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• Runoko Rashidi, William Leo Hansberry: Pioneer Africanist Scholar (1894-1965)
• Mathu Ater, The Pyramid Builders of Ancient Kemet

William Leo Hansberry

Professor William Leo Hansberry-- one of the most distinguished and determined Africanist scholars of the twentieth century, was born in Gloster, Mississippi on 25 February 1894. He attended Atlanta University in 1916 where he came under the Influence of Dr. William Edward Burghardt DuBois (1868 - 1963). In 1917, Hansberry transferred to Harvard University, where he received his BA degree in 1921 and MA degree in 1932. Hansberry conducted research at the University of Chicago in 1936, Oxford University In 1937 and 1938 and the University of Cairo in 1953 and 1954.

After teaching for a year at Straight College in New Orleans, in September 1922, Hansberry joined the faculty of Howard University where he taught courses on African civilizations and cultures until his retirement in June 1959. In 1922, Professor Hansberry Initiated the African Civilization Section of the Howard University History Department. In June 1925, he organized and coordinated a major symposium and exhibition held at Howard, where twenty-eight scholarly papers were presented by his students--sixteen of which were women.

In August 1927, Hansberry spoke at the Fourth Pan-African Conference in New York on the topic of archaeological research in Africa and its significance for African people. In 1934, he helped organize the Ethiopian Research Council. The aims of this council were to "Stimulate interest in Ethiopia's efforts to resist the Italian invasion, and to disseminate information on Ethiopian history, ancient and modern. Correspondents were located in London, Paris, Rome and Addis Ababa; affiliates were listed in Ethiopia, France, and Panama, in addition to Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia."

During the mid- 1950's, Hansberiy engaged in field research in Ethiopia, Egypt, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Zaire, Ghana, and Nigeria. He also visited Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, and Liberia. In 1955, for the Journal of Negro Education, he reviewed George G.M. James' classic--Stolen Legacy. In 1955 and 1956, for the Washington Post and Africa Today, he reviewed Ghanaian scholar J.C. deGraft-Johnson's African Glory: The Story of Vanished Negro Civilizations. Although, Hanaberry produced a number of Impressive written works, It is highly unfortunate that his own magnum opus, The Rise and Decline of the Ethiopian Empire, was never published, although, both Kwame Nkrumah and Noamdi Azikiwe invited him to publish the work In Africa.

Hansberry was slighted and snubbed for much of his life, not only by white academia, but by many of his Black academic colleagues, as well. One of his greatest consolations though, was the love, admiration and respect of his students. Besides Dr. Chancellor Williams, one of Hansberry's most prominent pupils, there was Noamdi Azikiwe, who became the first President of the, Federal Republic of Nigeria. Lorraine Hansberry, the brilliant African American playwright, was Hansberry's niece.

On 22 September 1963, Hansberry delivered the inaugural address at the formal opening of the Hanaberry College of African Studies at Nsukka, University of Nigeria. In 1964, he became the first recipient of the African Research Award from the Haile Selassle I Prize Trust. On 3 November 1965, at the age of 71, William Leo Hansberry died of a cerebral hemorrhage. His contributions, however, live on.

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The Pyramids of Kemet (Egypt or Ta-merri) have been, since the time of their of construction, an inexhaustible subject for study and discussion. Their constructions have been attributed to everything from spacemen and men from Atlantis to badly treated Hebrew slaves. Some have even suggested that they were built from the top down, perhaps, with the first stone being laid with a sky-hook. It is perhaps incomprehensible that at such a remote time in history, when so many others lived such constricted lives, that the ancient Egyptian's were preparing a foundation for past and present civilization's. In the late 1700's a leading French intellectual, Comte de Volney wrote (Volney, 1819): "It was there that a people since forgotten, discovered the elements of science and art, at a time when all other men were barbarous, and that a race, now regarded as the refuse of society, because their hair is woolly, and their skin is dark, explored among the phenomena of nature, those civil and religious systems which have since held mankind in awe".

Volney was no crackpot but was very highly regarded in the streets of Paris. Moreover, his reputation swelled to such international proportions that he was enthusiastically invited to visit the America's in June of 1796. There he stayed with Jefferson at Monticello for three weeks. An abolitionist at heart, Volney, was very disappointed in Jefferson's use of Slaves and, perhaps as a way of scolding him, gave Jefferson a copy of his book (Les Ruines; ou, Meditations sur les revolutions des empires) written in 1791 and containing the above quotation. That Jefferson was extremely interested in Egypt, we know from a letter written to him by an American visiting Alexandria and Cairo, John Ledyard (Wilson, 1964). Ledyard was about to embark upon a trip up the Nile as far as Sennar (south of Khartum) and from there his intent was to cross Africa in pursuit of the Niger. Upon reaching the Niger, he was to ambitiously travel the river all the way to the Atlantic. He never made the trip. Within a few days of writing the letter to Jefferson Ledyard apparently died from dysentery. Jefferson first meet Ledyard in Paris and Paris was the place where Free Mason's and intellectuals never tired of speculating on Ancient Egypt. No where is this more apparent than in Mozart's play, The Magic Flute.

