Evidence of Igbo Presence in the Ancient Egyptian Society - Onyeji Nnaji

The most contribution this research work has to African readers is its unmentionable attempts to reconstruct African history by tracing the genesis of the world as well as Africa from various perspectives. As the passage way to the western part of this world, the survivor of the flood had the Sahara planes as their uninterrupted route out of Igbo land, many stopped in Egypt to form a population there. 

Egyptian Words of Igbo Origin

Igbo popularized the language of ancient Egyptian because it was, by the explanation above, the foundational language of the founding fathers. A later crusade was occasioned by the civilizer who also went to Egypt with the prevailing culture in the east. To this end, Egyptian words with Igbo sounds and meanings are numerous. Citable among them are in the table below:

Egypt words	Meaning	Igbo	Meaning
Tuf	To throw away.	Tufuo	To throw away.
Akhu	Fire or light	Oku	Fire or light
Aru	Body or form	Aru	Body
Ba	Heart	Obi	Heart
Egypt	Black soil	Ojikputu (Orlu dialect)	Pitch black
(h)ike	Power or strength	Ike	Power or strength
Xut (pronounced kut)	Sunrise	Kutee (Igbo Nkanu)	To wake or rise
Sa	To shine	Sa/saa	To shine
Satu	Shine down	Satuo (Orlu dialect)	Shine down
Tua	Praise or glorify	Tuo/too	Praise or glorify
Xerkert (pronouncedkirkir)	Pieces	Kirikiri	Pieces
Huru	The day dawns	Horo (Orlu dialect)	The day dawns
Musi/mose/msi,	To give birth	Mmusi	To give birth to many children
Miri	Water	Miri	Water

It was amazing to read Diop Anta’s best seller book, African Origin of Civilization (P.184),pointing out that Egyptian word for water isMiri. As mentioned on the table above, fire was called Ahku in Egypt. Akhu is also the sacred vernacular name for the Giza Pyramid. Its native Igbo related name tries to suggest that an Igbo-speaking team of ancient engineers possibly constructed it. Of course, the mystery in the Giza pyramid lies on its reference to Ra“sun-god”. This paper suggests that the architect who may have masterminded the issues of the pyramids in Egypt must have been metaphysics of the sun mystery. If this is true about the pyramids in Egypt, we may associate these mystic views to the highest contributor of the Egyptian metaphysical books collectively entitled the Egyptian Book of the Dead, Ani. Ani wrote virtually all the mystic information about the sun, both as a body and as a venerable concept. The Egyptian Book of the Dead even associates Ra to Ani; he was called Osiri Ani.  It is indicative from this point that Ani is duly Igbo. Ani was described in the Egyptian records thus:

The papyrus of Ani is undated, and no facts are given in it concerning the life of Ani, whereby it would be possible to fix its exact place in the series of the illustrated papyri of the Theban period to which it belongs. His full titles are:--

suten in maa an hesb hetep neter en neteru nebu (Royal scribe veritable, scribe and accountant of the divine offerings of all the gods.)

mer tenti en nebu Abtu an hetep neter en (The governor of the granary of the lords of Abydos, scribe of the divine offerings  of) nebu Uast. (the lords of Thebes);

… He is said to be "beloved of the lord of the North and South" and to “love him”. The name of the king thus referred to cannot be stated. That Ani's rank of “royal scribe” [2] was not titular only is shown by the addition of the word “veritable,” and his office of scribe and accountant of all the gods was probably one of the highest which a scribe could hold.[3] His other offices of “governor of the granary of the lords of Abydos,” and “scribe of the sacred property of the lords of Thebes,” further prove his rank and importance, for Abydos and Thebes were the most ancient and sacred cities of Egypt.(Book of the Dead, 120).

