0:00:00.475,0:00:28.865 ["Africa" Theme Music and water splashing] 0:00:28.865,0:00:52.103 ["Africa" Theme Music] 0:00:52.103,0:00:55.023 Just over 100 years ago, a wandering prospector, 0:00:55.023,0:00:58.401 a German by origin called Karl Mauch, searching for gold, 0:00:58.401,0:01:03.304 came through these remote hills of a long trail, 0:01:03.304,0:01:07.018 and stumbled on this. 0:01:07.018,0:01:11.078 He was the first white man ever to see it. 0:01:11.078,0:01:14.816 And what he'd found, though he didn't know, 0:01:14.816,0:01:19.185 were the largest man-made structures in any part of old Africa, 0:01:19.185,0:01:23.021 south of the valley of the Nile. 0:01:23.021,0:01:30.021 Narrator: What were these mysterious ruins found so unexpectedly in the far interior of Africa? 0:01:30.021,0:01:32.595 About the ancient history of the black peoples, 0:01:32.595,0:01:37.139 nothing was remembered in the outside world, or even known. 0:01:37.139,0:01:39.741 Today, at last, we're beginning to learn. 0:01:39.741,0:01:46.882 We know now that these great buildings stood at the heart of a powerful black kingdom. 0:01:46.882,0:01:49.747 Within these almost overwhelming walls, 0:01:49.747,0:01:52.251 the kings lived in royal seclusion. 0:01:52.251,0:01:55.771 Adding to their mystery, according to the nature of kings. 0:01:55.771,0:02:00.021 Invested with a religious, as well as a temporal power, 0:02:00.021,0:02:06.465 they were believed to embody the whole welfare of their people. 0:02:06.465,0:02:09.355 Narrator: A stone-built city in the heart of Africa. 0:02:09.355,0:02:14.022 And yet, the white people who first saw it were so blinded by their prejudices 0:02:14.022,0:02:19.315 that they could not believe the evidence of their own eyes. 0:02:19.315,0:02:23.937 Rather than face the possibility that Africans might have a history of their own, 0:02:23.937,0:02:26.987 they fabricated exotic explanations, 0:02:26.987,0:02:31.020 and imagined fantastic rites in honor of far away monarchs 0:02:31.020,0:02:35.795 like King Solomon, and the Queen of Sheba. 0:02:35.795,0:02:45.225 The famous German philosopher, Friedrich Hegel, set the tone. 0:02:45.225,0:02:48.266 Though he'd never been to Africa, and knew nothing of its people, 0:02:48.266,0:02:53.535 this was his publicly expressed opinion in 1831: 0:02:53.535,0:02:56.616 Voiceover: "This is the land where men are children. 0:02:56.616,0:03:00.644 A land lying beyond the daylight of self-conscious history, 0:03:00.644,0:03:04.781 and enveloped in the black cover of night. 0:03:04.781,0:03:07.255 At this point, let us forget Africa. 0:03:07.255,0:03:09.155 Not to mention it again. 0:03:09.155,0:03:13.425 For Africa is no historical part of the world." 0:03:13.425,0:03:19.785 Narrator: Hegel was not alone. 0:03:19.785,0:03:22.168 His views were echoed widely. 0:03:22.168,0:03:27.237 An English explorer who did know Africa, and had studied some of its customs and languages, 0:03:27.237,0:03:30.808 Richard Burton, had this to say: 0:03:30.808,0:03:35.015 Voiceover: "The study of the negro is the study of man's rudimental mind. 0:03:35.015,0:03:38.747 He would appear rather a degeneracy from the civilized man 0:03:38.747,0:03:41.186 than a savage rising to the first step, 0:03:41.186,0:03:44.784 were it not for his total incapacity for improvement. 0:03:44.784,0:03:46.949 He has not the ring of the true mettle. 0:03:46.949,0:03:50.619 There is no rich nature for education to cultivate. 0:03:50.619,0:03:56.200 He seems to belong to one of those childish races, never rising to man's estate, 0:03:56.200,0:04:02.117 who fall like worn-out links from the great chain of animated nature." 0:04:02.117,0:04:04.281 Narrator: Another famous explorer, Samuel Baker, 0:04:04.281,0:04:08.581 who passed through this very district in his search for the source of the Nile, 0:04:08.581,0:04:10.199 wrote in his memoirs: 0:04:10.199,0:04:16.990 Voiceover: "Human nature viewed in its crudest state as seen amongst African savages 0:04:16.990,0:04:19.759 is quite on the level of that of the brute, 0:04:19.759,0:04:23.727 and not to be compared with the noble character of the dog. 0:04:23.727,0:04:27.870 There is neither gratitude, pity, love, or self-denial. 