamation of the Ethiopian King to
Kambyses not to add the land of other people to their own. So, while they are morally obliged to contribute to
the freedom of all nations within the imperial American state, they must resist any temptation to claim that part
of the world as their homeland. Their only natural habitat/home is the Azanian nation.
163
C. Clark and W. Kaiser (ed.), Culture Wars (cited in footnote 147 above).
164
http://news.bbc.UK/2/hi/UK_news/7232661.stm
 135

3.4. Pan-Africanism as an extension of European pseudo-nationalism

The preceding idea that genuine nations, irrespective of location, are ab ovo culturally
inclined also found its cogent expression in Wole Soyinka‘s contribution to the ongoing
debate about the national phenomenon. In his view, ‗culture was the primary constituency of
human associations. Man was first a cultural being. Before politics there was clearly culture.
Only man the producer could have evolved into political being, which, to pare away from
mystification, is the evolutionary stage related to the development of society and the
consequent sophistication acquired in the management and protection of resources. This
hierarchy of evolution also explain why man resorts to his cultural affiliation (or institutions)
when politics appear to have failed him, never the other way round‘ (Soyinka, 1996: 128-
129). This rather articulate emphasis about the cultural origin of nations tends to qualify
Anthony Smith national understanding, that: ―the nations of the world, almost without
exception, were formed from ethnic-cores, whose pre-modern myth-symbol complex
furnished the material for the construction of the modern nation boundary symbols and civil
religion. But this, he argues, does not necessarily entail the continuation of an ethnie-nation
unity. It merely specifies that the modern nation derived its name, official language, national
symbolism, conception of territorial boundaries and its history from the ethnic group or
groups that inhabited the land in pre-modern times‖ (Smith, 1991: 39; Kaufmann, 1999: 439).
But does Smith perception about the national phenomenon hold true for the colonial African
states? Even provided we ostracize the foreign origin of the concept of Africa, where exactly
do we begin in terms of wanting to establish the ethnic source of Africa‘s political entities e.g.
Ghana, Nigeria, Mali, South Africa, Mozambique, Angola, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Congo,
Tanzania, Mauritania, or Libya; or the post-independence tribal/pseudo-ethnic categories (e.g.
Eritrea, Somali-land, Biafra and so on)? This problem becomes even more exigent in the
linguistic sphere giving these countries association with such colonial Lingua-francas as
Anglo-phony; Arabo-phony; Franco-phony; Portoguese-phonies.
In the specific case of colonial Africa, it will thus be reasonable to accentuate Soyinka‘s
perception that ‗any nation apprehension that takes its being in ideas outside the humanity that
is the fundamental element of its very existence is as vaporous as the nation itself (Soyinka,
1996: 110). In direct reference to African politics, Soyinka stresses that ‗many notions of
nation-building and development on the African continent have proved as relevant to
actualities as polar boots on the feet of Masai herdsmen‘ (Soyinka, 1996: 116-118).
This notwithstanding, Soyinka‘s still posits himself—in his The Sore of a Continent—as a
staunch defender of democratic nationalism, that is, those who defend the national concept
 136

derived from the ―Will‖ of the people similar to the popular nation-being expressed by
Nigerians on the 12th of June 1993 presidential election in favour of Bashorun M.K.O Abiola.
But are we not trivializing the concept of nationhood by reducing it to the will of a people
irrespective of their culture background or even knowledge of the national culture? Even if, in
the Nigerian context, democracy is indigenously derived, the fact alone that that political
entity is the brainchild of 1884/5 Berlin Conference economic deliberation makes it
inconsistent with the national ideal. So, if the artificiality of the African countries in general
makes them fall short of national qualification, especially in the culture sphere, Soyinka
seems to contest that by merely adhering to the democratic norms of the West they might
become political nations:

A democratic Ethiopia has recognized that Revolution is not merely heroism on the battlefield but the
cultivation of the far more profound heroic cast of mind. Not only has the new government conceded to
Eritrea the right to recover and actualized her nationhood, Ethiopia has gone further and entrenched in its
constitution the right of any of its human groupings to aspire to their own nationhood, as long as the will
of such people is faithfully established (Soyinka, 1996: 140-141)

Let‘s shun the fact that the democratic Ethiopian government Soyinka has just portrayed in
this quote is not only currently deadlocked with Eritrea on a border conflict, but is deeply
enmeshed in Somalia‘s bloody clan wars desperately trying to hinder Ogaden (the Somali
speaking region of Ethiopia) from becoming yet another pseudo-ethnic nation, and instead
proceed with the perception that democracy encourages the emergence of tribal states or
pseudo-ethnic nations on Africa‘s political plain. (An expeditious distinction between
ethnicity and tribalism is necessitated before hand: ―Ethnic groups are communities which
share a belief in common ancestry and homeland and which meet a threshold requirement of
population and territory (real or imagined) that distinguishes them from tribes and clans‖165).
Indeed, the various armed criminal groups roaming randomly in Africa claiming to be
representative of their distinctive group‘s quest for separate homeland or independence—
whether or not these groups are merely exploiting the ideological impotence of African
leaders and intellectuals and/or the culture vacancy of Africa‘s artificial states—reaffirm that
Africa‘s highly politicized nationalist movements (e.g. Irredentist and Pan movements) are
merely the brainchildren of external economic and political agents.
In Soyinka‘s words, ‗for many of my generation the notion of nationhood was not always
restricted to that geographical constituency called Nigeria but was indeed a continental state

165
E K Francis, 1976. Interethnic Relations. New York: Elsevier, 6.
 137

of self identification. Many students of my generation surely set their political sights on
variants of continental oneness; the colonial settler regimes of East Africa, not to mention the
Apartheid South Africa in particular, dictated this racial challenge. We were destined—this
much appeared so gloriously clear to us—our destiny was to be at the forefront of Africa‘s
version of international brigade. Our liberation hordes would sweep from Ghana (Nŋhana166),
Nigeria, the Cameroon to engulf the colonial settler regimes of Kenya, the Rhodesias and
stopping only at the most provocative tip of the continent—South Africa, whose Apartheid
philosophy and policies had moved beyond the terrain of experimentation to the most extreme
hallucinatory edges of dehumanization...
Heirs to various pan-African movements, beginning with the famous Manchester gathering of
1945, Ghanaian, Nigerian, and East African Students debated news from these and other
stubborn enclaves viewing them as assaults on both racial and national pride. This nationalist
vision was to be fulfilled by the liberation forces of which we were destined to be the
vanguard: We saw the continent, at least from the South of the Sahara to the Southern tip of
the continent, not as a conglomerations of nations but as one nation, as one people‘ (Soyinka,
1996: 126-127). In a wholly cultural sense, Walter Rodney thus adds that ‗Africans south of
the Nubian (or Sahara) desert—during the period of early development—formed a broad
community where resemblances in cultural activities were clearly discernible‘ (1982: 34-35).
With the early accusation of Cambyses, the Persian despot, by the king of the Ethiopians for
the theft of Egypt … thus implies that the so-called African continent had erstwhile
constituted an ethno-cultural national community. Indeed, there is no shortage of historical
instances to confirm that the Ethiopians had, several times in the course of their national
history, liberated Egypt from foreign/colonial occupations.—One such remarkable endeavour
was ―Nut Amon of Ethiopia march into Egypt…‖(Sayce, 1895: 30). With good reasons to
now believe that the indigenous population of pre-colonial Africa had once constituted a
homogeneous national community, why are the communal boundaries of the African
countries nowadays being so narrowly defined?
Soyinka continues in his bid to defend his democratic thesis:

A common denominator of crisis in many areas may actually be found in the refusal of a section—be this
class, ethnic groupings, profession, or religion—to grant others the simple right of participation in the

166
The word is derived from a Gur/Mandingo language meaning ―am I good?‖ The speaker questions a second
person whether s/he is good. Probably the founders of ancient Nŋhana after relocating from Meroe had left
behind their kin who … colluded with the destructive hand of the red crown from the North in order to safeguard
their personal gains at the expense of national culture/unity, and were themselves later victimized (expelled) by
those forces of the red-crown...
 138

process of deciding a collective destiny. The military dictatorships of the African continent, parasitic,
unproductive, totally devoid of social commitment or vision, are expression of this exclusionist mentality
of a handful; so are those post-colonial monopolies that parade themselves as single party states. To
exclude the sentient plurality of any society from the right of decision in the structures of their own lives
is an attempt to anesthetize, turn comatose, indeed, idiotize society (Soyinka, 1996: 138-139)

The consequence of such denial is too serious to be ignored: ‗The revolt against the denial of
the innate potential of every unit of society is certainly one of the evolution of scenarios that
still plague the African continent in those intractable spots of Liberia, Ethiopia, Somali,
Sudan, Mali, Niger and so on. Here, Soyinka seems to confront us with three contesting views
of nation-being in specific reference to African politics. The first, which he supports, must
reflect the democratic will of a people consistent with the outcome of the 12th June 1993
Nigerian election, which Bashorun M.K.O Abiola was the presumed winner. The second
which he deplores reflects the will of a minority social predators, who, by virtue of their
commitment to sustaining Africa‘s colonial states, would do everything to hinder the
emergence of a democratic nation. In Soyinka‘s words, ‗it was this numerical infinitesimal but
well positioned minority, blinded by self interest, seeing that a nation was about to slip out of
its hands and to be restored to a majority dispensation that commenced the destruction of all
sense of belonging. It is that same miniscule proportion who, having succeeded in robbing the
Nigerian people of their nationhood, at least for now, insists … that the famed election of
1993 is an ancient history. But if that election proves indeed to be ancient history, then
Nigeria as a nation has no future. Any election, he argues, even ignoring the history of June
12th (1993) Nigerian election, can prove the cement that binds a nation together or else the
porous vessel through which its life blood seep away. If the nation‘s will has become so
tainted that it cannot be implemented, then the nation itself has become so contaminated that
it cannot begin to claim the recognition of a nation‘(1996: 131-132). The third national
contender, which is tribal or pseudo-ethnic often emerge in reaction to the tyrannical character
of the second national variant.
Before we expand critically on the tribal/pseudo-ethnic variant of nations, let‘s first examine
whether Soyinka‘s rational attempt to sever a nation‘s ancient past from its future not merely
puts him in the ranks of those economic agents who myopically condone the replacement of
China‘s past with concrete, steel, and glass mausoleums in the name lineal economic
development; or those who would rather prefer to destroy the earth for another habitable
celestial province yet to be fully located somewhere in the illusionary Blue sky above. The
fact alone that the raw materials being used in the construction of the space shuttles/vehicles
 139

use for the exploration of the supposedly futuristic celestial provinces are originally derived
from the earth suffices to remind Soyinka that nations without past are like trees without
roots. Alas, even in its original Greco-European socio-historical and or socio-political
context, Soyinka seems oblivious of the fact that the democratic thesis he recommends his
fellow Africans—in his compromised deliberation of the ideal state of nations—predates
modernity.

3.4.1. Questioning the national essence of Africa‘s Irredentist Movements

Following the riots that celebrated the outcome of Kenya‘s December 2007 presidential
election, one might have observed the partitioning of Kenya into tribal or ethnically
dominated territories by BBC cartographers.167 Was such an unfortunate political
development a co-incidence or an overdue anticipation consistent with the 1884/5 Berlin
conference deliberation on Africa‘s political future? By and large the so-called Kikuyu-Luo
dichotomy of Kenyan politics is by no means an isolated development—since the legacy of
the Rwandan genocide is not only still lingering but is just a stone throw away from Nairobi.
Consequently, tribal rivalry seems to be the hallmark of African politics. For instance, the so-
called traditional antagonism between the Kimbundus and Mbundus embroiled Angola in
decades of protracted civil war shortly after gaining independence from Portugal. And even
though the artificial Ndebele-Shona adversary in neighbouring Zimbabwe did not culminate
into similar tragic post-independence experience…, the general political development of post-
June 2008 run-off-election—if the words of David Miliband168 should not be taken at face
value—is by no means trivial:

―The ongoing political tension is a fight between two different visions for the future of Zimbabwe, one of
which has the support of the Zimbabwean people as expressed on 29 March 2008 and the other of which
is held together by a small clique that holds power on the basis of violence and intimidation…‖ 169

Astonishingly, Miliband intransigence about regime change—―it was now ―imperative‖ there
was a new government in Zimbabwe‖170—coincided with the sentencing of Simon Mann, a
former British army officer, in Equatorial Guinea, who has undeniably implicated Sir Mark

167
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7172038.stm#map (accessed July 8,
2008)
168
David Milliband served as the foreign minister of the government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown until
2010.
169
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7491979.stm (accessed July 6. 2008).
170
ibid.
 140

Thatcher, the son of UK former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher; the Spanish and South
African governments; and a London-based Lebanese business man by name Eli Calil for
being the main sponsors of that 2004 foiled coup attempt.171 Even, in the so-called success
story of African democratic experiment, South Africa, an internal ANC power struggle
between Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma early 2008 was again trivialized by foreign Media
outlets as deeply seated traditional tribal antagonism between Xhosas and Zulus. And, as
noted earlier, the same is true of Africa‘s most populous state, Nigeria, which, politically, is
dominated by the so-called Hausa-Ibo-Yoruba trio since that country‘s semi-independence
from Britain in 1960. In essence, what the leaders of these so-called politically relevant
African groups share in common is that they have a special mandate to safeguard the 1884/5
Berlin Conference resolution on Africa‘s political destiny. Therefore unlike genuine
nationalist affiatus for total freedom and national unity, the leaders of Africa‘s so-called
politically relevant groups are elected by their colonial masters to safeguard the continuity of
artificial African states at the expense of the local population innate desire for total freedom
and national unity.
Indeed irreconcilable divided groups—as the legacy of the 1994 Rwandan genocide; or the
recent low level civil war between Africa‘s ―First World‖ citizens, South Africans, and her
―Third World‖ citizens, the other Africans, in South Africa major cities tend to confirm—are
easy to manipulate; successive French governments could pretend to be protecting the chosen
Zagawas in Ndjamena while simultaneously supporting other Chadian groups via Gabon or
Sudan.172 Indeed, there are recent signs [at least rhetorically] of gradual shift in policy vis-à-
vis France African Protégés by the Nicolas Sarkozy government. This rather unusual political
move from Paris is said to be in response to Sarkozy‘s campaign promise to shift substantially
from traditional Franco-African relations—an asymmetric relations, a former Foreign
Minister Jean Sauvagnargues once called: ―the only place in the world where France can
single-handedly influence policy.‖ And this policy, as Henri Astier of the British
Broadcasting Corporation also acknowledges, was in many ways an extension of France
colonial rule in Africa. And even if Sarkozy recent call—on his first presidential trip in
Africa—for a new ―partnership between equal nations‖ is a reaffirmation of Sauvagnargues
statement (or his campaign promises), Fabrice Tarnit rightly hint that: ―Some of Nicolas

171
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/Africa/7493717.stm (accessed July 7, 2008).
172
It must be noted that France has maintained military presence in Gabon even after that country‘s
independence; and without that military presence Umar Bongo‘s government wouldn‘t have remained in power
that long. On the other hand, Umar Bongo‘s deteriorating relationship with the Chadian leadership and his novel
relationship with Sudanese leadership indicates that … (see, www.sudanforum.net/showthread.php?t=28945
(accessed July 8, 2008)).
 141

Sarkozy attitudes with respect to Omar Bongo (Gabon) and Denis Sassou-Nguesso merely
indicate continuity in traditional Franco-African relations. In Tarnit‘s apt formulation, France
is not the best partner for peace in Africa because historically France has contributed more to
war than peace in Africa.‖ And this is particularly true of France direct role in the 1994 Hutu-
led Rwandan genocide.173 Importantly, these, mainly tribal and pseudo-ethnic (Hutus versus
Tutsis), African groups—constantly fighting for the control of Africa‘s depleting resources
(e.g. shrinking rain forest in Congo, Central African Republic, or lakes in Chad, Cameroon
etc.)—constitute what intellectuals and scholars of ethnic and nationalist politics would
subsume under irredentism (or irredentist movements).
Alas, when John Nwafor174 once boasted to me about the superiority of his Igbo/Ibo ethnic
group in relation to other Nigerians, the only proof he used to substantiate his divisive claim
was that Nigeria‘s oil reserves lie underneath Igbo dominated territory—that is in the Eastern
part of Nigeria. Such a myopic and divisive position echoes similar economic developments
in neighbouring Ghana with the so-called Ashanti-Gold—of course, now privatized and bears
the name ―Anglo-Ashanti Gold.‖175 Inasmuch as the Anglo-Ashanti-Gold is concerned, the
leaders of these … colonially elected groups are the chosen guardians of the interests of their
colonial masters. Otherwise, in a wholly cultural sense, prior to the Ashantis political
prominence in that part of Azania—that is to say, prior to their relocation from Mali (via the
Ofori river in present day Ivory Coast) to what is now Ghana, Bantu-Ethiopian Pharaohs, the
most recent among them, Thutmosis, under the guidance of Bunkper secret institutions
extracted gold from that region for their culture institutions in Manfour and Thibé (Thebes),
Napata, Meroe, and later Nŋhana. In fact, the name of the Ashanti Kingdom‘s capital, Kuma-
asi (―the Tree of Life), merely affirms that that kingdom‘s founding fathers shared the culture
objectives of the Bantu-Ethiopian institutions of Manfour. In order not to miss the main point
of our analytical discernment, it is worth noting that not cultural but sheer economic factors
are quintessence to understanding the motives behind Africa‘s irredentist movements.
To illucidate this point, let‘s expound critically on Mr. John Nwafor‘s reaction to the
prospects of an Ogoni tribal state led by MEND (Movement for the emancipation of the Niger
Delta) prior to Biafra secession from Nigeria. While Mr Nwafor did not hide his disdain for
Africa‘s emerging tribal states, his celebration of the Wazobia idom—the supposed

173
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/7014776.stm (printed July 8/2008).
174
This fellow is a Nigerian citizen from the East, who sympathizes but does not actively support the Biafra
Movement. He had attended most of the Seminars (I held at the University of Hamburg between 2005 and 2006)
on Azanian history. And although we share slightly different views about Africa‘s political future we
intermittently met to ponder about its troubling aspect.
175
http://www.anglogold.com/default.htm
 142

predominance of Nigerian politics by the Hausa-Yorubas-Ibo—led him to want to subject

other Nigerian groups in the East to the arbitrary jurisdiction of a future Ibo dominated Biafra.
But does this fellow not merely share the economic objectives of Nigeria‘s post-independence
military governments—now turned democratic leaders of course—for wanting to maintain
national unity provided their elected status remains unchallenged. But does the economic
background of Africa‘s growing pandemic of irredentism and the related states, in addition to
the existing ones, not make both miserably short of our national qualification, especially,
given the latter‘s total commitment to the authenticity of indigenous culture et cetera.
Moreover, Africa‘s colonial heritage—the artificial states; and the enshrined Christian
(European) and or Islamic (Arab) values—is too inconsistent with local culture norms that the
maintenance of such a delicate concoction, even in conjunction with the pending democratic
experiment, is bound to intensify the already existing divisions.
Assuming Shango, the Yoruba God of thunder or fire, originally reminds us of an incoming or
terminal rain (the primordial water … meant to water the seed of the ―Tree of Life‖); the fact
that that seed was—after the demise of the Bantu-Ethiopian culture institutions—not
entrusted to the tribal fanatic of Africa‘s irredentism (e.g. Yoruba, Kikuyu, Ibo, Shona,
Khoisan, Ashanti, Hutu, Tutsis et cetera), but to the men of language (Mōajab176) of the
Azanian nation is bound to render the concept of a tribal Oduduwa or Biafra culturally
irrelevant. For the creative hand of Hyen-Nu gave ―Ptah of Manfour/Memphis first the
commanding ―word‖ to create and integrate all other local deities in a univocal social order‖
(Gehlen, 1986: 168-169). The integration ethos of this particular national culture is well
pronounced to be mistaken as indicating other than that the inspiration behind the
acculturation of national culture is a divine endowment. If this should then imply that each
member of that national culture, irrespective of age and social status…, is equally entitled to
the same fruits of that national culture (perhaps, albeit differences in doses for the different
age groups), then the prospects of integrating the culture mandate of the Azanian nation with
the exploitative economic mandate of the African states is bound to be problematic. In all, this
later arguments in turn contradict Soyinka‘s notion of what constitutes the ideal state of the
national phenomenon.

In addition to Soyinka‘s obdurate admiration for Western democracy, his definition of the
‗ideal state of the nation‘ also takes an explicit economic overtone. As he puts it, ‗humanity,
the core of the national organism, is not abstract and must be dealt with on the material plane.
176
Mōajab (men of language) is derived from the so-called Gur (linguistics) with ―Mōar‖ meaning language,
which in turn is derived from Mōb (mouth).
 143

The ledger book is where to look, and not any mystery texts of pious intentions or abstract
notions. We had better not remain strictly within the categories of idealist builders (e.g. the
forced labour and distorted production systems under Belgian colonialism in Congo, or the
productive collectives of the Soviet Union).‘ This material texture of Soyinka‘s national
understanding inevitably led him to a comparative analysis of the Gross National Products
(GNPs) across the political spectrum. Specifically, he contrasted the GNPs of—what he
termed—‗the far more comprehensive apprehension of nationhood (e.g. France, Sweden, UK,
Japan, Korea, USA etc.) with that of such geographical spaces as Sierra Leone, Gabon and
Nigeria (in short, the African states in general); and then proceed to question the impact of
national sovereignty of the latter countries on their citizens, who continue to see the buying
powers of their national currency dwindle to nothing, the healthcare a special reserve for the
few in power and social opportunity the hereditary preserves of their scions. For this group of
social predators, the chosen guardians of the African states, a nation is merely a gambling
space for opportunism and adventurism for power.‘(Soyinka, 1996: 120-121)
In fact, when Ibrahim Babangida adventurously introduced the organization of Islamic
council in corporate national membership, he pretty well anticipated a militant reception from
his ill-informed audience [mainly] from the North of the country. The result was the
fracturing of Nigeria into Islamic North and Christian South; and the reverberations of such
sectarian divide continue to plague Nigeria even today (Soyinka, 1996: 120-122). Simply put,
for the purpose of preserving their own power base, most African leaders often resort to the
divide and rule tactics of their colonial heritage.
From time to time, however, a portion of the victimized population regain its natural human
senses as being part of a human collective that has become conscious of having been robbed
of its will, ready to contest the robbery and demand restitution (ibid., 117).
But far from focusing their opposition on just demand for restitution some well known tribal
and religious leaders often resort to the threats of secession in order to win concession (from
the government in power) by default (ibid., 33-34). So, for the purpose of controlling the
economic resources of African countries, we not only observe the politicization of culture but
the creation of pseudo-ethnic bonds on Africa‘s political plain.
In light of these conflicting interests, what is Africa‘s literary laureate recommendation for a
genuine national unity? The self-proclaimed democratic nationalist contests that a nation can
be united provided there is a mechanism for the reconciliation of the multiple interests within
its historic or artificial boundaries (Soyinka, 1996: 30). Because Soyinka‘s pluralist melange
 144

accords well with the arguments of the liberal nationalist school, let‘s critically explore what
the liberal creed has in common with the monolithic culture demands of nations.
In his defence of liberal nationalism, Will Kymlicka, for one, also argues that ―nationalism
can be compatible with and even support liberalism as an important basis for the achievement
of liberal ideals of justice and liberty.177 In contrast to non-liberal, communitarian nationalism
based on ethnicity, religion, and or thick conception of the national good, liberal nationalism
is based on a thinner and more diffuse sense of belonging to an intergenerational society,
share a common territory, having a common past and sharing a common future.178 Liberal
states can legitimately promote a ―thin‖ national identity strengthen the sense of mutual
obligation needed to sustain liberal justice and thus motivate citizens to respect one another‘s
rights and fulfil the other duties of liberal citizenship‖179 (Curtis, 2007: 334-340). The idea
that ―liberal [political] cultures are not essentialist and monolithic, but rather are fluid and
hybrid mixtures of conflicting values of native and foreign influences that are in perpetual
flux also found elaboration in Herr‘s arguments.180 Within this dynamic cultural milieu,
insiders try to negotiate their differences and attempt to arrive at reasonable agreements on the
future direction of the nation. Moreover, insiders can challenge the corrupt status quo by
identifying plural national values, constructing multiple interpretations of them, adopting and
transforming foreign ideas and values in culturally sensitive ways, or formulating hybrid
valuational constructs that are conducive to gender equality‖181 (Curtis, 2007: 336-337). But
does this political attempt to manage the culture demands of the national ideal and the
economic requirements of state system within the nation-state constitutions not merely create
more problems than had been previously envisaged?
Perhaps the best way to respond to the foregoing arguments is to contrast such liberal views
with Mr. Modibo Diakite182 intransigence about his Bantu-Ethiopian national culture. M.
Diakité culture narrative is an oral heritage from his grandparents, which generally tends to
portray an earthly paradise (in Western Sudan) prior to the arrival of Batur183 or the

177
Will Kymlicka, 2002. Contemporary Political Philosophy: An Introduction, Oxford: Oxford University Press,
267.
178
ibid., 264.
179
ibid., 265.
180
Ranjoo, Seodu Herr, 2006. ―In Defence of Nonliberal Nationalism.‖,Political Theory 34 (2006), 315.
181
ibid., 316.
182
Modibo Diakite, a Dogon traditionalist, is formally from northern Mali. I met him in London (U.K) during
my short stay in that city between 2000 and 2003. The Doógon/Mandingos are originally at home in Libya,
Algeria, Niger, Mali, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Senegal, Mauritania, Morocco, Chad, and Sudan (formally under
different linguistic categorization).
183
Batur or Baturé is derived from Gur and is used in reference to pale (white) skin person (generally Europeans
and/or Arabs; but not local Albinos or light skin people. It is a combination of the verb baat/r (come) and tuun
(meet) which simply means they came and met (e.g. the Sphinx or Pyramids et cetera).
 145

introduction of Islam and Camels. Accordingly, Mali and other parts of Western Sudan had in
those remote days of their nation‘s history sufficient natural water reserves (rivers, lakes etc.)
filled with crocodiles and hippopotamus and so on. As a result, the whole landmass of the
region was in those days covered with the green-crown/vegetation of Amon throughout the
yearly cycles. Moreover, his ancestors then could mingle or integrate freely with these sacred
animals of the traditional religion without the least suspicion of being killed … because of the
traditional belief system. However, with the introduction of Islam and camels, and the
systematic eradication of Western Sudan crocodile population, not only did the once abundant
natural water reservoirs dried up with the disappearance of these sacred animals of the
Pharaonic religion, but the whole region is now at the mercy of encroaching desertification
from the North – the southwards expansion of the Nubian/Sahara desert. His radical
recommendation, which amounts to the proscription of the use of Camels in the whole of
colonial Africa and the reintroduction of indigenous crocodiles might sound like yet another
culture attempt to resuscitate one of the prominent ―sacred animals‖ of ancient Bantu-
Ethiopian (or later Egyptian) Pharaonic culture.
Diakité‘s lamentation of his Ancestors naive accommodation of an imperialistic religion,
whose divine force (God/Allah) he implicitly accuses for draining the primordial water of his
people‘s culture, sounds too resolute to accommodate any democratic deliberation. Assuming,
as he suspects, the systematic eradication of all animals with sacred affinities to the Bantu-
Ethiopian Pharaonic culture by pseudo-religious clerics was indeed rationally/politically
envisioned to discourage the revival of Bantu-Ethiopian culture institutions, how do we
reconcile these diverging positions democratically? For example, while the Arabs in Sudan
may see in the large numbers of their Camels, say in Darfur, a classical political method of
accelerating the shrinking of the farmlands of this predominantly land bound indigenous
population and thus their territorial engrossment (say in the economic sense), the indigenous
population, at least in light of Diakité‘s lamentation, have only now began to fully understand
the purpose of the Semitic companion. It should be noted that Diakite has nothing in
particular against Camels—indeed they are part of nature‘s creative genius for maintaining
earth‘s ecological balance; but, in his view, their divine ecological mission is not in his part of
the earth. Hence despite their far reaching culture contacts the indigenous pharaohs did not
include camels in their list of sacred animals. In other words, the Semitic companion has no
special place among the sacred animals of the indigenous culture. Virtually, Diakite‘s
anticipation that the local population would be fighting Arabs and or pseudo Arab nomadic
groups in the Congo-belt by the middle of this century should the expansion of these non-
 146

indigenous animals be left unchecked is bound to render any liberal or democratic argument
obsolete.
Compounded with the systematic rapes of indigenous women by Arab nomads, Diakité has
good reasons to be suspicious of the ongoing political attempt by agents of colonialism to
replace culture humanity with a culturally indifferent global economic humanity:

was die kapitalistische Produktionsweise vor allen früheren ausgezeichnet, ist, dass sie das innere
Bestreben hat, sich mechanisch auf die ganze Erdkugel auszudehnen und jede andere, ältere
Gesellschaftordnung zu verdrängen… Dadurch werden die naturwüchsigen Gesellschaftverhältnisse und
Wirtschaftsweise der Eingeborenen überall vernichtet, ganz Völker werden zum Teil ausgerottet 184.

Inevitably, since the contemporary data/narrative of economic successes—the ―elevated life

expectancy‖ rate of citizens of the most advanced Economies—not merely confirms the
culture man‘s original mission to tune life with the sirens of eternal existence, but has, amid
the global economic crisis in some parts of the advanced economies (e.g. U.S.A), been
regressing steadily185; Wole Soyinka and Koffi Annan, the man behind Africa‘s Green
Revolution, will increasingly find it difficult to persuade genuine nationalist to emulate the
miserable economic data being presented at the increasingly undemocratic global economic
platform.
This notwithstanding, Wole Soyinka, the spokesperson for Africa‘s secularist stream,
questions lucidly the economic essence of sacred institutions such as the World‘s largest
Basilica in Yamoussoukro (Ivory Coast); Africa‘s largest mosque in Kampala; or Africa‘s
largest ―Buddhist temple‖ in South Africa.186 He insist that, apart from the billions of dollars
made by the consortiums behind such architectural caryatides, and the livelihood these
consortiums guarantee their workforce, the overall contribution of such sacred structures to
the enhancement of humanity‘s quality of life is not available. Apart from the unskilled
labour-force, neither the living conditions nor the moral sensibilities of those living in the
localities infested by such religious institutions have improved (Soyinka, 1996: 112-113).
It is against the background of such travesties that Soyinka approves the first paragraph of the
preamble of United Nations Document responsible for Human Development towards March
184
Luxemburg, Rosa, 1975b. Einführung in die Nationalökonomie (Gesammelte Werke, Band 5 Ökonomische
Schriften). Berlin: Dietz Verlag, 772; cited by Elmar Altvater, 2006. Zeitschrift für kritische Sozialwissenschaft,
36 Jahrgang, Nr.2, 157.
185
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/12/AR2007081200113_2.html (printed June
13, 2008).
186
Note that this Buddhist Temple is sponsored by the Chinese government in conjunction with its attempt to
intensify its late colonial policies in Africa. If any thing, contemporary Chinese leaders seem to have understood
the effectiveness of pseudo-religious activities (e.g. the process of Christianization and Islamization) in the
destruction of identity of the indigenous population and the insecurity often associated with selflessness.
 147

1995 Copenhagen Conference, especially the final presentation of African Ministers

responsible for social and human development, in his conception of an ‗ideal state‘ of the
nation being (1996: 113):

We the governments of African countries represented by our ministers for human and social development,
meeting in Addis Abeba on the 20 and 21 January 1994 as a preparatory regional conference on the World
Summit for social development to be held in Copenhagen, Denmark, during 6 and 12 March 1995,
resolutely affirm the centrality of the human being as the initiator and beneficiary of development, the
means and the end, the agent through whom and for whom, all development activities must be undertaken
(ibid: 141)

This rather vague declaration represents, in Soyinka‘s view, the final convergence of a nation
definition and the fundamental expectations between rulers and the ruled, between the leaders
and the led. But are we not merely trivializing the national ideal by ascribing home such an
opaque declaration? For instance, what is the green–print for development in that declaration?
Should development imply the destructive replacement of, say, sixty to seventy per cent of
Africa‘s agricultural land with concrete, Steel, and glass mausoleums (as do China and India
in this age of globalization) by Western construction consortiums in the name of economic
development; or should development mean Africans emulation of India‘s ―Green-Revolution‖
as Kofi Annan, the former U.N. general secretary and now chairperson of the Alliance for a
Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)187, would prescribe?
Unlike Soyinka, Kofi Annan romanticizes banally India‘s 1960s and 1970s Green Revolution
for his ill-informed African audience. He sounds rather adamant that the emulation of India‘s
Green Revolution is a long-term solution for Africa‘s economic malaise. But how really
informed is Kofi Annan about India‘s Green Revolution? For instance, those who have keenly
studied Asia late industrializing economies, India and China, have often associated them with
chronic and in some instances irreversible environmental problems, specifically acute water
and agricultural land shortages—due to the poor management of these culturally inevitable
natural resources. We must not forget that land, as a divine culture good to nations, is beyond
human creative genius and must therefore be intelligibly managed for both the past, present,
and future generations. So, the following critical ―observation‖ of land and water problems
associated with India‘s 1960s and 1970s ―Green Revolution‖188 should serve as a wedge

187
http://www.agra-alliance.org/news/pr050608-speech.html (accessed June 13, 2008); further details about Kofi
Annan‘s new could be retrieved from: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg19826554.900&print=true.
188
Much of the successful expansion of irrigation in recent decades has come from the exploitation of
groundwater using tubewells. They have the advantage of small scale, low cost and rapid construction without
the loss of fertile land and destruction of human settlements commonly associated with large-scale, gravity-fed
 148

against Kofi Annan‘s economic recommendation. Moreover, if India‘s Green Revolution was
originally intended to have future prospects why such disturbing headlines as: ―Malnutrition
getting worse in India?‖189 Nationalists do not need the voiceless dying faces of India‘s
untouchables—e.g. the six month old Roshni; Kajal (two and half years old); Anyali (seven
month old); and Aseel (two years old)—in order to perceive the tragic outcome of that
country‘s Green Revolution. As Damian Grammaticas (BBC Madhya Pradesh Bureau) also
remarks, even a decade ago 55 to 60 percent—data from National Family Health Survey—of
the over ten million children from Madhya Pradesh were deemed malnourished. Today,
UNICEF puts the number of malnourished children in Chitori Khurda at 79 per cent.
Astonishingly, Robert J C. Young, citing Amartya Sen, then adds that, ―famine in India as
elsewhere is not so much caused by the lack of availability of food as by what he calls the
relations of entitlement. Thus, although today more people in India suffer chronic
malnutrition than the whole of sub-Saharan Africa, and more than half of all children in India
are underweight; this occurs when in fact today India produces all the food it needs, and the
government stockpile of rice and wheat comprises a quarter of the entire world food stocks.
However, largely because of corruption and bureaucratic inefficiency, India‘s public
Distribution System, which controls these vast stores, appears to be completely powerless to
help those, for example in Rajasthan and Orissa, who are starving to death. In order to get rid
of its stocks, which cost half its annual food budget to maintain, India has taken to selling its
rice at a loss on the international market. While its own people starve to death, India‘s rice
exports amount to a third of the total rice exports in the world.‖ (Young, 2003: 135). This is
what the world‘s most populous capitalist led democracy does to its own citizens.

On the other hand, when nationalist leaders heed to such tragic names as China‘s ―Krebsdorf
(cancer village)‖ or ―Krebsstrasse (Cancer Streets)‖ or Cancer capital of the world often
associated with that country‘s novel industrial policies190, they would be generally baffled by

schemes based on reservoirs… In India alone, the number of tubewells jumped from nearly 90 000 to over 12
million in 1990. Behind this success, however, is the neglect of the fact that agricultural development based on
groundwater is unsustainable, when it uses ―fossil‖ water or when extraction rates exceed rates of recharge.
The rapid expansion of tubewells irrigation has put extreme pressures on what is commonly a static resource
because natural rates of recharge are low… Consequently, water tables are dropping and causing a wide range of
environmental, economic and social problems. … Over-pumping has led to increased investment or operating
costs as falling water tables have necessitated deeper wells and greater energy consumption for pumping. In
some instances poor farmers without capital to deepen their wells have had to revert to rainfed production. In
others the necessary adjustments have been too late and the land has been desertified, as in some places in India
… (see, Nikos, Alexandrite, ed. 1995. World Agriculture-Towards 2010: An FAO Study. Chichester/New York,
355 [esp. box 3.1]).
189
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/7445570.stm (accessed June 17, 2008).
190
Andreas Lorenz in: Spiegel Special 5 (2004), 120.
 149

the economic recommendations of both Kofi Annan and Wole Soyinka. The fact alone that
China‘s ―seven major rivers, which use to serve as the prime life line for hundreds of millions
of Chinese peasants, are contaminated beyond any reasonable regress; while between 400-600
Chinese cities and towns (with a population of ca. 600 Million in the North and North eastern
parts of China) are chronically suffering from acute water shortages‖191, suffice to dispel the
―prevailing perception that China is a timely substitute for the economic failures of Africa
outgoing colonial masters.‖192 In effect, Chinese leadership systematic dislocation of
hundreds of thousands of Chinese peasant farmers to Africa for minor construction labor, who
most certainly lost their farmlands to wealthy conglomerates of China‘s capitalist policies,
indicate that the current Chinese leadership is not only anti-national, but a watchdog for the
global economic platform. Thus if the irreversible contamination of water resources; the
misappropriation and destruction of peasant farmlands bear testimony to the global economic
policies of the late industrializing economies of Asia, then Thabo Mbeki‘s recent ―appeal to
African leaders against falling into colonial relationship with China‖193 deserves nationalist
attention.
The unfortunate reality for Azanian nationalists in this age of globalization is the systematic
strangulation of Azania‘s inland water resources prior to the commencement of Kofi Annan‘s
Africa Green-Revolution. In particular, this is true of the present miserable state of Lake
Chad194 due to the over exploitation of its natural water reserves for agriculture use, probably
inline with the economic recommendation of experts from France and other Western
countries. So, why still naively insist that foreign expert knowledge is prerequisite to the
success of Africa‘s Green Revolution?
In the words of Kofi Annan, ―today the efforts of African farmers are thwarted by a lack of
access to good seed, fertilizers, and financing.‖ Hence, the unavoidable need to ally with the
U.S Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). This present alliance would ensure the
delivery of ―better technologies for efficient water use; improved infrastructure; paved roads
so farmers can get their harvests to markets.‖195 But is Kofi Annan unaware of the fact that
the very US government, whose aid agency AGRA/he now allies with, has been present in
Kenya since that country‘s semi independence from Britain; in fact both the British and USA
governments still have military bases in Kenya. Had successive American governments

191
ibid, 120-121; National Geographic (Special Issue)/May (2008), 147-169.
192
Mohamed Guéye, 2006. Internationale Zeitschrift für Entwicklung und Zusammenarbeit (E+Z), 47 Jahrgang,
December 2006, 483.
193
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6178897.stm.
194
http://new.nationalgeographic.com/news/pf/61364746.html;http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-
/2/hi/africa/4906692.stm (accessed June 13, 2008).
195
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/7449989.stm (accessed June 17, 2008).
 150

wanted a better future for Kenya‘s agriculture productivity they would not necessarily wait
until the formation of AGRA. The sad reality about Kenya‘s agricultural sector is that most of
its products are destined for the shelves of affluent economies in the West, whose ill-
conceived export oriented agriculture policies of the past resulted in mono-agricultural
productivity—that is, the destruction of seed variety in favour of corn, rice, Soya or wheat;
which, in our global economic context, are now being generally employed for the bio-fuel
industry at the expense of dead corpse in Somalia and Ethiopia because of the high cost of
food. Further, the fertilizers and chemicals often employed in Kenya‘s agriculture Business
are generally not only banned from use in agricultural production in the West, but are also not
locally owned; and as food prices continue to rise many of these foreign owned ―companies
that make fertilizer, grain elevators, food shipping equipments and chemicals and financial
investors are now scrambling for land globally and in Africa, in particular. Accordingly, a
private equity fund is buying farmland acreage in parts of the world as diverse as Africa and
England. In the economic language of Glen Langan, China and India combined could add
about 3 to 5 million of world‘s middle class each year over the next decade. Those are
consumers with money to spend, and they will consume more food. And that total does not
include expanding middle classes in South America, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East.‖196
Unfortunately, Africa is again excluded from the list of regions that would supposedly benefit
from the global wealth expansion even though its land is suitable for the production of export
crops. Since profits are the main motives behind the waves of scramble for land in Africa and
elsewhere, one could now reasonably argue that the poor subjects of colonial Africa would
again be left to bear the brunt of the ecological strains often associated with the use of
chemicals and fertilizers in agriculture productivity. Lake Chad is a specific case in point.
And unless exigent and drastic national measures are taken, Lake Victoria, the source of the
Great Nile of the indigenous culture institutions, could soon be the next in line.197 The
Hamites are yet again condemned by the gods and goddesses of the global economic order to
perish not only by starvation, but also from contaminated inland water resources.—The
poisonous concoction seems perfectly continuous with the very concept of Africa, it is not an
indigenous preparation.

