WHY EGYPT BECAME THE CENTRE OF AFRICA'S CIVILIZATION

          Ancient Egypt is one of the most popular civilizations in Africa, it is also among the most recognised in the world. Egypt's great antiquity is an indisputable truth, however, it is interesting to note that its antiquity existed in another African state that may have been more powerful. The question of how Egypt came to dominate the historical narrative of Civilization will be discussed. Egypt and Nubia are said to possess the first significant states in all of Africa. For instance, the Nile Valley had early states before any other region of Africa. Scholar Christopher Ehret proposes that the early states arose in Egypt and Nubia before anywhere else because of population density. The fertility of the Nile attracted many groups of early Africans and as the population increased so did the idea of Statehood. Egypt is usually referred to as the "Golden Child of Africa" non-objectively, Egypt is the most well-known and well-respected civilization in human history. Unfortunately, due to Egypt's popularity, it is assumed that it started civilization, however upon considering a historical perspective it was discovered that the region of Northern Nubia predated Egypt and was also more powerful.  

        The Nubian State was known as Ta-seti. Christopher Ehret writes, "For a while between 3400- 3200 BCE the most powerful of the small states may have been Ta-seti, actually located in the Northern Nubia stretches of the Nile just south of Egypt, the pictorial documents left by its kings reveal Ta-Seti's claim to having conquered and ruled over Upper Egypt for a time... imported items as far north as the Syria-Palestine region turn up in the grave goods of rulers. At the same time, Ta-Seti appears to have formed the Northern outlier of the middle Nile Basin culture of Sudanic civilization." Ta-Seti seemed to have dominion in Northern Nubia and Southern Egypt. The Sudanic culture was quite influential in the Egyptian civilization. According to Scholar Christopher Ehret, the Nubian introduced into Egypt the concept of kingship itself, "The sacral Chiefs of the Middle Nile Basin culture area(Sudanic) became the divine kings of Egypt, who as late as the start of the Third Dynasty still required actual human beings to be sent along with them into the afterlife." Based on this historical detail it can be deduced that the Nubian states were eventually overshadowed by the Egyptian states, this was because Ta-Seti's power began to wane and the Egyptian population density began to increase. The balance of power had shifted to the rulers of Upper Egypt with its suitable areas for farming and much greater concentrations of population. Christopher Ehret writes that there have been multiple reasons for Ta-Seti's decline and Upper Egypt's rise. Yuval Noah Harari in his book called Sapiens speaks about a concept called the imaginative order, he says that early humans were initially in small groups but to cooperate in larger groups they had to invent what was known as an imaginative order. 

      The two reasons why Upper Egypt became the principal civilization along the Nile are less cultural and linguistic diversity and the fact that Egypt was able to create a convincing imaginative order. In ancient times writers from Greece and Rome noted the diversity among Nubian people, in the literature they were known as Ethiopians. Hence over time, it became extremely difficult for Ta-Seti to maintain dominance in Nubia because of Nubian diversity. It would take greater effort and more resources to maintain multiple linguistic or cultural communities under one political or religious authority. One Egyptian scholar, Gamal Mokhtar says, "In Nubia, we have a population that at the dawn of history possessed a material culture equal, if not superior to that of Upper Egypt, but the population was divided into smaller groups spaced farther apart. Those groups were more independent and more mobile because stock-raising required frequent moves and played an important part in the economy as did agriculture which was very limited in a valley narrower than in Egypt." This is not to imply that Egypt did not have diversity, but perhaps because Upper Egypt had a better farming condition and produced more resources, they outperformed the Nubians. 

       The availability of food in Upper Egypt enhanced population influx and security. The increased population in Upper Egypt created a more convincing imaginative order which enhanced its unification. Also, the Egyptian writing form was a manifestation of the imaginative order that binds the people together.