15/07/2020 Whitewashing Black History 

| New Orleans' Multicultural News Source | The Louisiana Weekly

Whitewashing Black History

By Edmund W. Lewis
Editor

It’s been said often that we should all be very careful about what we wish for. I thought about that after
seeing the television commercial for the film “Gods of Egypt,” which tells that story of the epic battle
between good and evil in ancient Kemet (Egypt).

It is a story that African-centered scholars know all too well about a clash between Osiris and his brother Set,
upon whom the figure Satan is based. Osiris, whose Kemetic name is Auser, was part of ancient Kemet’s
Holy Trinity that included the goddess Isis (Auset) and the son Horus (Heru). Set murders his brother and
scatters Osiris’ remains throughout the land but Isis gathers those remains and resurrects Osiris.

The story of Isis’ virgin birth of Horus predates the immaculate conception of Jesus Christ by thousands of
years, just as the story of the son of the god Osiris avenging his father’s betrayal predates the Biblical story
of Jesus defeating Satan.

It is important to note that the story of Isis and Osiris is a story conceived by Black people in Kemet who
conceived of gods in their own image. The names of Auser (Osiris), Auset (Isis) and Heru (Horus) were
changed by the Greeks, just as they changed the name Kemet to Egypt. This is part of the “rename it and
claim it” syndrome that led to Africa going from being called the Light of the World to being described by
Western scholars as the Dark Continent.

Those same Western scholars continue to deny that Egypt is even part of the African continent. The reason is
simple: The ancient Greeks were greatly influenced by the people of ancient Kemet and Greece is widely
viewed as the bedrock of Western civilization.

In the new film “Gods of Egypt,” all of the main characters are white, despite the archaeological evidence
and art of ancient Kemet. From the television ad, the film looks more like a remake of “Clash of the Titans,”
“Hercules” or “Troy” than it does an accurate interpretation, which explains why the late Asa Hilliard once
said that much of what we are taught about history is more hysterical than it is historical.

According to the website http://www.laits.utexas.edu/cairo/teachers/osiris.pdf this is how the story goes:

From Geb, the sky god, and Nut, the earth goddess came four children: Osiris, Isis, Set and Nepthys. Osiris
was the oldest and so became king of Egypt, and he married his sister Isis. Osiris was a good king and
commanded the respect of all who lived on the earth and the gods who dwelled in the netherworld.

However, Set was always jealous of Osiris, because he did not command the respect of those on earth or
those in the netherworld. One day, Set transformed himself into a vicious monster and attacked Osiris, killing
him. Set then cut Osiris into pieces and distributed them throughout the length and breadth of Egypt.

With Osiris dead, Set became king of Egypt, with his sister Nepthys as his wife. Nepthys, however, felt sorry
for her sister Isis, who wept endlessly over her lost husband. Isis, who had great magical powers, decided to
find her husband and bring him back to life long enough so that they could have a child. Together with
Nepthys, Isis roamed the country, collecting the pieces of her husband’s body and reassembling them. Once
she completed this task, she breathed the breath of life into his body and resurrected him. They were together
again, and Isis became pregnant soon after. Osiris was able to descend into the underworld, where he became
the lord of that domain.

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15/07/2020 Whitewashing Black History | New Orleans' Multicultural News Source | The Louisiana Weekly

The child born to Isis was named Horus, the hawk-god. When he became an adult, Horus decided to make a
case before the court of gods that he, not Set, was the rightful king of Egypt. A long period of argument
followed, and Set challenged Horus to a contest. The winner would become king.

Set, however, did not play fair. After several matches in which Set cheated and was the victor, Horus’
mother, Isis, decided to help her son and set a trap for Set. She snared him, but Set begged for his life, and
Isis let him go. When he found out that she had let his enemy live, Horus became angry with his mother, and
rages against her, earning him the contempt of the other gods. They decided that there would be one more
match, and Set would get to choose what it would be.

