1. a descendant of Ham. Gen. 10:1, 6-10.
2. a member of any of various peoples of northern and eastern Africa,
usually divided into two branches:
1. Eastern Branch— Ancient and Modern Egyptians (excluding the Arabs), Nubians, Beja, Ethiopians, Oromo (Galla), Afar (Danakil), Somali, Masai, Watusi.
2. Northern Branch— Berbers of the Mediterranean-Atlantic and Sahara, Tibbu, Fulani (Peul), Guanches (extinct).
Hamitic
The Hamitic subfamily is generally considered to include ancient Egyptian (see Egyptian language) and its descendant, Coptic; the Berber languages; and the Cushitic languages. Ancient Egyptian and Coptic are extinct. Some linguists also place the Chad languages within the Hamitic subfamily. Those Hamitic tongues are or were spoken in N Africa, much of the Sahara, the Horn of E Africa, and parts of central and W Africa. They were named after Ham, the second son of the biblical Noah, whose descendants supposedly were the original speakers of the Hamitic languages.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright (c) 1994, 2000, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
Berbers (?)
"...Berber is a strange tongue that can be related to all kinds of languages...Specialists in Berber are careful not to insist on the relationship between Berber and Egyptian."
Diop, C. A. The African Origin of Civilization, pp68-9, Lawrence Hill
Egyptian language
Extinct language of ancient Egypt that is generally classified as a member of the Hamitic subfamily of the Hamito-Semitic family of languages. The development of ancient Egyptian is usually divided into four periods: (1) Old Egyptian, spoken and written in Egypt during the IV to VI dynasties of the Old Kingdom (3d millennium B.C.); (2) Middle Egyptian, a form of the language noted for its great literature and current from the XI dynasty (beginning 2134 B.C.) to the reign of Ikhnaton (c.1372–1354 B.C.) in the XVIII dynasty; (3) Late Egyptian, which was used from the time of Ikhnaton through the XX dynasty of the 12th cent. B.C.; and (4) demotic, dating from the late 8th cent. B.C. to the 5th cent. A.D. The ancient Egyptian language first used a hieroglyphic form of writing that underwent several stages of development in the course of the centuries. From hieroglyphics evolved an Egyptian cursive handwriting known as hieratic; and from hieratic, a simplified script called demotic, in which was recorded the form of the Egyptian language also called demotic. Egyptian hieroglyphics and the styles of writing derived from them are associated with pagan civilization. Their extinction followed the victory of Christianity over the pagan religions. Some scholars regard Coptic as a fifth period of ancient Egyptian, although others classify it as a different language descended from the ancient tongue. If Coptic, which is written in a modified version of the Greek alphabet, is considered a continuation of the Egyptian language, a written record of the latter may be said to cover an unbroken span of at least 40 centuries, the longest such record known for a language.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright (c) 1994, 2000, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
Beja
Many scholars believe the Beja to be derived from early Egyptians because of their language and physical features. They are the indigenous people of this area, and we first know of them in historical references in the Sixth Dynasty of ancient Egypt.
The Beja people are an ancient Cushitic people closely kin to the ancient Egyptians, who have lived in the desert between the Nile river and the Red Sea since at least 25000 BC.
See Seligman, C. G. Races of Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978
Oromo or Galla
Hamitic pastoral tribes who live in W and S Ethiopia and part of Kenya. They number about 20 million and are largely Muslim. Originally from N Somalia, they later migrated to the region of Lake Turkana (Lake Rudolf). In the mid-16th cent. they began to move into the Ethiopian highlands. Never a united group, they were not a serious threat to the Ethiopian state. Their raids, however, were a considerable nuisance, and they were able to establish small states in many areas nominally controlled by the Ethiopian emperor. They were used as mercenary soldiers by the Ethiopians.
See G. W. B. Huntingford, The Galla of Ethiopia (1955, repr. 1969); H. S. Lewis, A Galla Monarchy (1965).
Somali
The vast majority of the republic's population is Somali; they speak a Cushitic language and are Sunni Muslims. They are divided into five principal clans and many sub clans. Somali formed part of the Egyptian ancestral homeland of Punt.
The Land of Punt (Cradle of the Egyptian race)
-Pounit; pwonit : "country of the first existence"
-Punt, ancient land S of Egypt accessible by way of the Red Sea. Its
exact location has not been identified, but it probably included the Somali
coast. Temple reliefs at Deir el Bahari in W Thebes depict an Egyptian
expedition to Punt in the reign of Hatshepsut.
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Edition 6, 2000 p31655.
-Punt, the original home of the gods...
-after inspecting the results of her (Hatshepsut) expedition, the queen
immediately presented a portion of them to Amon, together with the impost of Nubia, with which Punt was always classed.
J.H. Breasted, A History Of Egypt, Part 1, pp274-277
-the Puntites, who are pictured as a long-haired Hamitic people, closely resembling the Egyptians.
Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: TheGale Group. 2003.
Afar
1. a member of a nomadic Muslim people living in Eritrea, Djibouti, and northern Ethiopia.
2. the Northern Cushitic language spoken by the Afars. Also called Danakil.
Masai
The famous people of East Africa (Kenya and Tanzania) .
Watutsi
"Genesis of the Pharaohs"
Review of "Genesis of the Pharaohs" by Toby Wilkinson - Thames & Hudson press:
"Generations of scholars, tourists and armchair travellers have been intrigued by the puzzle of ancient Egypt's origins(1). Now, in the light of Toby Wilkinson's dramatic new discoveries, the genesis of the pharaohs is at last coming into focus. But the picture that emerges is not what we imagined. The ancestors of the pyramid-builders were not village-dwelling farmers, but wandering cattle-herders, and pharaonic civilization was forged in one of the most forbidding places on Earth: the Eastern Desert, between the Nile Valley and the Red Sea(2). Here, the pharaohs' distant ancestors left a stunning legacy that has remained hidden for 6,000 years: hundreds of intricate rock carvings in which the origins of later pharaonic imagery is clearly discernible. Toby Wilkinson traces the discovery of these ancient records, dates them, and identifies the artists who made them, basing his own discoveries in the heart of the Eastern Desert."
(1) Just as the European explorers could have saved a lot of time and effort in their search for the source of the Nile by simply asking the people who lived in Africa, Ancient Egypt's origins have never really been a "puzzle." All one needed to do was to ask them! (2) Ancient Egyptian records and traditions are completely clear on this issue. The most likely reason for this refusal, aside from arrogance, was that the evidence from the very people in question did not fit into their own preconceptions or wish fulfillment.