196
http://webmail.aol.com/37290/aim/de-de/Mail/PrintMessage.aspx (This information was issued on June 18,
2008 by Newsmax.com with the heading: Wall Street Global Land Scramble Begins. Newsmax.com, 4152 West
Blue Heron Blvd, Ste 1114 Riviera Beach, Fl, 33404 USA (accessed June 19, 2008).
197
http://www.wrm.org.uy/bulletin/39/Tanzania.html.
 151

Alas, that the original idea of the declaration, which Soyinka appropriated earlier for his
conceptualization of his ideal state of nation, is not that of the African ministers who
presented it is also elaborated in its general stance on Africa‘s socio-economic and political
issues. The paper, for instance, identifies ―a crisis of governance encompassing such well
known shortcomings as the near absence of democratic structures, popular participation,
political accountability and transparency. Further, the paper also recognizes that civil strife is
closely associated with challenges to authoritarian structures of government as well as ethnic
and communal conflicts. The stark reality that cripples rescue efforts from within Africa is
also acknowledged in that report:

Concomitant with the decline in all the indicators of human and social development is the virtual collapse
of African institutional capacity. Hospital and health centres lack basic equipment and amenities: schools
lack basic teaching aids necessities such as chalks; African universities and institutions, once the training
ground for the region leaders, professionals and technicians have now become poor performing
institutions‖ (Soyinka, 1996: 134-136).

Apart from Wole Soyinka recommendation for his fellow Africans to catch up with the
political and economic tenancies/models of advanced industrial countries …, genuine
nationalists would generally find his work suspect for various reasons. Specifically, in
addition to his earlier acknowledgement that ‗any nation apprehension that takes its being in
ideas outside the humanity that is the fundamental element of its very existence is as vaporous
as the nation itself‘ (1996: 110), the author‘s cursory treatment of the political crises of
Nigeria is bound to haunt his work considerably. For example, why did the literary laureate
consider the results of Nigeria‘s 1993 presidential election to be the dawn of a democratic
nation-being despite the apparent difficulty of extricating Bashorun M.K.O Abiola198 from his
list of Nigeria‘s social predators? That the Abiola cult could be so elusive to Soyinka‘s critical
lenses is indeed suspect given the authors disdain for the tribal ideal (Soyinka, 1996: 109-
145). In fact, for Soyinka, Nigeria remains a duty and not a nation in the real sense (ibid: 131-

198
Olatunde Obakhavbaye, a nigerian political refugee from the Delta region who I met in Greifswald in the
1990s, told me that the financial fortune Bashorun M.K.O Abiola used in financing his 1993 election campaign
was made from the chronically bankkrupt NEPA institution (National Electric Power Authorities)... But does this
description of Abiola not make him the exact opposite of a national figure whose main priority is the welfare of
his fellow nationals. And shortly after the annulment of the results 1993 presidential election, Abiola flew a
chattered presidential Jet across countries whose leaders still posit themselves as the divine elected colonial
masters of Africans—and therefore entitled to the final say in the political destiny of Africa—lobbying support.
Indeed with such post-election grand gestures across European capitals, one would find it rather difficult to
extricate Abiola from the list of Mobutus or Bedel Bokassa (who in a single night spent over a million Pounds
appeasing French audience in many of his numerous marriages abroad).
 152

133). This is almost like suggesting that our quest for establishing the genuine national ideal
in Africa should have began at the continental level.

3.4.2. Retrieving the National Genus from the Concept of Pan-Africanism

The main obstacle in terms of establishing the national ideal from the concept of pan
Africanism is the ‗foreign provenance of the concept of Africa‘ (Ben-Jochannan, 1991: 1).
Therefore, without further ado, let‘s expound on the earlier perception that Pan-Africanism is
merely the furtherance of European pseudo-nationalism. Indeed, most academic literature
often invokes the capital cities and or education institutions of Western countries as the birth
place of the founding ideas of the Pan-African Movement. Reacting to this, the Executive
Committee of the Union of African students in London made unequivocal their position on
future conferences with regard to early pan Africanism:

The idea of a congress of African nations and all people of African descent is both useful and timely …
But we observe that four of such pan-African congresses had been held, all within recent memory, and
that the present under discussion is the fifth. It is unfortunate that these important conferences should have
been held outside Africa, but in European capitals. This point is significant and should deserve our
attention…
Our Executive Committee are certainly not in favour of this or any future pan-African congress been held
anywhere in Europe. We do rather suggest the Republic of Liberia as perhaps an ideal choice. … for our
fifth pan-African congress. We have good reason to believe that the government of Liberia would
welcome this idea, and would give us the encouragement and diplomatic assistance that might be
necessary to ensure success (W.E.B Du Bois cited in Kedourie, 1970: 386)

With the unavoidable choice for Liberia199 in that seemingly remote and emotional period of
Africa‘s political history, one could rightly assume that the political destiny of Africa was, in
the early days of pan-African ideas…, largely under the control and influence of foreign
economic powers. True, the founding ideas of the pan-African movement are largely
attributed to the creative genius of scholars and political activists in the Diaspora, who
apparently then were unaware or knew little about the indigenous people genuine desire for
the total and unconditional freedom of their homeland and its Manfou(i)r culture institutions.
Also, the exact venue of the first Pan-African Congress remains highly contested and so too is
the movement‘s objectives.

199
We should not forget that Liberia was itself a political experiment of the US government of Monroe to
repatriate back freed African slaves from the USA; and Liberia then, as today, was quasi a satellite state of the
USA government rather than a real independent country.
 153

For example, while P.E. Olisanwuche200 considers the Chicago congress of August 14 – 21
(1893) as the nascence of pan-Africanism as a movement; W.E.D Du Bois is quoted by
Kedourie (1970: 372) as contesting that the Pan-African meeting in London (1900) put the
word ―Pan-African‖ in the dictionaries for the first time.
As with its objectives, W.E.B Du Bois stated in the 1930s that ―the pan-African movement is
aimed at the intellectual understanding and cooperation among all groups of African descent
in order to bring about the industrial and spiritual emancipation of the Negro people. Rayford
Logan, a black American historian, speaking at the Third Annual Conference of American
Society of African culture at the University of Pennsylvania in 1960, saw the pan-African
phenomenon in terms of self-government by African countries south of the Sahara. The
Nigerian Journalist and politician, Anthony Enahoro, adds that the phenomenon included the
economic, social, and cultural development of the African continent, the avoidance of conflict
among African states, the promotion of African unity and its influence on world affairs.
Taking the argument from A. Enahoro, Senegalese publicist, Alioune Diop, felt that Pan-
Africanism was more or less synonymous with the concept of ―African personality‖ or
―Negritude.‖ In short, the list of differing opinions about the objectives of the pan-African
movement could be many times resurfaced depending on the socio-economic objectives of the
numerous and random Pan-African groups littered across the political spectrum. With this in
mind, P.E Olisanwuche describes ―the pan-African idea as a bifurcated phenomenon with
both political and cultural ambitions that regards Africa, Africans and African descendents
abroad as a unit. As a movement it seeks to regenerate and unify Africa and promote a feeling
of oneness among the people of African world. It glorifies African past and inculcates pride in
African values.‖201
But what is so glorious about Africa‘s past since the very concept of Africa couldn‘t be
indigenously validated. Contrary to what Olisanwuche would have us believe, far from having
any genuine culture orientation the pan-African ideas are wholly politically derived; and, in
most cases, at variance with the indigenous people desire for total freedom. One must not
forget that the lack of indigenous culture orientation doesn‘t necessary imply the absence of
politicized culture. After all the substitution of Hyen-Nu/Amon culture institutions with the
Christian, Islamic and Buddhist ones, as noted elsewhere, is politically deemed to be
culturally verifiable. Consequently, any unbiased review of the various documents of Pan-
African congresses since that movement formation would also come to the conclusion that

200
PE. Olusanwuche, Esedebe, 1994. Pan-Africanism: The Idea and Movement, 1776-1991. Howard University
Press, extracts mainly from ch.1.
201
ibid., ch.1.
 154

pan-Africanism is indeed a genuine political endeavour continuous with the objectives of

colonialism. Even its most ardent unionist advocate, Kwame Nkrumah, was more politically
inclined despite his revocation of such cultural terms as Nŋhana (Ghana) and Azania in 1957
and 1958 respectively. Therefore the following selected list of resolutions from [probably] the
first Pan-African Congress in London should invalidate the perception that there is anything
cultural about the pan-African ideas:

(a) That the allies and associable powers establish a code of law for the international
protection of the natives of Africa, similar to the proposed international code of
labour.

(b) That the League of Nations established a permanent bureau charged with the
special duty of overseeing these laws to the political, social, and economic welfare
of the natives.

(c) The Negroes of the world demand hereafter that the natives of Africa and African
descent be governed according to the following principles:

1). The land and its natural resources shall be held in trust for the natives at all
times they shall have effective ownership of as much land as they can probably
develop.
2). Capital: The investment of capital and granting of concessions shall be so
regulated as to prevent the exploitation of the natives and exhaustion of natural
wealth of the country. Concessions shall always be limited to time and subject to
government control. The growing social needs of the natives shall be regarded and
the profits taxed for the social and material benefits of the natives.
3). Labour: Slavery and corporal punishment shall be abolished and forced labour
except in punishment for crimes; and the general condition of labour shall be
prescribed and regulated by the state.
4). Education: It shall be the right of every native child to learn to read and write
his own language and the language of the trustee nation, at public expense, and to
be given technical instruction in some branch of industry. The state shall also
educate as large a number of natives as possible in higher technical and cultural
training and maintain a large corps of native teachers…
 155

5). The state: The natives of Africa must have the right to participate in the
government as far as their development permits in conformity with the principle
that the government exists for the natives, and not the natives for the government.
They shall at once be allowed to participate in local and tribal government
according to ancient usage, and this participation shall gradually extend, as
education and experience proceeds to the higher offices of the state, to the end that
in time, Africa be ruled by consent of Africans. … Whenever it is that at the hands
of any state or that any state deliberately excludes its civilized citizens or subjects
of Negro descent from its body politic and cultural, it shall be the duty of the
League of Nations to bring the matter to the civilized world … (Kedourie, 1970:
376).

It should be noted at once that despite the modifications made later, in successive pan-African
congresses (Kedourie 1970: 377-387), the main language of the resolutions above
corresponds in large with the concessions made to acquire the first wave of African
independence, after the Second World War. But doesn‘t the entire language of these
resolutions sound too obsequious to be nationalistic? Is it the explicit pleading for the
allocation of some parts of indigenous land or natural habitat for industrialization, or the wish
for the permanent establishment of bureau of the [defunct] League of Nations, that should be
considered nationalistic? In general, these resolutions sound more like that of economically
deprived scholars and political activists begging to be integrated in the imperialist-led class
structured socio-economic tenancy of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries Capitalism. In
this way, one can understand the acute suspicion of Marcus Garvey‘s popular movement
(UNIA) by both the agents of colonialism and such indigenous elitist intellectuals as W.E.B
du Bois (and some influential members of NAACP).

Marcus Garvey is an outstanding national figure for considering his Bantu-Ethiopian

populace to be a naturally distinct and geographically localized national constituency, which
by virtue of its natural intellectual endowment is not only capable of its own
development/improvement, but could contribute uniquely to the development of humanity at
large. Garvey‘s nationalistic argument also found its most potent celebration in the words of a
Russian nationalist philosopher, Tschaadajev:
 156

die Russen [sind] ein Ausnahme-Volk. [Sie] gehören zu der Group jener Nationen die scheinbar in den
Bestand der Menschheit nicht eingehen, vielmehr nur dazu sind, die Welt irgendeine wichtige Lehr zu
geben (quoted in Hannah Arendt, 1986: 510)

Marcus Garvey and Tschaadajev positions are not only genuinely nationalistic, but more
importantly convergent; that is to say, both views contradict conventional arguments that
nationalist are by nature xenophobic and unable to cooperate. For instance, while accepting
the uniqueness of their distinctive peoples/nations, they both acknowledge that their national
cultures must be subservient to humanity; in other words both unanimously contest that their
divine national missions are wholly humane.202 The Bantu-Ethiopians and their Russian
counterpart could easily cooperate in the service of humanity provided their distinct nations
are totally free from external political influences/interventions. This rather culture imperative
of being innately committed to the total freedom of one‘s nation and at the same time innately
voluntarily inclined to the service of humanity might sound linguistically incongruous, but it
is the acme of nationalism. To polish my national understanding with economic language,
each nation is by nature endowed with the monopoly of special culture knowledge. And it is
the voluntary integration of these specialized culture knowledges that we are most likely to
arrive at that juncture (in the form of ankh) called perfect humanity. With this national
understanding one is left to conclude that the pan-African ideas are generally not only too
shallow but also too political to be genuinely nationalistic.

Indeed, it would be unfair to consider all the early pan-African official statements as a mere
pseudo-nationalist stunt aimed at conforming to the economic realities of the past two
centuries. Worthy of note is the perception that ―the independence of Ghana (Nŋhana) would
be meaningless unless it is linked with the total independence of the whole continent.‖203 This
notwithstanding, one must not confuse Nkrumah‘s genuine political commitment to
continental unity with nationalists demand for culture unity and national integration. For this
Africa‘s grand continental unionist individual had no problem whatsoever with Arabs colonial
occupation of the northern part of his beloved motherland. As noted elsewhere, even
disingenuous nationalists often find it difficult, especially in times of crisis, to disavow the
culture institutions of their ancestors. Thus, Kwame Nkrumah‘s disavowal of the sacred land

202
The concept of national humanism also found expression in Ndabaninge Sithole‘s African Nationalism (1959)
cited in Hannah Vogt, 1967. Nationalismus Gestern und Heute. Opladen: C.W. Leske Verlag, 203-205; V.Y.
Mudimbe, 1994. The Idea of Africa, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 23 credits Eugene Guernier as
among the first to articulate the African origin of humanity and human conciousness.
203
P.E.Olisanwuche, Pan-Africanism, ch.1; Hannah, Vogt, 1967. Nationalismus Gestern und Heute. Opladen:
C.W. Leske Verlag, 203.
 157

of the culture institutions of his Bantu-Ethiopian ancestors disfranchises his national

commitments. Even assuming Nkrumah‘s revocation of such national culture terms as
Nŋhana (Ghana) or Azania was originally intended to give culture resonance to his grand
continental political program; supposing the founding fathers of pan-Africanism were indeed
generally coerced into accepting the economic and political reality of contemporary Africa;
the present political scenarios customary of Arab expansive policies in Sudan/Darfur, Chad,
Mali, Mauritania, Niger and other parts of Africa suffice as a reminder of how irreconcilable
the objectives of imperialism and genuine nationalism really are. As the political crisis in
Sudan, Mali, Niger, and Mauritania tends to confirm, Islam for enlightened Arabs is merely
an instrument for land theft and territorial expansion. That Kwame Nkrumah was more an
internationalist political character, whose political views were inconsistent with the mythical
language of indigenous culture, is also evident in the ―aim‖ and ―goals‖ of his early organized
political activities in the Diaspora, e.g. the ―Circle.‖204

I. Aim of the Circle:

a). To maintain ourselves and the Circle as the Revolutionary Vanguard of the
struggle for West African unity and national independence.

b). To support the idea and claims of the All African National Congress in its
struggle to create and maintain a union of African socialist Republics.

II. Circle Goal: As time as may be deemed advisable ―The Circle‖ will come out openly as a
political party embracing the whole of West Africa and whose policy then shall be to
maintain the Union of African Socialist Republics. For an extended discussion of Kwame
Nkrumah‘s Circle (see, Kedourie, 1970: 388-391).

With the mention of West Africa‘s independence via a socialist political platform et cetera,
one thus sees in Kwame Nkrumah a determined socialist agent whose political mission was
the inculcation of Marxist scientific socialist values in the minds of his fellow Africans. As
Nkrumah himself stated, ―Long before 1957, I made it clear that the two major tasks to be
undertaken after the ending of colonial rule in Ghana would be the vigorous prosecution of a
Pan-African policy to advance the African Revolution, and at the same time the adoption of
204
From Report of the Commission of Enquiry into Disturbances in Gold Coast 1948, Colonial No.231,
Appendix II, p.92.
 158

measures to construct socialism in Ghana.‖205 This self-proclaimed Marxist was probably too
committed to the Marxist scientific doctrine to have simply overlooked then the apparent
contradiction between Karl Marx celebration of the colonization of the so-called backward
peasant Slavs by the so-called advanced/superior Germanics and or British colonization of
Indians and his fellow Africans desire for emancipation from the Yokes of colonialism. For
Nkrumah, ―Pan-Africanism and Socialism are organically complementary. One cannot be
achieved without the other.‖206 Not surprisingly, the Nigerian based Pan-Africanist,
Chinweizu207, considers Nkrumah‘s commitment to both Pan Africanism and Marxism as a
fortuitous development in his academic life. But, as Professor Kwesi Prah reports, ―by the
mid 1960s, practically all African heads of state, with the exception of Haile Selassie of
Ethiopia, Leon Mba of Gabon and V.S. Tubman of Liberia, had at one time espoused African
socialism. Consistently such ideologues have put a distance between what they variously
define as African socialism, and the 20th century Marxian formulae, with the emphasis on
class struggle. Tom Mboya anchored his definition of African Socialism on the pre-industrial
communitarian ethos of Africa. … In Tanzania under Julius Nyerere populist socialism was
described as Ujamaa Socialism.‖208 Essentially, Chinweizu considers the prevailing tag of
African Socialism in the early 1960s in the place of African Communalism as similarly
fortuitously derived to coincide with European socialist political agendas. Hence it shouldn‘t
be surprising that shortly after the first wave of African independence … agents of
colonialism succeeded in dividing the African states into the so-called Casablanca Group (of
which Ghana, one of the radical countries, was part) and the Monrovia Group (that of the
moderates). This is how a Ghanaian News paper also characterized both groups when the
Monrovia Group met in Lagos in 1962:

―The Casablanca states have consolidated their economic independence and are using it for the benefit of
their citizens, while the member states of the French colonies and some English speaking countries are
being exploited by their colonial masters. The citizens of these countries are still living under the yoke of
poverty, while their European colonial masters continue to enjoy their economic resources‖ (cited in
Minogue, 1970: 134-135).

This concise delineation of the economic background of early Pan-Africanism thus reaffirms
its political nature as a whole. Astonishingly, despite their quest for freedom, Western

205
Kwame, Nkrumah, 1972. Revolutionary Path, 125.
206
ibid., 127.
207
Chinweizu, 2008. African Unity: the problem and its dimensions. A privately circulated unpublished Paper
208
Kwesi, Prah, 2006. The African Nation. Cape Town: CASAS, 80-81.
 159

economic and political ideals remain for most Pan-African intellectuals and scholars the
perfect criterion for emulation. And the Cameroonian Pan-Africanist, Senfo Tonkam (the
founder of Black Nation in Germany), who I first met in Hamburg in early 2000 as a first year
student from the university of Munich, has since transformed from being once a progressive
[socialist] to a liberal/democratic nationalist. This later political development tends to reveal a
particularistic character trait of most pan-African personalities given that [even] the founding
fathers of the pan African movement, prior to their ascension to power, were also key
advocates of global democracy (Kedourie 1970: 379).

In addition to what seems like intellectual impotency on the part of most pan-African leaders
and scholars, there might be sound political reasons why the democratic concept is so
appealing to the advocates of African unity today. The seemingly tenuous democratic
experiment in South Africa suffices for a brief clarification. In this later instance, the
appropriation of democracy in 1994 automated a rational transition to majority government
from the minority Apartheid system, even though the then retreating Apartheid system had
deliberately poorly equipped the indigenous population for such an expeditious democratic
transition. As Claude Ake rightly observes, ―the social conditions for a formal democratic
process is not yet available in Africa; the influence of the political class and especially the
opposition is not at all favourable: Their democratic engagement, when at all available, is
[superficial] and weak and often an instrument for power strategy.‖209 ―Africa is not ready for
democracy,‖210 Jacque Chirac once said. There are three pre-conditions for the establishment
of democratic culture, Rainer Tetzlaff211 also acknowledges:

1) The establishment of division of labour based on the principle of capitalist market

order with political arrangements for fair private ownership and attested civil
rights;

2) an education and professional training of a disciplined labour force for an

industrialized economy; and

209
Claude, Ake, 1994. „Demokratisierung der Machtlösigkeit in Afrika.― In: Jochen Hippler, hrsg.
Demokratisierung der Machtlösigkeit. Politische Herrschaft in der Dritten Welt. Hamburg, 59-82 (insb. s.78).
210
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/7014776.stm.
211
Afrika zwischen Staatsversagen und Demokratizierung. Das Parlament (Beilage zur Wochenzeitung Das
Parlament), B 44-45 (1995), .3-7.
 160

3) the establishment of a parliamentary controlled state, which, on the one hand,

embodies a legitimate monopoly of power and, on the other hand, condenses a
relatively autonomous power relations (e.g. can raise tax and capable of applying
legal norms), thereby facilitating the consolidation of social cohesion from the
mediation of conflicting social interests.

The sociologist, Dieter Classens,212 is also the opinion that the democratic consolidation in
Europe would have been unthinkable had these preconditions not been met. Since Africa‘s
economic infrastructure was originally designed to serve as a permanent supplier of raw
materials (e.g. Gold, Ivory, Diamond, Timber, Copper, Platinium, Uranium, and so on) for the
advanced industrial economies, one can only propose late industrialization as the only
alternative for an expedient democratic adjustment. If indeed this is necessary for a realistic
transition to democratic governance as Rainer Tetzlaff and Dieter Classens would have us
believe, then the fact that the post-modern economy is increasingly drifting towards an
ecological economic order inevitably implies that sooner or later African countries would
again be seeking external expert knowledge to readjust economically.
However, as observed elsewhere, reliance on foreign expert knowledge does not come
without its own cultural and political implications. When we hear today that newly and poorly
trained Chinese medics and engineers are filling up lucrative positions in Angola, Zimbabwe,
Namibia, Ghana (and across Africa as a whole); and in the process are earning three times
more than they would normally earn back home, positions, which in a genuine national
context, must be reserved [first] for equally qualified indigenous medics and doctors, it thus
becomes obvious that African countries are not only a dumping ground for poorly qualified
professionals from the industrial and late industrializing worlds, but, even worse, an
experimenting ground for the sophistication of poorly qualified/trained professionals from the
industrialized and late industrializing worlds.213 In short, no genuine nationalist would ever
place her/his people‘s future in the hands of the current Chinese government, which until now
has so overtly demonstrated its disdain for the indigenous Darfurians of Arab dominated
Sudan.214

212
Dieter, Classens, 1992. Kapitalismus und demokratische Kultur. Frankfurt am Main, s.181.
213
See, Sierra Leone shuts bogus clinics: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/8239060.stm (accessed
September 4, 2009).
214
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/7503428.stm.
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3.5. The effects of pseudo-nationalism on the natural development of nations

So far this thesis has analytically demonstrated that nation-states are rational economic
extensions from a wholly cultural ideal, the national phenomenon. More to the point, the
appropriation of traditional institutions of culture by agents of the economic ideal, the
expansive state system, has more to do with the fact that states are generally dependant on
material resources to function properly—after all without such resources they would be
unable to finance their border guards and bureaucratic institutions of power. As Kenichi
Ohmae also observes, modern nation-states were originally conceived to be ―the optimal unit
for organizing economic activity—a function he acknowledges they do no longer adequately
fulfil‖ (1995: 1-13). If, indeed, the main impulse behind the rational of nation-states was
bourgeoisie desire to have a field of order in which markets, people, and resources could be
controlled and harnessed for uninterrupted expansive industrial activity as Kenichi
convincingly assert, then a critical review of the multicultural texture of the contemporary
nation-states would also confirm that the merger between the culture ideal (nation) and the
state system must have also been a rational political deliberation or more accurately marriage
of convenience.
In a wholly economic sense, the multicultural currency of contemporary political debates at
the national state level in this global age makes sense because economic agents who now
often claim to be operating from an obscure global economic platform no longer bear the
responsibility for the economic failures of the nation-states from which they operate. We must
not forget that when the nationalists—those ready to sacrifice their own lives in the defence of
the national phenomenon without material compensation—were needed for territorial
expansion abroad there was a predominantly protestant Anglo-Saxon British nation. But if in
the global context the nationalists of the nation-state constitutions are increasingly being left
to fend for themselves economically, it is simply because the exploitive economic mind no
longer sees vested economic interest in demarcated frontiers. The nations with their constant
demand for economic equality may not only be an impediment to the expansive economic
agenda of a world state, but a threat to the crypto-cratic global economic order. The economic
institutions are after all better off in China; the concentration camps of the Soviet Union;
Auswitz or Buchenwald where peasants would be dispossessed of their lands and or workers
exposed unprotected to radiation in factories conjoined to labour camps.
By similar analytical token, the maintenance of democracy at the nation-state level might be
also a rational political deliberation to undermine the natural development of the national
genus given nations unanimous demand for the equal treatment of their nationalities.
 162

Although it would be unfair to confuse the prevailing democratic tenancy of nation-states with
that of the Greek polis (City-States), but the ―biography of Pericles‖ tends to suggest that his
timing of the Athenian democracy was equally a rational political deliberation (Kagan, 1992:
1-165). In today‘s context, this hypothesis is plausible because at the outset, especially during
the period of economic golden ages, unsuspecting nationalities of the nation-states
constitutions would generally have no problem sharing their newly acquired wealth or
fortunes with citizens of the merging states given that the ultimate objectives of their
homogenous national cultures is after-all the service of life. Such unwise economic
concessions made earlier by some disingenuous nationalist leaders, especially at a time when
their national cultures was still relatively immature, have only now began to haunt their
successors. Simply because the maintenance of democracy at the nation-state level in this
global economic age makes nationalist leaders demand for equal economic treatment of their
co-nationals increasingly irrelevant. In Kenichi words, ―a firm in an economic region can
source its capital in London, locate its industrial plant in China, tap information from the
database in Singapore and hire individuals in India or Germany to design factory layouts‖
(1995: 13-30). But genuine nationalists are again advised that even such seemingly myriad
choices are rational economic deliberations in that they generally tend to avoid regions whose
labour forces are too costly for the maximization of profits. Inasmuch as the opacity of the
global economic platform is concerned, the ongoing mimicking of the culture requirements
that all members total commitment to their national cultures be compensated by the same
fruits of life was politically meant to be temporal; that is, to interlock the members of the
nation and the state system in an ad hoc marriage which would be later exploited for arbitrary
economic activities. In this sense, when George Bush and his political entourage nowadays
preach democracy for all the nation-states on earth, their providential democratic language is
not meant to impact the global economic order. Because the intensification of
multiculturalism and or democracy at the nation-state level would make the global economic
scheme increasingly arcane for the common man, which in turn means more wealth for the
few wealthy and their political guardians and more misery for the nationalities and citizens of
the nation-states. The prevailing notion of America‘s and NATO‘s divine democratic mission
on earth has more to do with the fact that enlightened members of neo-liberal economic
institutions often equate humankind inability to precise the image of God with the obscurity
of the global economic platform. So, when politicians nowadays point accusative fingers at
the global economic order for the economic malaise of their respective nation-states, they
generally understand that the majority of the increasingly dispossessed nationalities and
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citizens of the nation-states constitutions are too pre-occupied with the complexities of the
economic and political tenancy at the national state level to have either the energy or the
resources required to challenge the esoteric and undemocratic nature of the global order. In
other words, upholders of the global economic order (or the hyper class-structured to-be
world state system) generally understand that the domain of God being unquestionably the
manifestation of knowledge in its utter complexity (the black god/matter of the Bantu-
Ethiopian Pharaohs) is undemocratic. But how do we democratize the relationship between
God and man? That life, in its eternal manifestation, concedes to utter ignorance, which is
death? In the global context, how do we democratize the crypto-cratic institutions of the so-
called global economic order? That the few wealthy agents of the exploitative economic mind
and their political watchdogs (government bureaucracies), who are the main beneficiaries of
the global economic order descend from the luxury of the current socio-economic and
political tenancies to the bathos of common men of the Nation-states (or Hades)? Nationalist
intellectuals should be reminded that the economic mind is by its very nature incapable of
attending the culture demands of the various nationalities, but only exploit their original ideas
for its own survival; the economic mind lives at the expense of the life of nations because the
contemporary democratic casuistry of the nation-state constitutions is at best a rational
political obstruction rather than a genuine substitute for the moral obligations of national
cultures.

In tracing the pre-modern roots of nations, John Armstrong in Nations Before Nationalism
(1982) has demonstrated credibly how culture homogeneity was crucial in cementing the
foundations of [even] Europe divisive political nations. In this view, the Greek Polis and the
Roman Patria provided territorial template for the creation of homogenous national identity.
In Medieval era, medieval cities also played part in instituting ethnic boundaries and the
development of ethnic myths. The rise of Christian and classical-sedentary agrarian order in
the Middle Ages also put end to the nomadic impulse of conquering Germanic tribes from the
north and central parts of Europe. As settled communities, these once warrior and unruly
European groups not only took the mantle of European nobility but developed ancestral ties
across the whole Europe. The Franks, the Normans, Burgundians etc. were in Sicily,
Florence, Spain, France, England, (in short all over Europe). However, since the economic
rational is too obvious in our interpretation of the colonies of Greek City-States and or the
imperial Roman Empire, it was to be expected that such political stability was itself
transitional. Consequently, the urbanization and dynastic expansion brought disparate
 164

linguistic communities into contact. Territorialized culture difference encouraged the

formation of [pseudo] ethnic groups.
Religiously, self-proclaimed defenders of Faith (e.g. Pope Urban II and his Charlemagne
descendants), often with dubious economic agendas of territorial aggrandizement, gave birth
to myth of particularistic ancestry among border peoples. Such an unfortunate pattern of
political divisions would later become synonymous with European nationalist movements
(e.g. the Poles, Turks, Irish, Castilians, Tartars, and so forth [emphasis added]). Sacred
languages or script helped groups to survive and religious institutions (local religious
structures such as the protestant Anglicans in Britain) and intellectuals (lower level local
clergy) forged particularistic identities, which became the foundations for extending European
nation-states. Hence ―in the Middle Ages and early modern period languages became
automatically synonymous with nations. In fact students at medieval universities were often
divided into nations depending on their regions of origin. In this view, European universities
became institutions for the creation of pseudo-ethnic identities.
As Habermas also points out, the so-called Adelsnation or Aristocratic nation during the
course of the Old German Empire, in which the king or emperor dependent on tax and
military support granted the aristocracy, the Church and towns limited participation in
political power sums up the final vestige of Europe political divisions. But again, as would be
expected of any temporary socio-political tenancy exploiting the ignorance of the people for
sheer economic reasons, the days of the denial of the Europeans their original rights of
national belonging was bound to be limited—after all knowledge is the prelude to real
freedom. With the help of European academics and intellectuals the concept of aristocratic
nation was eventually transformed into Volksnation (nation of the people). Thanks to the
Urban educated middle class, the avant-garde of modern European nationalism, through
which the rest of the Europeans became aware of their distinctive national identities. But even
so, this latter popular political nation of the nineteenth century Europe was not totally devoid
of the particularistic character of its pre-political nation, namely the concept of original
belonging.‖(Habermas, 1995: 283) On the whole, the urban educated European middle class
was not only responsible for the rise of economically induced totalitarian regimes, Fascism,
Apartheid literature, and Eurocentricism, but took the torch of the human creative genius of
Medieval universities to an unprecedented level of divisions never known before in the social
history Europe.
To the extent that original belonging, say, to a homogeneous culture community is appanage
to our national understanding, another political attempt to unify Europe on the basis of
 165

originality was the National Socialist Movement (NSM). What makes the Nazi movement
such a phenomenal contribution to the nationalist problematic in European history is neither
its leaders attempt to create a superior Aryan Europe; nor that movement near destruction of
the political and pseudo-cultural institutions of early Europe…, but rather [even] prior to Nazi
leadership ascension to political prominence, European bourgeoisie/capitalist and politicians
alike saw in Hitler‘s Behemoth (Third Reich) the appropriate mechanism for the amassment
of economic fortunes abroad. So, when Hitler, prior to embarking on his economic quest for
Lebensraum, asked—in one of his many incendiary … speeches—why should other
European powers (e.g. Great Britain, France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal etc.) owned colonies
abroad and not Germany, he was merely reiterating the nationalist paradigm of a much earlier
Europe; and although his dream for a purely Aryan European nation never came to fruition, it
did indeed remind European politicians and intellectuals alike that the Europeans are
culturally and historically eiusdem generis and that Europe‘s future lies not in the outward
economic rape of non-European cultures but instead in national unity.
Despite the customary castigation of the architects of Third Reich for wanting to replace the
imperialist-led liberal economic tenancy of class structured European social order with a
politicized national community of blood-brotherliness, it would also seem some of the Nazi
leadership were aware of the fact that nations could only attain their ultimate communal
destiny provided they are founded by people who share the same authentic culture and or
economic/political interests. Therefore those behind the neo-liberal economic agenda of hyper
class structured world state … have good reasons to be suspicious of the most committed
members of real nations because the national phenomenon is the only organically evolving
social entity, whose loyal advocates insist on the equal treatment of their co-nationals at all
times. The political notion that a Philistine would have to kill a Jew in order to survive—the
survival dichotomy of the wolf versus rabbit; Lion versus ram; or crocodile versus bull … as
inscribed on the pillars of the ruins of Bantu-Ethiopian culture institutions in Manfour (or
Memphis=Greek), Thibe (Thebes), Napata, Meroe, et cetera and prominent in local myths of
the Azanians—has nothing in common with the untainted language of culture nationalism.
Such divisive language can only rightly be attributed to the politico-economic mind, the very
mind that in the New Found Land of the Americas condoned the violent rapes of Bantu-
Ethiopian/Hamitic women and continues to do so in Darfur/Sudan and Mauritania in an effort
to create a culturally indifferent global economic humanity.
But as the legacy of late ancient Egyptian politics warns us, the consolidation of this later
humanity is indeed a misfortune for all cultured nations. For example, ―when
 166

Amenôphis/Amenhotep IV, generally known as Khu-n-Aten (the glory of the solar disk),
succeeded his father Amenophis/Amenhotep III his first political move was the renunciation
of ancient Egyptian culture (religion), of which he was the official representative; and
declared himself a convert to an Asiatic faith. The very name of ―Amon‖, the supreme God of
Thebes and the royal family to which he belonged, was proscribed and erased from the
monuments wherever they occurred. In the temples and tombs and quarries alike it was
defaced; even the name of the king‘s own father, which contained it was not spared‖ (Sayce,
1895: 53-54).
Customary to the Bantu-Ethiopians inherent appetency for total freedom and national unity, it
was to be expected that such prominent culture treason would not to go unpunished. So, in the
special case of Achen-aton/Echnaton ―the ruins of the city he built in the North of Egypt for
his newly acquired faith—after he was forced out of Thebes—are still buried in the artificial
sand mounds of Tel-el-Amarna (ibid: 54). Piankhi, Mi[n]-Amon, the king of Napata described
the chaotic scene of Egyptian politics later on a great Stêla of granite, which he built on
mount Barkal (the holy mountain of Napata). He gave the names of seventeen princes among
whom the cities of Egypt had been parcelled out, and each of whom claimed independent or
semi-independent authority. In Sayce apt phrase, Egypt was divided against itself, rent with
internal wars and private feuds, and ready to fall in the hands of the first invader with military
ability and sufficient troops‖ (ibid., 268-269).
It is significant that Echnaton‘s mother, Queen Tiy, was not a true solar princess, and was
probably only part Egyptian (more likely Asiatic by birth) (Kalopoulos, 2003: 264).215 Her
husband, Amenôphis/Amenhotep III, was fond of connecting himself by marriage to the royal
houses of Asia, and more than one of his wives who occupied a secondary rank in the
Pharaonic household were of Asiatic extraction. His own mother had been an Asiatic princess,
the daughter of the king of Mitanni the Aram—Naharaim of the Old Testament. From
Mitanni had come two of his own wives, as well as wife of his own son and successor,
Amenôphis IV (Sayce, 1895: 58). Importantly, Tiy was introduced into Amenophis III‘s
harem, and through her natural abilities she soon managed to supplant every other woman …
to become the incontestable Queen of Egypt with unprecedented poltical powers. During the
later years of his reign, Amenhotep III appears to have been unable to rule. He is reported to
have largely retired in a secluded palace, abdicating to Queen Tiy with her councellors and
ministers the affairs of the state (Kalopoulos, 2003: 264-265).

215
The mummies of Queen Tiy‘s parents Yuga, who was a person of high office and a priest (!) and Thuya have
been found and positively identified. Yuga was not an Egyptian but of Hurrian (Mesopotamian) stock.
 167

Accordingly, Tiy was the first Egyptian Queen to have her own name on the official acts; her
name was mentioned in the correspondence with foreign head of states and rulers who had
become aware of her important political role (ibid: 265).216
If indeed most of these prominent marriages between mainly influential male Bantu-Ethiopian
leaders with Asiatic princesses in the past were politically motivated, then president Gamal
Abdul Nasser of Egypt personal involvement in the choice of Kwame Nkrumah‘s wife, after
Nkrumah‘s invocation of the concept of Nŋhana.., seems to also fit perfectly well with that
pattern of arrangements. In any event, that the whole northern part of the Bantu-Ethiopian
nation/Azania is still under colonial occupation not only confirm the historicity of the biblical
narrative about ―Samson‖ and the Semitic ―Laila‖, but suffices as a warning to culture
custodians of nations about the consequences of such political marriages of convenience.
Azanian nationalists do not necessarily have to exhume ―Axum role in the demise of Meroe‖
(Basil D. 1970: 61), the last refuge of Theben culture custodians…, in order to fully grasp the
political rational behind the coercion of Bantu-Ethiopian leaders and high ranking officials
into similar marriages after the Greco-Assyrian alliance overran that part of the then Ethiopian
Kingdom. While it would be culturally unreasonable or economically impossible to police
what nationalities of different nations do in their private intercourse; it is equally against
normal culture norms for genuine nations to condone the systematic political creation of
culturally indifferent global economic humanity as is currently the case in Dafur (or was in
the Sugar Plantations of enslaved America). In light of the ruinous state of the so-called
Egyptian culture or civilization are nationalists then not generally right in their apprehension
that the ongoing political attempt to replace the original human constituencies of national
cultures with the culturally indifferent global economic humanity217 is in itself a threat to the
future of humanity?
Undeniably, this later creative genius, the quest for culturally indifferent and economically
derived global humanity, is not voluntary; it is by its very nature the acme of the apolitical
and undeniably arbitrary and imposing. In fact, the recent flocking of China by economically
minded global entrepreneurs and companies, in that myopic economic bid to turn China‘s
216
Kalopoulos, who generally shares with those authors who have suggested a possible Hebrew origin for the
Queen, thus noted similar political infiltrations by prominent Asiatic women in the Pharaonic household (i.e. the
marriage of Sarah, Abraham‘s wife, to a Pharaoh and later to king Abimelech. Esther also married King
Ahasuerus (probably the Xerxes of history who later succeeded his father Darius (B.C.485)).
217
So sagt Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi in: „Praktischer Idealismus‖: Der Mensch der Zukunft wird Mischling
sein. … Die eurasisch-negroide Zukunftsrasse, äusserlich, der altägyptischen ähnlich, wird die Vielfalt der
Völker durch eine Vielfalt der Persönlichkeiten ersetzen. Denn nach den Vererbungsgesetzen wächst mit der
Verschiedenheit der Vorfahren die Verschiedenheit, mit der Einförmigkeit der Vorfahren die Einförmigkeit der
Nachkommen. In Inzuchtfamilien gleicht ein Kind dem anderen: denn alle repräsentieren den einen
gemeinsamen Familientypus. […] Inzucht schafft charakteristische Typen—Kreuzung schafft originelle
Persönlichkeiten. (1925: 22-23)
 168

remaining agricultural land into a giant mausoleum of concrete, steel, and glass, is bound to
intensify that country‘s nationalist suspicion. We do not necessarily have to be genuine
Chinese nationalists or fanatic environmentalist in order to foresee that by the time China‘s
population will have ticked the two thousand million mark, there wouldn‘t be any suitable
agriculture land left for the cultivation of national culture. The alternative will probably then
be either the military occupation of another Tibet or the violent destruction of this recently
built mausoleums in order to make room for the rebuilding of future ones—that is, to give the
hundreds of millions of Jobless Chinese another thirty years of economic Golden Age, as with
the Golden Ages of the European economic rational. And it is true that the reconstruction of
Europe‘s infrastructure from the ruins of the so-called World Wars is often equated with the
Golden Ages of Europe‘s economic performance.
It is after all ruins that the neophyte economic mind envisions for the future of humanity;
some sort of experimental ambagious with the destiny of humanity. Here we are no longer
dealing with the ultimate objective of national cultures—that is, life in its eternal
manifestation: the inseparable embodiment of the soul and body. That untainted culture
discourse of nations‘ voluntary intercourse in search of the perfect humanity was suspended
some five thousand years ago or earlier when the legitimate custodians of the Bantu-Ethiopian
culture foresaw what was to become of their culture institutions… and withdrew from the
destructive reach of economic hand. Simply said, the culture mind and hand creates and the
economic mind/hand destroys. Apodictically, not genuine nationalists but economic agents
and their political watchdogs of the state apparatus are the main threat to the future of
humanity. Therefore the prevailing perception, mainly by the mainstream neo-liberal
institutions, that nationalists are by their very nature xenophobic should be perceived as yet
another rational political deliberation to distract humanity from the ruinous intensions of the
economic mind. And Professor Sayce couldn‘t be more sincere in his warning to the culture
custodians of the different nations:

‗…of the ancient city of On (Greeks Heliopolis or Jewish Beth Shemesh), with its famous temple of Ra,
the Sun-god, its university of learned priests, and its innumerable monuments of the past, there is little
now to be seen. Nothing is left but the mud brick wall of sacred enclosure, and a thick layer of lime-stone
chipping which tell how the last relics of the temple of the Sun-god were burnt into lime for the Cairo of
Ismail Pasha. Nothing more remains of the Old capital of Egyptian religion and centre of learning. The
destruction is indeed complete; the spoiler… burnt with fire ―the houses of the gods of the Egyptians‖‘
(Sayce, 1895: 220-221)
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3.6. What future has the African State System?