Set decided that the final round of the contest would be a boat race. However, in order to make the contest a
challenge, Set decided that he and Horus should race boats made of stone. Horus was tricky and built a boat
made of wood, covered with limestone plaster, which looked like stone. As the gods assembled for the race,
Set cut the top off of a mountain to serve as his boat and set it in the water. His boat sank right away, and all
the other gods laughed at him. Angry, Set transformed himself into a hippopotamus and attacked Horus’
boat. Horus fought off Set, but the other gods stopped him before he could kill Set. The other gods decided
that the match was a tie. Many of the gods were sympathetic to Horus, but remembered his anger toward his
mother for being lenient to Set, and were unwilling to support him completely.

The gods who formed the court decided to write a letter to Osiris and ask for his advice. Osiris responded
with a definite answer: his son is the rightful king, and should be placed upon the throne. No one, said Osiris,
should take the throne of Egypt through an act of murder, as Set had done. Set had killed Osiris, but Horus
did not killed anyone, and was the better candidate. The sun and the stars, who were Osiris’ allies, descended
into the underworld, leaving the world in darkness. Finally, the gods agreed that Horus should claim his
birthright as king of Egypt.

This isn’t the first time — nor will it be the last time — that someone outside of our community presented a
distorted version of our history. We saw this on the silver screen with the film “The Mummy,” which
presented Imhotep as some evil, adulterous villain hell-bent on destroying the world. Imhotep was a multi-
discipline genius who served Kemet during the reign of Pharoh Djoser (2630 B.C. – 2611 B.C.), the second
king of Egypt’s Third Dynasty.

It was Imhotep who was the true Father of Medicine, not the Greek figure Hippocrates. Imhotep was the first
physician in recorded history, a medical processor and founded a school of medicine in Memphis some 2,200
years before Hippocrates was born. Imhotep was also a sage, poet, sculptor, administrator, master builder and
architect who built the Step Pyramid. Some 2,600 years before the birth of Jesus Christ, Imhotp was referred
to as the “Prince of Peace.”

We saw it when Elizabeth Taylor was cast in the role of the Egyptian queen Cleopatra and we saw too when a
white woman was cast in the role of Isis on a Saturday morning television show in the 1970s.

In case you’re wondering why Egypt’s many of Egypt’s inhabitants don’t look Black today, consider how
many times Egypt was invaded and occupied by Romans, Greeks, Arabs and other peoples. Think about how
the “discovery” and invasion of what is now the United States changed the racial composition of this part of
what is now called North America. The indigenous people of this land have been almost completely widened
out by “Manifest Destiny,” white supremacy and genocidal governmental policies. Also, keep in mind that
there are still pockets of Blackness in Egypt in areas like Aswan that have not been wiped out by ancient
gentrification.

“Gods of Egypt” and other films like it underscore the need for Black History Month. It is imperative that we
tell our own stories and support filmmakers and scholars that present an African-centered worldview of our
history and culture.

It is the absolute height of cultural disrespect for Western scholars and filmmakers to do everything in their
power to push our beloved ancestors of ancient Kemet out of history.

It is up to us to make sure that it doesn’t happen.

While boycotting “Gods of Egypt” is a nice place to start, it is not enough.

We must do much more.

We can start by reading articles, essays and books by African-centered scholars and warriors like Chancellor
Williams, Cheikh Anta Diop, John Henrik Clarke, Dr. Frances Cress Welsing, Molefi Kete Asante, Maulana
Karenga, Yosef ben Jochanan, George G.M. James, Patricia Newton, Leonard Jeffries, Prof. James Small,
Asa Hilliard, Marinba Ali, Ivan Van Sertima and Dr. Charles Finch.

The enduring truths contained in these writings and teachings will exist long after we have departed this life
and will forever possess the power to set us free. All we have to do is open our minds and spirits to these
liberating, life-affirming truths and share them with everyone we know.

We owe that to our Beloved Ancestors, to ourselves and to generations yet to come.

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