UNESCO Ancient Civilizations of Africa (Editor G. Mokhtar)

Egypt's relations with the rest of Africa
of the Nile, and to Ethiopia with its wealth of ivory. Southwards a major
obstacle would probably have been the extensive marshlands which the
Egyptians would have found difficult to reach or cross, and which
throughout antiquity protected the secret of the very high Nile valleys.
Although we can today follow the history of Egypt's northern relations and
of the portages between the Red Sea and the Nile fairly easily, archaeological
data concerning the ancient Egyptians' land-ward relations with the
distant south are sadly lacking.
Therefore, for the time being we have to resort to more or less probable
suppositions, based on texts, linguistics, ethnology or simply common
sense. But the history of Egypt has been considered for so long by the
Egyptologists themselves as Mediterranean and white that it is now
necessary to change research techniques and materials, and especially the
research workers' mentality in order to replace the land of the Pharaohs in
its African context.
Southern neighbours: the Egyptians, the upper Nile basins,
their links with Africa
The most recent archaeological excavations, the findings of which are often
as yet unpublished, highlight similarities between the Khartoum area and
the lower Nile valley in the Neolithic age; similarities which are very difficult
to explain.
With the Old Kingdom, however, this apparent similarity ceased to exist.
Already in the first dynasty forts protected the south of Egypt against its
southern neighbours. More and more, throughout their long common history,
political and cultural differences and conflicting interests separated the
territories north of the First Cataract from those that lie south of the Fourth
Cataract. Nevertheless, relations, which were complex and diverse, were
never completely broken off between the Egyptians and their southern
neighbours whom they called the Nehesi.
At all events, Lower Nubia interested the Egyptians on account of the
gold it produced, and the more southerly Nilotic regions because of the
routes leading to the African interior by the White Nile, the Saharan
valleys or Darfur. Throughout the history of Egypt, access to the south
was a predominant concern. This probably also explains the importance
attributed to the control of the western oases, another access route
parallel to the Nile.
From the beginning of the Old Kingdom, the Sudan, like Libya,
represented for the Egyptians a source of manpower, 14 livestock and
14. Pharaoh Snefru stated that he had brought back 7000 men from the south, from
a land called Ta-Seti. Seti = archaic type of bow. A. H. Gardiner, 1950, p. 512. Ta-Seti =
Land of those who carry the Seti bow. It is interesting to note that all the Sudanese tribes
up to the Congo basin carry this same bow.
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