If we could recall that the multicultural currency of the nation-state constitutions in this global
age has done much to undermine nationalist demands for the equal treatment of their co-
nationals in both cultural and economic terms, then we are probably at the verge of an
arbitrary economic order which could be detrimental not only to the nationalities and citizens
of nation-states, but also worse the nation-states themselves, particularly those weaker ones
dependent on foreign handouts for their very existence. For instance, the pseudo-nationalist
Chinese leadership could expropriate the land of hundreds of millions of local peasants to a
handful of capitalist entrepreneurs/investors or Western companies relocating productivity to
Asia in order to escape the high cost of local production or stringent environmental rules in
their bid to maximize profits. By similar analytical token, the same economic agents could—
in line with the economic policies of local governments, say the Chinese government
desperation about the impact of local environmental deterioration on its future—export the
remaining stockpiles of hazardous, chemicals, pesticide, and or nuclear waste to unsuspecting
farmers or warehouses owners in African countries (e.g. Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Senegal,
Zambia). Practically, the exploitative economic mind and its political backers might have
every reason at least for now to exploit the rational incarceration of the various nationalities
within the nation-state constitutions. However, their over exploitation in some parts of the
world could subsequently trigger the disintegration of weaker nation-states. This is how
globalization and multiculturalism could serve as catalyst for the disintegration of African
states in particular. Jeffrey Sachs introduction of the new orientation of the global economic
order suffices for an analytical amplification in the global context:

―The 1990s is one of the great watershed decades in economic history. The post-war division of the world
economy into First, Second, and Third World has ended. Not only has communism collapsed, but the
other ideologies of state-led development that were prevalent in the Third World for decades have fallen
into disrepute. If the United States and other industrialized countries act with wisdom, they have a chance
to consolidate a global capitalist system, with profound benefits for both the rich and poor countries‖
(Sachs, 1998: 50218; Toyin, 2005: 500)

Since there is now every reason to believe that Africa‘s fifty four or so countries did not come
into being by divine fiat but as a result of external economically induced political interference,
let‘s assume that the benefits or bequest of early attempts by capitalist interventions to
elevate the often so-called backward continent and its primitive population from the

218
Jeffrey, D. Sachs, 1998. ―Consolidating Capitalism.‖ Foreign Affairs (Spring 1998).
 170

underworld of economic misery in nineteenth and twentieth centuries are the political realities
we continue to witness across the political landscape of Africa today; or the deportation and
enslavement of hundreds of millions of Africans in other parts of the earth. As Toyin rightly
observes, ‗slave trade was one of the early manifestations of global trade, with Africa as part
of the triangle of an evil commerce in which supposedly [sub] human beings were exchanged
for goods of leisure and violence‘ (Toyin, 2005: 503). If so, why such pertinacious insistence
by Sachs and/or (Professor Wolfgang H. Thomas219) that capitalists enterpreneurs or the
Business community be core to African economic development? To the extent that the
creation and maintenance of artificial states; slave trade; and violent extermination of
hundreds of millions in Belgian Congo, Namibia and German East Africa, are just some of
the early manifestations of global commerce, genuine nationalists should not wait the
outcome of the political crises in Chad, Somali, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and other parts of
colonial Africa in order to perceive that the maintenance of the African states—even with the
backing of the notorious French legionnaire as in Chad, Cameroun or Gabon, etc.—are a
serious threat to the future of the indigenious population as a whole. If today the Eastern,
Central, and Western African countries seem increasingly moribund in the ―Second-Phase‖220
of Arabs quest for Lebensraum in Sudan, Mali, Chad, Niger, Mauritania, Somali…, it isn‘t
because these countries do not anticipate having to confront the forces of Arab colonialism in
the Congo belt221 in the very near future; indeed they are generally aware of the looming
existential threat—only that they are politically too divided and weak to act nationally. And
this best explains why the Malian and other African governments so desperately rely on the
Libyan government222 for peace in the Sahel region despite Gaddafi and his entourage direct
involvement in the Wars of African new frontline states (Sudan, Mali, Chad, Niger and
Mauritania). Left alone to Gaddafi, ―the Third of the Arab community living outside Africa

219
W H.Thomas (University of Stellenbosch Business School, South Africa) headed a seminal discussion on
June 19, 2008 at the German Institute of Global and Area Studies (Neuer Jungfernstieg 21, Hamburg, Germany)
with the title: Business involvement in African Development: Can South Africa be a bridge to the First World?
While I fully appreciate Prof. W H. Thomas genuine commitment to promoting the image of Africa abroad; what
committed economic agents like Thomas failed to admit or comprehend is the direct role Business people played
in the destabilization of the so-called African continent. The economic mind after all does not require that all
countries be equally developed let alone the economic betterment of the majority poor: That could threaten the
existence of the capitalist system. Provided only 20 million of Africa‘s almost 12 000 million are slightly better
off economically, the rest could use them as a measure for further competition and divisions.
220
Chinweisu contests that the First-Phase of Arab colonial expansion from the Arabian Peninsula into other
parts of Africa began in Seventh century A.D and ended in the eighteenth and nineteeth centuries with the
introduction of European colonialism and the subsequent division of Africa. And the Second-Phase began
shortly after independence in the 1950s until today (Chinweizu‘s Paper ―Arab Quest for Lebensraum” was
presented at the Global pan African Reparations and Repatriation Conference on 25 July (2006) at the University
of Legon, Ghana).
221
http://afraf.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/103/412/359 (accessed July 12/2008);
http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/May1999/cong-m14.shtml (accessed July 12, 2008).
222
http://uk.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUKL0334958920080403 (printed June 26, 2008).
 171

should move in with the Two Third on the continent and join the African Union which is the
only space they have.‖223
In any event, if the Malian government is too naive to abide by the terms of the Draft-
Agreement recently signed in Tripoli—that is, the withdrawal of all Malian troops from the
North East of the country so as to allow the Libyan government to control the economic
development of the so-called Tuareg region, then the Malian government would have fired the
death-shot of the Malian state. Because Gaddafi‘s looming territorial claims in the north of
Chad and Niger and his recent deportation of hundreds of thousands of the indigenous
population including Bantu-Ethiopian Libyans is concordant with King Hassan II of Morocco
early resettlement of almost half a million Arabs from Asia in the contested Western Sahara
region in the 1970s and 1980; and the deportation of ―tens of thousands of indigenous
Mauritanians to neighbouring Mali and Senegal in the period between 1989 and 1990‖224,
culture nationalists like Diakite should have every reason to be apprehensive of Gaddafi‘s
economic development pledge. The fact alone that in the midst ―Niger 2004/5 hunger
crisis‖225 Gaddafi had more ―important economic priorities elsewhere‖226 serves to undermine
any goodwill economic gesture from his government today.
Also, the multicultural aspect of African political crisis, especially with regard to external
agents role in the emergence of self-annihilating pseudo-ethnic groups or political entities
(easy prey for Arab colonialism), deserves nationalist critical attention. If not the incitement
of divisions why such statement as: ―the Bible was forged as it does not mention the prophet
Mohammed‖227 during Gaddafi‘s trip to open Africa‘s largest mosque in Kampala, Uganda.
Even if there is some element of truth in Gaddafi‘s divisive statement …, the fact that the
―Koran largely draws most of its heroic characters and narratives from the Judaeo-Christian
religious doctrine‖ (Eberhardt, 36-38) is bound to make his defence of the Islamic Faith in the
region questionable, especially given that particular religion‘s role in the destruction of the
culture heritage of the indigenous population and their subsequent enslavement. In all, that
local leaders like Yoweri Museveni; Archbishop Cyprian Lwanga or Bishop Samuel
Balagadde Ssekadde would exonerate the Libyan leader from such divisive incitement is also
an indication of local complicity in the pursuit of colonial objectives, namely the destructive
replacement of indigenous culture institutions with colonial ones, as in these biblical

223
Col. Muamar Gaddafi‘s Statement at an Arab League in 2001 cited in Bankie Foster and Bankie ―Pan
Africanism or African Union?‖ In: Bankie F. and Mchombu K.., ed. 2006. Pan Africanism. Windhoek: Gamberg
Macmillan, 217, 235.
224
ibid., 215-216.
225
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/09/0912_050912_niger.html (accessed on July 12, 2008).
226
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/en/doc/2003-08/14/content_254761.htm; www.4ni.co.uk/news.asp?id=26168
227
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/7311564.stm
 172

statements: ―Egypt [is like] a very fair heifer, [but] destruction cometh; it cometh out of the
North. ... The lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saith; behold I will punish the multitude of No,
and Pharaoh and Egypt, with their gods, and their kings; even Pharaoh, and [all] them that
trust in him‖ (Jeremiah 46: 20, 25 and 26 [King James Bible]). And in Hezekel (30:14, 15) it
is also stated, ―Der schar von Anbietern, die dort zusammen kam, würde weggetilgt warden‖.
Thus contrary to Professor Poku Agyeman wholly politicized argument that ―Africa‘s
predicament has not been in regard to determining the nature and character of the needed
unity, but rather in respect to implementing it228; these conflicting positions from even early
prominent figures of pan-African Movement like Julius Nyerere229; Amadou Ahidjo230;
Azikiwe231; Kwesi Prah232; Frantz Fanon233; Cheik Anta Diop234, suggest that African unity is
far from settled.‖235 If anything, Chancellor William lamentation that the picture of various
black organizations, each independent and vying for political leadership, is substantially the
same picture of fragmentation and disunity in Africa that led to the downfall of the whole
race236 then generally seals the fate of the divisive, rootless and culturally indifferent colonial
African states.
Chinweizu has argued convincingly that the main obstacle impeding African unity today is
the lack of an authentic culture orientation (e.g. religion, ideology and so forth), which the
indigenous population could revoke in terms of self-identification. The lack of attention to
this type of unity, in the place of state integration by most African leaders and advocates of
Pan-Africanism, has resulted in their inability to create appropriate organized bloc of states, a
Black African or Black World League where matters of exclusive interest could be addressed
without the interference of Arab colonial occupiers of North Africa. The failure of Pan-
Africanism since 1958 to attend to and develop other types of unity besides state integration
has not only been misguided, but has in general help weakened the effectiveness of Pan-
Africanism altogether. It has left it without a basis of appeal to ordinary Africans whose

228
Opoku, Agyeman, 2001. Africa‟s Persistent Vulnerable Link to Global Politics. San Jose: University Press,
123.
229
See, Kwesi, Kwaa Prah, 2006. The African Nation, 276.
230
ibid., 276-277.
231
See, the ―Future of Pan-Africanism.‖ In J Ayo, Langley, ed. 1979. Ideologies of Liberation in Black Africa,
1856-1970. London: Rex Collings, 305.
232
K. Kwaa Prah, 2006. The African Nation, 269.
233
ibid., 276.
234
Afriscope, Interview with Carlos Moore. In: Ivan Van Sertima, ed. 1986. Great African Thinkers. New
Brunswick: Transactions Books, 260-261.
235
Chinweizu, 2008. African Unity: the Problems and its Dimensions. A Privately Circulated Paper, 1-7; cited
also in a Lagos News Paper, the BusinessDay (www.businessdayonline.com), with a slight modification in the
introduction, on December 11th and 18th (2008), 11.
236
Chancellor, W. 1987. The Destruction of Black Civilization, 321.
 173

interests are monumentary different from those of states and presidents.237 Citing Konrad
Lorenz238, Chunweizu describes the type of unity by norms and customs, rites and ritualized
behaviour, which advocates of the multivariant African organizations lack in their political
desire for a national unity:

―The triple function of suppressing fighting within the group, of holding the group together, and setting it
off, as an independent entity, against other, similar units, is performed by culturally developed ritual. …
Any group which exceeds in size that can be held together by personal love and friendship depends for its
existence on these culturally ritualized behaviour patterns. … From the little peculiarities of speech and
manner which cause the smallest possible subcultural groups to stick together, an uninterrupted gradation
leads to the most elaborated, consciously performed, and consciously symbolical social norms and rites
which unites the larger social units of humanity in one nation, one culture, one religion or one political
ideology. It is perfectly right and legitimate that we should consider as ―good‖ the manners which our
parents have taught us, that we should hold sacred social norms and rites handed down to us by the
tradition of our culture. ...
Our fidelity to the symbol implies fidelity to everything it signifies, and this depends on the warmth of
affection for the old custom. It is this type of feeling of affection that reveals to us the value of our
cultural heritage. The independent existence of any culture, the creation of superindividual society, which
outlives the single being … is based on this autonomy of the rite making it is an independent nature
human action.‖239

237
ibid.
238
Konrad, Lorenz, 1967. On Aggression. New York: Bantam, 71-72, 74-75, 78, 79, 80.
239
ibid.
 174

IV. DISCUSSING THE AZANIAN NATIONAL MODEL

While the preceding chapters have to a considerable extent defended the cultural foundations
of nations, it is also true that political forces are generally apt at exploiting national sentiments
for their myopic economic agendas. Therefore, the acknowlegement of the genuine culture
origin of the Azanian nation shouldn‘t imply having overlooked the role political forces
played in the past and, for that matter, continue to play in the transformation of that unique
national culture. Despite ‗the belated attempts to integrate Pharaonic Egypt into commom
African (Azanian) heritage‘240, the fact remains that the origin of the Pharaonic Egyptian
culture and civilization have until recently remained a highly contested subject in academic
debates, especially among historians, anthropologists, philologists and Egyptologists. For
example, on the ethnic origins of the Egyptians (and in some instances including Ethiopians),
most 19th and 20th centuries European philologists posit that the language of the Egyptians has
a distinct kinship with the so-called Semitic nations. As the argument goes, ―spread over
anterior Asia, and the East and North of Africa is found a great root language, which has been
called after its chief representative the Egypto-Semitic. The Semitic languages of Arabia,
Syria, and Mesopotamia belong to this group as well as the allied Ethiopian dialects of East
Africa, the languages of Besharis, Gallas and Somalis. Hence, they contest that those who
speak these languages belong to the same race. Interestingly, that the so-called Semitics are
not indigenous to—but emigrated from one part of Asia to these parts of Azania (or colonial
Africa)—has led some philologists to argue that the Egyptians, Libyans, and Ethiopians all
forsook their Asiatic homes during the dim ages of the past, and seized possession of North
and East Africa‖ (Erman, [1894] 1971: 29-30). And as Christpher Eyre also remarks, some
Western anthropologists and Egyptologists seeking to seize on the advance culture and
civilization of dynastic Egypt often tended in the past to idealise Egypt as honorary us rather
than negative them. Not surprisingly, from classical Greece onwards Egypt has been claimed
as part of the common heritage of the West (Eyre, 2002: 154-155). Ironically, such views tend
to deliberately ignore the ancient ‗Egyptians claims of being indigenous people, free from any
foreign taint. Even naming their country Qemet/Kemit ―the black country‖‘ (Erman,
1971:32).241 With such quasi arbitrary scholarship of formal institutions it would thus be
unreasonable to simply integrate the dynastic Egyptian culture into the culture heritage of the

240
Eyre, C., 2002. The Cannibal Hymn: A Cultural and Literary Studies. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press,
154-155.
241
Erman here argues that the blackness derived from Kemit was made in reference to the black soil of Egypt;
while I stated elsewhere that the blackness of Cham was made in reference to the colour of their ancestors. A
reference still used until this day among the Moab.
 175

Azanian nation without critically revisiting these contesting perspectives. There might be
convincing reasons to defend the indigenous basis of the ancient Ethiopian (and later
Egyptian) culture and civilization, but there is no doubt that that culture, like that of most
people in the region, was later tainted by internal and external political influences, especially
to the detriment of the original culture. In this view, it would be inaccurate to suggest that the
Graeco-Europeans or other peoples who later settled the Mediterranean region contributed
nothing to the Ethiopian (or Egyptian) culture and civilization. Cheik Anta Diop, for one,
argues that the Egyptian civilization may have disappeared precisely because it was unable to
borrow from later cultures and became a victim of its own cultural homogeneity (Diop, 1974:
213). Here, Diop sounds rather unsympathetic to nationalist cause of defending the culture
homogeneity and authenticity of their respective nations. The notion of internal decadence of
an authentic national culture without any form of external intervention—e.g. political or
economic—is rather insufficient in explaining the retraction or demise of the Azanian national
culture. Consequently, before we review the prevailing perception that cultural and
economic/political forces are the main agents of social history—in an atempt to discern the
ideological background the Azanian nation, it will be important to explore the role economic
and political factors played in the transformation of the Azanian national culture.

4.1. Early Signs of Politics in pre-dynastic Ethiopian Mythology

Since there are compelling evidence to confirm that all literary texts of dynastic Ethiopia and
later Egypt had oral mythological origin, let‘s begin our inquiry about the root cause of the
demise of the Bantu-Ethiopian national culture with the concept of ―Two Lands‖ and their
associated crowns—one White (the original Theban Royal Crown) and the other Red (from
the North of Egypt), both of which should be united into the ―Green Crown‖ of the
indeginous Pharaohs. Although there are contesting opinions about this rather ambiguous
concept, the position taken in this work is that that concept tends to denote an internal
political challenge to the original culture establishment.
As instance, among the Moab group of the Bantu-Ethiopians, who according to this work not
only continue to worship the Sun-god Hyen-Nu/Heru/Horus but also adore the ―pre-dynastic‖
crocodile deit of Sebek/Subk, there is a mythological stipulation dealing specifically with the
relationship between Lions and Bulls. In particular, this mythological stipulation refers to a
specific locality in Azania where lions, often associated with heroes in the culture literature of
dynastic Egypt, had the unusual habit of devouring the carcass of hunted wild Bulls/Bufaloes
and deliberately leaving behind the legs untouched—a locality the locals call Ta-tera
 176

(meaning shortened leg(s)).242 Importantly, this mythology begins with the legendary history
of their first male ancestor Cham [-ba] called ―Nyaan‖, who was earlier associated with four
wives and seven sons—numbers which undeniably have astrological significance to the pre-
dynastic and dynastic Egyptian culture, but tends to convey an ethical culture message as
well, especially regarding the prominent role animals played in the development of
institutionalized culture. The mythology claims that while Nyaan was leading his army in a
battle against his adversaries, he was severely injured at that particular locality. Of course, in
later dynastic Egyptian context picturesque representations of the Pharaoh or King leading his
army in the battle is a well known fact in the academia. What seems rather unusual about this
myth is that despite being at the head of his army only his ―black dog‖… witnessed the cave
in which he retreated with his equally gravely wounded horse. Naturally, from that
mountainous cave and at the verge of death, his first survival measure must have been how to
re-establish contact with his people. Thus, he soaked one sleeve of his battle gear in his own
blood so that his black dog could deliver the tragic news to his people, especially his
immediate family. It is also significant to note that ―the early form of the ancient Egyptian
god of Wisdom, Thoth, had the embelm of a dog-headed ape. And it was in the words of
Thoth that enabled Osiris to become the ―true of voice‖ or triumphant over his enemies or
adversaries. It is probably in this capacity, i.e., as friend of the dead, that the dog-headed ape
appears seated upon the standard Balance in which the heart of the deceased is being weighed
against the feather symbolic of Maāt; for the commonest titles of the god are ‗lord of the
divine books,‘ ‗lord of divine words…‘‖ (Budge, [1908] 1995: 86-87)
According to local customs, the women back home then shouldn‘t have shed tears upon
receiving the news of their husband‘s tragedy. Unfortunate for both Nyaan and his people on
that day, however, the youngest wife could not control her emotions and burst into tears.
There are different accounts with regard to the outcome of that myth: One version of the myth
claims that he was never seen again from that day, which might either mean he ascended in
spirit form to the celestial province where his own ancestors are found…; while other versions
claim that he was buried on the side of his horse in that cave of his retreat.
For our present purpose, we shouldn‘t be bothered about which version of the conclusions we
agree, but instead the symbolic objects and language used in that mythology should serve
sharpen the curiosity of those familiar with the astrological-mythology of the pre-dynastic and

242
The substantive Ta-ter (a) seems to be a plural because a single shortened leg will be Ta-ter. The substantive
derives from Tâl/r, leg. Because this particular group of Azanians have the unique habit of naming present
localities with pre-dynastic names, e.g. the term Bun-kper (Old River) and is named after their present locality of
habitation but in reference to the Oldest river in Azania, which is probably the Nile because of its culture
importance—since in the view of this research there is no river in the vicinity capable of claiming that title.
 177

early dynastic Egyptian culture. For example, in the mortuary or funerary literature of
dynastic Egypt there are instances in which kings, both deceased and alive, were often
referred to as Bulls, either of the Sky (a deceased king) or earthly Bull (Pyramid Spell
397a243; Eyre, 2002: 7). With the Moaba(s) group it cannot be determined whether or not
there was any time in their social history when Bulls or Oxen were associated with their kings
despite the symbolic importance of bulls to that local culture. ―Bêt,‖ meaning messenger,
announcer, teller, representative et cetera is their well-known and still used
kingship/chieftancy titles. However, the fact that the cow is called ―nab‖ in Moar, seems to
have etymological or semantical implication for the universal kingship title of the former
Mossi Kingdom, ―naba‖; or, for that matter, the ancient Egyptian kingship title as well.
Albert Churchward, who has explored the evolutionary process of the dynastic Egyptian
culture or religion from its pre-Stellar, Stellar-, Lunar- and the Solar Mythologies, argued
convincingly that Bes was ―the oldest god of all‖ in dynastic Egyptian mythology
(Churchward, 1993/1994: 154). A position he shares with Dr. Budge‘s The Gods of the
Egyptians.244 The identification of Bes with Horus I—that is, the anthropomorphise form of
Horus or the earliest type of Pygmy Ptah, seems to correlate well with the general idea of Bêt
being the first earthly messenger of Hyen-Nu. In fact, the Hieroglyphic symbols of Bes
(Churchward, p.154 ff),245 and the fact that he carries in both hands the vegetational remedy
of the resurrected Osiris/Ausar tends to make such a correlation reasonable, especially given
the general idea in this text that Heru/Horus could probably be a later misplaced form of
Hyen-Nu, Moab Sun-god (with Hyen meaning ―One‖ and Nu (―Hand‖)).
If we agree with the perception that Bes-Horus I was the first earthly representative of Hyen-
Nu, then we should have no difficulty in establishing Hyen-Nu as the measure of the Bantu-
Ethiopians national culture. In fact, in chapter XVII of the Book of Coming Forth by Day,
commonly referred to as the ―Book of the Dead‖, one finds the following statement: ―I am the
God Temu in his rising; I am the only One. I came into being in Nu. I am Ra who rose in the
beginning.‖ Importantly, Temu and Ra seems one and the same god, and this god was the first
offspring of Nu, the primeval watery mass, from which all the gods of dynastic Egypt came
into being. ―I am the Great God Nu who gave birth to himself, and who made his name to
come into being and to form the company of gods.‖ (Budge, 1995: 89-90) Christopher Eyre,
whose‘ Cannibal Hymn also takes issue with the cultural and political ambiguities of the

243
Bull of the Sky is Unas, aggressive in his nature, living on the manifestation of every god.
244
Vol.II, 286.
245
See Winter, in Helck W. ed. 1987. Temple und Kult, ÄA 46, Wiesbaden, 65-76 for a perceptive discussion of
the scribe/artist‘s choice of spellings and signs…
 178

mortuary or funerary literature of the late Old Kingdom of dynastic Egypt, shows the
importance of the Hieroglyphic determinative ―arm‖ in terms of a deceased person, e.g. king
etc., ascension to the state of immortality. Accordingly, the term … ‗arm‘… as written in the
mortuary text of Unas is with a bookroll determinative, and seems intentionally to refer to a
document or charter of authorisation. However, the graphic variation between
‗document‘ and ‗arm‘ is also common in similar context. In Spell 253, for instance, the
king is identified with Re/Ra, bathing in the Field of Reeds: ―The hand of Unas is in the Hand
of Re. Nu[t], receive (šsp) his hand.246 In Coffin Text Spell 550—a spell ‗to knot a ladder to
the Sky in necropolis‘—the address is made: ―O Swš who went out from the Nut, give your
hand to Nut, for N has gone up from the Kenemet.‖ … Also in Pyramid Spell 478,247 an
invocation to the ladder of the Sky, gods are addressed, ―who shall stretch out the arm against
(or oppose)‖, or ―whose arm shall be for‖ the king in the ascent. Similarly in Pyramid Spells
478b-479a the gods raise up the king ―on their arms‖, which form a ladder for him.248 The
basic idea is thus one of providing assistance, as in Pyramid Spells 1627: ―Arise! You have
given your ‗hand‘ to Horus that he may cause you to rise.‖ The idiom may also carry a wider
sense of ‗welcome‘ or a formal induction into an office, as in Pyramid Spell 456: The king,
who knows the spells of Re and the magic of Horakhty: ―He will be one by Re. He will be a
courtier (smr) of Horakhty. His arm shall be grasped in the sky among the attendants of
Re.‖249 The underlying theme of assistance in resurrection and ascent is clearest in Pyramid
Spell 422, describing the resurrection of Ausar/Osiris as Orion, the verb šsp ‗receive‘ is used:

This great one has fallen on his side; felled (ndj) is the one who is in Nedit. Your hand is received by Re;
your head is raised by the two enneads. See, he is come as Orion; see, Osiris is come as Orion, Lord of
Wine in the Wag festival.250

Interestingly, Eyre emphasizes that the crucial theme is that of assistance given by the god, his
‗hand‘, to enable the dead to make the journey, the transition from life to afterlife, visualized
in different ways in the different texts quoted above (Eyre, 2002: 126-131). The general

246
See, Pyramid Spell 275e. In Spell 286a the Teti text has the bookroll and Unas the stroke as the determinative.
… ‗He gives you his hand.‘ For the reception of hand see esp. Spells 473c and 1327a: ‗Any god who shall
receive the hand of this (M) into the Sky‘ in an ascension text. Here there seems a clear vision of the god pulling
the king up by the hand.
247
Spells 978-980; see also Spells 1496a-1498c, and Pyramid Spell 1763b-c for an image of posture; or Krauss,
R., 1997. Astronomische Konzepte und Jeneseitsvorstellungen in den Pyramidentexten, ÄA, 59, Wiesbaden, 146-
148.
248
Willems, H., 1995. The Coffin of Heqata (Cairo JdE 36418) A Case Study of Egyptian Funerary Culture of
the Early Middle Kingdom. Peters Publishers, 290, 467-468…
249
See, Pyramid Spell 856c-e.
250
See, Pyramid Spells 819a-820a; Krauss, Astronomische Konzepte, 165-166.
 179

significance of Eyre‘s conclusion about that primeval Hand (Hyen-Nu or Nu(t)), which tends
to assist other gods in their passage through one state to another, is that it reaffirms the
geronto-cratic constitution of the Bantu-Ethiopian (or later Egyptian) national culture.

4.1.1. Political Implications of the Cannibal Hymn

The Cannibal Hymn in general is among the early literary texts concerning Ethiopian-
Egyptian culture. Although the author of the Cannibal Hymn while not ruling out its oral
origin does not make specific reference to Moab mythology of Taterra etc., it is important to
note that the Cannibal Hymn is analogous with the latter myth or the early one in which the
cannibalistic tendencies of a witch were responsible for divinity‘s retreat into celestial exile.
Eyre describes the Cannibal Hymn as one of a group of related spells that appear only in the
two earliest pyramids texts, those of Unas and Teti.251 The Pyramid texts, he argues, stand at
the beginning of Egyptian literature, when the writing of continuous literary texts was a
novelty, so that the procedures by which they were written down and later transmitted are
central themes defining the foundations of cultural history (Eyre, 2002:17-18). These then
drop out of regular corpus, to reappear in the Middle Kingdom, when the Cannibal Hymn is
included among the Pyramid text of the Middle Kingdom tombs of Senwosretankh at Lisht
and of Siese at Dashur.252 A reworked version appears as Coffin Text (CT) Spell 573, while a
variety of phrases and themes from the hymn also recur in other Coffin Texts. The Corpus of
Pyramid Texts found in the Middle Kingdom tombs is remarkably close to that of the
Pyramid of Unas, both in content and layout, but the physical process of textual transmission
is unclear (Eyre, 2002: 11-12)253.
Importantly, Eyre also acknowledges that the sources of the texts found on individual
Pyramid walls (and later on the sides of Coffins) are rather poorly understood. Furthermore,
the actual inscription of text on the walls of the Pyramid of Unas show considerable
redactional care, with significant number of corrections both to the original ink draft and to
the carved signs, in ways that seems to imply copying and then collation from more cursive
originals. Hence he suggests that the inscriptions would probably have been copied from
Papyrus texts (ibid., 12-13).

251
See, Pyramid Spells 393, 414, spells 273-274; Faulkner, R.O., 1969. Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Text, 80-84;
Faulkner, R.O., 1924. ‗The ―Cannibal Hymn‖ from the Pyramid Text.‘ JEA 10 (1924: 97-103).
252
See, Hayes, W.C., 1937. The Texts in Mastaba of Senwosret-ankh at Lischt, PMMA 12. New York;
Silvermann, D.P., Textual Criticism in the Coffin Texts.‘ In: Allen et al., Religion and Philosophie, 32-33.
253
See, chapter Seven of Christopher Eyre‘s Cannibal Hymn for problems related to the position and sequence of
text on the wall.
 180

In addition, he also hints to some of the major problems that arise from these textual
transmissions from the different Dynastic periods. Particularly true of this is a different group
of Pyramid texts re-used on the Twelfth Dynasty Coffin of a steward Nefri, from El Bersha
(Hermopolis). … This ritual unit earliest known version appears on the Pyramids of Pepi II,
and his queen Neith. In all, it is worthy of note that the Middle Kingdom version is a direct
but very mechanical and careless copy of a text written for an obscure King Wahkare Akhtoy,
with the lines of the text copied in the wrong order from an original that was evidently
inversely written. For a first third of this text the copyist mechanically transcribed even the
royal name of his original on to the coffin, not bothering to replace it with the name of Nefri.
There are also numerous transciption errors—majority of which results from the confusion
between signs with similar hieroglyphic shapes, while a substantial number are also
explicable as misreadings of hieratic forms. Evidently, while Eyre attest that the core vision of
Egyptian religion was already in existence by the late Old Kingdom, the corpus of the
mortuary texts—that is, those of the Pyramids and later on royal and private tombs or coffins,
which in normal cultural context must have formed a coherent body of funerary/mortuary
literature, had undergone such major transformation that their variations from Pyramid to
Pyramid and or tomb to tomb became easily visible in the course of Egypt‘s culture history254
(Eyre, 2002: 14-20).
Having, to some considerable extent, explored the original structure of the dynastic Egyptian
culture and its socio-historical transformation from the corpus of the Cannibal Hymn; that
hymn‘s ambiguous language as a cultural texts, especially as found later on the Pyramids of
Unas and Pepi, suggest clearly that their original authors were in general more politically
biased to be genuine upholders of the original culture of the Ethiopian kingdom. Succinctly,
the Cannibal Hymn, which is introduced as a ritual meant to ensure the king‘s transition from
mortal to immortal state, or god—and again as a ruler in the celestial province where divinity
now rules sway, begins with a cataclysmic event in which the Cosmos is overwhelmed by the
appearance of the King (Pyramid Spells 924-925, 956, 1110, 1120, 1150, 1771.). The change
of ruler is marked cataclysmically with the old order breaking down to be replaced by a new
order: on earth for the King255 and in the Sky for the living god. Cataclysm, marked by

254
The tomb of Senmut (TT353)… provides an important example of ‗liturgies‘ used in apparently original
ways, from the Book of the Dead and corpus of the Sun Hymn as well as from the Pyramid Texts: see Dorman,
P.F., 1988. Monuments of Senenmut. London, 82-84.
255
Otto, E., 1964-1966. ―Geschichtsbild und Geschichtsschreibung in Ägypten.‖ Welt des Orientes 3, 161-172
(for reign change as a cataclysmic event); Hornung, E., 1982. Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The One
and the many. London, 172-185 (on the boundary of existence); Hornung, E., 1982. Der Ägyptische Mythos von
der Himmelskuh: eine ätiologie des Unvollkommen, OBO 46. Freiburg und Göttingen, 91-94; Assmann, J., 1990.
Ma‟at. Gerechtigkeit und Unsterblichkeit im Alten Ägypten. Munich, 200-201.
 181

256
thunder, earth- and sky-quake, is a standard motif that greets the appearance of god and
defines the king‘s progression to heaven as a cataclysmic return to the pre-created state. Eyre
also observes a significant ‗variation‘ from the motif of the opening of the Gates of Heaven as
stated in the sequences of Spells 313-317 found on the west wall of the entrance passage in
the Pyramid of Unas. These begin with the opening of the doors of heaven for the king to
enter, and include Spell 314 an address to the bull for slaughter. These early verses of the
Cannibal Hymn should, then, salute the appearance of the sacrificial bull—of huge size and
power, and which is initially identified as the king himself257 (Eyre, 2002: 76-77). Thus in:

Spell 393a: the sky darkens; stars go out;

Spell 393b: Vaults (of Heaven) tremble; bones of earth shake.
Spell 393c: The decans are stilled against them.

Significantly, Unas must be empowered to rise above the original Self-Created-Creator, Nu, if
he ever intends to ascend to power as the sole heir of the celestial or heavenly throne, as in
Spell 394a: ―They have seen Unas, risen, empowered (bЗ).‖ … Thus the image becomes that
of the birth of the Sun from the horizon:

Spell 394b: As god living on his fathers, feeding on his mothers.

Directly related to the issue of the king‘s power are:

Spell 394c: It is Unas, Lord of Wisdom; his mother does not know his name. 258
Spell 395a: The splendour (špss) of Unas is in the Sky; his power (wsr) is in the horizon.
Spell 395b: Like his father Atum, who created him; he created259 him, (but) he is more powerful than he.

256
Hornung, E., Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt.., 131-132; Pyramid Spells 215, 143.
257
See in Spell 254: here many of the themes of cataclysm, sacrifice and cannibalism, are repeated, with the king
representing the Bull of the Sky (esp. Spells 276, 280, 286, 292-293; but also Spells 255-260, 627).
258
On names and their importance see Assman, J., 1984. Ägypten: Theologie und Frömmigkeit einer frühen
Hochkultur. Stuttgart, 102-107, 113-117; Assmann, J., 1997. Moses the Egyptian. The momery of Egypt in
Western Monotheism. Cambridge, 194-198, 204-205; see also Bickel, S., 1994. La Cosmogonie égyptienne.
Avante les Nouvel Empire, OBO 134. Fribourg und Göttingen, 101, 106.
259
Sethe, K., Übersetzung und Kommentar zu den altägyptischen Pyramidenten, Vol.II, 147-148 points to the
deliberate use of msj rather than ‗beget‘ and argues that it is not exclusively used for mother‘s role, its use here is
more suitable in reference to the primaeval creation by the sole creator god—Atum as father and mother—so
placing the king in the original creation. Also see, Zandee, J., The birth-giving creator-god in Ancient Egypt, in
Studies Gywn Griffiths, 169-185 for extensive references to the role of creator God as both msj and wtt of the
world.
 182

Another description is given of the king—―the image is that as found on from the New
Kingdom temple scenes onward depicting the devine birth of the king‖260—with his symbols
and manifestations of power:

Spell 396a: The Kas of Unas are behind him; his hemsut are under his feet.

As personal genii, Eyre stresses that the Kas and hemsut protect the young king, assuring his
succession and success. He is cocooned in the powers that protect a king (Eyre, 2002: 78-79):

Spell 396b: His gods are upon him…; his Uraei are at his brow (wpt).
Spell 396c: The guiding-snake (sšmt) of Unas is at his forehead: the spier-out of ba(s), the fiery snake for
burning.261

Eyre also points to the association between the Uraeu and the neck vertebrae, a theme found
elsewhere in the mortuary ritual on the basis of a pun262 beween Nehebkau snake, ‗neck,‘263
and for the present context also ‗bulls.‘ In this sense, Unas powers and ability to trample on
his enemies, and the impossibility of resisting him, is that of the wild Bull, but also a bull that
can be sacrificed; and, more importantly, that can be resurrected, as in the related Spell 254
which explores the restoration of the head of the Apis Bull in resurrection. Only through such
resurrection that the dead king overcomes the powers that killed him and becomes the Bull of
the Sky:

Spell 397a: Bull of the Sky is Unas, aggressive in his nature, living on the manifestation of every god
Spell 397b: Eating the innards (?) of the…, who come, their bellies full of magic
Spell 397c: From the Island of Fire.