0:04:27.870,0:04:31.570 No idea of duty, no religion, nothing but covetousness, 0:04:31.570,0:04:40.077 ingratitude, selfishness, and cruelty." 0:04:40.077,0:04:43.198 Narrator: In a manner which seems quite unforgivable today, 0:04:43.198,0:04:48.115 Europeans in the 18th and 19th centuries preferred to forget what their forebears 0:04:48.115,0:04:52.824 had known very well: that kingdoms flourished in West Africa, 0:04:52.824,0:05:00.952 which were as sumptuous and well governed as any in medieval Europe itself. 0:05:00.952,0:05:04.782 What is more, the reports of traders and diplomats who visited these kingdoms 0:05:04.782,0:05:09.142 assumed no attitudes of racial superiority. 0:05:09.142,0:05:18.199 Racism, in fact, is a rather modern sickness. 0:05:18.199,0:05:21.650 Nothing more clearly illustrates the change that was to come 0:05:21.650,0:05:26.032 than the European art of the renaissance, and earlier still. 0:05:26.032,0:05:32.949 [Music] 0:05:32.949,0:05:40.437 White and black take their place in these paintings with equal dignity. 0:05:40.437,0:05:47.447 There's no hint here of what a later world was to call "human nature in its crudest state". 0:05:47.447,0:05:53.531 And this acceptance of equality between black and white had also been a keynote of the middle-ages. 0:05:53.531,0:05:58.686 Among the revered saints of central Europe was the black martyr, St. Maurice. 0:05:58.686,0:06:05.693 As we shall see, he's one of the heroes of this story. 0:06:05.693,0:06:10.701 What then was the cause of this enormous change in white attitudes 0:06:10.701,0:06:12.100 from equality to racist prejudice? 0:06:12.100,0:06:17.676 History gives one dominating reply: the Atlantic trade in slaves. 0:06:17.676,0:06:23.231 Based in strong castles on the West African coast, the nations of Europe vied with each other 0:06:23.231,0:06:30.055 in the massive removal of millions of captured men and women. 0:06:30.055,0:06:31.959 Their guns were not pointed at Africa, 0:06:31.959,0:06:36.627 which was seldom regarded as a source of danger, but out to sea. 0:06:36.627,0:06:45.315 Ready to face rival ships, suddenly appearing over the horizon. 0:06:45.315,0:06:50.107 Africans, of course, have not been the only victims of racism and color prejudice. 0:06:50.107,0:06:54.879 But if, as I believe, they suffered more acutely than the other peoples of the world, 0:06:54.879,0:06:57.681 the reason lies here. 0:06:57.681,0:07:05.015 For over 300 years, this magnificent coast was the scene of organized and systematic cruelty. 0:07:11.231,0:07:14.699 Year after year, black people were dragged from their homes 0:07:14.699,0:07:18.871 into the white man's world of misery and degradation. 0:07:18.871,0:07:31.695 [Music] 0:07:31.695,0:07:34.093 They were presented as less than human. 0:07:34.093,0:07:37.167 Objects for buying and selling, like cattle. 0:07:37.167,0:07:41.905 Against whom any act of violence and debasement was justified. 0:07:44.397,0:07:51.704 Wherever the slave trade spread its ruin, the stability and fabric of African life were destroyed. 0:07:51.704,0:07:53.704 But something else was also destroyed. 0:07:53.704,0:08:03.663 And that was the mutual respect, which had previously existed between white and black. 0:08:03.663,0:08:07.907 But after all, the slave trade ended a long time ago. 0:08:07.907,0:08:09.704 Surely it's time to think again. 0:08:09.704,0:08:15.869 Those old ideas about black inferiority were completely wrong, without foundation. 0:08:15.869,0:08:21.872 As it happens, modern science has given us a vast fund of new and reliable knowledge, 0:08:21.872,0:08:26.429 which shows that the black peoples do indeed have a history of their own 0:08:26.429,0:08:35.569 as rich and strange, as long and sometimes surprising as any major branch of the human family. 