Kem-The Egyptian Essence of Blackness

Relevant Egyptian Determinatives    Ancient Egyptian determinatives are used as word classifiers.  It tells the reader what the word pertains to.  Using English as an example:  'frd' with the determinative 'car', tells us that the word is ford.  'frd' with the determinative 'name', tells us that the word is Fred.  The determinative is not vocalized and appears at the end of the word.  The Egyptian determinatives that are significant here are:

Symbol                                                        Word                    Meaning

Round city with intersecting streets

Nu

Egyptian village, hamlet, town, city, community, settlement.  The nation.

Foreign country, wasteland, desert.

Mountain range

Khast, Set

Eat, drink, speak, emotion, attitude, thinking.

Man touching mouth

i

Papyrus roll

Shai

Tie up, complete, book

Cow

Cow

Khait

Twig

Khet

Wood

Romé

People

Man and woman

Relevant Hieroglyphs

Ta, To  - The Egyptians depicted the Nile Valley flood plain for words pertaining to the earth, land, and soil.  For example: Ta Meri (Egypt - lit. "My beloved land") or Ta Seti (Nubia - lit. "land of the bow").

Kem - The Egyptians depicted a piece of burning charcoal for the word black.  It is the strongest word for black in the language.  It literally means "burnt black'" as it also does in contemporary Wolof.

Black constructs

Kem - Black wood

Kemit - Black books - Egyptian literature

Kemit - Black cow

Black used as a metaphor for divine, sacred, etc.

Kem Isi - Black (Divine) Isis

Kem Osiri - Black (Divine) Osiri

Kemou - Black ones : benevolent, divine, good

Black used for Egypt and Egyptians

Kemet - Black nation, Egypt

Kemut - Black people, Egyptians

Kememou - Blacks, Egyptian citizens

Red - The opposite of Black

Deshret - *Red nations. The European and Semitic countries known to the Egyptians.

Deshretou - Red ones : fiends, devils, evil

Ref: The Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary, pp787-8/889-90 , E.A. Budge, Dover.         General History of Africa - vol. II, p41, Unesco.

*It is significant that even today, Africans use the term 'red' to describe Europeans, Semites, and even light-complexioned Africans.