Eyre describes the island of fire as a place of passage at the edge of the cosmos, where the
vision of fire is both dangerous but also positive. It is a seat of primordial creation, where the
Sun-god emerged from the waters of chaos. As such it is a gateway to the other world, where
260
See Sethe, Übersetzung II, 148.
261
Sauneron, S., 1989. Une traité égyptienne d‟ ophiologie. Pyparus du Brooklyn Museum no. 47.218.48 et 85.
Cairo, 173-179 also aludes to the symptoms of snake-bite with reference to snake symbol on the royal crown of
dynastic Egypt. In our present context, such an interpretation is rather too political to have any cultural
significance.
262
For extensive exploitation of these puns see Spells 318, 511a-512d.
263
In fact, Eyre also notes in the Cannibal Hymn that to sever a bull‘s head was to kill utterly. Just as the
restoration of a severed head was archtypical restoration of life. Thus while decapitation is primarily the
destruction of enemies with the threat of death, the restoration of the head marks resurrection (see, Cannibal
Hymn, esp. 94ff). For an extensive exploration of the puns as discussed by Eyre above see Pyramid Spells 318,
511a-512d.
 183

the successful dead264 will have come into the inheritance of the primaeval god, taking the
place of his father. So, for instance, in the Book of the Dead Spell 175: ―Your seat now
belongs to your son Horus, so says Atum, and he will dispatch the Elders; he will rule from
your seat; he will inherit the throne which is in the Island of Fire.‖265 Having acquired these
necessary powers, the king takes precedence over the powers already there, as in the Coffin
Text Spell 37 (Eyre, 2002:81-82):

See, your person has come, you have acquired all power and nothing has been left behind you in the
Island of Fire. You have filled your body with magic; you have quench your thirst with it. Those who
watch you tremble like a bird; you have mastered the land with what you know like those to whom you
have gone down.266

In general ‗magic‘ seems to replace ‗food‘ on that Island of Fire: So, for instance, ―I have
come from the Island of Fire, having filled my belly with magic and having quenched my
thirst with it.‖267 Alternatively, there seems to be a correlation between knowledge and magic
as well.
In any case, the Island of Fire is envisaged as a process of passage where both creation and
destruction can take place. It is a place of bright light, where the king need fear no darkness.
Here the king himself is not burnt, but burning, with the aid of his Uraei. He is not devoured,
but with the aid of the flames—that cook as well as burn—he is devourer. In Spell 400a:
―Unas it is who eats people, and who lives on gods.‖
Having devoured all other gods with their magic, ―Unas is risen as that Great One, Lord of
Helpers‖ (Spell 398b). ―He sits with his back to Geb (Earth)‖ (Spell 398c); which is seen as
symbolizing that the seated king as ruler is being protected by the god behind.268 Hence the
deceased king is described as the most powerful, the controller of supernatural powers, and
the heir to eternal kingship. However, there is some sense of ambiguity to the idea of Geb in
the Pyramid Texts as Eyre observes. For instance, in the Pyramid Spell 260 (or Coffin Text
Spell 575), the emphasis is on the deceased as a spirit who burns, but who is not burnt by
gods. Here Geb himself appears in the role of Bull of the Sky. As the Bull of the Sky, he

264
Griesshammer, R., 1970. Das Jenseitsgericht in den Sargtexten, ÄA. 20. Wiesbaden, 101-103: sees the danger
of passage through the Island of Fire expressed in the vision of a place judgement and potential condemnation;
also Assman, J., 1990. Maat. Gerechtigkeit und Unsterblichkeit im Alten Ägypten. Munich, 216-217.
265
See, Schott, S., 1956. „Totenbuchspruch 175 in einem Ritual zur Vernichtung von Feinden― MDAIK 14, 181-
189; Otto, E., 1962. „Zwei Paralleltexte zu TB 175.― CdE 37, 249-256 especially for ritual usage and
mythological context fort he text.
266
See Coffin Text I (CT I), 148b-150b; CT I, 117b-119b.
267
Willems, H., 1995. The Coffin of Heqata, 242 on Coffin Text III, 321d.
268
On the iconographic mixture of themes of protection and identification see Silverman, in Schafer, B.E., ed.
1991. .Religion in Ancient Egypt: Gods, myths and personal practices. Ithaca and London, 68-70.
 184

assures Horus rightful succession of his father Ausar/Osiris‘s throne of Geb (or earthly
throne), and so the role of Atum. In contrast, however, the corpse of the dead king is also
buried in Geb as earth. Therefore the superiority of the king over Geb, and his refusal to enter
into Geb—as in Pyramid Spells 308 and 312, serve as an assertion of his resurrection and
succession to celestial authority. And this Pyramid text (Pyr § 1510) also speaks of the the
deceased king being ―one of the four gods, the children of Gebb, who is capable of traversing
the Southern land and the Land of the North…‖ Yet in the Pyramid spell (Pyr §) 2057) there
are a group of four gods, the sons of Atem/Atum and Nut, who neither suffer decay nor
corruption (Budge, 1934: 227).
Another aspect of Eyres incisive analysis which tends to emphasis Unas‘ (and others) political
ambitions and the consequent disregard to the gerontocratic constitution of the Azanian
culture is also elaborated in the following Spells (Eyre, 2002: 82-86):

Spell 399a: Unas it is who decides his business together with He-whose name is hidden

Spell 399b: On that day of slaughtering the eldest.

Spell 399c: It is Unas who is the Lord of offerings, who ties the rope 269
Spell 399d: And provides his offering meal himself.

4.1.2. Internal Political agents and the transformation of the Ethiopian Culture

After reviewing the above spells, there is no doubt that the Cannibal Hymn as a culture text,
just like the early Moab mythology of Ta-terra, is permeated with ambiguous language that
could also be exploited politically. The initial idea of slaughtering the sacred bull, even if not
the sacred Apis Bull of Manfour (―Memphis‖), sounds like a radical deviation from the local
culture norm. In fact, that the Apis Bull of Manfour was originally not meant to be
slaughtered for culinary purpose270 is not only demonstrated by Moab moral decision not to
eat the flesh of the sacred ―Sebek/Subvk‖ (the Crocodile deit of pre-Dynastic Egypt), but
confirmed by ―…the oath of the priest in the Late period not to have cut off the head of any
living thing.‖271 This latter moral stance of the genuine upholders of the Bantu-Ethiopian
national culture did, however, not hinder economically induced political sorcerers/magicians

269
Sethe, K., Übersetzung Vol. II, sees this as a metaphor for independence of action…
270
For example, Eyre quoting classical sources states that the head of the sacrificial Bull was not eaten, but
discarded by the Egyptians. This is after noting that the head of the sacrificial bull is typically shown in the lists
of the offering table, along its foreleg (see, Eyres‘s Cannibal Hymn, esp. 92-93).
271
Merkelbach, R., 1968. ‚ Ägyptischer Priesterheid.‘ ZPE 2, 7-30.
 185

from ―threatening the beheadment of the (sacred) animals in the court of the temples.‖272
(Eyre, 2002: 94-95)
In a genuine culture context, Eyre acknowledges that a substantial body of mortuary texts are
clearly worded in the format of an initiation, in which the deceased claims right to passage
through knowledge or through purity, moral or ritual (Eyre, 2002: 70-71). Although Eyre is
generally cautious not to associate real cannibalism with the original culture norm of the
ancient Egyptians, his suggestion that the sacrificial bull might really have been used for
culinary purpose deviates significantly from the local culture norm. True, Eyre admits that in
a genuine culture context untainted by political ambiguities the symbolism of blood is that of
the life-force that flows away, and, therefore, explicit references to drinking blood, as by the
goddess Sakhmet in the story of the ―Destruction of Mankind or by monsters in the
Underworld‖, symbolize evil, savage, aberrant behaviour and not a culinary norm (ibid., 99-
100). Indeed, the recurrence of body parts in the traditional hieroglyphic scripts does not
necessarily imply the use of genuine human parts. Thus, it is generally significant that Eyre
urges us to critically explore the culture symbolism of such core joints in the cannibal hymn
as the head, the foreleg and the heart of the sacrificial bull, which forms the main offering list
of the ritual of the funerary literature. Accordingly, these core joints are presented as part of
the ritual of rebirth and revivification that is at the core of the funerary ritual, and also
encapsulated in the ―ritual of the Opening of the Mouth.‖273 The foreleg is also a tool, in the
image of an adze, for opening the mouth to function. The foreleg itself—as in the spell 405b:
―for the cauldron containing them, using the legs of their eldest‖—is the primary joint of the
offering, symbolizing with the head the whole process of the sacrifice and offering (Eyre,
2002: 52-54). Eyre then points to ―a number of depictions‖274 in New Kingdom funeral scenes
which show the removal of the foreleg from a standing calf, and which is accompanied by its
protesting mother (Eyre, 2002: 7, 102ff.). Evidently, that knowledge, purity/justice, and
morality is the measure of the culture of the ancient Egyptians has therefore been plausibly
upheld.
In a footnote (note 7) to the spell 393a, on page 77 of Eyre‘s analyis of the Cannibal Hymn,
which is generally concern with the event of cataclysm crucial to Unas (the king‘s) transition
from mortal to immortal state, it is clearly stated of the Spells 956a-b that when the ―Sky

272
Koenig, Y., 1994. Magie et magiciens dans l‟égypte ancienne. Paris, p. 71…
273
See also Otto, E., 1960. Das ägyptische Mundöffnungsritual. Wiesbaden, 23-25,43-45; Willems, H., 1988.
Chests of Life. Leiden, 230-232 for the connection between the ritual of the Mouth Opening and the Food
offering.
274
For the collection of scenes see Guilhou, N., 1993. ―La mutilation rituelle du veau dans les scenes des
funérailles au Nouvel Empire,‖ BIFAO 93, 276-297; Bartelmess, P., 1992. Der Übergang ins Jenseits in then
thebanischen Beamtengräbern der Ramessidenzeit, SAGA 2. Heidelberg, 87-92.
 186

trembles, Earth quakes, Horus (Hyen-Nu) arrives, and Thoth appears, They raise Osiris on his
side.‖ Osiris as the god of vegetation often associated with the Green Crown of pre-dynastic
and dynastic Egypt culture is already a well known fact. However, if in the company of Thoth
by Hyen-Nu in the advent of Osiris resurrection should imply mythologically that Nu, being
the acme of the original knowledge of the culture of eternal life, understood from the outset of
creativity that vegetation was the purifier of blood critical for the eternal endeavour of human
beings, then neither Unas and Teti of the late Old Kingdom nor many of the Pharaohs of the
Middle Kingdom and Late Kingsdoms, whose funerary texts formed the basis of Eyre‘s early
analyses, were committed local students of the Bantu-Ethiopian (or later Egyptian) culture
institutions. In any event, the original choice of the sacred Apis Bull as the symbolic
representation of the culture of Manfour by the Bantu-Ethiopian culturalist was by virtue of
Apis elevated cognition that vegetation—and not the carcass of a slaughtered lion or wolf—
was the key to the purified blood necessary for eternal existence on earth. Symbolically, this
culture intuitional aspect of the sacred Apis should be the best alternative explanation why the
head of the bull is among the list of parts of the ritual-offerings found in the
mortuary/funerary literature.
On the other hand, the foreleg mentioned above in reference to using the legs of their eldest
seems to correlate well with the culture role of Moab Bêt (messenger, announcer, pronouncer)
and Bes-Horus or Horus I, as illustrated in Churchward (1993/1994: 154-155) incisive
analysis. The foreleg of the Bull which is often associated with the divine kingship in dynastic
Egypt and the role of Bêt (or Bes-Horus I) makes cultural sense because of the symbolic
representative role of the king in this national culture. By and large, given the early
association of the foreleg with the Opening of the Mouth, it is possible that early kings and
queens were the prime medium for the diffusion of culture information. Even today, Moab
kings remain the prime agent for the diffusion of socio-cultural information. In addition, it is
not imperative in this later culture that the wives of kings become queens. Instead, queens are
naturally not related to the family of the kings. Not surprisingly, there is always a king and
queen simultaneously in the social history of the Moaba[s].
Finally, the heart (ba275) as the seat of love and hatred or energy in terms of the king‘s
acquisition of the energy essential for his ascension to the celestial role could also be deduced
analytically from the Pyr § 292a-b: ―Their hearts fall to his fingers: their innards (bsq) are for
those who belong to the Sky; their blood is for those who belong to the earth.‖ In the magico-
political context, for instance, in which the language of cannibalism is permissible, as in Spell
275
e.g. Spell 413a: Now their bas are in the belly of Unas; their akhs are in the possession of Unas; Eyre‘s
Cannibal Hymn, 133-134.
 187

400a: ―Unas it is who eats people, who lives on gods; whom he finds in his way, he eats
him/her piecemeal (?) (Spell 407c)‖,276 the consumption of the internal organs of other gods
(or god-like creatures), where their magical powers and source of energy presumably reside,
could be empowering to the devourer as he strives to become the powerful God, as in ―Unas
is the God, older than the eldest.‖277 On the other hand, the perception that their blood is for
the inhabitants of earth seems to imply the rejection of blood … after having acquired the
original uncorrupted knowledge reserved for the immortal inhabitants of the celestial province
or heaven.278 In any event, the elevation of knowledge and the rejection of blood is
prerequisite to the culture norm of the Bantu-Ethiopians. In this present context, it was
precisely because of Hyen-Nu‘s rejection of all forms of cannibalism that led to her/his
celestial exile in the first place. And as stipulated unambiguously of the Dinka mythology,
Millet/grains,279 and not meat—as in Pyramid Spell 1550a: ―We eat, we eat the red Ox for the
passage of the Lake‖280, was the original food Hyen-Nu/God permitted their early ancestors.
More to the point, Hyen-Nu (Horus/Heru), who remained central to all the astronomical
cycles of the Bantu-Ethiopian‘s (or Egyptian) national culture, ―was not only the God of light,
as ‗I am light of the world‘, but also symbolized youth, the green shoots of trees and
everything that was good‖ (Churchward, 1993; 1994: 50-51).
Importantly, Eyre also acknowledges that that special culture-knowledge prerequisite for the
king‘s transition from mortal to immortal state was not the special preserve of the deceased.
For it is explicit in a number of examples281 that knowledge282 of the texts and rituals from the
mortuary literature was of equal value to the living as to the dead. An instance is the New
Kingdom title to the full book of Amduat—a text with a specifically royal orientation, which

276
ibid., 8-9.
277
E.g. Spell 408a. For his unlimited power see Spell 407a: ―The Great power, it is Unas; the powerful one of the
powerful ones‖; but also Spell 407d.
278
See Eyre‘s Cannibal Hymn…,99-101 for an alternative and extensive analysis of this spell.
279
The classical attempt, as evident from the Greek Aretalogy of Isis from Kyme, from mid or early Ptolemaic
Period to credit Isis/Auset and Osiris/Ausar with the cultivation of culture is unassailable in our present context.
This text that claims to have originated from a Stela set up at Memphis (our Manfour), in front of the Temple of
Hephaistos, states: ―I with my brother Osiris put an end to cannibalism‖(see, Grandjean, Y., 1975. Une nouvelle
arétalogie dIsis à Maronée. Leiden, 8-15 for bibliography, and 122-124 on the text of Kyme). For how much is
Greek and how much Egyptian in these texts (see Žabkar, L.V., 1987. Hymns to Isis in her Temple at Philae.
Hanover and London, 135-160 esp.151-153). Placed in the context of invention of farming, agri cultura, and
from early Pharaonic sources that Isis and Osiris discovered grain, its identical expression is also found in
Diodorus that: ―All men were glad to change their food both because of pleasing nature of the newly discovered
grains, and because it seems to their advantage to refrain from butchering one another‖ (Burton, A., 1972.
Diodorus Siculus Book I. A Commentary. Leiden, 204-205, 258).
280
See Eyre‘s Cannibal Hymn, 56-57.
281
Pyr §§ 855-856, of ‗he who knows these spells (r) of Re, he will do them, these spells of horizon‘ (these first
appeared in the Pyramid of Pepi I). Also Eschweiler, P., 1994. Bildzauber im alten Ägypten, OBO 137. Freiburg
und Göttingen, 242-243.
282
Barta, W., 1985. „Die Bedeutung der Jenseitsbücher für den verstorbenen König,― MÄS 42. Munich, esp.
135, and note also 11, 19, 44-45, 53, 133.
 188

stresses that the purpose of the Book is to know the other world.283 In contrast, the
introduction to the shorter version states clearly: ―As for He who knows these situations (?),
he is the likeness of the Great God himself. It is useful to him on Earth, thoroughly; (it) is
useful to him in the great Duat.‖ Thus whether or not the rationale of the Amduat should
imply that the king is not dead, but travels with (or indeed as) Sun-god, in Duat at night but
on earth during the day, as in Eyre (2002: 66-67), or that the attainment of supreme
knowledge is key to total freedom, we are left to conclude that the acme of knowledge was
indeed the original measure of the Bantu-Ethiopian national culture.
In this sense, professor Christopher Eyre is absolutely right to note that the mythological
resolution found in the Cannibal Hymn—in terms of Unas transition from mortal to the state
immortality and or his ascension on the divine throne of his ancestors [both earthly and
celestial]—seems rather unusual in normal Egyptian context (Eyre, 2002: 148). Using the
heritage of the Green Crown of the divine throne, whose origin goes as far back as the Seven
Great Stars of the stellar Mythos (or earlier), as instance, it is stated clearly in the Ritual, (ch.
cxxxi.), that: ―He arriveth at the aged one (Horus I) on the confines of Mount of Glory (Pole
star) where the crown awaits him‖ (Churchward, 1993/1994: 284-285). And what the ancient
Egyptians mapped out celestially they depict it terrestrially as well—that is to say, the path to
legitimate heritage of the throne of Geb or dynastic Egypt must have in normal culture context
adhered to the gerontocratic principle of the original culture too. In other words, it is a more
familiar focus in Egyptian mythology that the superior claim to this heritage is one of right
rather than one of might. That is explicit in the Myth of Horus and Seth, so Eyre. In the new
Kingdom literary version of the story, Shu asserts that the heritage belongs to Horus, not Seth,
in the words: ―Right is Might‖ (Maat nb wsr).
In direct contrast to this original culture norm, however, the mythology of the Cannibal Hymn
overtly sets out to assert that the king, Unas etc, is heir to (or replacement of) the primaeval
god(s), whose varied roles and powers in the ‗other world‘ he takes over by force; that is to
say, he usurps the functions of his predecessors, the old gods who created the world. Simply
put, there is a continuous assertion of the King‘s claim to the heritage on the basis of might,
and stress on his seizure of power by force. In particular, it asserts explicitly that the king is
the most powerful or the archetypal manifestation of various categories of divine power, and
that there are the forms of divine powers which manifest themselves in order to control or to
intervene physically in the cosmos as a whole, including the visible world (Eyre, 2002: 142-
144).

283
ibid., 42-46.
 189

Such a blatant magico-political abberation from the original culture norm deserves critical
attention because it at best elaborates the highly contested concept of the ―Two-Lands‖ and
the associated Double-Crowns of dynastic Ethiopian-Egypt, the one a terra of white linen and
elderly from the South (Nubia) and the other Northern and red, both of which must be united
in the Green Crown of a homogeneous national culture:

―The Upper Egyptian (Crown) goes north, and the Lower Egyptian crown goes south; the united-one is
joined in the speech of Your Person, and the Green Crown is put to your brow‖ (Eyre, 2002: 132).

This united Green Crown alone was the special reserve or heir of the legitimate Pharaoh—that
is, the King of kings. But the legitimate right to the heir of the Green Crown was by virtue
her/his knowledge of the life subservient national culture. This best explains the rationale
behind the typical ―offering of the Maat‖284 to Hyen-Nu (and His/Her other assistant gods) by
the King. Succinctly, Unas and other later usurping or illegitimate local Pharaohs were
generally aware of this culture requirement285 for becoming a legitimate Pharaoh. Probably,
the apprehension of not being able to present a culturally convincing document (or argument)
to the Bantu-Ethiopian culture custodians in Karnak/Thebes must have been prominent on
their minds. Unas, for one, understood the importance of presenting a written document to the
critical review of the upholders of the national culture and or Amon; but he obviates by
―writing with the big finger not the small one‖ (Eyre, 2002: 130-131). Could there have been
any manuscript more prominent in the minds of the Locals [then] than the novel idea of eating
the hearts of gods and kings? The threat of killing the sacred Apis Bull of Manfour alone will
have presented an unprecedented socio-ethical development and marked the beginning of a
major political aberration from the original culture norm of the Bantu-Ethiopian kingdom.

Even provided one agrees entirely with Professor Eyre‘s argument that the dramatic episodes
associated with the Cannibal Hymn—that is, the introduction of the sacrificial Bull as the
king himself into the slaughterhouse; its slaughter and portioning into different symbolic
parts, with these parts symbolizing the different gods or parts of gods or their spirits or
powers which the king must absorb in order to become immortal—was rather symbolic than
actual; and that in contemporary Egyptian culture norm there was familiar punning

284
Teeter, E., 1997. The Presentation of Maat: Ritual and Legitimacy in ancient Egypt, SAOC 57. Chicago.
285
E.g., Spell 410b: Unas feeds (wšb) on the lungs of the wise. In our present context, if the document must be
subservient to eternal existence, which should in essence mean researching on the vegetation that perpetually
purifies blood and keeps the heart constantly pumping, he deviates from this norm by merely eating the Red and
swallowing the Green (Spell 410a) and also Spell 409c dealt with earlier. Most of the spells dealt with here are
also found in Eyre‘s Cannibal Hymn, 7-10.
 190

identification between spirits and food; and that it was also a commonplace in Egyptian
mythology to see the Sun being swallowed at night by the Sky goddess Nu(t), only to be
reborn at dawn; and as evinced by the Pyramid Spell 477 where in Thoth‘s protection of
Osiris there is apparent allusion to the symbolic role of the butcher and priest taking in
reversion of the ritual-offerings (Eyre, 2002: 154-171); the symbolic threat alone of eating the
hearts of the sacred Bull Apis must undeniably have presented an unanticipated socio-political
challege to that authentic culture norm of the local people customary of putting the heads of
men on the bodies of lions, jackals, wolves et cetera.
Therefore, despite the limitation of academic knowledge of ancient Egyptian funerary/
mortuary literature or culture (Eyre, 2002: 59), the meagre information scholars currently
present us should allow us to make a genuine homogenous culture case for elaborating the
concept of the Two Lands and their associated Double Crowns of a united Ethiopian
Kingdom (the Azanian nation). In a normal national culture context, the Great-Lake-Source of
the Nile, where in those days the Ritual of Resurrection found its most potent symbolic
manifestation, as in ―we eat, we eat the red Ox for the passage of the Lake‖ (Pyramid spell
1550a), the introduction of the deceased person into the world of the great ―Eternal Spirits‖ of
the ancestors on the ―Island of the Double Cave‖—that was the Island situated in the Great
Lake, the source of the Nile, Victoria Nyanza—normally began at the Delta where the great
Nile River gushes out its lungs into the Mediterranean sea. For example, the seventeenth
chapter of the Ritual also states: ―I am purified at the two great and mighty lakes at
Sutenhunen,‖ and ―these were approached by the road that leads to the Land of the Spirits.‖
―Eternity is the name of one and the Great Green One that of the other.‖ Another name given
to these lakes in the same chapter, as Churchward finds out, was ―Endless Time and Eternity‖,
with Endless Time being Day and Eternity being the Night (Churchward, 1994: 270). This in
turn raise the question, why travelling against the floods of the Great Nile?
Probably, since the original purpose of this Ritual was meant to culturally inculcate the
knowledge of immortality extant with the Land of the Spirits—the ―Khui Land, the terrestrial
exit of the Twelve divisions of the Tuat—in the deseased, it is foreseeable that the quest for
eternity was never meant to be easy, as in life or thereafter. And we are also told by the Ritual
that: ―the tunnels of the Earth have given me birth.‖ Thus having failed to attain the eternal
purpose of Life on the terrestrial povince the deceased person must have continued with that
difficult journey even in the underworld. Hence the ancient Egyptians commenced the
entrance of the Tuat terrestrially from the mouth of Nile and ended at the Island of the Double
 191

Cave. To reach this Island the Sektit boat286 containing the mummy form of Osiris—after
passing through the last division—entered the tail of a great serpent, was drawn through its
body and came out at its mouth, and thus was reborn anew. In other words ―He descended‖ in
mummy form at the commencement of the Tuat at the Nile Delta and ―ascended‖ on the
Island of the Double Cave, at the source of the Nile, having passed through the twelve
divisions of the Tuat and all the difficulties, dangers and darkness therein (Churchward, 1994:
272-273). This should probably explain why Osiris later inherited the role of the god of the
Underworld from Shu. According to Churchward, Shu, who was also called An-Heru, the
lifter up of heaven, was assigned primarily the place of the god of the Underworld, before
Osiris. As some one who lifts up the Heavens, it was natural that he remains underneath the
earth. Given that immortality was at the core of the Cushitic/Bantu-Ethiopians national
culture, the symbolic lifting up of heavens or the cognition of the earthly dwellers to parity
those inhabiting the celestial province could be better done by someone who shares their
plight. Simply formulated, the quest for total freedom or immortality is attainable first on
Earth, at least, for the earthly dwellers; but the key/ankh to that magnificient culture
endeavour cannot be found elsewhere than in the vegetality of the Osirian deity.
The terminus of the Ritual of Resurrection suffices as a confirmation of both the sacredness
and centrality of the Great Lake region in terms of the inception of the Azanian national
culture. Of particular importance in this regard is the Pygmy tribe in the region called ―Ti
Kiti-ki‖, which in ancient Egyptian means men of the Double Cave. The culture stipulation of
this Bantu-Ethiopian group can without doubt serve as the basis of the Dynastic Egyptian
culture, especially inasmuch as they not only believe in a Great Spirit, but also think that the
spirits of their ancestors inhabit a Great-Black-Serpent, who visits them continuously.
Accordingly, when a deceased person is buried the person‘s body/spirit automatically joins
the Great Spirit of this miraculous and invisible Serpent. That the ancient Egyptians of the
Solar Mythos later use to think and believe that the Sun-God—―Osiris in mummified form‖—
or the flesh of Ra was reborn into life of a new day only after he had been drawn through the
body of a serpent merely confirms the incorporation of the original idea of the Pygmies by the
ancient Egyptians (Churchward, 1994: 150-153).

286
The Sektit/Seher or Hennu boat, as Churchward notes, was not an ordinary boat, but one end of it very much
higher than the other and was made in the shape of the head of a gazelle. The centre of the boat was occupied by
a carefully closed coffer, which contained the body of the dead Osiris, and it rested upon a framework or sledge
which was provided with runners.This coffer was surmounted by a hawk with protruding wings stretched out
over the top of it. To support the sledge, a framework made in the form of lotus flowers, which, according to
Churchward, are well known types of the dawn and renewal of life, was used. Papyrus plants are embelms of the
South and Lotus plants of the North (see, Churchward, 1994. Signs and Symbols, 292-293).
 192

In the words of Maspero, ―all that lay beyond Punt was held by the ancient Egyptians to be a
fabulous region, a void or intermediate boundary land between the world of men and that of
the gods—the Island of the Double—land of the Shades, where the dead came into contact
with the souls of the departed.‖… ―It, the Land of Shades beyond Punt, was inhabited by the
Dangas, tribes of half-savage dwarfs whose grostesque faces and wild gestures reminded the
Egyptians of the god Bes—none knew better than they the dance of the god(s). One finds that
King Assi of the 5th Dynasty, B.C.3000, procured one which a certain Biûdri had purchased in
Punt. His wildness and activity and the extraordinary positions which he assumed, made a
lively impression on the courtiers at the time, and nearly a century later there were still
reminiscence of him.‖ During the 6th Dynasty Pepi II also sent, an officer, Heru-Khuf to bring
back a Pygmy alive, and in good health, from the land of the great trees, away to the South.
Churchward made convincing argument that this Land of the shades, which Professor
Maspero refers to as fabulous region, was actually the ―Khui-Land‖—the land of the Spirits
and God(s) (Churchward, 1993, 1994: 155-156). Following Dr. Edward Naville, Churchward
then stressed that: ―if the case of the Dangas is still doubtful there are two instances in which
it seems to be certain that the inscriptions mean Pygmies. In the scriptures, which describe the
great festival, in the temple of Bubastis, we see a procession of priests, among whom are three
small men, marching along holding canes. They have a title, which Brusgel translates
―guards‖, ―beadles‖, something connected with the police (or policing) of the temple. These
guards were certainly Pygmies. They are probably not Egyptians, for we find in the same
ceremony another African population, the Anu or Anti of Nubia, from the South. A third
extraordinary figure is a man having a face like ―Bes‖ but a well proportion body. The
inscription, which is above the figure, cannot be understood, it ends with ―nanasu nana‖,
probably the language of the man‖ (Churchward, 1994: 157-158). The notion of nanasu or
nana, in relation to the Dangas or Pygmies coming from the land of the great trees is rather
significant because ―nana‖ recalls the kingship title of the Ashantis mentioned earlier, whose
kingdom‘s capital is not only called the tree of life, ―Kuma-aszi‖, but who were originally
classified as the pygmies of the Niger.
Thus, in all, it is worth adding that, unlike the magico-political language of Unas‘s Spell (Pyr
§ 396c) which alludes to the bite of the guiding-snake mentioned earlier, ‗the original idea
behind the concept of the Black Serpent in the mythology of dynastic Egypt was symbolic of
the reincarnation of the spirit as a type of rebirth because of the serpent ability to casts out its
skin once every year‘ (Churchward, 1994: 150). C.A. Diop also makes credible references to
the similarity between the Dogon God-Serpent and the God-Serpent of the Egyptian
 193

Pantheon. Each is specialized at dancing in the dark. In fact, the God-Serpent is called ―the
one who dances in the shadows.‖ While this refers to a serpent in an inscription found on a
sarcophagus … accompanying the tomb of Osiris; in the Dogon Pantheon, the Seventh
Ancestor transformed into a serpent has been killed by his own men, who had his head buried
beneath the Blacksmith‘s cushion. From this sepulchre the Ancestor serpent rises up to dance
underground (e.g. in darkness). By similar analytical token, the incestuous Jackal-god of the
Dogon Pantheon also shows some similarity with the Jackal-headed god of the Egyptians. He
is the guardian of the pond where the dead are supposed to be cleansed (Diop, 1974: 141 ff.).
One should also add that even until today the elderly of the Dogons still uses the footsteps of
a mysterious Jackal/Wolf that supposedly only operates under the cover of the darkness/night
to determine the cause of human death. After all the core of the dynastic Ethiopian (or
Egypytian) culture deals first with immortality and then resurrection later. From a genuine
culture perspective, it shouldn‘t really matter whether the introduction of the deceased from
the Delta region of Egypt back to the Great Lake source of the Nile was mythologically
envisioned to mean having to travel through the body of the Great Serpent that symbolizes the
Eternal Spirit of their ―Ti Kiti-ti‖ Pygmy ancestors. What matters most is that, prior to ―Osiris
resurrection, Bes-Horus/Horus I, the early anthromorphized Egyptian-god, was Amsu in spirit
form—that is as resurrected Horus.‖ As Churchward rightly observes, Osiris was merely the
same person in a much later socio-cultural context (1993/1994: 279-280). In fact, the entire
literature—both sacred and secular—of the ancient Egyptians and Nubians is replete with
inscriptional evidence relating to their Southern origin; and even their ―gods‖, as recorded in
the ―Book of Coming Forth by Day [called today the Book of the Dead]‖and or the ―Papyrus
of Ani‖ (ca. 4000 B.C.E), they said: ―Came from the Source of the Nile …, Hapi [the Nile
goddess] at the Mountain of the Moon‖ (Ben-Jochannan, 1989: 168-169)287. Perhaps
Churchward description of the dance of Pygmies sacred ceremony illustrates better the
enigmatic endeavour of having to travel through the body of the Great Serpent. The dance, he
notes, consists of a series of more or less zig-zag movements in more or less large circle, with
the king/chief infront, and one following close behind imitating his steps and actions (1994:
151-152). Simply said, the culture quest for eternity was never meant to be a straightforward
journey without its own intricacies; it was a tortuous journey conceived to be full of obscurity
and laden with major obstacles, which in turn demands a leadership structure based on the
appropriate knowledge of such a cyclical course.

287
Ben-Jochannan maintains that the dynastic Egyptian Mountain of the Moon found in the Great Lake region in
today‘s Africa is the Kilimanjaro. In addition, other sources of the Nile are to be found in present day Ethiopia
(ibid.).
 194

From the foregoing, it could thus concluded that the indigenous people of the Bantu-Ethiopian
Kingdom, Azania, which originally stretched beyond the northern and eastern edges of
Sumeria right through to the Southern tip of the Cape of Good Hope, and or from the present
day Saudi Peninsula to the Western Coast of the Gulf of Guinea, erstwhile shared the same
national culture prior to its disintegration due to concerted internal and external political
pressures. With regard to the enormous wealth and power of that nation‘s culture center,
Thebes (the biblical Nahum), a Hebrew Prophet once said: ―… Ethiopia and Egypt were once
thy strength, and it was infinite; Put and Lubim thy helpers‖ (Erman, 1894/1971: 20-21).
Similarly, Homer‘s Iliad (Book ix) states: ―…in Egyptian Thebes the heaps of precious ingots
gleam, the hundred-gated Thebes.‖

4.1.3. Could External Political Forces have instigated the Culture Crisis of the Ethiopian
Kingdom?

Alternatively, in light of the geographical reach of the Bantu-Ethiopian culture one could also
postulate a wholly external explanation for the political usurpation of the institutions of that
national culture. Aside the remarks made earlier about the universal political ambitions of
some of the New Kingdom‘s Pharaohs, there are convincing hypothesis put forward by some
authors that merits critical attention. Taking the numerous isolated communities of Bantu-
Ethiopians still found in South East and the Austral-Asia region, Churchward, for one, has
shown the similarity between the early signs of the Ethiopian (later Egyptian) culture and
those found in the cultures of some of these isolated communities. Of particular importance in
terms of the culture reach of the Bantu-Ethiopians is the Hieroglyphic sign of Amsu, the
resurrected Bes-Horus I or the Pygmy Ptah, which is not only found on the ivory tablets of the
tomb of Naqada,288 but also found depicted on the oldest Boomerangs of some indigenous
Australians. The same is true of the hieroglyphics sign of ―Khui Land‖ also found on the
boomerangs of some of these indigenous Australians, on the backs of some West
Azanian/Africans, and on stones in Ireland (Churchward, 1994: 151, 156). On the basis of this
Churchward suggests the primacy of the ancient Egyptian culture and argued convincingly
that some of these groups had probably left the Ethiopian motherland during the early phase
of the Stellar Mythos. This in turn thus begs the question whether scientific Egyptologists and
historians will be ready to accommodate such hypothesis given the disparity between the early

288
For details about the Naqada civilization see Bruce Williams, 1987. ―Forebears of Menes in Nubia: Myth or
Reality?‖ Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol.46, No.1, 15-26.
 195

settlements of the indigenous Australians and the Papau New Guineans etc. and the history of
predynastic Egypt.
In the case of India, there are credible evidence indicating that prior to the arrival of the
politically dominant and landowning Brahman or Brahimic warrior casts—the so-called
Aryan Indians, there was already a well established indigenous community sharing the culture
of the Bantu-Ethiopians (e.g. solar deity and the sacred Apis Bull). Hence, Indian divinities,
Devata in Sanskrit, literary mean ―the Shinning One.‖ And if Cows are revered and accounted
sacred in India today it is because the ancient Egyptians originally treated Cows in like
manner in honor of Auset/Isis (the Moon Goddess represented with horns [Hathor of the
Greeks]), and just as the Indians object to killing them as food so did the ancient Egyptians. It
is culturally also significant that Churchward acknowledges that, prior to the arrival of the
politically salient Brahimic cast, there was no such thing as the cast divisions now
synonymous with contemporary India; and that the indigenous inhabitants treated their
women in like manner as did the Egyptians—allowing both sexes to enjoy the same social
prestige and standard. Despite the high level of melange or intermarriages that would later
give India its contemporary characteristics or identity one can still find some isolated
communities of the Bantu-Ethiopians in some parts (or on some islands) of India. It is
therefore not a coincidence that the Indians still call their male parents Pitah (Ptah).
Furthermore, in a Chinese Manuscript called Pih-Kea-Sing, dated probably 3000 B.C. (its
mention of Buddha notwithstanding), we are also told that ―the [Mongoloid] Chinese
originally came from the Northwest—over the heights of Kwan-lun towards the borders of
Hwang-ho—as colonists, …subdued and perhaps exterminated in succession the early
indigenous [Afro-Asiatic] population of the land‖ (Churchward, 1994: 215-216).
Similarly, Diop has demonstrated convincingly how certain verses of The Epic of Gilgamesh
shed new light on the early Negro background of ancient Elam (―Persia‖):

Father Enlil, Lord of the countries,

Father Enlil, Lord of the true word,
Father Enlil, Pastor of the Blacks

In this Epic, Anu (Sumerian An), the primitive god father of Ishtar, has the same Negro name
as Osiris the Onian: The goddess Ishtar took the floor and spoke thus to god Anu, her father
 196

(Verses 92-93). Amélineau289 is quoted as stating that ―the Anu people were the earliest
inhabitants of ancient Egypt and Arabia Patraea‖ (Diop, 1974: 105).
Sandars, in The Epic of Gilgamesh, thus stressed that when the Semites invaded Mesopotamia
they not only inherited most of the Sumerian gods, but they altered their names, their mutual
relations, and many of their attributes. This notwithsatnding, the kind and just attributes of the
Sun-god, Shamash (the Sun is Shams in Arabic), remained undiminished. Accordingly, in the
days of the Epic of Gilgamesh, Shamash was Omniscient seeing one, the great judge to whom
anxious mortal could appeal against injustices, and know that they were heard. Many of his
attributes are described in the hymns from Nineveh: ―All mankind rejoice to you, O Shamash,
all the world longs for your light… in a hollow voice feeble man calls out to you… when his
family is far away and his city far off, the shepherd boy fearful of the open field comes before
you, the shepherd in confusion among his enemies … the caravan which marches in dread, the
trader, the pedlar with his bag of weights.‖ In fact, nothing escapes the Sun‘s eye, ―Guide and
beacon who constantly passes over the infinite Seas, whose depths the great gods of heaven
do not know; your gleaming rays go down into the Pit, and the monsters of the deep see your
light. You make it to burn over unknown stretches of distance for countless hours …by your
terrible brilliance the land is overwhelmed‖ (Sandars, 1960: 23-24).
Finally, as for the relatively recent culture history of Indo-Europeans (Erman (1894; 1971: 3),
there is no doubt that the political alliance of the so-called Caucasians or Aryans (e.g. Hyksos)
who later colonized Greece and infiltrated the Bantu-Ethiopian Kingdom systematically and
incrementally were predominantly of Nordic and admixture of Euroasian tribes. Their
barbaric political nature also found expression in early Greek and Roman myths. Of
importance is the general perception of the presence of werewolves among certain European
groups. For instance, Ovid‘s Metamorphosis290 tells us the story of a family who was
punished for one of them fed flesh to Zeus: ―Howling he fled, and fain he would have spoke;
but humane voice his brutal voice forsoke. About his lips the gathered foam he churns, and,
breathing slaughters, still with rage he burns, but on the bleathing flock his fury turns. His
mantle, now his hide, with raged hairs cleaves to his back; a farmished face his bears; his
arms descend, his shoulders sink away to multiply his legs for chase of prey. He grows a wolf,
his hoariness remains, and the same rage in other members reigns. His eyes still sparkle in a
narrower space: his jaws retain the grin, and violence of his face. This was a single ruin, but
not one deserves so just a punishment alone.‖291

289
Amélineau, Abbé Émile, 1916. Prolégomène à l‟étude dela religion égyptienne. Paris: Ed Leroux.
290
http://classics.mit.edu/Ovid/metam.html (e.g., Sir Samuel Garth, John Dryden et al. (English translation)).
291
http://www.eaudrey.com/myth/werewolf.htm (accessed June 7, 2009).
 197

Referring to the nomadic Scythian tribe, the Neurians, Herodotus state: ―It seems that these
people are conjurers: for both the Scythians and the Greeks who dwell in Scythia say that
every Neurian once a year becomes a Wolf for a few days at the end of which time he is
restored to his proper shape. Not that I believe this, but they constantly affirm it to be true,
and are even ready to back their assertion with an oath.‖292
And from the Speculum Regale (also called Konnungs Skuggsjá or King‘s Mirror) written in
Norway around 1250293 we also learn that ―when the holy Patricius preached Christianity in
that country, there was one clan which opposed him so fiercely than any other in the land; and
these people strove to insult both God and his holy man. And when he was preaching the
gospels to them as to others and came to confer with them where they conferred their
assemblies; they adopted the plan of howling on him like wolves. When he saw that he could
do very little to promote his mission among these people, he grew very wroth and prayed God
to send affliction upon them… as a constant reminder of their disobedience. Later these
clansmen did suffer a fitting and severe though marvellous punishment, for it is told that all
the members of the clan were changed into wolves for a period and roam through the woods
feeding upon the the same food as the wolves; but they are worse than wolves, for in all their
wiles they have the wit of men, though they are as eager to devour men as to destroy other
creatures. It is reported that to some this affliction comes every seventh winter, while in the
intervening years they are men; others suffer it continuously for seven winters all told and are
never stricken again.‖294 While in this later case both the supposed holyman and the
Norwegian clans possessed the magical powers of conjuring each other into Wolves; it
generally recalls us of ―the dark prince Moses‖, who fled his native Egypt at the age of forty
years to the Midianites (Exodus 2:15) only to return forty years later as a fully initiated
sorcerer capable of conjuring human beings into snakes (Kalopoulos, 2003: 281-290).
Furthermore, there are credible historic indications that the political leaders of the Greco-
Europeans were generally apt at appropriating foreign cultures and then imposing theirs on
others. Bernal Martin, for one, rightly points to a statement in the Hermetic Corpus that hints
to the fact that ―the Greeks had taken aspects of Egyptian religion. Also, writing around 100
C.E, Philos of Byblos claimed that Greeks had appropriated Phoenician and Egyptian ancient
myths and then imposed their versions or fictions on other peoples. Similarly, the Assyrian
Christian, Tatian, argued in the Second century C.E that the Greeks had taken their culture
from the ―barbarians‖, including Phoenician letters and Egyptian Geometry and historical

292
Herodotus, Histories. Translated in English by George Rawlinson, 1928. New York: Tudor, 88.
293
http://www.archive.org/stream/kingsmirrorspecu00konuuoft/kingsmirrorspspecu00konuuoft_djvu.text
294
http://www.eaudrey.com/myth/werewolf.htm.
 198

writing. The Church father Clement of Alexandria even went all the way to call the Greeks
thieves‖ (Bernal, M. (2001: 392-393).295
Moreover, we also now know that not only Greek gods were calculously vying for each other
positions in historic times, but that there are plenteous examples in Greek mythology when
mortal human heroes also challenged the authority and will of immortal gods, as in the
famous defiant position of Ajax‖296: I will excape from the Sea, even if the gods do not wish
it (Kalopoulos, 2003: 205):

―Once, Zeus‘ son, Hercules, challenged every opponent he could find to a wrestling contest. Since no
man was equal to the challenge, Zeus took on the form of a mortal man; after a prolonged match that
lasted for hours and resulted in a draw, Zeus made himself known to his son Hercules. … Before the
contest began, Hercules had offered up a burn sacrifice of animal‘s thighs on the altar‖ (Kalopoulos,
2003: 205-213).