0:08:35.569,0:08:43.410 0:08:43.410,0:08:47.874 Narrator: On the high plateau of Central Africa, in what is now modern Zimbabwe, 0:08:47.874,0:08:50.236 stand the Matopo hills. 0:08:50.236,0:09:00.513 0:09:00.513,0:09:03.615 Large numbers of leopards inhabit these rock formations, 0:09:03.615,0:09:08.733 which in their strange mystery and shape seem to take us back to the carvings 0:09:08.733,0:09:11.566 of ancient African history. 0:09:11.566,0:09:14.820 0:09:14.820,0:09:19.631 To the people of this region, this unearthly landscape has always been a sacred place, 0:09:19.631,0:09:26.605 and still is to this day. 0:09:26.605,0:09:38.687 Tucked away in this Matopo hills, there are messages from the very dawn of history. 0:09:38.687,0:09:41.234 This is the Inswatugi cave. 0:09:41.234,0:09:46.651 One of the many rock shelters in the Matopos that were decorated by the people who lived here 0:09:46.651,0:09:48.820 in ancient times. 0:09:48.820,0:09:57.204 0:09:57.204,0:10:02.538 These truly marvelous rock paintings were inspired by motives that we don't know. 0:10:02.538,0:10:06.566 Probably it was a variety of motives, as with all great art. 0:10:06.566,0:10:11.233 Those distant peoples who faced the wild wilderness of primeval Africa, 0:10:11.233,0:10:17.693 must surely have felt the need for psychological and spiritual reassurance, 0:10:17.693,0:10:21.093 as well as for magic to safeguard their cattle. 0:10:21.093,0:10:28.603 And their artists, so long ago, clearly loved to portray the animals they knew. 0:10:28.603,0:10:33.536 Narrator: The land was ideally suited by its climate for man and beast to prosper. 0:10:33.536,0:10:36.815 And even today, perhaps 3 or 4,000 years later, 0:10:36.815,0:10:47.817 it's easy to recognize diker, kudu, antelope, and giraffe. 0:10:47.817,0:10:52.456 The arid wilderness of the great Sahara, 3,000 miles to the north, 0:10:52.456,0:10:55.697 could hardly be in greater contrast. 0:10:55.697,0:11:02.603 Yet here in the 1950s, even more surprising evidence was found of early African history. 0:11:02.603,0:11:07.603 0:11:07.603,0:11:10.648 Today, the place belongs to the creatures of the desert. 0:11:10.648,0:11:17.067 Lizards, scorpions, and snakes that can survive the searing temperatures of this thirsty land. 0:11:17.067,0:11:23.454 One of the driest and most desolate regions on Earth. 0:11:23.454,0:11:27.526 Water is the rarest and most precious commodity, 0:11:27.526,0:11:31.996 yet even here it must once have flowed in abundance. 0:11:32.027,0:11:38.421 [Music] 0:11:38.421,0:11:43.906 The revelation of these rock paintings in the Tassali mountaints of the Algerian Sahara 0:11:43.906,0:11:47.502 just 30 years ago astonished the world. 0:11:47.502,0:11:59.331 [Music] 0:11:59.331,0:12:03.467 Whole communities of people, who are obviously African in origin, 0:12:03.467,0:12:08.824 had created marvelous galleries of ancient art depicting most vividly 0:12:08.871,0:12:16.072 the life of the Green Sahara, as it was once have been. 0:12:16.072,0:12:20.908 First we see hunting folk, and the animals they lived among. 0:12:20.908,0:12:30.083 The clearest proof that this region of the Sahara long ago teemed with wild game. 0:12:30.083,0:12:34.751 The earliest paintings may be 7 or 8,000 years old. 0:12:34.751,0:12:41.764 But not all the people who inhabited this huge region were nomadic hunters. 0:12:41.764,0:12:43.898 This horse, complete with saddle and bridal, 0:12:43.898,0:12:50.072 points to the development of transport systems and traders. 0:12:50.072,0:13:03.540 And this ox-drawn plow, to the planting and growing of crops. 0:13:03.540,0:13:08.207 Whether for war or sport, elaborate chariots came into use. 0:13:08.207,0:13:15.094 While the clothing of these people bears a striking resemblance to the tunics of ancient Egypt. 