The plays libretto, arguably, has to do with the superiority of the age of enlightenment over that of the Church and superstition (Chailley, 1992). On the one hand we have Sarastro, the Egyptian priest who is symbolic of the sun, man, and the enlightenment, and on the other, we have The Queen of the Night - the dialectic of order, the moon, that which is feminine, emotions, and The Church. This is a very Egyptian theme where the consistent Sun (RA) is the establisher of order, expelling darkness and Chaos every morning (those things which are ruled by an unstable and forever changing moon). For the Free Masons these two opposing principles are represented by the pillars Jakin (Osiris, that which is Masculine, the Sun, Fire, etc.) and Booz (Isis, the Feminine, the Moon, Water, etc.). These enlightened men of the Jefferson era saw themselves as the vanguard of superior ancient traditions and it was reflected in their works. With Franklin we see it in his alchemy, for Paine it comes across in his The Age of Reason, for Mozart The Magic Flute, with Volney it is in his Ruins and for Jefferson it is in his creation of The Jefferson Bible (Jefferson, 1989). Here Jefferson removed the mystical accounts of Jesus birth and death and placed him, not in the role of the divinely inspired, but rather, in the role of a Philosopher and great moral reformer. It is perhaps safe to say that all of the interest in Ancient Kemet on behalf of these enlightened reformers, all of the speculations, the travels and the plays, the questions of who built this civilization and why, have been inspired by one thing more than anything else, The Pyramids of Kemet.

That the Pyramids were built by slave labor is something that, up until recently, most of us have taken for granted. Today modern scholars led by the work of Zahi Hawass and others, lately (Black scholars have been saying this for Years), are now challenging some of the older paradigms and models, replacing them with those based on improved science, reason, and detailed fieldwork. During a recent seminar at UCLA (Pyramid Builders of Ancient Egypt) on August 31, 1999 one lady sounded off her disbelief that the pyramids could have been constructed in the name of national pride. She seemed completely at variance with the whole notion. Most of us have come to think this way based on what we have seen on television and from the teachings of the theologians of the worlds three dominant faiths (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam).

The heart of the problem seems to be that theologians can't seem to stay within Biblical chronology itself. Because of the enormity and popularity of the pyramids they seem unable to avoid claming them in order to score points for the faith. The Biblical account states that Joseph, while in the favor of the Pharaoh, gave his father and brethren the best property in the land of Rameses (Genesis 47:11) Again Hebrew slaves are said to have built the treasure cities of Pithom and Raamses in The Book of Exodus (Exodus 1:11). Biblical passages like these are responsible for launching a whole series of movies targeting Ramesses II of the 19th Dynasty as the Pharaoh of the oppression. Although there were two Ramesses in the 19th and no less than nine in the 20th, for some unaccountable reason, Ramesses II has had the misfortune of being tagged the Pharaoh of the oppression.

The problem with naming Ramesses II as the oppressor is that his immediate successor Marneptah has left an account of a military campaign against Israel (Redford, 1992). This of course would mean that Israel at this time is already an established foe, and by default; there is no time for all the wondering in the desert and all the other intermediary events that took place prior to the founding of Israel. This has sent some theologians scrambling to find another oppressor, Tuthmosis III. Without going after this another step let me say that whether you use Ramesses II or Tuthmosis III, if one were to reasonably follow the events of Bible chronology, it would make it impossible for Hebrew slaves to have had anything to do with building the Great Pyramid or its relatives.

By taking a fairly common date of about the year 1224 BCE as the last year in the reign of Ramesses II and adding 430 years (the number of years promised to Abraham for the oppression) years to it we get about 1650 BCE for an approximate date for the beginning of the oppression. This would place us somewhere between the end of the 13th and the beginning of the 15th Egyptian Dynasty. Again, a date using Thutmosis III at 1425 BCE + 430 years = 1855 BCE. This would land us in the 12th Dynasty around the time of Senwosret III or Amenemhet III. The third and last of the great Giza plateau pyramids was built under the reign of Menkaure 2490-2472 BCE. Using the more generous date of Thutmosis III we have 2472 BCE - 1855 BCE = 617 yrs. That is, the construction of the Great Pyramid (Khufu) and its relatives (Khephren and Menkaure) were constructed over six hundred years before the covenant with Abraham. Admittedly the above calculations were done somewhat loosely but even if we give a tolerance of 200 years either way these structures are safe by over 400 years. In fact, the most recent evidence on the subject points to a more peaceful explanation for the construction of the Pyramids, national pride.