Kalopoulos thus stressed, that ‗Greek religious thought in particular acknowledged from the
dawn of mythical times, man‘s right to enhance his importance by means of heroic deeds; the
Greek mind was the first to turn from a God-centred way of life and thought to a human-
centred society. Accordingly, Greek religiousness, at first God-centred, evolved significantly
to become human-centred and then produced the exquisite nature oriented philosophy of the
late classical times (ibid).
In order not to miss the main point of the present analytical discernment, assuming the
geographical reach of the Bantu-Ethiopian national culture extended from the mainland to
Australia (or Kerimi Azania) through the Mediterranean and some parts of Asia, it is possible
to envisage a political development in which some of these isolated local communities lying
at the northern and/or north-eastern fringes of the then Ethiopian Kingdom having to confront
economically engendered external political incursions with total disregard to the sacredness of
local deities, as in this statement: ―the Egyptians not only worship oxen, but also revered eels
instead of eating them, and mourning the death of cats instead of skinning them‖ (Erman,
1894/1971: 2). This was with specific reference to classical Greeks position on the ancient
Egyptian culture. But as Professor Reverend Sayce also reminds us, the early political
advances of the Hyksos into the Delta region of the then Ethiopian Kingdom was often
accompanied by massacre and utter destruction of the local culture institutions dedicated to

295
For further details on Clement see Clement Stromateis, I.87.2; see also Ridings, D., 1995. ―The Attic Moses:
Dependency Theme in some Early Christian Writers”. Gothenburg, Sweden: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis,
223.
296
Homerus Od. 4.500, Scholia in Homerum 13.66.10. Ajax, according to popular myth means ―Eagle.‖
Pindarus Isthmia 6.35.
 199

the gods of the land (Sayce, 1895: 13-14). So, assuming the local leaders at northern and
north eastern fringes of then sparsely populated Bantu-Ethiopian Kingdom/the Azanian nation
directly affected by such political incursions against the local culture norms appealed for
assistance from the culture centre of a nation customary used to putting human heads on the
bodies of lions (as with the sphinx) only to be repeatedly presented with the alternative culture
solution of taming and inculcating real culture in these economically driven and blood thirsty
political Barbarians; it is feaseble that disgruntled community leaders wary of the practicality
of the stringent ethical norm of their local culture in the face of such a serious political
development must have opted for a much realistic polititical solution in their response to the
situation. In anything, the taming of an uncultivated wild-beast or political barbarian requires
certain degree of force; even, if not all out force—some measure of force is inevitable. This
might best explain why local district chiefs like Unas, and many of the later politically salient
Pharaohs, must have chosen to usurp the institutions of local culture in an effort to advance
their urgent political cause. Probably, this might also explain why as the Theban culturalists,
the avant-garde of Azanian nationalism, were gradually squeezed out of Upper Egypt, the lion
god increasingly gained more prominence in Meroe; or why in the closing days of the ancient
Egyptian social history there were more highly politicized Pharaohs at helm of Bantu-
Ethiopian culture institutions. In any event, given the centrality of the Delta region of the Nile
Valley to the over-all process of the ―Ritual of Resurrection, the occupation of that particular
region by either internal or external political agents must have rendered the culture custodians
of the Bantu-Ethiopian kingdom redundant; and, consequently, set the stage for the national
struggle to reunite what was by then a degenerating nation. This seems to be one of the best
alternative interpretations of the ancient Egyptian concept of the Two-Lands and their
associated Double Crowns for which both legitimate and illegitimate/pseudo Pharaohs of the
Ethiopian Kingdom contested for heritage in the past.
 200

The three-headed Lion-god worshipped at Meroe from a relief at Wâd Ba-Naga

Reproduced in Wallis Budge‘s From Fetish to God in Ancient Egypt (p.79)

Another culture interpretation of that concept has been presented by Albert Churchward in his
Signs and Symbols of Primordial Man. Despite the unavoidable shortcomings, Churchward,
unlike other researchers and scholars who in the 19th and 20th centuries desperately tried to
misappropriate ancient Egyptian culture and civilization for the West Asiatics297 and the
Greco-Europeans298, opts for a masonic interpretation of that highly contested ancient
Egyptian concept of Two-Lands. Interestingly, Churchward develops the concept of a pre-
Ptah secret/dark Earth in which nothing grew, no human beings were yet created, and no evil
was yet known. This is then followed by the idea of Amenta or Lower Earth, which the
Pygmy Ptah and his associates, who represented the earliest form of the ―Seven Primal
Powers‖, had created and was presented as a passage—hollowed out of Earth—through which
the manes had to pass before emerging as a spiritual body. This second earth or Amenta
which is created by Ptah and his assistants or demi-gods constituted, with the original Earth or
Upper Earth, ―the Double Earth.‖ After the creation of the Amenta, the original North and
South divisions as evident in the Stellar Mythos of the Ethiopians/Egyptians was added with
the East and West horizons—thereby attaining the four quarters or square on the solstices of
equinoxes forming the divine house of Ptah. Since ancient Egyptians pursuit of divine source

297
See, Erman, A., 1971. Life in Ancient Egypt, 30.
298
See Eyre, C., 2002. The Cannibal Hymn, 154-155.
 201

of life was originally conceptualized both terrestrially and celestially, the two Earths—that of
Seb (Upper Earth) and that of Amenta (Lower Earth), created by Ptah and his associates,—
each had a Sky representing the double Tatt in the Ritual, and served particularly in Amenta
as a type of eternal stability, and was also portrayed to form the gateway of eternity in the
region of Tattu (Churchward, 1994: 158-160). Having dealt earlier with the gates, through
which the dead must pass or the judges before whom s/he must justify her/himself and so
reify the passage of the dead from the mortal to the immortal state (Eyre, 2002: 137), it is also
significant that Churchward here has the Ritual of Resurrection in mind. Subsequently this
Double Tatt, represented in the later Solar Mythos, the pillars of Sut (the earliest God of
Darkness) and Horus (God of Light or Sunshine)—or South and North—the Sun and the
Moon, revolving, passed through Amenta issuing light to the passing of the manes; and the
meeting of which, at the mountain of the Middle Earth (the Solar Mount in Ainnu), the
equilibrium of eternity is established. It was after this eternal unison that the legitimate
heritage of the earth was now handed over to Horus, who henceforth became ―Chief of the
Two-Land.‖ He wears the double diadem as ruler of the double earth; the one who has
traversed the two Earths and as the one who unites both horizons.
In all, it is worth adding that in Egyptian divine dynasties Ptah was not only the God-Father,
but also Iu, the son. In the person of Iu he represented the youthful deity who rises from the
dead both as the Sun-god and as the soul in the image of Sahu mummy risen, with the Solar-
hawk for its head symbolizing the soul issuing from the body of Kheper-Ptah. Iu is also
representative of the Put-Cycle or the company of creators. Here, as gods gathered in the
Body of One Supreme, they were first Seven in the Stellar Mythos; Eight in the Lunar; Nine
in the Put Cycle of Ptah—Solar; and Ten as the sephiroth of the Kabalists, and finally Twelve
in the Heaven of Atum-Ra (Churchward, 1994: 160-161).
These later astronomical figures in Churchward interpretation of the concept of the Two
Lands recalls once again the original terrestrially founded and celestially celebrated
symbolical characters associated with Moabas early ancestors—the four wives of Cham-ba
Nyaan, symbolizing the four geographical corners of the Bantu-Ethiopian Kingdom (or later
Egyptian Kingdom); and His Seven sons, namely: Jafoak, Jakpakar, Jakong or Wakirman,
J[aton]g, J[amon]g, Suabnang, and Namauk—symbolizing the seven stellar spirits, which in
sum constitute the Twelve Eternal Spirits or Stars later incorporated into the Solar Mythos of
the dynastic Egyptians. Furthermore, it also reaffirms the prevailing position that uncorrupted
knowledge underlining life‘s purpose was the measure of the Azanian national culture. It is on
the whole elucidating to know that while in the pre-Solar period there were Twenty four stars
 202

representing the heavens of North and South both terrestrially and celestially…, ―these were
the twelve who had their thrones as rulers in the zodiac and the 12 spirits with Horus-Khuti,
Lord of the spirits in the heaven of eternity. Citing the Papyrus of Ani and [Nu]-nefer,
Churchward rightly observed that in the Maat there are also Twelve Judges sitting on twelve
thrones (1994: 194-195).
In order to make sense of Horus legitimate heritage of the Green Crown (or the unison of the
Double Crowns) for our present analysis, it is worth adding that while ‗the priests of
Heliopolis (On or Beth Shemesh of the bible) had in the past done everything to incorporate
the doctrines of the Stellar, Lunar into the Solar Mythos—with undeniable modifications and
changes; and are known to have attached the name of Horus to the names of their Kings, as in
Min [Menes]-Ptah…, the first King of the Fifth Dynasty, User-ka-f, declined the use of Horus
name on its title altogether‘ (Churchward, 1994: 269). Thus despite ―the relative stability
often attributed to the Old Kingdom‖ (Sayce, 1895: 13), the political seed had, by this time,
already been sown on the wholly culture landscape of the once unified Azanian nation.

4.2. Conflicting views about the Origin of the Egyptian Culture/Civilization

In his Black Man of the Nile Ben-Jochannan has convincingly argued that any attempt to
divide dynastic Egypt into the so-called Semitic dominated Lower Egypt to the North and
Bantu-Ethiopian dominated Upper Egypt (South) during the Old Kingdom is tilted at
misinformation because prior to the arrival of the Hyksos rulers there wasn‘t any direct
serious external political threat close to the culture centre of the Ethiopian Kingdom.
Naturally, Ben-Jochannan‘s informative and lucid analysis takes critical issue with such
politically compromised modern scholarship that in the past deliberately tried to extricate the
so-called ancient Egyptian civilization from its Ethiopian origin, as in this Introduction to
―Nubia‖ in the Encyclopaedia of Egyptian civilization. ―Nubia, the lands of the South of
Egypt was inhabited by less civilized people who were good soldiers. They were also rich in
gold, good quality stone, hard Wood, and large cattle. They formed the gateway to central
Africa, whence come Ivory, strange animals and the pygmies.‖299 It is rather intriguing to note
that the gold, high quality stone, Ivory and large cattle were those days often destined for the
culture institutions of the superior neighbour to the North, the Egyptians (Ben-Jochannan,
1989: 114). This position could not be better emphasized: ―The Egypt of the first six dynasties
had been self contained and pacific. The Pharaohs of the Old Kingdom did not need army,
and accordingly did not possess one.‖ But this did not hinder them from ―making few raids
299
Posner Georges, 1962. A Dictionary of Egyptian Civilization. New York, NY: Tudor Publishing Co., 191.
 203

from time to time against the Negroes South of the First Cataract for the sake of acquiring
slaves‖ (Sayce, 1895: 13). In his ―The Conquest of Civilization‖300, Professor Henry Breasted,
the first academic authority of Egyptology in the USA, seems rather more exuberant and
precise about the superior race who founded the undeniably high cultured ancient Egyptian
civilization:

―The Population of the Great Northwest Quadrant, from the Stone Age onwards, has been the race of
White men of varying physical types. The evolution of civilization has been the sole achievement of this
Great White Race. In the territory adjoining the Northwest Quadrant there are only two clearly
differentiated races, the Mongoloid and the Negroid. On the East of the Northwest Quadrant the secluded
plateaus of the High Asia developed a type of Man with straight and wiry hair, round head, almost
beardless face, and yellow skin—the Mongoloid. The migrations of these yellow men out of High Asia
eventually diffused them in all directions, but they did not reach the Northwest Quadrant until long after
Civilzation was already highly developed. Nor did they themselves develope any civilization until long
after it was far advanced in the Northwest. On the South of the Northwest Quadrant lay the teeming black
world of Africa, separated from the Great White Race by the impassable desert barrier of, the Sahara,
which forms so large a part of the Southern Flatlands. Isolated thus at the same time unfitted by ages of
tropical life for any effective intrusion among the White Race, the Negro and Negroid peoples remained
without any influence on the development of early civilization. We may then exclude both of these
external races—the Mongoloid on the East, and the Negroid on the South—from any share in the origins
or subsequent development of civilization. 301
The Great White Race itself, which dominated the Northwest Quadrant, includes and always included a
considerable range of types from the fair-head, long-headed, so-called ―Nordics‖ of the Northern
Flatland, through the round-headed Alpine or ―Armenoid‖ peoples of the Highland zone in the Middle, to
the dark-haired, long-headed ―Mediterranean Race‖ of Southern Flatland. To this type belonged the
Egyptians (their tanned skin notwithstanding), doubtless also the Semites, and of course the great bulk of
the population of Greece, Italy and Spain, long loosely called ―Aryan‖ because of their speech, which of
course has no necessary connection with race‖ (quoted by Ben-Jochannan, 1989: 165-166).

As observed earlier, Professor James Henry Breasted Aryanist position should not surprise us
because ―from classical Greece Egypt has often been claimed as part of heritage of the West‖
(Eyre, 2002: 154-155). As a result, most Aryanist scholars in the 19th and 20th centuries
generally took such inscriptions as on the so-called ―Palermo-Stone‖302 and the ―fragments of
Hierakonpolis‖303 to indicate the superior Egyptian army North of the First Cataract making
military headway into the territory of the inferior Nubians (or Bantu-Ethiopians), South of
300
Breasted, James Henry, 1926. The Conquest of Civilization. New York, NY & London, 112-113; for remarks
on China see page 114.
301
The exceptions later made on the part of the Mongoloids in later European History notwithstanding.
302
Breasted, James Henry, 1906. Ancient Records of Egypt (Vol.I., section 146). Chicago, Illinois.
303
E.g. J.E. Quibell & W.F., 1902. Green article Hierakonpolis II (in Egypt Research Account). London.
 204

that Cataract. Subsequently the inscription on the Hierakonpolis fragment, depicting the battle
between the military forces of Pharaoh Khasekhemui of Egypt and the so-called Pharaoh Djer
of Nubia …, was rationally interpreted by these Orthodox historians to be a conflict between
the ―Semitic Egyptians‖ and their uncivilized ―Nubian‖ neighbours to the South. Another
much cited inscription by these so-called objective historians is the one concerning the
submission of a few Nubian minor ―Princes or Lords of Medja, Irtet, and Wawat…‖ to
Pharaoh Mernere; or the one showing Pharaoh Sneferu of the IVth Dynasty, c.2720 B.C.E,
allegedly destroying Nubia on the so-called ―Palermo Stone‖ (Ben-Jochannan, 1989: 116,
167, 171). Hence for most Egyptologists of the 19th and 20th centuries, ―Egypt North of the
[imaginary] First Cataract… [from at least during the IInd Dynasty, c. 2800-2780] and Nubia,
the land South of the First Cataract, were distinctly different nations racially‖ (ibid., 167).
Dr. Wallis Budge, for one, argues ―that the Egyptians not only borrowed their knowledge of
the Zodiac from the Greeks‖; but ―that the Solar doctrines related to Heru/Horus were
introduced into Egypt by the Asiatics, who invaded the country and conquered the natives,
settled down there and built up the great dynastic civilization‖ (Churchward, 1994: 63-64,
194-195). Astonishingly, this renowned English Egyptologist later (in 1904) represented an
entirely different position about the ancient Egyptians:

―The Egyptians being fundamentally an African people possessed all the virtues and vices of which
characterized the North African races generally, and it is not to be held for a moment that any African
people could become metaphysians in the modern sense of the word. In the first place no African
language is suitable for giving expression to the theological and philosophical speculations, and even an
Egyptian priest of the highest intellectual attainments would have been unable to render a treatise of
Aristotle into language which his brother priests, without teaching, could understand. The mere
construction of the language would make such a thing an impossibility, to say nothing of the ideas of the
great Greek philosopher, which belong to a domain of thought and culture wholly foreign to the
Egyptian‖ (Bernal, 1987: 259-260).

In light of these conflicting statements, Ralph Ellison has argued convincingly that
confronting social reality, either fiction or non-fiction, involves grappling with ―values…
affecting [one‘s] nation and time. Humans are all too prone to see reality selectively and to
interpret it self-servingly…‖304 And the anthropologist Robert Redfield has also stressed that
the worldviews of many peoples consists essentially of two pairs of binary oppositions:

304
Ralph Ellison, 2008. ―Awakening to Race: Ralph Ellison and Democratic Individuality.‖ Political Theory
Volume 36, No. 5, 656-657.
 205

humans/non-humans and we and they.305 These two, Jonathan Z. Smith rightly observes, are
often correlated so that ―we‖ equals human and ―they‖ equals non-human.306 In this sense,
Wallis Budge later statement about the Africanness of the ancient Egyptians should be
generally perceived in light of modern racist academic tendencies in the second half of the
18th century to pull the Egyptians back to Africa, as the idea of Indo-Europeanism began to
gain currency—following the discovery of the Sanskrit in India and its associated Aryan
conquests from the North (Bernal, M. 1987: 243-244). The same is also true of Johnson‘s
rational work on the Abyssinians.307 In this later instance, the use of Abissinia instead of
Ethiopia was intended to avoid the blackness originally associated with the concept of
Ethiopia. For Baron Curvier had argued, that ―the Ethiopians were Negroes, but the Abissians
were colonies of the Arabians and hence as Caucasians.‖308 Presently, the anonymous author
309
of the Webster New Encycopaedic Dictionary described the Ethiopians as: ―a member of
any of the mythical or actual peoples usually described by the ancient Greeks as dark-skinned
and living far to the South or a native or inhabitant of Ethiopia; but on the subject of the
Ethiopian language, the author has no difficulty in ascertaining its Semitic background.
In his attempt to reconstruct the history of Egypt, Kurt Sethe also postulated that ―the division
of the country between Africans in the South and mainly Asiatics to the North was mainly due
to split in religion. The Africans refused to accept the cult of Horus that dominated the Delta
region as the Asiatics settled there. They, therefore, formed a ―second nation‖ in Upper Egypt
and established their national religious shrines at Omnos, Thebes (―Luxor‖), Thines, and
Napata‖ (Chancellor, W., 1987: 61-63). In this later case, the indigenous population simply
racially separated themselves from the conquering Asiatics. Henceforth, Egypt from the First
Cataract to the Mediterranean Sea was definitely called Egypt of the Asiatics and the country
from the First Cataract to the South became known as Ethiopia, Nubia, or Kush (ibid., 84).
For scholars like W.M Flanders Petrie, the father of archaeology and among the early
prominent Egyptologists, ―there are definite connections between ancient Egypt and the
Caucasus.‖310 (Ben-Jochannan, 1989: 175) Essentially, these foregoing academic stipulations

305
Redfield, Robert, 1953. ―Primitive World View.‖ In: Redfield, ed., The Primitive World and its
Transformations, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 92.
306
Jonathan, Z. Smith, 1985. ―What a Difference a Difference Makes.‖ In: Jacob Neusner and Ernst S. F., ed., To
See Ourselves as Others see Us: Christians, Jews, “Others” in Late Antiquity. Chico, California: Scholars Press,
3-48.
307
Johnson, S., 1768. The History of Rasselas Prince of Abissinia: An Asiatic Tale. Philadelphia.
308
Quoted in Curtin, P., 1971. Imperialism: The Documentary History of Western Civilization. New York:
Harper & Row, 8-9.
309
Webster New Encyclopaedic Dictionary, 1996. New York: Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers Inc. ISBN:1-
884822-20-7.
310
Stuart, Piggott, 1941. Antiquity XV, 384.
 206

of the past three centuries should be perceived in light of the Romantic belief that vitality flow
from north to south and not the opposite direction (Bernal, 1987: 311-313).
Although Edward W. Said in his Orientalism311 has aptly cautioned against early arbitrary
academic attempts to impose Western paradigms in the analyses of non-Western cultures, the
outgoing notion of ―The Conquest of Civilization‖ generally implies, even if one is rationally
objective,312 that the newly settled conquerors would have left similar cultural institutions and
civilization in their original home land(s), as evinced by the hundreds of miniature
Pyramids313 and temples in the Southern part of the Ethiopian Kingdom; or the round thatch-
roofed buildings across the whole of the present-day colonial Africa echoing the Solar-Disk or
the cyclical/sutainable rhythm of the local culture. However, that most of these political
incursions from beyond the Kingdom were engendered economically also be deduced from
the Medinet Habu, an inscription in Thebes. Originally built by Ramses III as a temple to
commemorate his military successes against the military incursions from the North and
Northeast of Egypt, the scribe on this wall sounds rather articulate about the sheer economic
motives behind such political incursions mainly from the North: ―They never reaped a harvest
any more.‖ It was a statement made in commemoration of a major military defeat suffered by
these external political barbarians in the hands of Ramses military forces (Sayce, 1895: 86-
87). In this sense, one could thus reasonably assert that, even, in these later days of the ancient
Egyptian civilization, pillage, plunder and destruction—and not the foundation of
civilizations—was generally attributed to the political leaders of these wandering barbarians,
as Michelet also explicitly admits:

―It is not without reason that the memory of the Punic Wars has stayed so popular and so alive. The
struggle was not merely to decide the fate of two cities or two empires; it was to settle for which of the
two races, the Indo-Germanic or the Semitic, was to rule the world. … On the one side the genius of
heroism, of art and law; on the other the spirit of industry, navigation and commerce. The heroes
fought—without ceasing—their industrious and perfidious neighbours. They were workers, smiths,
miners, magicians. They loved gold, hanging gardens and magic palaces. They constructed towers with

311
Said, Edward W., 2005. L‟Orientalisme: l‟Orient créé par L‟Occident. Paris: Seuil.
312
After pointing out some of the difficulties involved in dealing with the Egyptian cultural materials, Adolf
Erman insist in his Life in Ancient Egypt (page 6), that ―in order to grasp a full picture of life in ancient Egypt
during any one period, our imagination must aid in filling in the details of one or another portion of it, as it is
never complete in itself.
313
In Meröe, for instance, one of the twenty five major cities in the heartland of the Ethiopian Kingdom, where
some of the earlier experiments in Pyramid buildings took hold, one can still see some of these miniature
Pyramids standing more than 6000 years after they were first built. These and other advanced ideas were later
planted in the northern parts of the Kingdom (as the locals probably became specialized in their stellar, Lunar,
and Solar or astrological observation (my emphasis in italics)) (see, Chancellor, 1987: 123-124).
 207

titanic ambitions which the swords of the warriors broke up and effaced from the earth.‖ (Bernal, 1987:
341-342)

Even Prometheus, who by the 20th century was plausibly identified as the biblical Japhet, the
third son of Noah—after Ham, and Shem (ancestor of the Semites)—and alleged ancestor of
the Europeans, with whom most Aryans proudly identify themselves, was presumably
punished for having ―stolen fire from mankind‖(Bernal, 1987: 220; Kalopoulos, 2003: 25314).
Therefore, from the very moment of their arrival right through to their forced departure from
northern Egypt,315 after several centuries of undermining the institutions of local culture, the
leaders of these political barbarians were conquerors of cultured civilizations rather than the
founders of civilzation.

It was against such backlog of academic prejudices that Dr. Ben-Jochannan set out to make an
alternative—that is, an Afro-centrist case in defense of a homogeneous ethno-culture
Ethiopian kingdom, which both Lower and Upper Egypt and the rest of Nubia (Africa South
of the Nubia/Sahara desert) prior to its disintegration, had originally belonged. Like most
Afro-centrists, Ben-Jochannan has for formal academic reasons not discriminated against
these compromised academic biases but instead used them to the contrary. He argued
convincingly, that prior to the arrival of the so-called Hyksos, the XIVth-XVII foreign
Dynasties (c. 1675-1600 B.C.E.), such internal political conflicts as recorded by the ancient
Egyptians themselves, especially those conflicts in the early stages of their dynastic history,
far from being racially inclined must have been merely internal political conflicts engendered
by hedonic sentience or sheer economics. Particularly true of this is the human captives and
economic spoils the Northern soldiers looted from the South—e.g. 7000 soldiers, circa 200,
000 cattle and sheep etc., as depicted on the so-called ―Palermo Stone‖, which Professor
James Breasted simply overlooked in his objective interpretation of that inscription. In other
words, the fact that Joseph Kone,316 the War-Lord of Uganda‘s Lord Resistance Army, has the
custom of forcefully recruiting child soldiers (―infantry‖) from all the colonial African
countries bordering the Great Lake region—including the constant supply of nomadic and or
314
In footnote 29 Kalopoulos stressed that Prometheus was chained by Zeus on a rock high on Mountain
Caucasus, where a Vulture came daily to eat from his liver, which Zeus renewed each day.
315
Albeit gloss contradiction apparent in the biblical narrative about the great flood, the Noah‘s Ark and its
passengers, the clear indication so far that that Ark most probably began its unusual culure journey from Egypt
to the Caucasus are some of the culturally symbolic animals found on that Ark, namely the so-called seven pairs
of clean—for sacrifice animals [sheep], and one pair of unclean animals, the lion (see, Friedman, Richard E.,
1987/1989. Who Wrote The Bible. New York, 50-59. In fact these seven pairs of clean animals not only recalls
us of the seven eternal spirits associated with the assistance of Ptah or Cham-ba Nyaan noted earlier, but they
also recall the customary representation of rams and lions before the entrance of Upper Egyptian temples.
316
Green, Matthew, 2009. ―The Wizard of the Nile.‖ Portobello Books Ltd. ISBN: 9781846270314.
 208

aboriginal Arabs by the Bashir‘s government in Sudan to his aid; … or his use of mineral
resources from Congo and CAR to finance his ongoing war against the Museveni‘s
government, does not make him/his political agenda less Ugandan. Thus, while Ben-
Jochannan does not totally disagree with the fact that there were indeed internal political
tensions between the defenders of the status quo, the culture nationalists, and the then newly
emerging political forces as early as the period of the Old Kingdom; and that by the Fourth
Dynasty (c.2680-2565 B.C.E) the ancient Ethiopian Kingdom was increasingly fragmentized;
he insist to the contrary that on the ethno-culture plain those warring factions were naturally
part of the original high culture of the Great Lake region. Accordingly, prior to the Hyksos
military occupation of the Delta region, which undoubtedly was later responsible for the mass
immigration of foreigners into the region…, the so-called Lower and Upper Egyptians were
the same Bantu-Ethiopians. (Ben-Jochannan, 1989: 171)
Taking the case of the founder of Memphis, for instance, he emphasized that most the great
Pharaohs, who were generally inclined to the culture continuity of their nation and determined
in their pledge to holding the Bantu-Ethiopian kingdom together, were mainly from the South.
Of course, there were northerners equally determined in their pledge to the culture continuity
and the unionist cause of the Thebes (―Luxor‖) conservatives, hence it was possible for the
Royalty from the South to entice popular support from the North in its wars against
secessionist leaders in the Northern Egypt during the IInd Dynasty (c.2800 B.C.E) (ibid.,
1989: 116). Using considerable detail of chronologies currently available in this field he
meticulously demonstrated that it was actually ―the OPE (―Ordinary People of Egypt‖?),
whom the Greeks later renamed Thebans—because of their originality from Thebes (―Luxor),
that took control of the Fayyum region, including Memphis (―Manfour‖) and Hierakonpolis
up until the IXth-Xth Dynasties (c. 2100-2052 B.C.E.). In his words, the ―Southerners‖
actually ruled all of northern Nubia and much of Southern Egypt before resuming military and
political control of the entire North and South—the ―Two Lands.‖ Starting their military
campaign first across the northern course to Asyut; they extended it to the Southern limits of
the Delta before progressing to liberate the whole region of the Delta bordering the
Mediterranean Sea. In this view, these indigenous people who founded the XIth Dynasty
(c.2150-2000) were actually the power behind the throne of the IIth and the XIth Dynasties, c.
3200-2100 B.C.E. In fact that the Thebans controlled all the way to the Upper Land (South)
of the First Cataract is detailed on an inscription related to Pharaoh Meri-ib-Re of the XIth
Dynasty (c. 2242-2200 B.C.E.). Another inscription also referred to Thebans control all the
way to the North (―Lower Land‖) to the city of Hierakonpolis near Memphis, the then capital
 209

of Egypt. Reference is also made to a set of inscriptions related to Prince Atef (a distant
predecessor of the XIth Dynasty Pharaoh Atef I, c.2160-2150 B.C.E.), to secure the
southerners control of the Southern Gateway … north of the First Cataract. Apparently, these
concerted efforts by those behind the IIth and the XIth Dynasties to clear the Delta region
from the control of divisive political forces tend to align them with genuine upholders of the
national culture.
In fact, that the indigenous population of the Nile Valley were the same people who happened
to be fighting each other for cultural, economic and political reasons is inscribed on a
fragmented stone taken from the ―Gebelein temple‖ of Pharaoh Mentohotep II of the XIth
Dynasty. On this stone, the Pharaoh is shown smiting four enemy armies—including
Egyptians, Ethiopians, Nubians, and foreigners from Asia…, which orthodox objective
historians and or compromised scholars later named white and black Semites. A similar rock
inscription is shown depicting Pharaoh Mentuhotep III, the successor of Mentuhotep II., of
the XIth Dynasty (c. 2060-2010 B.C.E.), when he crossed the Nile River near the First
Cataract with ships to Wawat during the forty first Nile year of his reign. Worthy of note is
that the ethno-cultural interaction between the so-called Northerners (Egyptians) and
Southerners (Nubians, including Ethiopians and Meröeans), was so intense that this later
Pharaoh had to restore the military office and title of the ―Keeper of the Door of the South…‖
Because of such close cultural interactions, some of these orthodox objective historians on
Egypt had to reluctantly concede that: ―The princely family of Amen-emhat the vizier of
(Pharaoh) Mentohotep III had Nubian blood in his veins‖ (Ben-Jochannan, 1989: 173, [199
for Amen-emhet]).
It is also significant to note that during the liberation wars against the Hyksos occupation of
Northern Egypt records from Thebes attest to the fact that the indigenous people of the North
naturally relied on the human and material support from the South (Nubia, Ethiopia, and
Meröe).317 Therefore concerning the ―Boundary Line‖ between the so-called Asiatic or
Caucasian Egypt (Lower Egypt) and Ethiopian Nubia (Upper Egypt), especially in the true
sense of ―Boundary Demarcation‖ as was envisaged in the Westpfalian Treaty, does not hold
any genuine academic ground. Accordingly, it was not until Pharaoh Thutmosis I of the
XVIIIth Dynasty, c.1530-? B.C.E., the successor of Pharaoh Amenophis (―Amenhotep I‖),
c.1557-1530 B.C.E., who was the real conqueror of the Northern section of Nubia that any
such reference had been noted on a ―Rock Inscription‖ at Tangur in Batn el Hagar, which was

317
See, M. Hammand, 1955. Découverte Stéle du roi Kamose‖ [Chronique d‟Egypte, xxx], 198-208; A H.
Gardiner‘s, ―The Defeat of the Hyksos by Kamose: the Carnavon tablet, No. 1.‖ Journal of Egyptian
Archaeology, III, 95-110.
 210

erected in ―…the second Nile year [of his] reign.‖ Also at a place called Thumbus, near the
Third Cataract, there is another inscription on a granite boulder which provides us with a
reference to Pharaoh Thutmosis‘ naval engagement at the Dongola Reach—the fertile lands
close to northern Kush. This later inscription is the very first of its kind which, with a little
stretch of imagination, could be said to have been a ―Boundary Mark‖ or ―Demarcation‖ in
the modern sense of the word (Ben-Jochannan, 1989: 177-178).

REPRODUCED BOUNDARY INSCRIPTION AT KURGUS

Erected by Pharaoh Thutmosis I, c.1530-1520 B.C.E. (He succeeded Amenophis I), final conqueror
of Nubia done in the 2nd Nile year of his reign, c.1528 B.C.E., on a granite bolder, relating to his vic-
tory against the Nubians (ibid., 179).

In all, given that the Hyksos did not arrive in Egypt until XIV-XV Dynasty, c. 1675-1600
B.C.E., neither the ―Caucasians‖ nor the ―Macedonian-Greeks‖ until the ending of the XXXth
Dynasty, c. 332B.C.E—after their defeat of the Persian inter-loopers; one could definitely
assert that the indigenous Africans and Nubians were still the same people ―racially‖, who at
various times differed some what politically. In any event the beginning of such political
separation, not racial separation, could not have begun before the IIIrd Dynasty, c.2780-2680
B.C.E. (Ben-Jochannan, 1989: 118-119). As a matter of fact, the indigenous populace of both
Egypt and Nubia the Hyksos met when they first occupied the Delta region of the Ethiopian
kingdom matches the later physiognomical description of Herodotus: ―The Colchians,
Ethiopians, and Egyptians have thick lips, broad nose, woolly hair, and they are burnt of skin‖
(ibid., 1989: 127-128; C.A. Diop, 1974: 1-5).
Ben-Jochannan is not idiosyncratic in his position. In responding to the critics of his Black
Athena, Bernal Martin has also maintained his defense of the indigeneous origin of the
Egyptian culture and civilization. He began by noting the skin colour cline as one goes down
the Nile valley and acknowledged that the pre-dynastic population of Upper Egypt, who were
 211

the founders of the Pharaonic civilization, differs less from the Somalis to the South than do
[from?] the Late Dynastic people from Lower Egypt‖ (Bernal, M., 2001: 154). Thus on the
race of the ancient Egyptians he asserts:

…Research on the question usually reveals far more the predisposition of the researcher than the question
itself. Nevertheless, I am convinced that at least for the last 7000 years, the population of Egypt has
contained African, South and West Asian and Mediterranean types. It is also clear that the further south,
or up the Nile one goes, the blacker and more Negroid the population becomes and that this has been the
case for the same length of time. As I stated in the introduction, I believe that the Egyptian civilization
was fundamentally African, and that the African element was stronger in the Old and Middle Kingdoms,
before the Hyksos invasion, than it later became. Furthermore, I am convinced that many of the most
powerful Egyptian Dynasties which were based in Upper Egypt—the 1st, 11th, 12th, and the 18th—were
made up of Pharaohs whom one can usefully call Black. (Bernal, M. 2001: 208-209; 1987: 241-242)

Notably, Bernal in large accepts the physionomical admixture of the Egyptians, especially in
its later composition; but he equally acknowledges the indigenous origin of what later became
known as ancient Egyptian culture or civilization. There are two reasons for his acceptance of
the Africanity [Azanianity] of the original Egyptian population. The first, he argues, is to right
the misapprehension that ancient Egyptian population was somehow Asian or European. This
for him was myth developed by specialist in the 20th century. And though experts later in that
century knew this was a myth, refused to redress the fact and it has since persisted in popular
opinion (Bernal, 2001: 210).
The second reason for associating Egypt with the rest of Africa (Azania) is the simple fact
that both the country and its inhabitants were related to the rest of Africa. In fact
geographically, during the formative pre-Dynastic period, c.5000-3400 B.C.E., Egypt was
linked to West and central Africa by the open Savana that later desiccated to become large
regions of the Nubian [now Sahara] desert. Then later Egypt was connected to central Africa
by the Nile. Following the leading Egyptian pre-historian Fekhry and others,318 he stressed the
relations between the Sahara—then savannah—and the Upper Nile and Upper Egypt in
material culture in the pre-dynastic period. He further notes that in the linguistic sphere the
Egyptian language belongs to the Afroasiatic superfamily and that there is no doubt that this
linguistic grouping has its origin in Africa, to the South of Egypt proper.319 Subsequently,
while acknowledging the later transformation of and individuality of the Egyptian culture he
318
Hassan, F. A., 1988. ―The Predynastic of Egypt.‖ Journal of World Prehistory 2, 135-185.
319
Blench, R., 1993. ―Recent Developments in African Language Classification and Their Implications for
Prehistory.‖ In: T. Shaw, P. Sinclaire and A. Okpoko, ed. The Archaeology of Africa. New York: Routledge,
126-137; see also Ehret, Christopher, 1996. ―Ancient Egyptian as an African Language, Egypt as an African
Culture.‖ In: Theodore Celenko, ed. Egypt in Africa. Bloomington: Indania University Press, 25-27.
 212

stressed that it would be extremely misleading to separate Egypt from the rest of Africa
(Bernal, M. 2001: 210).
Importantly, these later voices generally tend to uphold Classical, Hellenistic, Roman and
early Biblical writers‘ views about the ancient Cushitic Egyptians (―Ethiopians‖), as vividly
summed up in this statement:

―By the almost unanimous testimony of ancient historians the Egyptians belong to an African race
[Negro] which first settled in Ethiopia, on the middle Nile; following the course of the river, they
gradually reached the Sea. … Moreover, the Bible states that Mesraim, son of Ham, brother of Kush
(Chus) the Ethiopian, and of Canaan, came from Mesopotamia and settled with his children on the Banks
of the Nile.‖320

Further, the Bible states clearly that Egypt was peopled by the descendants of Ham/Cham,
ancestor of the Blacks: ―The descendants of Ham are Kush, Mesraim, Phut and Canaan. The
descendants of Kush are Saba, Hevila, Sabatha, Regma, and Sabathacha. …Kush was the
father of Nemrod; he was the first to be conqueror on the earth. Mesraim became the father of
Ludim, Anamim, Laabim, Nephthuhim, Phethrusim, and Chasluhim. And Canaan gave birth
to Sid, his first born, and Heth‖ (Genesis321; Diop, 1974: 2). Unaware, then, of what was to
become later of modern scientific historiography, these classical Greek and Roman historians
and geographers, etc. along with the Biblical writers, when dealing with Egypt and the rest of
Africa never mistook its Blackness. And in so doing they established without doubt that the
Blacks were the first Egyptians and the builders of that ancient civilization (Chancellor, 1987:
87-89; Ben-Jochannan, 1989: 179).
Interestingly, the readiness by certain European and American-European scholars, especially
upholders of the Aryan and later Extreme Aryan Model, to quote classical and Hellenic
Greek, Roman, and Judaeo-Christian sources of Egyptology as their first line of academic
authorities, and their equal eagerness to denounce them whenever and wherever their records
upset the modern paradigm of rational objective historiography has been the cause célèbre of
the Africana scholars and their sympathizers, who, unfortunately for reasons of arbitrary
political developments of the past three centuries (17th to the second half of 20th century‘322),

320
Gaston, Maspero, 1917. Histoire ancienne des peuples de l‟Oriente. Paris: Hachette, 15.
321
Genesis, X, 6-16, The New Catholic Edition of the Holy Bible, 1953. New York.
322
Robert Finzsch, 1999. „Wissenschaftlicher Rassismus in den Vereinten Staaten (USA) 1850-1930.― In:
Heidrun, Kaupen-Haas & Christian Saller, Hrsg. Wissenschaftlicher Rassismus. Frankfurt/New York: Campus
Verlag, 84-110; see also, Haywood, Burns W., 1990. ―Law and Race in Early America.‖ In David Kairys, ed.
The Politics of Law, New York: Pantheon Books. For a similar perspective in the Franco-African context, see
Caterine Coquery-Vidrovitch „French Historiography on Africa: A historical and personal contextualization―, in:
Afrika Spectrum 41 (2006), pp.107-126.
 213

arrived belatedly at the modern academic scene, especially at a time when significant injustice
had already been done to the prevailing Egyptological materials. So, unlike the advocates of
the Extreme Aryan Model323 who in the past often tend to overlook external influences on
Greek culture and civilization, these Africana scholars and their academic sympathizers
contest massive borrowings from the Ethiopian-Egyptian culture and civilization by the
Greeks and hence Europeans as a whole.