0:13:15.094,0:13:22.860 The evidence of these paintings suggests a continuous community of peoples living right across the Sahara 0:13:22.860,0:13:32.178 from the Atlantic to the valley of the Nile. 0:13:32.178,0:13:34.529 Then, some four and a half thousand years ago, 0:13:34.529,0:13:39.990 the climate began to undergo a disastrous change. 0:13:39.990,0:13:44.994 Gradually, the Sahara lost its rainfall, its animal life, 0:13:44.994,0:13:47.598 and finally its people. 0:13:47.598,0:13:55.630 [Singing in a foreign language] 0:13:55.630,0:13:58.902 Abandoning their increasingly arid pastures, 0:13:58.902,0:14:03.258 more and more people from the Sahara had to join their foreigners, 0:14:03.258,0:14:08.278 and follow the trails in search of a secure supply of water. 0:14:08.278,0:14:13.009 Some headed for the tropical rainforests which lay to the south and west. 0:14:13.009,0:14:21.508 Others moved east towards the valley of the river Nile. 0:14:21.508,0:14:23.840 Fed by Africa's greatest lake, 0:14:23.840,0:14:30.635 the Nile runs north for over 4,000 miles before reaching its outflow in the Mediterranean sea. 0:14:30.635,0:14:36.542 It's the longest river on Earth, and no river anywhere pushes on so relentlessly through 0:14:36.542,0:14:42.615 mile after mile of vast and rainless desert regions, after it's been joined by the blue Nile 0:14:42.615,0:14:47.120 tumbling down from the mountain plateau of Ethiopia. 0:14:47.120,0:14:55.676 [People talking] 0:14:55.676,0:14:58.197 But the Nile is more than a great river. 0:14:58.197,0:15:05.676 It's a whole library of the history we're looking for. 0:15:05.676,0:15:10.843 From the earliest times of human settlement along the river some 10,000 years ago, 0:15:10.843,0:15:15.884 the Nile was the giver of life to ancient communities who came to its banks, 0:15:15.884,0:15:24.225 and found on fertile soil that was enriched unfailingly year by year by the flood of silt. 0:15:24.225,0:15:29.863 Those early people were among the ancestors of the Egyptians and the Sudanese of today. 0:15:29.863,0:15:33.013 Others may have come from the Middle East. 0:15:33.013,0:15:38.869 But the archaeological evidence combines to show that the main lines of incoming migration 0:15:38.869,0:15:41.873 were from the southwest and the west. 0:15:41.873,0:15:47.341 In other words, from the African communities of the Sahara. 0:15:47.341,0:15:54.509 [Music] 0:15:54.509,0:16:00.795 5,000 years ago, this homeland had already become the scene of a civilization 0:16:00.795,0:16:05.065 in many ways unmatched anywhere else in the ancient world. 0:16:05.065,0:16:08.671 [Music] 0:16:08.671,0:16:10.758 This is where we have to begin. 0:16:10.758,0:16:12.709 In the Egypt of the pharaohs. 0:16:12.709,0:16:19.506 In the African land that was the gift of the God of the Nile. 0:16:19.506,0:16:24.557 It's easy enough to believe within these corridors, built to a gigantic scale, 0:16:24.557,0:16:29.341 and yet wonderfully proportioned, that you've entered a world sprung complete from the 0:16:29.341,0:16:32.508 lap of the gods. 0:16:32.508,0:16:37.895 Egypt of the pharaohs was the greatest, and the oldest, and the most inventive of all 0:16:37.895,0:16:40.730 the high civilizations of antiquity. 0:16:40.730,0:16:43.137 And it flourished for 3,000 years. 0:16:43.137,0:16:47.209 It set a pattern and example for people near and far. 0:16:47.209,0:16:52.209 But where were its roots? Its origins? Its starting point? 0:16:52.209,0:16:57.256 Most of us have believed, or have been taught that the glories of the pharaohs 0:16:57.256,0:17:01.952 could never have been created by African people or African ideas, 0:17:01.952,0:17:10.258 because it's been said Africans could never have built a high civilization. 0:17:10.258,0:17:12.395 Narrator: Here reigned, for dynasty after dynasty, 0:17:12.395,0:17:15.426 the kings who wore the double crown. 0:17:15.426,0:17:18.804 The combined crown of Upper-Egypt, and of the Delta. 0:17:18.804,0:17:26.591 But what had they to do with Africa? 