As mentioned above, on August 19, 1999 at The University of California at Los Angeles, to the dismay of a few members of the listening audience, one speaker after the other seemed to echo the same message, native Egyptians, and not slaves built the Pyramids of Egypt. No spacemen, no Atlantians, no mental telepathy, no sky-hooks, only dedicated hard working Egyptians. The guest speakers that day where Dr. Antonio Loprieno (Professor of Egyptology and Chair, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, UCLA), Dr. Zahi Hawass (Director General, Giza Plateau and Saqqara Site, Egyptian Antiquities Organization), Dr. Craig B. Smith (President, Holmes & Narver, inc., architectural engineering firm), and Dr. Stuart T. Smith (Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, UCSB) all of whom voiced no exception to National pride being the reason for building pyramids. Dr. Smith, the engineer, likened the pride to the kind America felt for the Apollo Space program. He described how his investigations led him to believe the Egyptians had a program management system similar to that of modern construction firms. He went on to discuss accomplishments such as the ramping technique used in the actual construction of the pyramids and the cubit, which the Romans borrowed, and how it became the bases for our present system of measurement.

Dr. Antonio Loprieno addressed the kingship, the king as the one whom established order and thus became the center of focus in the first three dynasties. He illustrated his view of how, as the symbols of the society and the role of the individual became more defined, the king emerged as more of a divinity figure. This is a factor in the popularity of the king, a factor than allows for the mobilization of the people, materials, and the will to build pyramids. Dr. Smith of UCSB, who has served as a consultant on a number of Hollywood projects, including the remake of The Mummy and Star Gate before it, also discussed the changes in the kingship and how the civilizations view of the king changed as the prospect for an afterlife was also extended to individual Egyptians. Smith went on to show how pyramid building continued in Nubia for a considerable time after they ceased building them in Egypt.

The keeper of the Pyramids is the title given to Dr. Zahi Hawass in an August 1999 article in Discovering Archeology magazine and at UCLA on the 19th he was perhaps the most emphatic on the point that common Egyptians, not slaves, were responsible for Egypt's pyramids. He let it be known, in no uncertain terms, that the process was not unlike a public works project. Like Thutmosis III laying waste to the enemies of Egypt, he was ready to let anyone have it that disagreed. His pride and voice was much larger than his actual physical stature. Dr. Hawass, added another blow to, the already mentioned, Biblical chronology by revealing that mortar, wood, and charcoal found in the pyramids proves them to be 100 to 200 year older than previously believed. Thus pushing back further the construction of the pyramid from the covenant with Abraham. From the Discovering Archeology (1999) article, while discussing a recent dig, Hawass states: "This is an excavation that will go on for 20 years. It's very important because it proves that the Egyptians were the actual builders of the pyramids. The pyramids were not built by slaves".

Hawass contends that the proximity of the tombs of the laborers to that of the kings would indicate that these hard working Egyptians were looked upon with favor by their kings. The average worker stood about 5-foot-7 to 6 feet in height and showed signs of stress on the spine due to all the hard work. The evidence seems to suggest the work on the Great Pyramid took 20,000 permanent craftsmen some 23 years to complete and, contrary to common belief, the evidence also indicates the experience may have been somewhat enjoyable. Food, bread and beer were apparently plentiful. From Hawass we have: "Every household in the north and south of Egypt used to participate in building the pyramid by sending workforce, food, and grain". He goes on: "When the pyramid was finished and they put a capstone above the pyramid, everyone danced and sang because the national project was finished."

Indeed the evidence seems to suggest that the accomplishments of the Ancient Egyptians are a great testimonial on behalf of all mankind. It was there along the banks of Nile that the people of Egypt received a gift (the black land) from heaven. In honor of this gift they gave offerings, sang praises and erected temples and altars in appreciation. In this conquest of a rich and fertile earth over a barren and intolerable desert, they saw hope for themselves in this life and the next. Buried in the sands of Egypt are the truths of a great and proud people, the pyramid builders. From them we received our system of measurement and today it is we who are in the balance. Will we measure up to the high standard of universal truth, or fail in our efforts to resist the seductions of the Queen of the night? We, mankind, are forever in debt to The Ancient Egyptians, and we owe it to them to resurrect those truths that will clear their good names!

Brodie, Fawn M. (1974). Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History. New York: Bantam Books.

Chailley, Jacques (1992). The Magic Flute Unveiled. Vermont: Inner Traditions International.

Jefferson, Thomas (1989). The Jefferson Bible. Boston: Beacon Press.

Jenkins, Siona (1999). Zahi Hawass, The Keeper of the Pyramids. Discovering Archeology, 26-31.

Redford, Donald B. (1992). Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.

Volney, C.F. (1819). The Ruins: or a Survey of the Revolutions of Empires. London: T. Davison.

Wilson, John A. (1964). Signs and Wonders upon Pharaoh. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.