Scholar Advocates Establishment Of Institute Of Ancient African Studies

A lecturer with the Department of English and Literary Studies, Federal University of Lafia (FULAFIA), Mallam Al-Bishak, wants the establishment of the Institute of Ancient African Studies in Nigeria for the preservation and reconstruction of what he called “distorted rich African histories”.

Al-Bishak, a professor of African literature with specialisation in Egyptology, said the institute would serve as the centre for the storage of ancient African discoveries and histories. He told THE WHISTLER, Sunday, that he made the proposal to FULAFIA during the university’s 44th inaugural lecture, which he delivered.

He said, “One of the recommendations during the inaugural lecture is the establishment of the Institute of Ancient African Studies at FULAFIA so that the university will have a museum and archives of ancient African materials. If my university establishes this institute, it will preserve emerging African histories. It will also bring a lot of glory to Nasarawa State. People will be coming. The governor has made everything easier with the building of access facilities. The centre will generate revenue. We don’t have anything devoted to ancient African histories in Nigeria. If the university establishes it, I will donate a lot. If I die, what use are all my ancient African historical collections? If they are there in the archives, people will learn from them.”

Prof Al-Bishak said his studies about Egyptology reveal that education began from Black Egyptians, who were later conquered by Europeans and Arabs.

In his words, “I came across Egyptology by accident. As a secondary school student, I had a passion for reading. I lived with my parents in Kaduna, and frequented the Kaduna State Library. One day I was strolling in the library looking for any book of interest to read when my eyes fell on Africa Before They Came by Gabriel Welch. I asked myself who could ‘they’ refer to, and how did Africa live before ‘they’ came? I read the blurb, and was quite fascinated. So I grabbed the book, and read it. I was shocked by the positive things written about Africa which contradicted the negative things said about Africa.

“Then when I worked with the Daily Times of Nigeria newspaper in Lagos, I also saw in its library a book, The Splendor That Was Egypt, by Margaret A. Murray, which corroborated Welch’s book in greater detail. From there, I began to research into the history of ancient Egypt and Africa as a whole. That was how I developed my interest in Egyptology, and wrote both my Master’s and doctorate degree theses on some literary aspects of Egyptology. Eventually I travelled to Egypt twice to see things for myself.”

He said the conquered Black Egypt, called Khemet, had modern clothes, shoes, beds, mirrors, factories producing alcoholic drinks and water clocks. In his words, “The concept of 60 seconds making a minute; 60 minutes making an hour started from Black Egyptians. What we have today is just a modernisation of those things. These existed over 5,000 years before Christ. Aristotle, Plato, Socrates and their likes went to school in Egypt. Black people should believe in themselves, and should reject false histories about Africa.”

Watch out for Prof Al-Bishak’s full interview in THE WHISTLER