0:17:26.591,0:17:30.675 How could this grand hierarchy of gods and spirits have anything in common with 0:17:30.675,0:17:41.924 the superstitious mumblings of the black peoples of Inner-Africa? 0:17:41.924,0:17:50.506 Wandering among the treasures of the Cairo museum, 0:17:50.506,0:17:57.808 it's easy to think of the Egypt of the pharaohs as a civilization complete within itself, 0:17:57.808,0:18:01.716 owing little or nothing to outside influences from whatever source, 0:18:01.716,0:18:10.457 entirely its own creation. 0:18:10.457,0:18:14.426 And I imagine that most visitors conclude as they listen to their guides, 0:18:14.426,0:18:18.700 that a statue such as this of the young king Tutankhamen, 0:18:18.700,0:18:21.924 may have turned very black in the course of centuries, 0:18:21.924,0:18:26.673 but could not have been a black man in the first place. 0:18:26.673,0:18:29.339 It's a view which is now increasingly under-challenged, 0:18:29.339,0:18:33.243 not least from African historians and archaeologists. 0:18:33.243,0:18:37.589 One of the more outspoken of these is professor Cheikh Anta Diop of Senegal, 0:18:37.589,0:18:42.789 who has made a special study of the origins of the people of ancient Egypt. 0:18:42.789,0:19:31.974 0:19:31.974,0:19:36.258 Narrator: That particular painting, however, is a rare exception. 0:19:36.258,0:19:42.675 The only one, as far as I know, that so clearly makes the professor's point. 0:19:42.675,0:19:48.618 For the most part, the ancient Egyptians had themselves portrayed as reddish-pink. 0:19:48.618,0:19:52.341 But, of course, they intermarried with Asians, 0:19:52.341,0:19:54.260 and even more with other Africans. 0:19:54.260,0:19:58.996 Many of their noble-ladies were Nubians, and lovingly portrayed as such. 0:19:58.996,0:20:01.567 This painting comes from the tomb of Hemaka, 0:20:01.567,0:20:09.422 clearly a black lady, with a handmaiden behind her, just as surely white. 0:20:09.422,0:20:15.644 0:20:15.644,0:20:19.555 It followed that the royal children were often black as well, 0:20:19.555,0:20:27.060 as was King Senusret, seen here wearing the white crown of Upper-Egypt. 0:20:27.060,0:20:31.839 Or this pharaoh of unknown name, but obviously of high prestige in his time, 0:20:31.839,0:20:40.674 and just as clearly African. 0:20:40.674,0:20:45.675 Elephantine island, in the Nile, marked the border between Egypt and Nubia, 0:20:45.675,0:20:50.884 and was a place of great sanctity in ancient times. 0:20:50.884,0:20:56.224 Among the travelers who came here were the earliest European historians, the Greeks. 0:20:56.224,0:21:00.294 Men like Herodotus, brought up as he was in the classical tradition, 0:21:00.294,0:21:14.341 which regarded the various races of the known world as different, but equal. 0:21:14.341,0:21:20.675 The Greeks knew Egypt well, and firmly believed that the original Egyptians were black people, 0:21:20.675,0:21:26.318 who had come from the South to settle the land of the Nile. 0:21:26.318,0:21:29.553 But Herodotus himself got no further than this. 0:21:29.553,0:21:38.174 He was prevented by the first cataract from traveling further South. 0:21:38.174,0:21:45.004 And so he never saw the huge temple, which Ramses II chose to build here at Abu Simbel, 0:21:45.004,0:21:50.079 further south into Inner-Africa than any other great monument built by 0:21:50.079,0:21:53.757 the pharaohs to celebrate their power. 0:21:53.757,0:21:59.118 A few years ago, with immense ingenuity, the entire structure was lifted to a new site, 0:21:59.118,0:22:04.674 above the artificial lake, which has drowned all the sites of the most ancient kingdoms that 0:22:04.674,0:22:11.464 flourished here in Nubia, even before the first of the pharaohs. 0:22:11.464,0:22:15.535 But why should he have built this great temple so far to the South? 0:22:15.535,0:22:19.738 Perhaps because his queen, Nefertari, was herself a Nubian. 0:22:19.738,0:22:23.641 And also because these were the people, the people of the south, 0:22:23.641,0:22:28.949 whom he wanted to impress with evidence of the prisoners he had taken in far-away Seria 0:22:28.949,0:22:31.818 and Asia Minor. 