The Egyptian word ‘gods’ is NTR or Neter. It means “Guardian or Watch person”. This word was originally derived from the semantic corroboration of the acts of the gods. The role of the gods is primarily the service of a guardian. The Igbo have the equivalent of this word in the connotation of the same actions, role or duty/function. Its Igbo equivalent isOnetara/neta. The meaning is the same; “He who guards and watches” or “to watch” over a thing on behalf of someone else. The Igbo idea is more explicit, for it shows that these lesser gods are answerable to a Higher Being, the Almighty God. The highest and oldest of the known gods of Egypt was Ptah. He was the father of all the other gods. His name, Ptah, means in Egyptian, “He who fashions things by carving and opening up”. 

The Igbo form of this word is Okpu-atu;meaning “He who moulds/fashions things by carving and opening up”. Igbo word tuo/atumeans both the same thing, “to carve and to open a hole”. Researches reveal that Ptah’s rule over Egypt began as early as 21,000 BC. If his name and the collective name for the gods of Egypt, Neter, were Igbo in origin, it implies that an ancient civilization of Igbo extraction existed in West Africa, where the gods ruled, (not particularly men) by a time far beyond 22,000 BC. Then, it is apparent that Egypt was an originally Igbo-speaking civilization and that early Egyptians were Igbo. These linguistic pieces of evidence suggest that the earliest Egyptian civilization (at the time when the gods ruled Egypt) before the advent of Pharaohnic rule; in 3,100 BC. You could imagine that Ptah’s son was called Ra, meaning ‘Sun/Daylight’. Its Igbo equivalent in Afa (the cult language of Igbo native priests) is still Ra which means ‘Sun/Daylight’.

The grandson of Ra was called Osiris by the Greeks and Asar by the Egyptians. Osiris was associated with the number “seven”. This same view is given recognition by the Igbo among whom Asaa means “seven”. Osiris is associated with horrific cosmic energy (seven). In the Igbo geometry, the number “seven” is associated with the highest cosmic energy. From Nnaji’s detailed explanation of this meaning of the mystic number (seven) in the Igbo cosmology, we shall cite a little to broaden our understanding of the term.

The Igbo have various esoteric ideas associated with the figure seven. Seven is usually the climax of some mystic activities that are connected to energy and forces. Some folktales recognized this mystery of seven.

Seven means the climax of power. It marks the completion of a revolutionary cycle in different mystic schools. It identifies the realm (position) where the highest power lies and a height almost unattainable. One of the ancient Igbo proverbs says thus, aria ugwu asa, erie nri asa, when one climbs seven hills (seven mystic heights), he eats seven food (attains higher state of consciousness). From ancient time, the Igbo associated the terminal height or mystic realms with the number seven. To become a member of Ndi Ichie in Agulu, the undertakers are made to chew seven seeds of Ose Nshi (Alligator pepper) to be launched into the spirit of the ancestors.        Except the seeds are up to seven, he would not see aught. (Aspects, 149, 152)

Egypt’s most ancient god is called Amun/Amen/Ammun. He is a god residing under the earth; an abode known to ancient Egypt as Aemnta. The name of this god implies “Hidden inside the bowels of Earth”. According to Martin Bernal the word Amen is derived fromimn which is pronounced Amana. These two words have Igbo origins. Igbo equivalent of imnis ime ana, and means “inside the earth”, whileamana is equally an Igbo word referring to the Earth religion, further supporting an originally Igbo-based Egyptian religion and civilization. It means original, main, integral or son of the soil.  Egyptian borrowings from Igbo are in two groups: words borrowed from Orlu/Okigwe dialectal family are far older in chronological time than those borrowed from the Anambra dialectal family or Nsukka. The reason for their chronological order might be because Orlu/Okigwe are held by Igbo historians to belong to the autochthonous (non-migrant descendants of Homo erectus) group. This implies that the earliest roots of Egyptian civilization, when the gods and not men ruled Egypt, began among the autochthons of Igbo land, but did not end there. Latter-day migrant Igbo priest-kings continued to exert influences in Pharaohnic Egyptian civilization as shall be clarified in other papers.

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