4.2.1. External Political Forces Role in the demise of the Ethiopian/Egyptian Culture

Perhaps the appropriate way to address the Ancient Model‘s stance on the impact of the
ancient Ethiopian (or later Egyptian) culture or civilization on the psychological development
of the Greco-European personality is to first explore the socio-historical and political
circumstances within which the frontrunners of the paradigm of modern scientific
historiography operated as this elucidates the socio-political reasons behind the overthrow of
the Ancient Model as well as the role external forces played in undermining that unique
ancient Ethiopian culture. Foremost, unlike their classical predecessors, these scientific
historians treated the remnants of the ancient Ethiopian culture with relative impunity since by
then Egypt, just like the rest of the Azanian nation, was firmly under the control of the
colonizing foreigner. We have also observed elsewhere how prolonged divisions resulting
from political conflicts between sacred and secular forces nurtured different European
identities (e.g. Aryans, Caucasians, and Levantines). For our present purpose it is intriguing to
know that the inventor of the term Caucasian,324 probably in reference to the biblical location
where the Noah‘s Ark was supposedly stranded…, was conventional in his age for including
the Semites, the descendants of Shem, in the general Caucasian family, whose members he
believed were the most talented and beautiful human race from which other races
degenerated. (Bernal, M., 1987: 219-220) But while such inclusion or the later attempts to
semiticize certain Ethiopian groups was in those days deemed necessary in terms of
extricating the so-called ancient Egyptian civilization from its Bantu-Ethiopian origin, we
now know that the geneticist of the Third Reich would preferably have excluded all White
peoples with dark hair from the superior Aryan race, which, in line with the socio-economic
and -political Zeitgeist of the 20th century, was only rationally reserved for the blue- or green-

323
The idea of an extreme Aryan Model implicitly implies that there were advocates of a moderate Aryan Model
readily accommodating to some of the substantial external influences on Greek culture and civilization (for a
detail discussion of this see Bernal M., Black Athena Vol. I, 282-399).
324
See, Blmuenbach, J F., 1795. De Generis Humani Varietate Nativa. 3rd edition. Göttingen.
 214

eyed and blond/red haired Europeans. In other words, the widespread accommodation of the
Talmudic interpretation that ―the curse of Cham/Ham (or the Hamitic Myth)‖ the ancestor of
Canaan and Mizraim, Egypt, was blackness in the 17th century European and European-
American scholarship325 had by the 20th century nurtured a much more radical interpretation
of race in the European context. As noted earlier of pre-Revolution France, class difference
was not only later substituted by race difference, as in the belief that the French nobility were
the descendants of the Germanic Franks while the advocates of the Third Estate were Gallo-
Romans, but in the social history of Europe there seems to have always been that tendency to
politically manipulate the process of European identity. It should therefore not surprise us that
Barthold Niebuhr, who was so crucial to the transformation of modern or scientific approach
to history also saw in the ―Patricians‖ and the ―Plebeians‖ of imperial Rome not merely as
different classes, but as constituting different races altogether (Bernal, M. 1987: 303). It is
thus only reasonable to anticipate that entrusted with the history of colonized nations such
compromised scholars and authors could have done far worse than merely adherring to the
norms of the contemporary Zeitgeist.326
And this is particularly true of Niebuhr. As a product of Scottish Enlightenment,327 he is
accredited for bringing together romanticism and racism in the 1790s (Bernal, M., 1987: 297-
305). Surprisingly, Niebuhr‘s early belief in the desirability of backward peoples (e.g. the
Germans) developing autochtonous cultures did not extend to lesser, non European breeds.
Hence he rationally accepted Jean Francois Champollion‘s compromised reduction of the
Egyptian calendar—then reduced to 2200 B.C.E [a date used then for the Hyksos conquest of
Lower Egypt]—as summed up in this report by the French ambassador to Rome:

―[with this] … important service rendered to religion: ‗He [Champollion] has humbled and confounded
the pride of this philosophy which claimed to have discovered in the Zodiac of Dendera a chronology
earlier than that of the Holy scriptures‘. The holy father has therefore requested that M. Testa, a man most

325
Jordan, W D., 1969. White Over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro: 1550-1812. Baltimore:
Penguine, 18; Harold Blackman, 1977. ―The Ebb and Flow of Conflict: The History of Black-Jewish Relations
Through 1900.‖ Thesis (PhD), University of California.
326
The concept Zeitgeist [―spirit or genius of the age‖] was coined by a German historian and anthropologist,
Meiners, C. in the period from 1770-1810. Essentially, his position is that each age and place had special
mentality determined by its situations and institutions. Another [of his] innovation closely linked to this
development is ―source-criticism.‖ In historical context, this involved the historian assessing the value of
different historical sources according to their author and social context and basing its interpretation largely or
solely on the reliable authoritarian. This generally allows the historian to reference discriminatory using those
references that reveal the ―spirit of the age‖ in question or the social context within which the writer carries out
his historical activities. This procedure became prominently dominant in the 19 th and 20th centuries
historiography. (For details see, Bernal, M., 1987. Black Athena, 217-218; Marino, L., 1975. I Maetr della
Germania, Goettingen 1770 – 1812. Turin: Einaudi, 103-113).
327
Momigliano, A., 1982. ―New paths of Classicism in the nineteenth century.‖ History and Theory
(Supplement 21), 9.
 215

learned in the study of Antiquity, set out in detail for him the arguments whereby M. Champollion
establishes: (I) that this Zodiac was constructed under Nero; and (2) that no monument exists from before
2200 B.C.E, dating back, that is, to the time of Abraham, so that, in accordance with our faith, there
remain approximately eighteen centuries of darkness through which the interpretation of the Holy
scriptures alone can guide us.‖328
:
In any event, the following statement he made in 1814 serves to illustrate Niebuhr biased
credentials as a scholar:

―European dominion naturally supports science and literature, together with rights of humanity, and to
prevent the destruction of barbarous power would be an act of high treason against intellectual culture and
humanity.‖ (Bernal, 1987: 305-306)

In this light, Niebuhr can thus be seen as a Eurocentric German nationalist329 whose role in
transforming modern scientific approach to historiography has been aptly compressed in the
words of an anonymous writer in the 1911 edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica:

―If every positive conclusion of Niebuhr‘s had been refuted, his claim to be the first who dealt with the
history of Rome in a scientific spirit would remained unimpaired, and the new principles introduced by
him into historical research would loose nothing of their importance.‖ (Bernal, 1987: 303-304)

One of these new principles was the Romantic positivist approach championed at Göttingen
University, especially of studying peoples and their institutions rather than individuals.
(Bernal, 1987: 305-306) As adherent of Göttingen source critic, his method involves the
combination of racial criticism and creative reconstruction from text analysis, analogy and
intuition.330 In such pattern of racially induced creative scholarship, Niebuhr was then able to
make a categorical distinction between the free and creative Greeks and the Egyptians, who
he argued, like many oppressed people, were very far advanced in their arts while their
intellectual culture was way behind.331 Niebuhr‘s historical writing was in essence thus crucial
to modern scholarship intent at overthrowing the Ancient Model because of its relatively
positive stance on the influence of Ethiopian (Egyptian) culture on the psychological

328
Hartleben, H., 1909. Lettres de Champollion les Jeune recuellies annotée, Vol. I. Paris: Bibliothèque
Égytologique, 228; Bernal, M., 1987. Black Athena, 252.
329
Rytkönen, S., 1968. Niebuhr als Politiker und Historiker. Helsinki: Annales Academiae Scientiarum
Fennicae, ser B. vol. 156, 175-176.
330
Witte, B. C., 1979. Der preußische Tacitus: Aufstieg, Ruhm und Ende des Historikers Barthold George
Niebuhr 1776-1831. Düsseldorf: Droste, 185.
331
Schmitz, L., 1852. Lectures on Ancient History from the Earliest Times to the Taking of Alexandria by
Octavius, 3 Vols. Philadelphia, 83-84.
 216

development of Graeco-European personality. And as one renowned 19th century historian of

Rome, Theodore Mommsen, is also quoted as urging: ―History must first make a clean sweep
of all these fables which though purporting to be history, are little more than improvisations.‖
(Bernal, M. 1987: 331-332)
Another important scholarly figure in this line of creative historiography, and who is closely
related to the Göttingen academic establishment,332 is Karl Otfried Müller. Martin Bernal
thinks Müller was not only among the first to be trained in the post Napoleon‘s German
education system led by Humboldt, but has in general contributed methodologically in the
overthrow of the Ancient Model (ibid., 308ff.). Two main techniques are rightly attributed to
him, namely ―argument from silence‖ and ―dissection or analysis.‖ The former, which Bernal
considers to be the preferred tool of ―archaeological positivism‖, involves the belief that if
something has not been found, it cannot have existed in significant quantities (ibid., 9). In this
sense, in his treatment of the subject of external influences on Greek culture and civilization
Müller readily contested that genuine ancient accounts and legends sometimes only appeared
in late sources—sources, which he himself had sometimes relied upon. So, in order to deny
the authenticity of a legend or ancient account contradicting the modern paradigm of objective
scientific historicism, he therefore required additional criterion: ―that there must have been a
strong contemporary reason for fabricating such a legend.‖333 As Bernal rightly observes, he
and his successors generally treated Homer and Hesiod not as poets but as encyclopaedias,
which allowed them to rationally treat any unknown phrase to Homer or Hesiod as not having
existed in their days (Bernal, 1987: 9, 310).
The second technique of dissection or analysis was intended to rectify what Müller personally
saw as a general tendency in Antiquity to syncretism. As a champion of Romantic
particularism against the universalism of Enlightenment, he took separation to be at the core
of mythological analysis. In this way, he was able to systematically reduce most of the earliest
myths and legends concerning Greek civilization to local specifics. Two of his works are
crucial in this line of objective scholarship, namely the Histories of Greek Tribes and Cities334
and the Introduction to a Scientific System of Mythology. Already his direct attack on the
Ancient Model is evident in both works. This is particularly true of the first volume of his

332
This German university was established in 1734 by the king of England, George II, who was also then the
elector of Hannover. In addition to specializing in ethnic and racial scholarship, Göttingen is argued to be the
embryo of later modern diversified and professional Universities (Bernal, M., 1987. BA Vol.I., 215).
333
Müller, K.O., 1825. Prolegomena zu einer wissenschaftlichen Methodologie. Göttingen, 128-129.
334
Müller, K.O., 1820-1824. Geschichten Hellenischer Stämme und Städte, 3 volumes. Brenslau (volume I:
Orchomenos und die Minyer, volumes II and III: Die Dorier). Translated by H. Tufnell and GC. Lewis, 1830 as
The History and Antiquity of the Doric Race, 2 volumes. London.
 217

Histories of Greek Tribes and Cities, Orchomenos and the Minyans, in which he began with a
quote from Pausanias (Bernal, 1987: 308-310 n. 119):

―Greeks are terribly prone to be wonderstuck by the expense of home products; distinguished historians
have explained the Egyptian Pyramids in the greatest detail and not made the slightest mention of the
treasure house of Minyas [at Orchomenos] or the walls of Tiryns, which are by no means less
marvellous.‖

Although the Classicist Rudolf Pfeiffer has positively described Müller‘s earliest volumes on
The Dorians—the work that earned him his chair at Göttingen—as ―more an impressive
Hymn on the excellence of everything Doric than a narration of history‖ 335; it must be noted
that with Müller ―we have at least arrived at the threshold of the 19th century, in which the
conquest of the ancient World by science was completed.‖336 (Bernal, 1987:315) From this
time onwards right through to the second half of the 20th century and beyond, Ethiopian-
Egyptian history became a scientific discipline firmly under the control of biased experts with
personal economic and political agendas.
In his scientific historiography about Life in Ancient Egypt, Adolf Erman made it clear that
‗…a great number of the Egyptian papyri are of no use for his project because their contents
are purely religious or magical. On the other hand, however, there are great number of private
business letters, inventories, notebooks, and legal documents, which are of greatest
importance in the study of the Egyptian nation.‘ (Erman, 1894/1971: 5-6)
Furthermore, ‗in Egypt the deceased was honoured as a demi-god, and therefore a chapel of
his worship was a necessary adjunct of the Egyptian tomb. … It follows, of course, that these
colossal erections, with their dependencies, their gardens, their cattle yards and store houses,
must have given employment to a great number of officials and workmen. If we add to these
the crowd of embalmers, coffin manufacturers, and priests of the dead, employed in the
numberless private tombs, as well as the stone masons, builders, and other artisans always
required for the building of new tombs, we shall understand why these realm of the dead
gradually became a real city.‘(ibid., 21-22)
Indeed, from a genuine culture standpoint, these modern Egyptologists, Archaeologists,
Anthropologists, and Historians main source of information concerning the ancient Ethiopian
(or later Egyptian) culture and social history would have been totally inconceivable. Ben-
Jochannan, for one, has classified these later scholars among the list of grave robbers in his

335
Pfeiffer, R., 1976. History of Classical Scholarship: From 1300-1850. Oxford: Clarendon, 187.
336
Wilamowitz-Moellendorf , U., 1982. ―History of Classical Scholarship.” Translated by A. Harris. London &
Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 105.
 218

Black Man of Nile (chapter IV)337; and we know from Egyptian Literature that grave robbery,
at least from the Middle Kingdom onward.., was generally punishable by death. That
―Richard Lepsius, the German scholar who was despatched to Egypt by the King of Prussia in
1842, and whose classic twelve-volume ―Monuments of Egypt and Nubia‖ (1849-1859)
became core to the establishment of Egyptology as a systematic discipline, was allowed to
bring back to Berlin 15.000 choice objects, including three entire tombs, which became the
nucleus of the Berlin Museum over which Adolf Erman presided in his scientific endeavour to
compose his Life in Ancient Egypt‖338 confirms the prevailing position that Egypt, like the rest
of the Azanian nation or Ethiopian kingdom, was by this time of modern scientific historicism
fully under the control of external political forces.
It is also within this political context that one can understand why Manetho‘s account about
Egypt‘s social history; and his chronology of Egyptian monarchies, have until now remained
the preferred authority for scholars despite credible evidence that Manetho himself did
prudently accomodate the political demands of his contemporary Macedonian Greek rulers of
Egypt, who then were eager to see themselves listed among the legitimate lineage of
indigenous Pharoahs. It is for that matter intriguing to know that ―Manetho, who was born to
an Egyptian mother and a Greek father in the town of Samaud in the Sebennytos region of
Lower Egypt, and who was extremely proficient in the Hieroglyphs, was obliged to write his
widely referenced Aegyptica [―History of Egypt‖] in Greek (Ben-Jochannan, 1989: 132-133).
Indeed, without his political employer, Ptolemy II—commonly known as Philadelphus, a title
he acquired after murdering his own two brothers [his only prime adversaries] prior to
ascending his father‘s Egyptian throne, Manetho‘s historical scheme might never have borne
fruits. This son of Sôter is rightly accredited for having compiled the hieroglyphic monuments
and hieratic papyri of the native temples, which was to become the main source of Manetho‘s
Aegyptica. True, during his reign Philadephus did show keen interest in both economic
development and the literary advancement. And had accordingly not only filled Alexandria
with sumptuous buildings, but also stocked the main library of that city‘s museum with
numerous books and a collection of circa 400.000 rolls of papyrus—aimed specifically at
attracting learned men from across the world to the then Greek Egyptian kingdom. However,
it is also significant to note that Philadelphus swift replacement of the Museum‘s then
librarian was rational given that Demetrius Pharelus, the ex-tyrant of Athens, had earlier
overtly supported his senior brother as the legitimate heir to their father‘s Egyptian throne

337
See, Mathias, Schulz, 2010. Das letzte Geheimnisse des Pharaon Tutanchamun-Der kinder Könige und die
Grabraüber. Der Spiegel Nr.2, 32-37.
338
See Jon Manchip White‘s Introduction to Adolf Erman‘s Life in Ancient Egypt.
 219

(Sayce, 1895: 147-148). It is therefore understandable why despite credible evidence to

instances in which different contesting Pharaohs ruled sway in the Nile Valley, Manetho was
apt at selecting what he thought his authorities considered to be the legitimate Pharaohs, and
disregarded every other (ibid., 1895: 17-18). In one of Manetho‘s books339 he wrote to King
Ptolemy II, he stats clearly that: ―according to your order to translate from the Egyptian
Hieroglyphs you will be handed the sacred books written by our ancestor Hermes
Trismegistos‖ (Kalopoulos, 2003: 16). Such compromise not only besmirched the dexterity of
Manetho‘s Aegyptica scheme, but makes his inclusion of the Hyksos rulers among the
legitimate Pharaohs of Egypt rather questionable.340
In addition Manetho‘s untimely death before the completion of his dynastic listings in ca. 324
B.C.E is not only further complicated by the fact that most of today‘s Egyptological
chronologies disagree with the original chronology of dynastic Egypt, Nubia, Meroë, Itiopi,
Puanit, and Lebu (Libya) which he recorded in his major works during the 3rd century B.C.E,
but the fact that many of his original works have come down to us from his disciples such as
the Hebrew or Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (1st Century C.E.), the African Christian
chronographer, Julius Africanus (c.220 C.E), and the European Christian Eusebius (c.320
C.E). Compounded with Christendom‘s customary arbitrary reduction of ancient Egyptian
calendar with the view to giving priority to the original ancestor of Judaeo-Christian religion,
Abraham, or in order to harmonize it with the Septuagint, one can understand why some
scholars doubt the reliability of the above chronologies (Ben-Jochannan, 1989: 131-135;
Sayce, 1895: 17). Moreover modern classicist rational preference of Manetho‘s Egyptian
history over similar accounts from Herodotus tends to be strengthening to Christendom‘s
reductionist scheme because the latter, with his over four hundred Pharaonic dynasties, must
certainly have placed Egyptian history circa 8000 to 10,000 years earlier than the biblical
Abraham.

Finally while there is no doubt about the direct political role of the Hyksos rulers and or that
of later biblical patriarchs in the transformation of the Ethiopian-Egyptian culture, there are
conflicting perspectives with regards to the political ambitions of Abraham himself. For
example, Diop who is rather more concerned about demonstrating the indigenousness of the

339
Bible Sothios
340
For example, Sayce traces the origin of the Pharaonic title back to the early days of the Monarchy; and derives
its meaning and significance from the Egyptian word Per-âa or ―Great House.‖ Elsewhere, he accurately
observes that the ―Double Crown‖—that is, the unison of the White Crown from the South and the Red Crown
from the North in the ―Green Crown‖ was the genuine symbol of the monarchical power. Thus leaving us with
the impression that the so-called dynasties of the Hyksos could not have been genuine Pharaohs (Sayce 1895: 2-
3, 22-23).
 220

Negro Canaanites/Phoenicians prior to their admixture with Nordic White tribes [Philistines
or Hyksos?] to produce the Semitic element takes us on an analytical tour de raison of the
Biblical narrative about Abraham‘s arrival and settlement in that part of the Bantu-Ethiopian
kingdom:

The Lord said to Abraham: ―Leave your country, your kinfolk and your father‘s house, for the land which
I will show you. …Abraham went away as the Lord had commanded him, and Lot went with him. …
Abraham took Sara his wife, Lot his brother‘s son, all the property they had acquired and the persons they
had got in Haran and they departed for the Land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan,
Abraham passed through the Land to the sacred place at Sechem (Sichem), near the plain of More. At that
time the Canaanites were in that land.‖

After many turbulent ups and downs, the Canaanites and the White tribes, Abraham and his
descendents [Isaac lineage], blended to become in time the Jewish people of today:

―So Hemor and his son Sichem went to the gate of their city and spoke to the fellow citizens ―these men‖
they said, are friendly; let them dwell with us and trade in the land, since there is ample room for them.
Let us marry their daughters and give them our daughters to marry‖ (Diop, 1974: 106-108).

Evidently, both quotes seem to denote the ambivalent character of Abraham. In any case,
there are credible indications that Abraham did not arrive in Egypt until after the Hyksos
conquest; and probably might have lived during the reign of the Hyksos rulers, which in turn
strengthens Sayce argument that Abraham, like many of the Semitic families who later settled
in Canaan or Lower Egypt during the Hyksos reign were generally attracted by sheer
economic wealth of the Ethiopian Kingdom (Sayce, 1895: 19-20). And indeed the barbarians
of antiquity far off in Ionia had often in those days extolled the immense wealth of that
kingdom‘s culture centre:

―Royal Thebes
Egyptian treasure-house of countless wealth,
Who boast her hundred gates, through each of which,
With horses and cars two hundred warriors march‖ 341

Regarding the autarky of the Ethiopian Kingdom, Strabo described Egypt as ―from the
beginning the most self sufficient land‖ (Kalopoulos, 2003: 252). The Bible speaking about

341
Homer Iliad, 9, 381ff.; see also Erman, A., 1971. Life in Ancient Egypt, 21.
 221

the paradisity of Egypt also says: ―…was watered as the Garden of the Lord, as the Land of
Egypt‖ (Genesis 13.10; Kalopoulos, 2003: 252). So, if indeed in the person of Abraham we
see the Hebrew wanderer who contended against Chedor Laomer and the subject kings of
Babylonia, as Sayce reminds us, it is obvious that Abraham himself had both economic and
political reasons for migrating and settling in Canaan, especially in as much as the foundation
of a community on foreign land is concerned. For instance, Albert Churchward has hinted to a
biblical statement, which elucidates Abraham‘s overall political ambitions. Churchward states
that after planting a grove tree in Beersheba Abraham called them [his people?] on the name
of Yahweh/Lord; and after when his family had greatly increased in numbers, journeying
northwards after leaving their native land, they were strictly commanded by their god to cut
down the groves of the people whom they destroyed—―ye shall destroy their altars, break
their statues and cut down their groves‖ (Exodus xxxiv.13; Churchward, 1993/1994: 181-
182). If anything, the idea of destroying the fields of groves or the people who planted them
weighs more politically than it does culturally.
This particular subject of Abraham‘s political salience and devotion has also been taken up by
Michael Kalopoulous,342 who demonstrated vividly how Abraham, the Chaldean sorcerer,
repeatedly used his beautiful wife Sarah as ―bait‖ to gain access to local rulers of his time so
as to ambush them with sorcery intent at causing misfortune, sickness et cetera, for which he
could later be called upon to heal—in his urge to acquire wealth and power. A pattern of
deception his descendants Isaac, Joseph, and [Moses?] would later use to compromise
persons, cities and entire nations, including, of course, the destruction of the Bantu-Ethiopian
kingdom and its unique culture and civilization. This author has shown in detail how
Abraham, the expert of sorcery and dream-making, employing the golden rule of the
Chaldean tradition, that is: ―Only God strikes … we [they] heal‖, furiously and treacherously
in theological disguise assaulted the unsuspecting Canaanites; Isaac causing terror to his
neighbours; Jacob and his sons deceitfully exterminating an entire unsuspecting city; and how
Joseph [―the Septuagint‖], ―the hero of dreams‖, single-handedly usurped the political power
of Egypt en route their economic drive to thwart the einmalig Bantu-Ethiopian culture and
civilization. Professor Sayce, who has also critically dealt with the subject of political
corruption among some orthodox/conservative and progressive/liberal Jewish leaders during
the Ptolemaic dynasties of Egypt, tends to generally agree that most of these early characters

342
Kalopoulous, Michael, 2003. The Biblical Religion: The Greatlie—The Truth About the Bible after thousands
of years! Poisonous Sorcercery and Artful Deceit Explain the Miracles of the Biblical Patriarchs, esp. 71-135,
171-213, 227-261.
 222

of the Judaeo-Christian religion were indeed too politically biased to be culturally significant
(Sayce, 1895: 144-162).

Following Henry T. Aubin‘s The Rescue Of Jerusalem: The Alliance Between Hebrews And
Africans In 701 B.C,343 one could thus reasonably summarize that the descendants of
Abraham were caught up in the Historic struggle between the defenders of the Bantu-
Ethiopian national culture, with its vast territory and immense wealth and resources … and
the alliance of internal and external political forces seeking to make myopic economic gains
at the expense of that unique culture; and that these Jewish leaders were either apt at
switching allegiance between the dominant social forces in the Mediterranean region—i.e.
succumbing to Bantu-Ethiopian culture pressures from the South or the political pressures
from the Nordic barbarians depending on which one was at the helm of power; or willing to
employ any poisonous sorcery or treacherous means at their disposal for the purpose of
asserting their own political influence. Probably, this might help explain the early quasi-
satanic declaration of the destruction of the Ethiopian-Egyptian culture institutions by prophet
―Ezekiel‖344; or his rational proclamation of Cyrus, the founder of the Persian Empire, to be
the first Messiah of the Jewish people—Cyrus freed the Jews from their Babylonian bondage.
Apparently, this early proclamation of Cyrus must most certainly have anticipated Reverend
John Hagee‘s proclamation of Adolf Hitler, the main Architect of the Third Reich [Europe‘s
Behemoth], to be the last Messiah of the Jewish people. For Reverend Hagee, the policies of
this latter ―Messiah of terror‖ were indirectly responsible for the Jewish people return to Eretz
Yisrael (―Land of Israel‖).345 Interestingly, that both defenders of Jewish Orthodoxy and its
progressive strands alike were dangerously embroiled in the sacred/culture and
secular/economic and political conflicts of the Mediterranean region bordering the vast
Ethiopian Kingdom and the political office that comes with it could easily be perceived in the
office of the Jewish-Roman historian, Flavius Josephus, who, after the military debacle of the
Jewish defenders of [Heru-] Salem against the Roman Empire, immediately switched to the
side of the later Emperor Vespasian (Pagels, 1995: 4-5).
Only in this way one can understand why Christianity has been lately proven to be a
disfigured copy of Egyptian systematisms. In his Introduction to Albert Churchward‘s Signs
and Symbols of Primordial Man John Henrik Clark stressed that: ―The pick that struck the

343
Aubin, H.T., 2002. The Rescue Of Jerusalem: The Alliance Between Hebrews And Africans in 701 BC.
Canada: Double day.
344
Andrew, Mein. 2001. Ezekiel and the Ethics of Exile. New York: Oxford University Press
345
http://www.newsmax.com/koch/mccain_hagee/2008/06/02/100795.html?s=al&promo_code=6382-1
(03.06.2008).
 223

Rosetta stone in 1796 also struck a mighty blow at historical Christianity. The criptic
literature of Old Egypt, sealed in silence when Christianity took its rise, haunting it like a
spectre after the third century, now stalks forth like a living ghost out of the tomb to point its
long finger of accusation at a faith that has long thriven on falsity:

The entire Christian Bible, creation legend, descent into and exodus from ‗Egypt‘, and Ark and flood
allegory, Israelite ‗History‘, Hebrew Prophesy and poetry, Gospels, Epistles and Revelation imagery, all
are now proven to have been the transmission of ancient Egypt‘s scrolls and papyri into the hands of later
generations which knew neither their true origin nor their fathomless meaning … but the sheer fact that
even amid the murks of ignorance and superstition the mere ghost, shell, husk and shadow of Egypt‘s
wisdom inspired religious piety to extremes of faith and zealotry is singular attestation of its original
power and majesty. From the scrolls of papyri five thousand to then thousand years old there comes
stalking forth to view the whole story of an Egyptian Jesus raising from the dead an Egyptian Lazarus at
an Egyptian Bethany, with two Egyptian Maries present, the non-historical prototype of the incident
related (only) in John‘s Gospel‖ (Churchward, 1993, 1994).

4.2.2. Culture and Economic Forces as the Agents of Social History

The idea that social history of nations and states is determined by the struggle between the
defenders of culture and the upholders of the economic institutions of political power is
postulated by the Africanist scholar C.A. Diop. Probably, borrowing the environmental
determinist views of early romantic scholars in his two cradle theory, Diop contrasted the
environmental background of the divergent and quasi irreconcilable characteristics of the
mainly politicized Nordic Germanic warrior gods,346 whose principal requirement for their
followers passage through the Gates of Heaven is the certification of having died in the
Battlefield, against the demand of the Bantu-Ethiopian [or later Egyptian] God Amon that non
of the Bantu-Ethiopians private and social activities should be tainted by the blood of any
godly creature. It is worth recalling that in the mythological stipulation of the Bantu-Ethiopian
culture this so-called passage through the Gates of Heaven is equivalent to being awarded the
certificate of immortality. In this regard, Diop should be seen as trying to contrast the
psychology why any god seeking immortality would send her/his followers to kill or to be
killed in the battlefield as purported by the Nordic gods with that of the mainly sedentary
lifestyle of the Southern peoples. As he puts it, the history of humanity would remain
shrouded in confusion as long as we fail to distinguish between the two early cradles in which
nature fashioned the instincts, temperament, habits, and ethical complements of these two

346
http://www.berel-am-ries.de/Seiten/Chronoik/Forschungen-bis-808-nChr/Germanische_Goetter.htm.
 224

subdivisions before they met each other after a long separation dating back to the prehistoric
times. For him, the key to understanding the peaceful nature of Amon or his Bantu-Ethiopian
followers is to be found in the specific conditions of the Nile Valley, natural abundance of
vital resources and their sedentary and agricultural lifestyle. These vital resources and the
engendered lifestyle have with time transformed the Negro culturally into being an idealistic,
peaceful, and, above all, a personality endowed with a spirit of Justice and gaiety. Such
virtues are indispensable in terms of social harmony, so his argument. It was because of the
sedentary agricultural requirements that such concepts as matriarchy, totemism, and
monotheistic religion evolved among the Bantu-Ethiopians. And since Amon was considered
to be the original Uncreated-Creator of all that exist led to the general belief among the
ancient Cushitic/Bantu-Ethiopians that S/He is androgynous.
By contrast the ferocity of nature in the Euro-Asian steppes, the barrenness of the region, the
overall circumstances of the material conditions, were to create instincts necessary for
survival in such harsh environment. Here nature left no illusion of kindness: it was implacable
and permitted no negligence; humankind in this region must obtain his bread by the sweat of
his brow. Above all, in the course of a long painful existence, s/he must learn to rely on
her/himself alone, on his/her own possibilities. He could not indulge in the luxury of believing
of a beneficent Self-created-creator, Amon/Hyen-Nu who would shower down abundant
means of gaining a livelihood [through hard work]. Instead, the descendants of the Nordic
race would conjure up deities maleficent and cruel, jealous and spiteful: Zeus, Marduk,
Yahweh, among others. Furthermore the coldness and barrenness of the Nordic region … will
engender the worship of fire—to remain burning from the fire of Mithras to the flames on the
tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the Arch of the Triumph and the torches of the ancient
and modern Olympics. Thus the tomb of the Unknown Soldier should remind us of the
uninterrupted economically induced military movements from circa 1450 B.C. until the time
of Hitler toward the South, as recorded in the social history of humankind (Diop, 1974: 111-
113). Essentially, Diop‘s explanation of the aggressive and uncultivated nature of the political
leaders of the mainly nomadic Nordic race as resulting from the implacability of the Nordic
climate also found echo in the Epics of Gilgamesh. After conquering and subjecting the
indigenous inhabitants of the Sumerian main city of Uruk under his political control…; and
was yet preparing for the decisive expansionist battle against the forest giant Humbaba, ‗The
great winds Gilgamesh also employed included the north wind, the whirlwind, the storm and
the icy wind, the tempest and the scorching wind. And they were like vipers, like dragons,
 225

like a scorching fire, like a serpent that freezes the heart, a destroying flood and lightning‘s
fork ...‘(Sandars, 1960: 72).
Although Jared Diamond has also demonstrated convincingly the link between the natural
environment and the development of different culture species, especially how the availability
of environmental resources such as grain, certain plant types, and domesticated animals (e.g.
cattle, sheep, goats etc.) could impact the over-all state of cultures in different regions of the
Earth—whereby those regions with grain availability and or domesticated animals are more
likely to do well culturally than regions lacking those resources 347; it is also worth noting that
evolutionary problems do not necessarily have to be conditioned by the availability of
environmental resources alone. There is no doubt that one would have it much more difficult
in terms developing advance form of agricultural production in the Arctic region, but parasites
and drought could as well impede the advancement of agricultural production in the tropic
regions.348 Therefore the environment can only partially explain the different evolutions of
cultures because while cultures have steadily progressed the ecology has retrogressed due to
the exhaustion of the Earth. In fact, the puzzle as to why England was the first European state
to become industrialized and not France, Germany or Poland is easily answered by studying
the relatively advanced state of that country‘s childcare policies during the Middle Ages.
England‘s generous child education policies during this period, and the political freedom,
religious tolerance and industry these engendered facilitated the development of an advanced
‗Psycho-classe‘ necessary for its early industrial advancement.349 Therefore the answer to the
unresolved question of culture evolution lies in the contemporary rate of innovation and
adaptation of new technologies crucial for the extraction of the existing cultural resources—
factors generally dependent on the sound child education policies of a given country
(deMause, 2002: 174-175). This is almost like suggesting that the matriarchal ―psycho-class‖
responsible for technological genius behind the colossal monuments still found across Azania
today must originally have had sound childcare or education policies.
The perception that advanced child education policies is indispensable for the evolution of
genuine human cultures—untainted by the political violence of the Leviathans and
Behemoths—eventually tilts to upholding the concept of unstressed motherhood. And the
proponents of psychogenetic theory of human social history argue convincingly that there is

347
Jared, Diamond, 1997. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies. New York: W.W.Norton &
Co.
348
David S. Landes, 1998. The Wealth of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor. New York:
W.W.Norton & Co., 6-14.
349
A. L. Beier, David Cannadine and James M. Rosenheim, ed. 1990. The First Modern Society: Essay in
English History in Honour of Lawrence Stone. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 213-230.
 226

an intrinsic link between unstressed motherhood—that is from the conception until delivery,
and the child‘s general well-being and her/his later psychological stability and the associated
societal culture norms. As a matter of fact, overstressed mothers are more likely to bear
psychologically deficient children with the associated unstable [political] cultures350 of the
Leviathans and or mother murderers—permanently on the march for insatiable economic
accumulation. Hence, the psychogenetic theorists purport the elimination of all forms of
inhumane stresses—e.g. rapes, forced marriages, the mutilation of female genital organs, in
short all forms of violence associated with the concept of motherhood (deMausse, 2002: 175-
179). However, it should be stressed further that upholding the concept of unstressed
motherhood does not necessarily imply advocating matriarchal societies neither does it imply
condoning the violence associated with some of the matriarchal societies reviewed elsewhere
in this work; and this, of course, include the national culture of the ancient Ethiopian
kingdom—the oldest known matriarchal social order customary of mutilating both female and
male genital organs.

In order not stray from the main objective of the whole analysis—that is, upholding the reality
of the national phenomenon, it suffices to summarize that whether or not the current retracting
state of the global capitalist economy confirms Cecil Rhodes early admission that these
permanently marching economic forces or political barbarians are incapable of conquering the
Planets, the general consensus today, even among the recalcitrant neo-liberal economic agents
who in the first half of the 20th century sacrificed tens of millions of human lives against
Hitler‘s Aryan European forces, is that the national phenomenon is a living reality and not
merely an economic hypothesis based on market speculation of destructive productivity—that
is to say, let us destroy our current Habitat/Earth because of the prospects of discovering
another habitable planets in the future. When we hear liberal economic voices like—Ben
Bernake, Nancy Pelosi, the Economist Nouriel Roubini, Arthur Levitt, Alan Greenspan and
many other more from the bastion of modern capitalism351—now calling for the partial or

350
Gilbert, Gottlieb, 1992. Individual Development and Evolution: The Genesis of Novel Behaviour. New York:
Oxford University Press; Gilbert, Gottlieb, 1997. Synthesizing Nature-Nurture: Prenatal Roots of Instinctive
Behaviour. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates; Gilbert Gottlieb, 1987. Individual Development and
Evolution. New York: Oxford University Press, 254; Gilbert Gottlieb, 1998. ―Normally Occuring Environmental
and Behaviuoral Influences on Gene Activity: From central Dogma to Probabilistic Epigenesis.‖ Pyschological
Review 105, 792-794; Debra, Niehoff, 1999. The Biology of Violence: How Understanding the Brain, Behaviour,
and Environment can Break the Vicious Circle of Agression. New York: The Free Press, 51; Richard, B. Carter,
1993. Nurturing Evolution: The Family As a Social Womb. Lanham: University Press of America, xxxvii;
Alexandra Maryanski, 1996.―African Ape Social Networks.‖ In: James Steele and Stephen Shennan, ed. The
Archaeology of Human Ancestry: Power, Sex and Tradition. London: Routeledge, 77-79.
351
http:moneynews.newsmax.com/printTemplate.html (accessef February 19, 2009) for Bernake;
http://moneynews.newsmax.com/streettalk/pelosi_nationalization/2009/01/26/175361.html?s=al&promo_code=
 227

complete nationalization of the major Banking system, we are left to conclude that the
national phenomenon is a living reality that must be sustained in line with humanity‘s quest
for real freedom. Even the communist Messiah, Karl Marx, who, in support of unilinear
economic progress, earlier seems to approve some form of colonialism (e,g., British
colonization of India or the adanced Germanic race colonization of the peasant Slavs) also
concedes that after all other forms of social organisms will have exhausted their synthetic
energies the national phenomenon would remain a contending social force [under the Sun]
capable of delivering humankind that culture aspect of freedom. Probably, this may also
explain why Hitler‘s original solution of the then so-called Jews problematic in Europe was to
deport them into yet another exile in Madagascar. This in turn raises the question as to
whether or not the culture strand of Jewish nationalism could have married to such rational
political solution of perpetual wandering. As observed earlier, from the perspective of a
genuine nationalist, there can‘t be an alternative ―Home-Land‖ to Horus/[Heru]-Salem (Jeru-
Salem?).
Inasmuch as this research is concerned, the humanitarian aspect of Jewish settlement in that
part of the Bantu-Ethiopian kingdom is yet to receive adequate academic attention. For it
seems to hold the key to the Jewish riddle of being God‘s ―Elect.‖ Henry T. Aubin, for one,
argues convincingly that the Kushite rescue of Jerusalem from certain annihilation in 701
B.C.E instigated that Jewish concept of being God‘s Elect. He might afterall not be far from
the truth—because the twin-concept of Heru-Salem (Jeru-salem) has indeed a genuine culture
resonance. Most scholars tend to attribute the foundation of Heru-Salem to the biblical cult
figure of Moses. That logic seems rational because he delivered the Jewish people the so-
called Ten Commandments. For instance, Manetho is cited as stating that ―Moses, who
received his priestly education and learned all the wisdom of the Egyptians in the city of
Heliopolis (On or Beth Shemesh of the Bible) in the Delta, left Egypt with his followers and
went to Canaan and founded Jerusalem‖ (Churchward, 1993/1994: 235-236). However, a
meticulous review of Pharaoh Ramses III humanitarian settlement of the Japhetic Philistines
in northern Canaan should hold the key to the Jewish concept of electability. According to
Lenormant, ―in the fourteenth century B.C.E the White Japhetic Philistines invaded the coast
of Canaan and were conquered by the army of Ramses III, who destroyed the entire invading

78c4-1 (January 26, 2009);

http://moneynews.newsmax.com/streettalk/roubini_nationalize_banks/2009/02/23/184514.html?s=al&promo_co
de=7ACE-1 (February 23, 2009);
http://moneynews.newsmax.com/streettalk/levitt_banks_nationalize/2009/01/21/173652.htm?s=al&promo_code
=7842-1 (January 21, 2009); Greenspan: http://moneynews.newsmax.com/printTemplate.html (Februar 18,
2009).
 228

fleet and thus removed any possibility of their return by Sea. The Pharaoh was [morally]
compelled to find a way to relocate an entire people deprived of any means of return. He gave
them land and the Philistines settled there‖ (Lenormant, 1890: 509-510352; Diop, 1974: 118).
Moreover, in the cause of the foundation the Jewish nation the Biblical narrators tell us that
when Moses returned from Mount Sinai and met his Jewish masses adoring the ―golden calf‖
under the auspices of Aaron he reacted furiously and almost destroyed the tablets containing
the ―Ten Commandments.‖ Since the resuscitation of the golden-calf tradition simply reminds
us of a popular nostralgic yearning for the sacred Apis Bull; Moses (―Moshe/Mossi‖), who
without doubt was an ethnic Ethiopian353 but a dedicated follower of Amenophis IV (Akhen-
Aton/Echnaton) highly politicized reformation school, with its customary hasty drive to create
a universal humanity at the expense of the indigenous culture, was naturally bound to be
disingenuous to the sacred Apis Bull anyway. Volney is also quoted as stating that ―in vain
did Moses tried to proscribe the worship of the symbols which prevailed in Lower Egypt and
Phoenicia, and in vain did he tried to blot out from his religion everything related to the stars‖
(Churchward, 1993/1994: 239). We have already discussed Amenôphis‘ new politicized
religion and the associated attempt to break away from the past, especially his effort to
discard the conventionalism of the art of the original religion with its original delineation of
plants and animal life … (Sayce, 1895: 56-57; Kalopoulos, 2003: 261-271). That Moses then
must have reacted furiously against the popular nostalgic yearning for the tradition of the
eternal rejuvenation of the golden calf not only confirms his disregard to the indigenous
culture but also his loyalty to the Achen-Aten/Echnaton‘s Reformation school.
This notwithstanding, if we seek to establish a direct or indirect link between the Jewish
concept Heru-Salem and the Ethiopian-Egyptian Sun-god Hyen-Nu/Hyeru (―Horus‖) one
would certainly perceive that as some form of appreciation of the peaceful nature of Hyen-Nu
on the part of Jewish culture nationalists. Given the contemporary records of Hyksos
destructive incursions into that part of the Bantu Ethiopian Kingdom; or what has become of
their culture institutions today, only cultured nations could have felt morally obliged to settle
an entire population of warring barbarians on their national territory. It is in light of such
humanitarian gesture from the culture costodians of the Azanian nation that one should
reasonably seek to understand the Jewish twin concepts of Heru-Salem and being God‘s
Elect. For it would seem these mainly male Japhetic Philistines, who later amalgamate with
the Cushitic Ethiopians or descendants of Ham to become Hebrews, were genuinely among
the first group of the mainly economically induced political barbarians from the North to be
352
Lenormant, Francois, 1890. Histoire ancienne des Phéniciens. Paris: Levy.
353
Ben-Jochannan, 1989. Black Man of the Nile…, 227-228.
 229

cultivated after their encounter with the Bantu-Ethiopian culture. One mustn‘t forget that
even the very name of Isai-la/Israel [first] found mention on the culture records—the Stelae of
Isai-la/Israel—of Pharaoh Min-Ptah (―Mene-Ptah‖), the thirteenth son of Ramses II (Ben-
Jochannan, 1989: 236-238). And this is probably why from the perspective of a Jewish culture
nationalist there couldn‘t be any alternative homeland to Heru-Salem.
Inasmuch as the service of humanity elucidates the universal mission of national cultures,
whose leaders relatively advanced psychology or elevated cognition have come to realize that
the quest for real freedom or perfect humanity would be impossible without the earth and or
the equal representation all nations, let‘s expediently find out what has become of the
remnants of [even] the Mongols of these outgoing political Barbarians.
C.A. Diop seems idiosyncratic in his position that the nomadic lifestyle of the global
economic mind, that is, the permanent military movements from one region to another for the
purpose of wealth accumulation, and the associated indifference to one‘s ancestral land and
culture, is responsible for the modern trend of cremation of one‘s ancestral remains. The
political Mongols of the Nordic man began this unusual custom as it facilitated the
transportation of his ancestor‘s [black?] ashes in Urns. And the Greeks perpetuated it; the
Aryans later took it to India, and that explains the cremation of Ghandi and Caesar of our
epoch (Diop, 1974: 113). In other words, if left unchallenged by the conservative culture
nationalists, the economic minded political barbarians not only long gave up on the idea of
eternal existence, but is also capable of transporting the ashes of this culturally irreplaceable
Earth in plastic bags … prior to nationalist intuitive cultivation of perfect humanity capable of
transitting both horizons of the universe. In this sense, Sandars is right, even if somehow
over-simplified, in her assessment that whereas the ancient Egyptians give humanity the
vision of heaven, the Babylonians (and most of the mainly politicized gods of Nordic
mythologies) give it the vision of Hell (Sandars, 1960: 28). And these mountain (or later
castle) dwelling immortal earthly gods who devised the concept of hell were generally apt at
exploiting the threat of painful death—especially from the scorch of perpetual fire in that
mysterious dark hole/cave—often associated with it to keep their privileges for themselves
and to protect them from the curiosity and natural desires of the mortals (Kalopoulos, 2003:
135ff.).
 230

4.2.3. Assessing the Universal Reach of the Bantu-Ethiopian Culture

Although contemporary historical data does not reveal to our satisfaction the original
inhabitants of Greece prior to its conquest by the Caucasians or Greco-Europeans in the first
half of the Third millennium B.C.E or earlier,354 let‘s for analytical expediency consider the
current population of Greece to be the indigenous inhabitants from prehistoric times and then
seek to explore the humanitarian rationale behind the exportation of the Bantu-Ethiopian
culture into prehistoric Greece. Given the fact that the cultivation of perfect humanity requires
the equal representation of all national cultures, it is imperative that unbiased nationalist
literature repudiate all forms of colonialism, e.g. of cultural or political nature. Thus, in order
to legitimate the influence of the Bantu-Ethiopians culture on the psychological development
of the Greco-European personality, let‘s postulate a political situation which could have
prompted the early upholders of the European culture nationalism to unanimously
accommodate some form of divine intervention from other national cultures. So, what does
Herodotus tells us about the impact of the Egyptian culture on the psychological development
of the Greco-European personality?