0:22:31.818,0:22:38.655 0:22:38.655,0:22:43.796 Even mighty temples, like this one, have to be seen against the background origins of 0:22:43.796,0:22:46.361 ancient Egyptian civilization. 0:22:46.361,0:22:49.033 And those origins, in the light of modern science, 0:22:49.033,0:22:51.741 were above all African. 0:22:51.741,0:22:58.006 No matter what ideas or customs the pharaohs may have found in the Asian lands they conquered, 0:22:58.006,0:23:00.943 Egypt's beginnings were in the South. 0:23:00.943,0:23:05.887 In this Inner-Africa, which the ancient Egyptians called the land of the Gods, 0:23:05.887,0:23:10.654 of the African Gods whom they revered as their guardian spirits. 0:23:10.654,0:23:22.035 Narrator: The time came when Egyptian conquests ended. 0:23:22.035,0:23:26.308 400 years later, it was the turn of the kings of the South, of Nubia, 0:23:26.308,0:23:36.506 who now marched North to subdue the power of Egypt itself. 0:23:36.506,0:23:41.555 And here is the most famous of those mighty kings of the South, 0:23:41.555,0:23:48.341 recognized by the peoples of that time, the 7th century BC, as among the masters of the world. 0:23:48.341,0:23:52.756 This one, as it happens, received a favorable mention in the bible, 0:23:52.756,0:23:55.672 in the book of kings, as the emperor of Kush, 0:23:55.672,0:24:04.923 and of all Egypt, whose name was Taharqa. 0:24:04.923,0:24:18.957 ["Africa" Theme Music] 0:24:18.957,0:24:23.180 Narrator: By 650 BC, the Nubian kings who had subdued Egypt, 0:24:23.180,0:24:26.924 were ready to withdraw to the South, to Napata, 0:24:26.924,0:24:36.042 and then to a new capital in their kingdom of Kush at Meroe. 0:24:36.042,0:24:40.781 And there we must follow them if we are to understand the history of this Inner-Africa, 0:24:40.781,0:24:46.053 which exercised so strong an early influence on ancient Egyptian civilization, 0:24:46.053,0:24:49.588 and which later was to reflect that influence. 0:24:49.588,0:24:56.339 0:24:56.339,0:25:04.469 The city of Meroe was situated 1,000 miles south of the old Egyptian frontier, far into Inner-Africa. 0:25:04.469,0:25:12.147 0:25:12.147,0:25:14.672 I never come here without a sense of wonder, 0:25:14.672,0:25:17.983 for right ahead and in the midst of this pitiless desert, 0:25:17.983,0:25:22.893 there stands one of Africa's great historical surprises. 0:25:22.893,0:25:30.258 [Music] 0:25:30.258,0:25:34.504 The remnants of a lost civilization, standing across the skyline 0:25:34.504,0:25:38.425 as though shipwrecked on the sands of time. 0:25:38.425,0:25:44.589 [Music] 0:25:44.589,0:25:48.448 These are the pyramid tombs of the kings and queens of Meroe, 0:25:48.448,0:25:53.254 who reigned and were buried here through more than 6 centuries. 0:25:53.254,0:26:01.339 [Music] 0:26:01.339,0:26:04.395 Long ruined by tomb robbers and by time, 0:26:04.395,0:26:09.703 the pyramids are being restored, and even reconstructed. 0:26:09.703,0:26:24.317 [Talking in a foreign language] 0:26:24.317,0:26:27.919 Meroitic civilization still presents many puzzles. 0:26:27.919,0:26:30.924 One is that the monarchs of Kush built their pyramid tombs 0:26:30.924,0:26:37.861 long after such monuments had ceased to be raised in Egypt. 0:26:37.861,0:26:44.170 Partly because the pyramids of Meroe are neither as old, nor as massive as those of Egypt, 0:26:44.170,0:26:54.812 it's been assumed that all this was a mere provincial copy of that greater civilization. 0:26:54.812,0:26:57.196 In fact, it was far more than a copy. 0:26:57.196,0:27:06.490 The similarities are there, but other aspects of Meroitic culture are found nowhere else. 0:27:06.490,0:27:11.663 Another intriguing question is the relationship between the ancient people of Meroe, 0:27:11.663,0:27:23.365 kings, queens and citizens, and the modern Nubians who live in this region today. 