―How it happened that Egyptians came to Peloponesse, and what they did to make themselves kings in
that part of Greece has been chronicled by other writers; I will add nothing therefore, but proceed to some
points which no one else has yet touched upon.‖355

Of course, Herodotus statement will most certainly have infuriated the early advocates of
European political nationalism, as also evident in Plutarch‘s essay On the Malice of
Herodotus, who charges him for being a ―Philo-barbarous‖:

―He says that the Greeks learnt about the possessions and national festivals from the Egyptians as well as
the worship of the twelve gods; the very name Dionysos, he says, was learnt from the Egyptians by
Melampous, and he taught the rest of the Greeks; and the mysteries and secret rituals connected with
Demeter were brought from Egypt by the daughter of Danaos. … Nor this is the worst. He traces the
ancestry of Herakles to Perseus and says Perseus, according to the Persian account, was an Assyrian; ‗and

354
Bernal Martin, in Black Athena Vol.I, talks about the early infiltration of Greece by the Indo-Europeans as
early as the Fourth and Third millennium B.C.E (Bernal, 1987: 19-20). Moreover, antique sources tell us that in
Arcadia black Earth begot Pelasgus on the high Mountains crowned with trees (Pausanias Perieg. 8.1.4.9;
Kalopoulos, 2003: 28). And we are also told by Aeschylos that the first man was the seed of ceramist-god
(Aeschylus Abstr.369; Kalopoulos, 2003:27). In this sense, there might undoubtedly have been indigenous black
Greeks in some parts of Greece prior to the arrival of the conquering Indo-Europeans (for emphasis see footnote
371).
355
Herodotus, Histories, VI.55.
 231

the chiefs of the Dorians‘ he says, will be established as pure Egyptians…; not only is he anxious to
establish an Egyptian and a Phoenician Herakles; he says that our own Herakles was born after the two,
and he wants to remove him from Greece and make a foreigner out of him. Yet of the learned men of the
Old neither Homer nor Hesiod … ever mentioned an Egyptian or a Phoenician Herakles, but all of them
knew only one, our own Herakles who is the Boiotian and Argive… ‖(Brenal, 1987: 113).

Herodotus seemingly positive stance on ancient Egyptian influence on the Greeks does not
necessarily imply that he did not have his own prejudices or misconceptions about them. As
professor Eyre rightly observes, the central difficulty of contemporary anthropological
observation begins for Egyptology with Herodotus, for whom Egypt was explicitly idealized
as ‗other.‘ Therefore, despite his over-all vision on Egypt being generally positive, his
account is explicitly rooted in direct comparison with contemporary Greek culture, and a
characteristic search for priority and universal origins in the much more ancient society (Eyre,
2002: 154-155). In addition, there are instances in which Herodotus historical accounts have
been proven to be inconsistent with contemporary records of scientific historiography,
especially those aspects of his historical accounts derived from the hearsay of ordinary
dragomen in his contemporary Egypt. This notwithstanding, the general consensus today is
that Herodotus deserves the credit of a genuine historian who is not only capable of
distinguishing between genuine historical facts and dragomenian fantasies, but also capable of
recording accurate facts which he witnessed personally (Diop, 1974: 2-5; Erman, 1971: 4-5).
In all, Herodotus positive stance on the impact of Egyptian culture and civilization on the
psychological advancement of the Greco-European personality is also strengthened by the
following culture argument extracted from Aeschylus The Suppliants:

―The ground whereupon we stand is Apian land itself, and hath of old borne that name in honour of a
leech [doctor]. For Apis, seer and leech, the son of Apollo, came from Naupaktos on the farther shore and
purged well this land of monsters deadly to man, which earth defiled by the bloody deeds of yore, caused
to spring up plagues charged with wrath, a baleful colony of swarming serpents. Of these plagues Apis
worked out a cure by surgery and spells to the content of the Argive Land…‖ 356

Bernal Martin sees a direct connection between the statement of this quote and the Apis Bull
cult of Memphis, which he dates back to the First Kingdom of dynastic Egypt. As he finds
out, the original Egyptian form of the name was Hpw. Hp or Hpy was the name of one of
Horus sons, prominent in the Book of the Dead, whose special responsibility was guarding the
356
See, ―The Suppliants‖ In: Weir Smyth, H., 1922. Aeschyles Vol. I. [Loeb]. London: Heinmann/Cambridge,
MA: Havard University Press, 27.
 232

North. At first sight it might seem too far-fetched to connect him with the Greek Apia.
However, it should be stressed that in Egyptian Pantheon Hpy was the guardian of the
Canopic jar containing the small intestines and in the Book of the Dead one of his major
functions in protecting the dead was to kill demons in the shape of serpents. (Bernal, 1987:
92-93) Though Bernal adds that because the Apian name does not occur in Homer and would
therefore have not belonged to the general Greek tradition; his association of Apollo with
Hpy‘s father Horus gives us a good reason to emphasize that in the first hymn of the Odyssey
Homer not only warns his sailors of the severe punishment (e.g. the revocation of the right of
return) accorded by the gods to those culpable of slaughtering the cows of the Sun-god
(Odyssea 12.453; Kalopoulos, 2003:32-34), but explicitly mentions Ethiopia in relation to that
[culture?] voyage. It is even more interesting that ―the pharos of future Alexandria found
mention in Homer‘s Odyssey (iv.355); it was there, in ‗front of Egypt‘, that Menelaus moored
his ships and forced Egyptian Prôteus‘ to declare to him his homeward road. Even Thebes, the
culture centre of the Egyptian civilization, is also known both to the Iliad (ix.381) and the
Odyssey (iv.126)‖(Sayce, 1895:183-184; Kalopoulos, 2003: 209-211). Ben-Jochannan is also
convinced that Homer was a graduate of the Mysteries system of the indigenous (Bantu-
Ethiopians) centred in the Osirica at Thebes/Luxor (1989:184). Thus given the overall
centrality of ―the Homeric epic poems to the education of the Greek youths‖ (Burns, 1989:
31-32), one could reasonably conceive the Ethiopian culture influencing the psychological
development of the Greco-European personality from early historical times. And the
following Oath by the ―European Father of Medicine‖, Hippocrates, paying homage to his
teacher and god Imhotep, called ―Aesculapius‖ by the ancient Greeks and Romans, also
confirms the positive turn the Greco-European mentality took after its encounter with the
Ethiopian (or later Egyptian) culture:

―I swear by Apollo the physician, and Aesculapius, and Health, and All-heal, and all the gods and
goddesses, that, according to my ability and judgement, I will keep this Oath and this stipulation—to
reckon him who taught me this Art equally dear to me as my parents, to share my substance with him, and
to relieve his necessities if required; to look upon his offspring in the same footing as my own brothers,
and to teach them this Art, if they shall wish to learn it, without fee or stipulation; and that by precept,
lecture, and every other mode of instruction, I will impart a knowledge of the Art to my own sons, and
those of my teachers, and to disciples bound by a stipulation and oath according to the law of medicine,
but to non others. I will follow that system of regimen which, according to my ability and judgement, I
consider for the benefit of my patients, and abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous. I will
give no deadly medicine to anyone if asked, nor suggest any such counsel; and in like manner I will not
give to a woman a pessary to produce abortion. With purity and holiness I pass my life and practice my
 233

Art. I will not cut persons labouring under the stone, but will leave this to be done by men who are
practitioners of this work. Into whatever house I enter, I will go into them for the benefit of the sick, and
will abstain from every voluntary act of mischief and corruption; and, further from the seduction of the
females or males, of free men and slaves. Whatever, in connection with my professional practice or not,
in connection with it, I see or hear, in the life of men, which ought not to be spoken of abroad, I will not
divulge, as reckoning that all such should be kept secret. While I continue to keep this Oath unviolated,
may it be granted to me to enjoy life and the practice of the art, repected by all men, in all times! But
should I trespass and violate this Oath, may the the reverse be my lot!‖(quoted in Ben-Jochannan, 1989:
254-255).

According to Diop, throughout the entire Aegean epoch the Ethiopian culture influence was
predominant and preceded that of the Indo-European because all the populations of the
periphery of the Mediterranean at the time were mainly Negroes; and the isolated migrant
White communities then were generally under the cultural and economic influence of
Ethiopians. A culture pressure which later extended as far North to certain Germanic tribes
who also adored Isis, the Negro goddess:

―In fact, inscriptions have been found in which Isis is associated with the City of Noreia—today‘s
Neumarkt in Styria (Austria). Isis, Osiris, Serapis, Anubis have altars in Fréjus, Nînes, Arles, Riez
(Basses-Alpes), Paoizet (Isère), Manduel (Gard), Boulogne (Haute-Galronne), Lyons, Besançon, Langres,
Soissons. Isis was honoured at Melun … at York and Brougham Castle, and also in Pannonia and
Noricum‖(Diop, 1974: 113-114).

As Diop further finds out, the humanitarian aspect of the much later Roman she-Wolf merely
recalls the Southern Negro practice of Totemism (ibid., 115-116). Since, as observed above,
the Homeric epics were the greatest single formative influence and unifying factor that shaped
the world views of the Greeks in historical times; and there is compelling evidence that this
father of the Greco-European culture was considerably informed about the documented
culture of the Ethiopians, it is highly unlikely that the process through which the latter culture
was later transmitted into historic Greece will have differed.

Churchward, for one, employing archaeological finds from sites in Crete, Mycenae and the
Aegean region of Greece has demonstrated consistently the existence of a pre-Phoenician
alphabet, which he argued was derived from the cursive characters developed by the
Egyptians from the original hieroglyphics for literary and secular purposes during the
Neolithic Age (Churchward, 1993/1994: 42-43). Similarly, Alfred Burns hints to a Bronze
Age Greek scripts which came to light in Arthur Evans four archaeological monumental
 234

volumes titled ―The Palace of Minos‖(Burns, 1989: 33). Importantly, this later author
succeeded in establishing a link between the mainly linear form of scripts—categorized as
Linear ―A‖ and ―B‖—and the hieroglyphic signs which were also found during his
excavations in the Eastern Mediterranean region in the first half of the 20th century. He is
convinced that the ―Linear B‖ scripts must have been derived from the ―Linear A‖, which he
believes belonged to a pre-Greek Minoan population. He also thinks the hieroglyphics
antedate both script forms. He list approximately 3,000 Linear B tablets from Knossos, 1,000
from Pylos, 60 from Mycenae, and small quantities from across other Hellenic sites in Greece.
He stressed that these consist of about 80 syllabic characters and a great number of
ideograms, with each of the syllabic signs representing either a vowel or a consonant followed
by a vowel. Essentially, he rightly asserts that such writing system can only represent open
syllables and is very unsuited for a language like Greek, with its many consonant clusters and
consonant word ending. Hence, he seems convinced that these latter tablets were derived from
the Linear A script (Burns 1989: 36-37). Reporting on these Cretan and Mycenaean signs,
Evans states that 20 per cent of their Cretan hieroglyphics match those found in Egypt in
character, and twenty out of the thirty two linear signs are practically identical with those
found in Egypt. Churchward is, however, convinced that an in-depth study of Evans
archaeological finds would come out with about 98 per cent match between these and the
pictorial hieroglyphics and the oldest linear signs of Egypt, while the remaining two signs are
indefinite (ibid). The derivation of the ―Linear B‖ tablets or the early form of Greek from the
Linear A of a pre-Greek Minoan language unequivocally presupposes a culture interaction
between two different groups of people.
And Evans following the legend of king Minos tends to suggest a culture transmission from
the Aegean region to the Mycenaean Greece (Greek mainland) in the 2nd millennium B.C.E.
Interestingly, among the archaeological treasures in the sites and palaces excavated by Evans
include such frequent frescoes as the Egyptian double axe and the bull. And Egyptian flora
and fauna provided many of the motifs for the Minoan decorative designs. This prompted
Evans to conclude that the mainland Greece was colonized by Cretans, and he considered the
―Mycenaean‖ Greece civilization an offshoot and subdivision of the Minoan (Burns, 1989:
34ff.). Herodotus also see in the person of ―Minos of Knossos‖ as the first to establish sea
power in Greece. Similarly, Thucydides thinks Minos was indeed the first man, who,
according to local tradition, established sea power in the region. ―He made himself master of
what is now the Hellenic sea, and ruled over the Cyclades‖ (ibid).
 235

En effet it would seem the Greek notion of Minos merely alludes to the Ethiopian-Egyptian
Pan-deity, Min. And Bernal Martin has convincingly established a credible culture link
between the Minos kingdom of Knossos on Crete and the Ethiopian-Egyptian bull god Mntw
or Mint. As he finds out, ‗during the 21st century B.C.E. the succession of the black
Pharaohs—sharing the name Menthot-Pe and had as their Divine the hawk and the bull god
Mntw or Mont—who founded the 11th Dynasty not only recovered from the breakdown of the
First intermediate period, the so-called Middle Kingdom, and united Upper and Lower Egypt,
but intervened in the Levant as well. And from present archaeological evidence it is obvious
that this later development would have had wide ranging contacts further afield, certainly
including Crete and possibly mainland Greece. It is during the same period that Cretan
palaces were established and one finds the beginning there of a bull-cult which appears on the
walls of the palaces and was central to Greek mythology about King Minos and Crete. It
would therefore seem plausible that the Cretan developments directly or indirectly reflected
the rise of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom. Further, while Crete continued with the bull-cult
for almost six centuries, Egypt had the ram-god Amon of Upper Eygpt as its patron deity after
the rise of the 12th Dynasty soon after 2000 B.C.E. Accordingly, it was from the influence of
this period that most of the ram cults found around the Aegean and generally associated with
Zeus were derived, drawing both from Amon and the Lower Egyptian ram/goat cult of
Mendēs.
In addition, while Herodotus claims about the widespread conquests of Senwosret and the
legends concerning the far reaching expedition of the Egyptian and Ethiopian prince Memnōn
were in the past treated with derision, Bernal realized that both ancient positions have been
vindicated by the recent reading of an inscription from Memphis which details the conquests,
by land and sea, of two 12th dynasty Pharaohs, Senwosret I and Ammenemes II. He also

points to the intriguing resemblance between Hpr KзR˂, an alternative for Senwosret and
Kekrops, the legenary founder of Athens, whom ancient sources said was an Egyptian. And
the credible proof of Egyptian culture presence in Boiotia during the 3rd millennium B.C.E,
but is unable to determine the exact type of relationship that might have existed between
Egypt and Boiotia in this early stage of Greek social history other than some form of
suzerainty‘ (Bernal, 1987: 17-20; 2001: 211ff.).
Of course the extension of the Minoan culture from the South … was not accommodated by
everyone; and some scholars have equally convincingly argued that from the 1500 B.C.E
onward political influence extended from Mycenaean Greece to the Aegean region and not the
opposite direction (Burns, 1989: 36-37). In this way, one could thus foresee a genuine
 236

political desire to intervene and usurp the culture institutions of the then outgoing Ethiopian-
Egyptian culture from the South. Yet at this stage of the Greco-European social history local
legends unanimously account the arrival of Danaos, the twin brother of the Itiopian-Egyptian
―Aigyptos‖, and Kadmos, the Egypto-Phoenician. These later culture missionaries from the
South are generally accredited with having introduced irrigation, agriculture and metallurgy
(Danaos) and the alphabet, certain types of weapons, and a number of religious rituals
(Kadmos). He is generally considered to be the second founder of Greek Thebes after the first
was destroyed. And he is also known to have brought two black women from Thebes to found
the oracles of Dodona in Greece and Amon in Libya—as this part of the Ethiopian kingdom
was gradually being infiltrated by nomadic [Indo?]-European tribes (Diop, 1974: 109-110).
According to Greek tradition, referred to by Homer, the first founders of Thebes were
Amphion and Zethos. It is intriguing to know that, like the Egyptian pyramids, the tomb of
Amphion and Zethos was associated with the Sun, and, like them, the Greek Thebes had close
associations with the Sphinx. Moreover, it was in some way linked to the zodiacal sign
Taurus, and subsequently many scholars have drawn parallels between the Theban and the
Cretan bull-cults (Bernal, 1987: 19). Ironically, if one is to perceive in the cult figures of
Amphion and Zethos as symbolizing the Alpha (Ox), Beta (House) et cetera of our
contemporary Greek alphabet, then it should be emphasized that the Egyptian alphabet also
happens to begin with the head of Cow (Jürss 1982: 12-13); and again see in the iconic
character of Kadmos as a mere agent of an unfinished culture mission from the South, then,
unfortunately, although successful at first could at last not hinder the innate political desire by
leaders of these Nordic barbarians to opt for the divisive polis system. We also learn from
ancient Greek legends that the battle between Kadmos (the Egypto-Phoenician) and the
serpent son Mars (the Greek) ended with the triumph of the supporters of the Polis system.
Following Diop‘s apt phrase, ―Egypto-Phoenician cultural attempt to stamp matriarchal social
order on the Greeks hardly survived the economic mentality of these predominantly male
dominated societies‖(Diop, 1987: 110-111 n.24).
As Alfred Burns also remarks, Mycenaean Greece, like Greece in historical times, also
consisted of an individual city states without any central unifying structure. Accordingly,
there was no great Greek empire before Alexander the Great although particular strong city
could take a position of leadership for a time by prestige and power. And Mycenae apparently
held such a position as Athens and Sparta in classical times. There also seems to have been a
strong bond of common language, religion and tradition which made some common
enterprise possible. Importantly, the Mycenaean civilization, which at its peak dominated the
 237

Greek mainland, most of Aegean islands, Knossos, and some locations on the coast of Asia
Minor, and lasted for almost three centuries, saw Greece rise to being the dominant Sea power
then, controlling the Sea and the maritime trade (ibid., 42).
Thus putting aside what seems like a genuine political attempt then by the economic minded
Greco-Europeans to assert their political power on the matriarchal culture foundation from the
South, the fact alone that the Mycenaean Greeks adapted the Linear B script from that illusive
language of the Linear A, not to mention the relative ease with which this was achieved, tends
imply that the Greeks would indeed have come into contact with the Egyptian alphabet much
earlier than is often accepted.357 As Burns convincingly argued, it is highly unlikely that the
Mycenaean Greeks would have traded with such highly documented societies as the
Egyptians, Mesopotamians, and the rest in the region without acquainting themselves with the
overwhelming benefit of the letters. One must not forget the well known passage in the Iliad
(6.168-169) in which Bellerophon is sent to the king of Lydia to deliver a tablet with ―death
bringing signs‖ which tells the king to kill the bearer (Burns, 1989: 42-43). In this later
development, we are once again confronted with a genuine political application of culture
goods the economic way; that is, the use of an ill-informed hero of the divisive Polis for a
suicide mission. It was not until the first half of the 20th century when the upholders of the
European national Behemoth, the Third Reich, instilled real fear in the heroes of Europe‘s
divisive Leviathans that European leaders were forced to reluctantly make a culture volte
face—that is, the rejection of the bloodstained swords of the Europe‘s Leviathans and the
associated intra-European conflicts, thereby vindicating yet another well pronounced
statement in the Iliad that historic Greeks ceased to wage wars against each other only after
the local heroes had killed off one another. To transpose Homer‘s argument in the culture
language of the Bantu-Ethiopians, with their customary symbolic use of the survival
concurrence between Wolves and Rabbits, Lions and Rams, or Crocodile versus the sacred
Apis Bull etc., in their formulation of the Memphetic/Manfouir philosophy and or the
―Maatian‖ legal doctrine, one could reasonably foresee that after the economic minded
political barbarians would have finished eating all the animals on the earth, fished all the
oceans empty, and turn against each other for meat, only those cultured human beings, who

357
A counter current to this position is a passage in the writings of Josephus, the Jewish apologist, in which he
asserted—in anti Greek tirade specifically attacking the Greeks for their luck of cultural depth—that the Greeks
were only boasting when they claimed that they had learnt letters from Kadmos. In fact, according to him, they
had been illiterate at the time of the Trojan War (Josephus, Contra Apionem, I.II). Hence Josephus version was
more accommodating to the Romantic Hellenists when considering the image of Homer the illiterate bard (see
Bernal, M., BA Vol.I, 1987:393).
 238

initially sought real freedom through the darkest/silent fountains of knowledge, would most
certainly survive to steer the nations towards the realistic culture cause of Life/Existence.

4.3. Reviewing the Ideological background of the Azanian nation

The best way to explain the centrality of the Memphetic/Manfouir philosophy of

complementing oppositions (e.g. fire versus water et cetera) and the Maatian legal document
to the national culture of the Bantu-Ethiopians is to critically explore the ideological
background of the Azanian nation. Despite considerable difference between ancient and
modern sources with regards to the origin of Azania and exact location of Azania in the
ancient Bantu-Ethiopian kingdom, the general consensus today is that the Azanians were
indeed a cultured sedentary indigenous Bantu-folk with a highly developed civilization. In
Huntingford‘s words, ―we may surmise that a civilization which flourished in the Horn of
Africa at some time during the first seven hundred years A.D.—a civilization which, no
doubt, had taken much from the Sabaeans and the Axumites, as from Meroe and the Middle
Nile was destroyed by Islam; that its makers retreated southwards through Kenya where Islam
had not yet penetrated; and that it finally came to an end somewhere about the fourteenth to
fifteenth centuries, possibly earlier.‖358 As he puts it, the ―Azanian civilization‖, vague and
misleading as a label, was contemporary with the foundation and early growth of Zimbabwe;
and, as the pottery suggests, may have had [cultural communication and] trading links with it.
And probably this process was linked with movement from the north; and the origins of these
modes and manners of life are perhaps to be looked for in Southern Ethiopia where the Konso
and Kaffa, for example, still retain some of the characteristics that mark the Azanian
achievement (Basil, D. 1970: 190-195). It is generally intriguing that the Azanian civilization
whose origin seems esoteric or presumably centred around the East of the Great Lake region
also found echo as far South as Zimbabwe, if not beyond. In terms of the origin of Azania
Huntingford offers us two main hypotheses, the first he derives from the Arabic ajam
(―foreigner, non-Arab‖); and the second, which he seems to favour, comes from the Greek
word azainein (―to dry, patch‖), which matches his identification of Azania with the arid
coastline of the Somalian plains. Ancient attestation to ―Azanian Sea‖ (N.H.6.38) first found
mention in Pliny the Elder (also called Gaius Plinius Secundus)359 as stretching from the
emporium of Adulis (N.H. 6.34)—in present day Eritrea and which was at heart of Axum‘s

358
Huntingford, G. W. B., 1931. ―On Blacksmiths. Man, 262; Huntingford, G. W. B., 1933. ―Azanian
Civilization of Kenya.‖Antiquity, 153ff; Huntingford, G.W.B., 1940-1941. ―Azania.‖Anthropos, Vol.35, 209ff.
359
http://www.livius.org/pi-pm/pliny/pliny_e.html
 239

Sea power around the Red Sea region—and around the south coast of Africa. Huntingford,
who made use of chapter fifteen of the Periplus of the Eritraean Sea360, sees Azania as
referring to modern day Somalian coast. However, it should be stressed that chapter 16 of that
text places Rhapta, which is generally identified today as constituting the coastline of both
Kenya and Tanzania, as the southernmost market of Azania.
As stated earlier, modern usage of Azania is often made in reference to South Africa; a name
which was proposed at the ―All African Conference‖held in Accra, Ghana, in 1958 by
Kwame Nkrumah. Another modern textual reference to the term with specific reference to
colonial Africa is found in Evelyn Waugh fictitious novel.361 In both ancient and modern
usages there can be no doubt the term Azania was/is refereced to a locality in the heart of the
ancient Cushitic or Bantu-Ethiopian kingdom. And, as we will soon see, was in fact the
indigenous name for that vast kingdom formally known as Africa.
It is generally significant that the Periplus of the Eritrean Sea also alludes to Rhapta as the
southernmost market of Azania. As a matter of fact the local mythology from which the
concept of Azania is derived also makes mention of a market on a sacred Lake—opened once
every seven years the advent of which the fattest and strongest Bull is ritually sacrificed and
offered to the best performing horse of a dancing competition to commemorate that unique
culture event. So, in order to resolve the riddle of the Azanian concept, let‘s invoke the
Pyramid Spell (1550a) which specifically states that ―We eat, we eat the red Ox for the
passage of the Lake.‖ We have already discussed in extenso the passage of the Great Lake(s)
source of the Nile for the well-known ancient Egyptian ―Ritual of Resurrection.‖ In addition,
the sacredness of cows and other animals and their centrality to the inception of the national
culture of the Bantu-Ethiopians deserve no better elaboration than the Theban God
Amon/Amen seen in his company of gods below (Budge, 1934, 1988: 162). Therefore this
later critical review of the mythological [survival] struggle between the rabbit and
Jackal/Wolf/Dog-headed god, Anubis, should not only solve the riddle of the Azanian
concept, but also confirm the green focus of the original Azanian culture.

360
Huntingford, G. W.B., transl. & ed. 1980. Periplus of the Eritraean Sea. London: Hakluyt Society.
361
Waugh, Evelyn, 1932. Black Mischief. Penguin Classics.
 240

AMON AND HIS COMPANY OF GODS

1. Amen Ra at the head of the Southern Apt (Luxor), the lord of the heaven, and his gods; 2. Mut,
Lady of heaven, Mistress of the World. 3. Khonsu, Nefer-hetep. 4. Min with symbol and temple. 5.
Isis. 6. Neb Khemenu (Thoth). 7. Maat. 8. The Lady of Amenti/Hathor (3)). 9. Osiris. 10. Un-Nefer-
Khenti-Amenti. 11. Horus of the two Horizons. 12. He of the embalmment chamber. 13. Het-Her
(Hathor). 14- Governor of the House of the physician. 15. Nephthys (Extracted from Wallis Budge‘s
Fom Fettish to God in Ancient Egypt, 162).

However before we proceed to analytically discern the survival philosophies of the Rabbit and
Wolf/Jackal, it is equally important to reiterate the prevailing conviction in this text that there
is no such difference between the ancient Ethiopian-Egyptian God Horus/Heru and the Moab
―Sun-god‖ Hyen[―One‖]-Nu[―Hand‖]; nor is there any genuine academic justification to
discriminate between Hyen-Nu/Horus and the patron deity of Thebes, ―Amon‖, and or later
―Aton/Aten‖ despite the undeniable alterations and adaptations in later socio-historical
contexts. Equally, it should be maintained that the ―Anu‖, ―A‖ [Your] and ―Nu‖ [Hand], of
the Moabas also refers to the same Self-created Creator as illustrated below.
For example, Amélineau who tends to confuse ―Anu‖ with the first indigenous
Ethiopians/Nubians who founded the nilothic cities, Esnet, Erment, Qouch, and Heliopolis
(biblical On or Beth Shemesh) along the banks of the Nile—and because of those cities‘
characteristic symbols denoting the name Anu asserts:

―These Anu… were an agricultural people, raising cattle on a large scale along the Nile, [shutting
themselves up in walled cities for defensive purposes?]. To these people we can attribute, without fear of
error, the most ancient Egypt book, The Book of the Dead (Book of Coming Forth by Day) and the Text of
the Pyramids, consequently all the myths or religious teachings. I will add almost all the philiosophical
systems then known and still called Egyptian. They evidently knew the craft necessary for any
 241

civilization and were familiar with the tools those trades required. They knew how to use metals, at least
elementary mentals. They made the earliest attempt at writing, for the whole Egyptian civilization
attribute this art to Thoth, the great Hermes, an Anu-like Osiris, who is called the onian in chapter XV of
The Book of the Dead and the Texts of the Pyramids. The people already knew the principal art; it left
proof of this in the architecture of the tomb at Abydos, especially the tomb of Osiris, and in those
sepulchres objects have been found bearing the unmistakable stamp of their origin—such as carved ivory
or the little head of a Nubian girl found in a tomb near that of Osiris, or the small wooden or ivory
receptacles in the form of feline head—all documents published in the first volume of my Fouilles
d‘Abydos.‖362

But, as Amélineau further observes, ―it is also in an ethnic sense that we must read the term
Anu applied to Osiris. In fact, in an introductory chapter of Hymns extolling Ra and
containing chapter XV of the Book of Coming Forth by Day, we are told: ―Hail to thee, O
God Ani in the mountainous land of Atem! O Great God falcon of the double solar
mountain…‖363 Following Amélineau‘s arguments, Diop has thus suggested that Anu may
have meant men because in Diola ―An‖ means man (Diop, 1974: 76-77). To diverge, I opt for
the A-Nu of the Moabas with A-Ni signifying the plural Anu.
Alas, as the original god-father of the Sumerian city of Uruk, Anu was not only equated with
heaven, but ruled sway with his daughter Ishtar364 that city‘s main temple prior to Uruk‘s
conquest by the nomadic, anti-wildlife, and enslaving warlord Gilgamesh and his followers.
And upon the lamentation of the indigenous population the goddess of creation, Aruru,
created Enkidu from the firmament of Anu. Culturally, Enkidu not only shared vegetation
with antelopes, gazelles and the rest of wild-life…, but was considered a wild-life
conservationist and protector. In that original role he not only terrified Gilgamesh and his
nomadic followers because of his natural stamina and power, but was equated with
immortality as well. And although the politically minded Gilgamesh and his anti wildlife
followers succeeded in destroying Enkidu‘s natural powers and strength with the aid of a
harlot (probably the antecedence of the biblical Samson and the Semitic Laila), it should be
stressed that in Gilgamesh legendary quest for immortality, in the company of the by then
subdued Enkidu, the symbolic culture scenes repeatedly shown—e.g. oxen/bulls, gazelles,
lions, axes et cetera—merely recall the cultural symbols of the Bantu-Ethiopian kingdom
(Sandars, 1960: 61-69). Elsewhere in these Epics, Enkidu reminded Gilgamesh that that wild-

362
Abbé Emile, Amélineau, 1899. Nouvelles Fouillies d‟Abydos. Paris: Ed. Leroux, 257-258; for further
discussing of Amélineau‘s arguments see CA. Diop, 1974. African origin of Civilization… chapter III, esp., 76-
79 notes 47.
363
A.B Amélineau, 1916. Prolégomène à l‟étude de la religion égyptienne. Paris: Ed. Leroux, 124-125.
364
An in-depth study should reveal Ishtar as the Babylonian equivalent of ancient Egyptian Isis.
 242

bull, which repeatedly appear to him in dreams on his way to wage his decisive battle against
Humbaba, the giant of the mountain or the battering ram, was actually Shamash, the ultimate
protector who will take their hands in the moment of peril (ibid., 77-78).
Lastly, while the following Sumer legend tends to contend that Enkidu‘s demise shrouded the
fate of his people in the region:

―What has become of the Black people of Sumer? The traveller asked the old man, for ancient records
show that the people of Sumer were Black. What happened to them?‖ ―Ah, the Old man sighed. They lost
their history, so they died‖ (Chancellor 1987: 15);

the Victory dance of the B[a]mun in present day Cameroun—with the mask of a black stier
decorated with green vegetation around its neck—not only strengthens Enkidu‘s final
statement to Gilgamesh, but adamantly insist that the real culture victory remains entrenched
in the camp of the sacred Apis Bull. In other words, the true culture victory is for the hand
that creates and not the one that destroys.
Culturally, this picture below serves to illustrate the creative genius of Self-created-Creator,
Hyen-Nu:

The Creation: The God Nu is seen risen out of the primeval water and bearing in his hands the boat
of Rā, the Sun-god, who is accompanied by a number of deities (e.g. Heka, Gebb, Thoth, Horus of
Heken, Hu and Sia...). In the upper portion of the scene is the region of the underworld (Tuat)
which is enclosed by the body of Osiris, on whose head stands the goddess Nut with arms
stretched out to receive the disk of the Sun (recopied from Wallis Budge‘s Egyptian ideas of
Afterlife, 25).
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As with the previous deification of all parts of the sacred Bull, we should be reminded again
that the helping hands of the other deities in the company of Amon are merely Hyen-Nu‘s, as
this is again illustrated in the solar disc of Aton/Aten below (A. Erman, 1894, 1971:46; W.
Budge, 1934, 1988: 167):

Amenhotep IV (Achen-Aton) and daughters making offerings to the Sun Disc and receiving
blessing from Aten‘s many hands.

In order not stray from the main point of the present analysis—that is, the conviction that
there is no genuine academic justification to discriminate between Hyen-Nu/Horus,
Amon/Amen and Aton/Aten, it must be emphasized that the following Hymns in honour of
Amen/Amon and Aten/Aton are sang in reference to the same Sun-god.
In this Hymn dedicated to Amon/Amen when he riseth as Horus of the Two Horizons, by
Suti, Overseer of the works of Amen, and by Heru (Horus), Overseer of the Works of Amen,
it is proclaimed:

―Homage to thee, Rā, beneficient One of everyday! Thou shootest up at dawn without fail, Khepri, Great
One of Works. Thy radiance is in thy face,[O thou] who canst not be known. Silver-gold, is not to be
compared with thy splendours. Having fashioned thyself thou didst mould thy members. [Thou] who
givest birth wast not thyself born: One by himself by reason of his abilities. Traverser of eternity, he is the
Chief of the roads of millions of years, maintaining his divine form. As are the beauties of the celestial
regions even so are thy beauties. More brilliant is thy complexion than that of heaven. Thou sailest over
the heavens and every face watcheth thee as thou goest, but thou thyself art hidden from their faces. Thou
showedst thyself at break of day in the beams of light. Strong is thy Sekhet Boat under Thy Majesty. In
one short day thou journeyest over a road of millions and hundreds of thousands of miles. Thou passest
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through thy day, thou settest. Thou dost make the hours of the night likewise to fulfil themselves. There
is no interruption of thy toil. All eyes (e.g. all mankind) fasten their gaze upon thee, and cease not to do
so. Thy Majesty settest and thou dost hasten to rise in the TUAT (the Underworld). Thy sparkingly rays
bewitch the eyes (?). Thou settest in MANU (the West) and [men] sleep like the dead.‖

Similarly, in this Hymn to Aton/Aten there is no such clear-cut distinction between Aton and
Hyen-Nu/Horus:

―Hail to thee, O Aten of the day! Creator of mortals and maker of that whereon they live. Hail thou Great
Hawk of the many coloured plumage. [Hail] Khepri (or Creator) who didst raise thyself up from [from
non-existence]. He created himself, he was not born. Horus the Elder, dweller in Nut (the Sky). At his
rising and at his setting likewise men cry out joyfully. He is the fashioner of what the ground produceth,
KHNEM and AMEN of the HENMEMET (a class of celestial beings). Master of the Two Lands from the
great one to the little one. The mother supreme (?) of gods and men. Worker, expert, exceedingly great,
flourishing in what she doeth. [His] cattle (?) cannot be counted, the mighty herdsmen herding his
animals to their byre. The springer up traversing swiftly the course of Khepri. His birth is wonderful,
raising up his beautiful form in the womb of NUT. He illumineth the Two Lands with his disk. He is the
primeval substance (or plasma) of the Two Lands. He made himself. He seeth everything he hath made,
the Lord One, bringing into captivity (?) [countless] lands everyday, observing those who walk about on
the earth. He shooteth up into the sky with transformations like Rā. He maketh the seasons of the year
with (?) the months. [It is] hot at his pleasure, it is cold at his pleasure. He maketh the day to be relaxed
(or to droop) and he embraceth (or oppresseth) every land. The baboons cry out to him in adoration when
he riseth daily.‖

Finally, the following Hymn dedicated to Osiris with Litany [from the Papyrus of Ani, sheet
19.] generally tends to reafirm the object of that unique national culture of the Azanians.
―Praise be unto thee, O Osiris, Lord of Eternity, UN-NEFER HARMAKHIS, whose forms are
manifold, and whose worship (?) is majestic, Ptah-SEKER-TEM in On (Heliopolis), the Lord
of the hidden shrine, the Creator of Het-Ka-Ptah (―House of the soul of Ptah‖) and the gods
[thereof] the Guide of the Other World (TUAT), who art glorious when thou settest in Nut.
Isis embraceth thee in peace, and she driveth away the feinds from the mouth of thy paths.
Thou turnest thy face towards AMENTT, and thou makest the Earth to shine like silver-gold.
Those who are lying dead rise up to see thee, they breath the air, and they look upon thy face
when the Disk (Aten) riseth in the horizon. Their hearts are content because they behold thee,
O thou, who art Eternity and Everlasting.‖ Thus, with this closing statement of Osiris we are
led to conclude that the prime object of the Ethiopian culture is Eternity (Manfouir) first and
then Resurrection later.
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[LITANY]

1. Homage to thee, [Lord of] the starry gods in ON, and of the heavenly brings in Kheri-ĀhĀ,
thou god UNTI, who art more glorious than the gods who are hidden in Heliopolis.
2. Homage to thee, O An [u] in Antes (?), Hermakhis, with long strides thou stridest over
Heaven O Her-Akhuti.
3. Homage to thee, O everlasting Soul, thou Soul that dwellest in Tetu, Un-Nefer, son of Nut;
Thou art the lord of Akert.
4. Homage to thee in thy dominion over Tetu; the Urret crown is established on thy head; thou
One who providest the power which protecteth thee. Thou dwellest in peace in Tetu.
5. Homage to thee, O Lord of the Acacia Tree. The SEKER Boat is set upon its sledge. Thou
repulsest the feind, the worker of evil, and thou makest the Udjat to rest upon its seat.
6. Homage to thee, Mighty One in thine hour, great mighty Prince in ANRUTF, lord of
eternity, creator of everlastingness. Thou art the lord of HENSU (HÂNÊS, Herakleopolis).
7. Homage to thee, O thou who restest upon MAĀT. Thou art the lord of ABYDOS, and thy
limbs are joined into TA-DJESERT. Thou art he to whom fraud and guile are hateful.
8. Homage to thee, O thou who art in thy boat. Thou bringest HĀPI (Nile) forth from his
sources. The light shineth upon thy body, and thou art the dweller in NEKHEN.
9. Homage to thee, Creator of gods, King of the North and South, Osiris, victorious One,
ruler of the world in thy gracious seasons. Thou art the lord of the two ATEBU (e.g. the
eastern and the western borders of the celestial Nile).
After the recitation of these nine foregoing addresses the deceased was then made to recite the
following petition: ―O grant thou unto me a path where-over I may pass in peace, for I am just
and true. I have not spoken lies wittingly nor have I done aught with deceit‖ (for detail
discussion of this and other hymns, see Budge, Wallis, 1934/1988: 414-428).

That the main object of the Bantu-Ethiopian culture is indeed the quest for a certified passage
through the gates that lead to the celestial habitation of divinity also found elaboration in the
following ceremonial dance song of the so-called Voo-doo365 cult, as the then enslaved
Haitians strived to reestablish contact with their ancestral spirit:

365
There are different opinions with regard to the origin of word Voo-doo. Some scholars tend to associate it
with the dance of the Golden calf (―Veau d‘ Or‖); and it has also been related to the heretical side of the
Waldensians (Vaudios) who were reputed to practice witchcraft. Hence, the whole practice of witchcraft in the
Middle Ages was called ―Vaudoisie.‖ Jahn, however, sees its origin in West Africa, where it means ―genius‖ or
protective spirit among the Ewes or Fons (Janheinz, Jahn, [1958]1961. Muntus: The New African Culture.
Translated by Marjolie Grene. New York: Grove Press, 29-30).
 246

Aitibo Legba luvri laye pu mwe

Papa Legba, luvri baye pu mwe
Luvri baye pu m‘kapab ratre
A tu bon Legba ouvre la barriere pour moi
Papa Legba, ouvre la barriere pour moi
Ouvre la barriere pour moi faire capable de rentre

Following Arada Negroes, Ben-Jochannan describes ―Voo-doo as a great supernatural being,

a snake that embodies the knowledge of the past and the present, and through the medium of
the high Priestess and of a Negress, foretells the future. The two are called the King and
Queen, Master and Mistress, or Papa and Mama.
Accordingly, in the voo-doo ceremony which usually takes place at Night out of the profane
eyes the first Loa to be invoked is ―Legba.‖ He is the lord of the roads, and streets, the
protector of crossroads and doors, the protector of the herd. His wife Ayizan is the goddess of
the markets and the highest goddess of the Arada Olympus. Legba‘s symbol or his veve is the
cross. … The vertical board means the deep and the heights, the streets of the Loas, the
invisible ones. The foot of this vertical world axis is rooted in the waters of the deep. Here on
the Island under the Sea is Guinea, Africa, the legendary home; here the Loas have their
permanent places, from which they hasten straight upward to the living. Every vertical, above
all every stee, and especially poteaumitan in the hounfort, symbolizes the Tree of the Gods
which unites the damp earth from which all things spring, with heaven. The horizontal bar of
the cross signifies the earthly and the human world. It is only at the cross road, where the
human and the divine axes meet, does contact with divinities take place. And this crossroad is
guarded by Legba. In Nigeria and Dahomey he is the interpreter of the gods who translates the
requests and prayers of men into their language. In Haiti he has the function of opening the
barriers that separates men from Loas. He is invoked in the ―Vanvalou-rhythm‖ and dance.
Voodooism in the neighboring Cuba is called ―Maniquismo‖, and Fernand Ortiz366 has called
Maniquismo a secret society, a kind of freemasonry, to which only the initiates may belong‖
(Ben-Jochannan, 1991: xiv-xv).
Dspite the coarseness of the French used in that voodoo song above, it is on the whole
illuminating that the participants of that particular culture activity allude to a highly
hierarchical socio-culture order in which certain leaders are, by virtue of their specialized
knowledge, legitimately entrusted with the keys to the different passages leading to

366
Fernand, Ortiz, 1950. La Africana de la Musica Folklorica de Cuba. La Habana.
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Divinity—a culture role taken originally by Hyen-Nu for possessing the authentic knowledge
of those passages.
Hyen-Nu‘s other special culture role is the promulgation of love. Thus, Moabas mythology
considers ―Nu-Rua‖ or Nu‘s creation, humankind, as resulting from the love between Hyen-
Nu and the Geb/Keb (Earth). This particular kind of love which undeniably naturally impels
infinite creativity is again stipulated to be Hyen-Nu‘s most difficult culture tasks.
Consequently, the sweat that ensues from that difficult culture task of creativity not only
condenses to … water the earth to germinate life, but evaporates … to form the gases or air
equally indispensable for the sustenance of earthly life. We have learnt earlier from Moabas
and Dinka mythologies that greediness, hatred and the disregard of the natural law governing
immortality was the main reason behind Divinity‘s celestial exile and the introduction of
death on this earth.
An equally indispensable local mythological stipulation that tends to uphold the general idea
that earthly life derives from the authentic love of a divine Source is … the Ngalanje of
central Angola. According to this latter myth, the first man, Féti (from Okuféti, ―beginning‖),
who was dropped from heaven and who began life as a hunter was without human companion
prior to his encounter with Coya (from Okuoya, to complete). Eventually this later
complementary work of Hyen-Nu‘s infinite creativity took place along the Cunene River
where, after exhaustion from previous wanderings or hunting trips, Féti had decided to camp
and fish. To his bewilderment, instead of the Hippopotamus that he had been pursuing
throughout that day, he saw a like female figure emerging out of the Cunene River whom he
immediately aided/fished out … and named Coya. Naturally, as the first female companion on
earth she was the most beautiful humanbeing Féti had ever seen and could therefore not resist
the temptation of falling in love with Coya. The first born of that initial love affair, Ngalanje,
would become the original ancestor of all the Ovimbundus of Ngula/Angola.
There is another version of the myth which claims that Féti had at least three different wives,
namely Coya, Tembo, and Civi. And as one day Civi refused to heed to Coya‘s plea to inspire
her sick child…, with that child‘s death marked the beginning of death on earth. 367 In other
words, hatred (or Nanng in Moar meaning scorpion) inspires death.
It is generally mesmerizing that the modern author of this later myth recognizes the myth
actual historicity and has subsequently linked it to an archaeological site bearing the same

367
Heintze, Beatrix, 1995. Alfred Schachtzabels Reise nach Angola 1913-1914 und seine Sammlungen für das
Museum für Völkerkunde in Berlin. Köln, 52-53; Vansina, Jan, 2004. How Societies are Born: Governance in
West Central Africa before 1600. Charlottesville/London, 170-174.
http://www.botschaftangola.de/index.php?nav=ueber_angola/kunst_kultur/feti.
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name. Missionaries who first found the site in 1893 described it to be as large as
contemporary Lisbon. Despite the unprofessionalism of early colonial excavations that was
responsible for the damage done to the site and its archaeological treasures, most scholars
have upheld the site overwhelming historical and cultural significance to the social history of
the region as a whole. Scholars, for instance, have spoken about a 6 meter deep and circa 10
to 12 kilometre long defence wall on both sides of the Cunene River. In addition, they also
found a 5 meter high and 15 meter wide Stone pyramid, graves, ceramic and diverse iron
tools, copper and a dog figure in copper. Essentially, like the same culture developments in
neighboring Zimbabwe…, a fastidious study of the symbolic characters associated with this
later myth and or actual site (e.g. Hippopotamus, water, female, birth and so on) would
eventually prove that we are once again dealing with the relics of a subculture that without
doubt echoes the authentic culture of the Azanian nation. For instance, the ‗Hippotamus deity
of dynastic Egypt, Apet, was not only equated with the Sky goddess but assisted as midwife
or nurse at the birth of the Sun-god‘ (Budge, W., 1934: 242).
Thus if, according to this model, authentic knowledge and love animate infinite creativity and
hatred and greediness inspire destruction and death, what specific culture sense could be made
of the unfolding survival drama between the Rabbit and the Wolf/Jackal? How do we explain
the market psychology/mentality of the Wolf whose life philosophy seems naturally
dependent on the butcher‘s table? What could be learnt from it in terms of the cultivation of a
genuine human culture suitable for harmonious social intercourse?

4.3.1. Reviewing the Survival Concurrence between the Rabbit and the Wolf/Jackal

Astonishingly, most scholars and local authors who have dealt with the moral aspect of this
mainly Bantu-Ethiopian myth have done so without making reference to the concept of
Azania. Susanne Ewing Bölke, who lectured English in the department of
Anglistik/Amerikanistik at the University of Hamburg (Germany), and introduced me to the
Black-American version of the myth in a Seminar titled Folktales and Legends of the New
World (2004), saw it as alluding to some sense of moral superiority on the part of the enslaved
Negroes over their capitalist enslavers. This linguistic scholar who then was more concerned
about the impact of the political developments in the New World on the identity process of
her native America, USA, seems literally unaware of the fact that that myth she termed as a
Black-American tale has a much more profound socio-cultural and historical background
going way back to the pre-dynastic period. It was only after I inferred to the centrality of the
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rabbit and wolf/dog-headed gods in the mythology of dynastic Egypt she finally realized that
the culture significance of that particular myth goes far beyond the political developments in
her native America.
At the local level, Nelson Mandela, whose legend about ―Mmutla‖ (the Rabbit) and ―Phiri‖
(the Hyena) also comes somewhat closer to the original idea in terms of that legend‘s
emphasis on the different cognitive approaches to life by these wild-life adversaries, fell short
of mentioning Azania in his compilation of tales originally intended for children. 368 Indeed,
every process of culture indoctrination begins often with neophytes. On the other hand, one
could reasonably argue that probably after the demise of the main centres of the institutions of
the Bantu-Ethiopians national culture in Thebes/Karnak, Manfour, et cetera most national
myths would have been later exposed to the exigencies of local specifics. Keeping this in
mind, let‘s opt for a critical review of Moab(a)s oral version of the survival concurrence
between the rabbit and wolf since this later myth not only addresses the origin of the Azanian
concept, but tends to convey a relatively advanced ethical message that is applicable to all
sectors of the national community.
Thus according to Moabas culturalists, the Rabbit and Jackal/Wolf had once been loyal and
law abiding members of a mythical community in some part of Azania—inhabited by both
human beings and the wild-life. Of course, in normal socio-cultural context it is only natural
that good and law abiding neighbors assist each other in times of need or crisis. And thanks to
the rigorous and strigent ethical norms of that culture, which tended to brand even the
slightest carnivorous behaviour among community members as witchcraft—punishable by
death…, that mythical community was the most prosperous, peaceful and safest in region, as
illustrated in this satirical pictography:

The Wolf depicted as a goat-herd and the cat as Goose-herd (Satirical pictures from London Papyrus).

368
Nelson, Mandela, 2004. Meine Afrikanische Lieblingsmärchen. Münich: C.H. Beck, 43-48.
 250

The peacefulness of the former community is contrasted with the lawlessness of the latter
community:

The king of the mice, standing on his battle chariot, drawn by dogs, is besieging the fortress of cats.
From Turin Satirical Papyrus both are reproduced in Erman‘s Life in Ancient Egypt (pp.369, 520).

Despite having, on one occasion, sighted the youngest son of Wolf with what seems to look
like a wet bone; and the growing incidents of child disappearances in the outlying
communities plagued by violence, lawlessness and crime, rabbit was virtually unaware of his
closest neighbor‘s double life-style. And, indeed, had in the past borrowed some food from
him and promised to repay in kind the following harvest. Unfortunately, those days are long
gone when the neighboring villages were reluctant about adopting stringent security measures
to counter the growing pandemic of child disappearances. And with surmounting pressures
now from the Wolf to repay the outstanding debt prior to the next harvest … due to the
successive failures of his recently adopted nocturnal trips; and the prevailing rumors about
half-starvation in Wolf's court …, rabbit had no choice but to disclose the date of the most
important culture event to his increasingly impatient and half-starved neighbor—but provided
Wolf would agree to be his horse for that special culture event. The reward, as noted
elsewhere, was of course the fattest and strongest bull ritually sacrificed and offered to the
best performing horse of a dancing competition held for the opening ceremony of that
mysterious market on a sacred lake. The rabbit had not the least doubt about his horse victory
on that occasion provided it would undergo the rigorous and systematic preparatory training
on the streets of their community. In the case of a victory, so the rabbit, wolf would definitely
have had much more harvest for the rest of the season rather than having to risk his life every
night, especially amidst the surmounting hostility against strangers from the neighboring
communities. Apparently left without an alternative choice, wolf was quick to accept the
offer; and after a prolong and rigorous preparatory training…; and with the judges having
selected the falcon and two monkeys as the referee and the linesmen respectively; and the date
already set for that culture event and now known to almost everyone in the region, rabbit had
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every reason to be proud his horse, having successfully drilled it on the streets of their
community.369
On the day of that special culture event, Rabbit left home earlier than usual so as to find the
right position for his golden decorated horse where the Sun-rays could expose it to the invited
dignitaries, the jury and the audience. And his plan seems to have worked perfectly well.
Even before the closing bell had rang…, a spectator close to the jury informed rabbit about his
horse outstanding performance and the subsequent victory. In order to ascertain the accuracy
of that unofficial report, the then ebullient rabbit decided to tie his horse under a tree (tree of
life?) by the Lake. Howwever, to his astonishment and dismay he was told by the jury that the
gods of the land had, on that specific event, voted unanimously for the blood and flesh of the
victorious horse. In other words, the gods of the land had unanimously decided on that
specific occasion that the butcher must experience his own table. And since nothing could
overturn the culture verdict of the gods of that land, rabbit had to hasten and inform his horse
about the unusual verdict of the jury; and luckily for the wolf the rope was not tied tightly
enough as to hinder an eventual escape.
Putting aside the question whether or not the healthiest and strongest red-ox/bull would have
been actually sacrificed for that special culture event, there are two philosophical conduits
that could be deduced from this particular mythology, namely that the rabbit succeeded in
turning the Wolf into his horse for that culture event attended by the prominent personalities
of the region, including wolf‘s father-in-law‘s family, speaks mountains. On the other hand, it
is intriguing to know that some one whose life philosophy seems intrinsically dependent on
the butcher‘s table or the lives of others should himself be so afraid to die? One can foresee
why after narrowly escaping the death trap—of what tends out to be a culture intuitional
exercise—the Jackal/Wolf must have automatically earned itself a place among the Judges of
the dead. This genuine culture decision to include Anubis among the judges of the dead is
justified because only those who understood the eternal essence of life were qualified to judge
the dead in the culture institutions of the Bantu-Ethiopian kingdom.
Another culture role attributed to Anubis, and which does not deserve additional elaboration
because the early form of Thoth was a dog-headed deity, is the invention of the hieroglyphics.
Thus, when the elderly of the Dogons in present day Mali often seek the cause of a person‘s
death in the footprints/footnotes of a mysterious wolf/jackal that only operates under the
darkness of the night, they merely tell us that the dead person is culpable of her/his own death.
Succintly formulated, earthly lives dependency on the carcass of other lives … is tantamount
369
It seems the rigorous training on the streets of their community was deliberately intended at demonstrating to
the most beautiful daughter of the community‘s chief that, afterall, that my adversary is only but my horse…
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to accentuating or justifying one‘s own death verdict.370 And as Eyre rightly remarks, similar
legal function was, in the culture history of dynastic Egypt, also assigned to Crocodiles.371
Indeed, a critical look at the dynastic Egyptian myth, which details the conflict between Bata
and his elder brother, provoked by the seditious life-style of the elder brother‘s wife, who had
once attempted to lure Bata into an illicit love affair…, would prove that both the cattle under
Bata‘s care that evening and the crocodiles that hindered the revenge seeking brother from
crossing to the other end of the Nile played similar culture roles in the rescue of the hero‘s life
(Sayce, 1895: 25-30). In fact, the Sphinx, with its human head and lion body, suffices as a
clear indication that the Bantu-Ethiopians national culture had the original intention of
cultivating these bloodthirsty wild-life neighbors with genuine human culture. Hence, from
whence the concept of Azania is derived, which, in the simplest socio-cultural and historical
context, sought to converge the acmes of the diverse philosophies about life into a
homogeneous life serving culture.
It can thus be argued without erring that not only the harbinger of all legal doctrines, the
Maat, but education in general is a culture good derived from genuine culture quest for a
perfect humanity. This is not to deny the fact that political agents are generally apt at
appropriating the institutions of national cultures in an effort to sustain their economic
institutions of power. Therefore, unlike the Maatian doctrine which was culturally derived to
guide humanity in its innate quest for real freedom, the economically derived legal codes from
the Mesopotamian city states, which were later inherited by the modern Leviathans and
Behemoths, were generally intended to terrorize humanity into submitting to the economic
institutions of political power.

370
Interestingly, Wolf/Jackal often turns to the grass or vegetation when seriously sick. And Mandela has also
pointed to similar development concerning the friendship between Simba (the Lion) and Sunguru (the Rabbit) as
Simba was once almost dead on his sick bed … (see, Meine afrikanischen Lieblingsmärchen, 2004: 49-52).
371
Eyre, C. J., 1976. "Fate Crocodiles and the Judgment of the dead." SAK 4, 103-114.
 253

V. CONCLUSION

Notably, the enquiry into the Mytho-reality Complexity of the Azanian Nation began with a
critical review of the scientific literature specialized in dealing with the main contending
social forces, namely the culture upholders of the national phenomenon and the economic
advocates of the state system. This was rather ineluctable in terms of establishing which one
of these social organizations lurks the original; and or problematizing conventional wisdom
about what constitutes ethnicity in colonial African politics in particular. While this research
has consistently defended the antecedence of ethno-culture nations, it is also undeniable that
economic forces are generally apt at appropriating the culture institutions of nations for the
sustenance of their economic institutions of political power. Hence the perception that the
modern division of colonial Africa into territorial states; and the consequent heterogenization
of pre- and post-independence Africa‘s ethnicity—with the directly related pseudo-nationalist
implications—was the result of such economically induced external political interventions in
what was once an ethnocultural national community of the Bantu-Ethiopians, the Azanians.
Since the then capitalist dominated and industrializing Europe, responsible for the creation of
extant African states, was itself plagued by class struggles with racial connotations, it is only
reasonable that their treatment of non-European nations wouldn‘t have differed from the
established local political norms. But as noted elsewhere, the predominance or pre-eminence
of the agents of divisive politics—with the related political nationalisms—from the dawn of
Europe‘s social history does not necessarily overshadow the tenacity of the upholders of
genuine culture among the Europeans.372 Despite some European politicians involvement in
non-European conflicts abroad today (e.g. Congo, Chad, Sudan et cetera), at least the
rejection of the political culture of the blood-stained swords of Europe‘s Leviathans and
Behemoths … after the Second World War is yet another indication that the culture upholders
of Europe‘s popular conscience are reliable allies of the Minosian Apis Bull in terms of their
commitment to service of life.
In this view, genuine nationalism, the ideological basis of the national phenomenon, is
described as an immarcesible culture movement subservient to life (Manfou(i)r, infinite
phenomenon)—a concept borrowed from an extant Bantu-Ethiopian group called Moabas,
with Maann in Moa(i)r, the language of the Moabs, meaning phenomenon while Fou(i)r
(infinite) is derived from Fouiin, respiration. Not surprisingly, absolute social order is deemed
ineluctable for the cause of genuine nationalist, whose culture mission is to intuitively

372
Despite Gilgamesh violent rape of the culture institutions of Anu in Sumeria he was generally explicit about
his desire for immortality.
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cultivate a perfect humanity capable of perceiving absolute truth about life and thereby
ordering itself accordingly. In other words, unlike the politicized democratic state-nation that
customarily tends to require its citizens to ―acknowledge social facts—about power (e.g. the
privatization of global economic gains and the nationalization of global economic losses; and
or the marriage of convenience between the political state and the culture nation),
exclusionary conduct, and absented others, et cetera, ―culture nations demand from their
members nothing less than the obedience to absolute truth.‖373
Culturally, the Azanians/Bantu-Ethiopians, as a homogeneous ethno-cultural national
community, began their inquest into the deepest/darkest fountain of life (Manfouir) with the
concept of an androgynous Hyen-Nu, whom they considered to be the authentic and perfect
manifestation of life—that is, the inseparable embodiment of the soul and the body
(immortality); and hence the authentic measure of their national culture. This universal belief
among the Bantu-Ethiopians of being capable, intellectually and culturally, to reintegrate the
immortal soul/spirit, which had demonstratively left the easily corruptible and decaying
earthly human body in its righteous desire to join the immortal Hyen-Nu, with the deceased
body [as in the resurrection of Osiris] seems to explain the old-age Azanian tradition of
mummification. And while it would be errorneous to impose dates on this indigenous
Ethiopian custom, it can be said without erring that ―the oldest of human remains found in
Ethiopian-Egypt bear upon them traces of the use of bitumen, which proves that from the very
beginning of their stay in the valley of the Nile the locals made some attempt to preserve their
dead by means of mummification‖ (E A. W. Budge, 1995: 157-158). Naturally, that the object
of this particular national culture was the intuitive elevation of the cognition of their
community members to par that of the inhabitants of the celestial provinces also explains why
the culture custodians of the Bantu-Ethiopians/Azanians originally identified terrestrial lives
with celestial bodies, stars. And had inline with this unique culture endeavour developed the
appropriate monolithic culture institutions along the valley of Nile, the source of which is
found the Island of the Double Cave and … the mountain of the Moon [the highest peak in
Azania], where the ancestral spirit of the Bantu-Ethiopians together with the matriarchal Nile
goddess Hapi are deemed to be located. In any event, the culture imperative that from the
onset compelled the Azanians to become among the earliest of all settled native communities
also saw them grow in enormous wealth; and with such wealth came the need for
specialization in their study of celestial bodies and the related monolithic culture structures
attributed to that unique national culture. Further, it would seem that this innate quest for
373
George, Shulman, 2008. ―Thinking Authority Democratically—Prophetic Practices, White Supremacy and
Democratic Politics.‖ Political Theory Vol.36 No.5, 709.
 255

immortality was undoubtedly behind the far reaching culture explorations which the
Ethiopians are known to have undertaken across the Earth from the Azanian mainland; and in
the process would undoubtedly have attracted the economic interests of wandering political
barbarians from the North, who at the time were generally busy surviving from the
implacable—but culturally ineluctable—whirling winds of the North from the scratch.
True, the political alliance that was to later incrementary undermined the continuity and
advancement of the Azanian culture came originally from the northern fringes of the then
geographically extensive but sparsely populated Bantu-Ethiopian kingdom. Although the
culture custodians of the Azanian nation treated the subject of the interaction between the
Southern and Northern winds and or polar stars mythologically, especially during their Stellar
Mythos; and are also known to have equated earthly beings with the celestial bodies, it is still
unclear how to interpret the four earthly geographical regions that became prominent in the
literary texts of their Solar Mythology nationally, as would Wallis Budge in his From Fetish
to God in Ancient Egypt when he alluded to the ancient Egyptian perception of the Lords of
the North as referring to the Greeks (1934, 1988: 423).374 Importantly, the factual intervention
of the founders of the 11th Dynasty (2300-2065 B.C.E) in the Levant … seems to suggest that
they then generally put the blame of the internal political crises of their national culture on
external political agents.
Undeniably, while the culture intervention of the Bantu-Ethiopians was in those days
strengthening to the culture stream of the European national conscience—for it succeeded in
forging unity among the Graeco-Europeans, and, above all, in transforming the once
wandering and warring political barbarians into a sedentary folk..., there is equally no doubt
that it was insufficient to hinder the political leaders of this predominantly nomadic
population from the North from reasserting their economically induced political way of life.
And after the Trojan war, in which the Ethiopians took a decisive role in support of their
culture allies, the political victors of that war reestablished their highly politicized patriarchal
social order—that is, the divisive and economically unsatiable polis system on the ruins of
the then retreating matriarchal social order from the South.
374
e.g., in the Pelasgic Myth of creation we are also told, Eurynome, the Mother of all things, emerged from
chaos. … Then, capturing the North wind She caressed him with her hands and lo and behold Ophion the Great
Serpent emerged (Homer Iliad V223; Plinius VIII 67; Plinius IS.IV35; Kalopoulos, 2003:24).
Eurynome and Ophion dwelt on Mountain Olympus from the beginning of things (Homer Iliad E 898; Hesiod Θ
113; Pausanias H 1.2; Kalopoulos, ibid). But Ophion infuriated Eurynome when he claimed he was the Creator.
At once she crashed his head with her heel, and banished him from heaven to the darkness of subterranean caves.
Then the Goddess created … the first man was Pelasgus, the ancestor of the Pelasgi. He sprang from the land of
Arcadia. … Pelasgus taught them to construct (round) huts, to eat the fruits of the earth and to sew leather
garments from the skins of animals, like those still worn by the poor (ibid). Essentially, that the lord also
produced garments from animal skins for Adam and Eve (Genesis 3.21; Kalopoulos, 2003:25) merely reiterate
the early perception that most of the later talmudic or biblical writers had indeed a European background.
 256

However, culturally the partriarchal victors of the Trojan War, now at helm of the divisive
city states, the frontrunners of modern European states [with their pseudo-nationalist
implications], were naturally confronted with the challenge of how to respond [even]
economically to such natural phenomenon as the perpertual upshot/growth of the native
population? Using the economic data of the mainly capitalist dominated political states of
Western Europe, I stressed that powerful politicians in the past responded economically—that
is to say economic mindedly, to this natural phenomenon either by transferring the so-called
surplus population [of nations?] to the so-called New Foundlands; or the deliberate
management of their own populations through enslavement, as early with the peasant Slavs
(whence slave is derived); or through cyclical intercommunal wars (dubbed nationalist), as
with the modern European confessional/sacred-secular wars after the disintegration of the
Roman Empire or the so-called First and Second World Wars; and not to forget the modern
political genius of man made epidemies to dissimate native populations, as with Spanish
experiment with the native American population during colonialism, which merely recalls the
political genius of Abraham‘s Chaldean sorcery in terms of its effectiveness in the
amassmation of foreign territories.
In today‘s global economic context, I used the economic model of the late industrializing
economies, especially the recent Chinese infrastructural development policies (e.g. the
permanent Betonierung of China‘s farmland with concrete, steel, and glass mausoleums; and
or the one child policy, to demonstrate not only what is already known to classical Greek
scholars—that is, the shrinking farmlands of the territorial states, and the associated mass
starvation, cannibalism and the subsequent colonial policies customary of the expansive
policies of the state system at the expense of native cultures, but to highlight the ruinous
aspect of such myopic economic policies with the associated piecemeal economic golden ages
and relentless economic recessions.
Importantly, setting aside the fact that modern economic indicators—e.g. the elevated life
expectancy rates of industrialized economies—are aimed at the original culture measure of
perfect humanity (eternal being); the post-industrial economic trend of sustainability we
observed earlier of the historic Enkidu375; the current wave of partial or complete
nationalization of financial institutions and some key industries after the failed Chinese

375
In fact a closer look at the Maatian legal text would also prove that the destruction of the kingdom‘s forest
was among the most serious culture crimes one could commit. And, moreover, while the architects the Pharaonic
constructions were known to have used concrete in their constructions, the fact that the local population of the
countryside were prescribed with round thatch-roofed buildings was inline with the prevailing idea of
sustainability.
 257

experiment376; the fact alone that the so-called African nationalist, like their [communist-
capitalist?] Chinese counterparts, are once again pleading to share the knowledge of
Sustainable Technologies377 with their partners from the advanced industrialized economies;
and their continuing dependence on the failing economic rational and assistance of those
industrialized economies, confirm the prevailing apprehension that African politicians and
their Pan-Africanist intelligentsia are intellectually incapable of steering the Azanian people
toward genuine national freedom. Thus the recent appeal by these culturally indifferent and
economically unsatiable global economic nomads to the national phenomenon to rescue the
economic mind from the current global economic crisis not only vindicate the reality of the
national phenomenon, but also strenghtens the age-old nationalists apprehension that the
economic mind per se is incapable of delivering in its own speciality.
The fact that amidst the natural perpetual growth of the native population most industrialized
economies are now desperately struggling to create even temporal or contractual employment
for their citizens suggests that the economic mind is generally ill-equiped for such a genuine
culture challenge. If the recent experiment of ―One-Euro-Jobs‖ in Germany, Europe‘s
Economic Power-house, is the post-modern or post-industrial response to the perpetual trend
of the native population, then genuine nationalists have good reason to be wary of the future
of their co-nationals in the power state system.
Eventually, for the Azanian nationalists to able to contribute authentically to the ongoing
culture quest for a perfect humanity they must first liberate the Azanian mainland from all
forms of colonial interventions as that would enable them to resuscitate the well-known
pharaonic ―Ritual of Resurrection‖ and or to plant the seeds of the Great Tree of Life. Despite
Azanian nationalists rejection of external political intervention in their culture endeavour to
sow the seed of that Great Tree of Life, the fact that from the onset of their social history the
culture custodians of the Bantu-Ethiopian kingdom insisted that the fruits of their nation‘s
culture institutions was for the entire humanity suffices to repudiate conventional wisdom that
nationalists are by nature xenophobic and violent. Such voluntary presentation of the fruits of
their national cultures at the advent of Nations intuitional cultivation of that long awaited
perfect humanity is in accordance with nationalist general commitment to the service of life.

376
The Global economic failure with the Chinese experiment should be understood in light of the fact that
China‘s infrastructural development was behind the global demand for raw materials; with some economists
naively predicting that the Chinese government would require at least between five to ten cities, for the
population of between one to two million each year, in order to be able to sustain the housing demand of its
growing population. Such unsound economic prognosis forget that the livelihood of the Chinese population
depend entirely on the very agricultural land that would be destroyed in the place of these concrete, steel, and
glass mausoleums termed cities in modern sense.
377
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Units/spru/publications/imprint/sewps/sewp86/sewp86.pdf.
 258

Thus contrary to conventional wisdom that nationalists are by nature xenophobic and violent;
the present ruinous state of the culture institutions/heritage of the Azanian nation under Arabs
colonial onslaught in the northern part of the land of Cham/Kem; or the culturally
unwarranted retention of the stolen relics of that unique national culture in the museums and
cities of Africa‘s former colonial masters suffice for the ongoing national struggle for total
emancipation of the Azanian nation. As for the Ritual of Resurrection and its twin process of
mummification, the culture custodians of the Bantu-Ethiopian kingdom or Azanian nation
undeniably took the human conscience to task—that life is not a paradox but an eternal
reality; and that through the appropriate culture measures or norms the human cognition is
capable of attaining that reality. In fact, when the Moab[a]s in their mythological stipulations
generally recall the millenia anniversary of some of their early ancestors—and this, during the
Bronze Age of their social or culture history, the modern scientific man, so influenced by the
political authority of the economic mind, is often too apt to discount that as a mere myth,
pretending there is nothing historical about oral myths of these early ancestors. But the fact
that the economic indicators of modern economic Golden Ages tend to mimick the culture
measure of life speaks for itself.
The Azanian nationalists accept being consciously submissive to the gerontocratic
constitution of Amon in their nation‘s quest for total freedom. But this is because they
consider Hyen-Nu/Amon to be the perfect manifestation of life. What they are unwilling to
accept, however, is the errorneous and often biased assumption from the highly politicized
Nordic gods that death—the permanent separation of the body from the soul/spirit—is another
realistic aspect of life; and or that Amon/Amen is a jealous378 God suspicious of humanity
attainment of the eternal essence of life. Therefore, amidst the natural perpetual growth of the
native population—with the natural prospect of it attaining the fifty billion mark in the next
century or two379; and the related consequences of having to kill and eat all our closest wild-
life neighbors—albeit such technological terminologies as horsepowers in the history of

378
That the Biblical God was jealous of his own children acquisition of the knowledge of the tree of life also
found expression in first Book of the Bible, reason for the banishment of Adam and Eve from the Garden of
Eden. In Genesis 3.22, 23-24 we are told, Behold, Adam has become as one of us, to know good and evil: and
now lest he stretched forth his hand, and take also the tree of life and eat, and so he shall live forever (see,
Kalopoulos, 2003:36-37). Astonishingly, the biblical God is so terrific that only the sighting of him causes death
(Exodus 33.20; Kalopoulos, 2003:204). Simply said, the knowledge of him causes death.
379
A senior UK government scientific advisor, Professor John Beddington, has also recently acknowledged that
if the current trend of the exploitation of the earth resources continues, by 2030 when the world population is
expected to increase by another two billion (to 8 billion), governments in general would increasingly find it
difficult to feed the world population—a position shared by other renown UK Scholars such as Professor David
Pink of Warwick University; Professor Jules Pretty (Essex University); and Antony Froggatt, a senior research
fellow at Chatham House. If we are to agree with the ancient Bantu-Ethiopians that there is a correlation between
upshot of the native population and the infinite expansion of the celestial bodies/stars then the need for an urgent
culture solution becomes even more apparent.
 259

industrialization; or the prospects of having to empty the oceans of their fish researves; not to
mention the prospects of having to turn against each other for meat; or, worse of all, uprooting
the remaining Great Trees of life…; and in light of the politico-economic responses to this
natural phenomenon so far in at least the past three centuries of ―economic triumphalism‖,
until the eintritt of ―economic skepticism‖ following the global economic crisis, humanity is
now more than ever confronted with the verdict of life, as presented to it by the leaders of
these contending principles of social order, namely the culture nation and the economically
induced political state. Should human kind consciously align itself with the former and reject
the bloodstained swords of the heroes of the Leviathans and Behemoths, it would have
accentuated to the fact that life is not a paradox but an eternal reality; and that the ultimate
reward for cognitively or judiciously underlining one-self to the green culture norm of life, as
did Anubis elsewhere, is the automatic certification of the passage through the Gates of
Heaven. However, should human kind be coerced, either militarily, materially, or through
political sorcery, to accept the latter definition of life from the mainly political stream that
would also have meant accentuating to the prevailing democratic constitutions of the modern
state-nations—dominated by mother murderers, sorcerers, homo-sexuals, paedophiles and war
mongers etc.—with the unavoidable consequences of having to transport the ashes of this
culturally irreplacable Earth in plastic bags in its innate quest for eternity. The danger of this
latter coerced choice, however, is that after incinerating this irreplaceable Earth with the
remaining stockpiles of nuclear arsenals…, the myopic economic mind would have denied
itself the very culture platform from which it could launch the remaining alluminium capsules
destined for [even] the nearest suspended International Space Station (ISS) some few hundred
kilometers beyond the blue-skies of a sunny day. Ironically, this later attempt to reach the
skies not merely recalls the early culture quest for a perfect humanity capable of inhabiting
both the terrestrial and celestrial provinces; but the prevailing rumours that modern scientists
and their economic sponsors are conducting experiments intended at facilitating the
cultivation of vegetation in those alluminium capsules of the ISS is another indication that the
Green Crown of the Azanian nation is futuristic and therefore realistic.
Lastly, but not the least, the exclusion of children from the demos that often make the choice
of democratic governments tends to strengthen the gerontocratic thesis. The gerontocratic
institutions of the Azanian culture is thus understandable given that the specialized knowledge
required in terms of the cultivation of that perfect humanity is not different from the special
knowledge required to wheel the economic engines of modern democratic states.
 260

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I. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................. 1
II. THE ONGOING DEBATE ABOUT THE ORIGIN OF NATIONS .................................. 20
2.1. In what ways are nationalist and ethnic sentiments derived from cultural
cleavages between groups? ............................................................................................................ 20
2.1.1. Primordialist Response ........................................................................................... 20
2.1.2. The cultural symbiosis of hominid development ................................................... 27
2.1.2.1. Religion as a cultural system ........................................................................... 29
2.1.2.2. Ideology as a culture system ........................................................................... 33
2.1.3. Is there a pre-political cultural nationalism? .......................................................... 35
2.1.3.1. Nationalism and culture and its cultivation ..................................................... 36
2.1.3.2. Europe‘s re-embracement of cultural unity an indictment of political
nationalism ................................................................................................................... 42
2.1.3.3. Is the nationalist ideal a nomenclature for cyclical development? .................. 43
2.1.4. Ethno-Symbolists Perspective ................................................................................ 50
2.1.4.1. The real ethnic core and the persistence and durability of nations ................. 53
2.1.4.2. Bureaucratic incorporation of the ethnic core ................................................. 56
2.1.4.3. Revivalist rediscovery of the ethnic past ......................................................... 61
2.2. In what ways are they rational response to immediate identifiable incentives? ............... 65
2.2.1. Modernist Perspective ............................................................................................ 65
2.2.2. Nationalism and nations as discussed by Gellner .................................................. 67
2.2.3. The transition to the age of nationalism ................................................................. 73
2.3. If such identities are constructed who (or what) constructs them and why? .................... 76
2.3.1. Are National Identities constructed or real? ........................................................... 76
III. ATTEMPT TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN REAL- AND PSEUDO-NATIONALISM . 78
3.1. Exploring the origin of pseudo-nationalism in restrospect to Europe’s political
history .............................................................................................................................................. 78
3.1.1. Demystifying the Nation-state symbiosis .............................................................. 78
3.1.2. Economic Determinism of European nationalism ................................................. 81
3.1.3. How Economic Agents undermined the Cultural Course of European Nationalism
.......................................................................................................................................... 86
3.1.4. Racial Creed in Greek Philosophy and its Impact on European Political
Nationalism ...................................................................................................................... 91
3.1.5. The culture deficit of the Greek Polis and its impropriety for the national ideal ... 96
3.2. Reaffirming the Politico-economic Origin of European Divisions from the Greek
Culture........................................................................................................................................... 101
3.2.1. Rediscovering the culture essence of the Homeric charm ................................... 109
3.2.2. How the alliance between state- and agents of institutions of pseudo-culture
derailed the early attainment of a European nation ........................................................ 112
3.2.3. Politicisation of Culture and its impact on European Identity Process ................ 115
3.2.4. Post-Constantine Sacred-Secular political tensions ............................................. 119
3.3. Politics and the consolidation of modern European Pseudo-nationalism ........................ 123
3.3.1. Exporting European Pseudo-nationalism into Colonies North of the Atlantic .... 129
3.4. Pan-Africanism as an extension of European pseudo-nationalism .................................. 135
3.4.1. Questioning the national essence of Africa‘s Irredentist Movements .................. 139
3.4.2. Retrieving the National Genus from the Concept of Pan-Africanism ................. 152
3.5. The effects of pseudo-nationalism on the natural development of nations ...................... 161
3.6. What future has the African State System? ........................................................................ 169
IV. DISCUSSING THE AZANIAN NATIONAL MODEL ................................................. 174
4.1. Early Signs of Politics in pre-dynastic Ethiopian Mythology ........................................... 175
4.1.1. Political Implications of the Cannibal Hymn ....................................................... 179
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4.1.2. Internal Political agents and the transformation of the Ethiopian Culture ........... 184
4.1.3. Could External Political Forces have instigated the Culture Crisis of the Ethiopian
Kingdom? ....................................................................................................................... 194
4.2. Conflicting views about the Origin of the Egyptian Culture/Civilization........................ 202
4.2.1. External Political Forces Role in the demise of the Ethiopian/Egyptian Culture 213
4.2.2. Culture and Economic Forces as the Agents of Social History ........................... 223
4.2.3. Assessing the Universal Reach of the Bantu-Ethiopian Culture .......................... 230
4.3. Reviewing the Ideological background of the Azanian nation .......................................... 238
4.3.1. Reviewing the Survival Concurrence between the Rabbit and the Wolf/Jackal .. 248
V. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................. 253
References: ............................................................................................................................. 260
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Table of Figures

1). The virgin birth of Amenhotep IV/Echnaton…………………………………………...13

2). Culture and its cultivation arranged in a matrix…………………………………………40

3). A matrix coordinating aspects of the cultivation of culture in nationalism……………...41

4). The three-headed Lion-god worshipped at Meroe at Wad Ba Naga…………………….200

5). Reproduced Boundary inscription at Kurgus……………………………………………210

6). Amon and his company of gods…………………………………………………………240

7). The act of creation by the God Nu………………………………………………………242

8). Amenhotep IV/Echnaton and daughters making offerings to the Sun Disc and receiving

Blessing from his many hands…………………………………………………………..243

9). The Wolf depicted as a goat-herd and the cat as Goose-herd……………………………249

10). The king of mice and his army besieging the fortress of cats………………………….250