0:27:23.365,0:27:27.579 We can still see their stylized portraits in stone, 0:27:27.579,0:27:30.315 but what did they really look like? 0:27:30.315,0:27:34.652 I asked Dr. Ali Osmon of the University of Khartoum. 0:27:34.652,0:27:36.220 Obviously they look like me, of course. 0:27:36.220,0:27:37.423 I'm a Nubian. 0:27:37.423,0:27:42.946 Um, very much the Nubians of today are the Nubians of yesterday. 0:27:42.946,0:27:45.866 We've got to understand that rather carefully, 0:27:45.866,0:27:53.236 because the Nubian culture actually have not yet been very much explored, the Nubians from within. 0:27:53.236,0:27:58.614 I, the Nubian, what I do and how I behave, won't have changed that much from what 0:27:58.614,0:28:03.280 the individual Nubians would have done. 0:28:03.280,0:28:10.781 But the influence that were common on us as Nubiens started as early as we could 0:28:10.781,0:28:15.759 the Egyptian coming down to the Muslim had an influence. 0:28:15.759,0:28:17.530 Have been changing. 0:28:17.530,0:28:19.232 That does not mean that the Nubien have changed. 0:28:19.232,0:28:27.196 Narrator: But this identity has had to survive many foreign incursions, 0:28:27.196,0:28:29.445 and even conquests. 0:28:29.445,0:28:35.864 At one time, Meroe fell before the invading armies of Axum, 0:28:35.864,0:28:42.321 another ancient kingdom, high in the mountains of what is now Ethiopia. 0:28:42.321,0:28:47.281 In more recent times, the Turks and the British have sent in their armies of occupation. 0:28:47.281,0:28:53.064 Most lasting of all has been the influence of Islam. 0:28:53.064,0:28:58.446 But through all these changes, the Nubians have done more than retain their identity. 0:28:58.446,0:29:01.174 Just as they absolved influences from elsewhere, 0:29:01.174,0:29:13.252 so they too have had a deep cultural impact on their neighbors. 0:29:13.252,0:29:15.719 They build now as they've always built. 0:29:15.719,0:29:18.615 In all probability, just as the people of Meroe built, 0:29:18.615,0:29:21.728 with an old, effort saving rhythm. 0:29:21.728,0:29:28.946 Constructing mud walls to defy the scorching heat of the Nubian summer. 0:29:28.946,0:29:35.575 0:29:35.575,0:29:39.147 Their beds are no different from those of their ancient ancestors, 0:29:39.147,0:29:43.530 like this one in Khartoum museum, with a pattern of headrest, 0:29:43.530,0:29:50.945 which is much the same here, and right across Africa, as those of 5,000 years ago. 0:29:50.945,0:29:56.229 [Speaking in a foreign language] 0:29:56.229,0:29:59.663 And the traditional clan marks, cut into this Nubian's face, 0:29:59.663,0:30:06.199 can be seen exactly reproduced on a stone relief, which decorates one of the pyramids, 0:30:06.199,0:30:16.149 just a couple of miles away. 0:30:16.149,0:30:21.350 It's been said that Meroe was the Birmingham of ancient Africa. 0:30:21.350,0:30:24.280 And that wasn't altogether a flight of fancy. 0:30:24.280,0:30:29.161 For the people of Meroe had a very extensive iron making industry. 0:30:29.161,0:30:32.899 Just consider this enormous pile of industrial waste--of slag. 0:30:32.899,0:30:40.741 It proves that among the major activities of the people of this flourishing city was to smelt iron. 0:30:40.741,0:30:46.030 And here is a bit of the residue. 0:30:46.030,0:30:49.742 Narrator: A few yards away stood the great temple of Amon, Meroitic, 0:30:49.742,0:30:55.513 although dedicated to a very Egyptian God. 0:30:55.513,0:30:57.849 And somewhere in the sand, if I can find it, 0:30:57.849,0:31:03.767 there's another remarkable fragment of Inner-African originality. 0:31:03.767,0:31:06.905 Here it is. A stone inscribed with a fully-operative script 0:31:06.905,0:31:13.934 that was invented for the African language of Meroe in the 3rd or 2nd century BC. 0:31:13.934,0:31:18.648 23 signs for letters, and a word divider. 0:31:18.648,0:31:24.285 One of the earliest alphabetical ways of writing invented anywhere in the world. 0:31:24.285,0:31:27.517 And still a puzzle for modern scholarship. 0:31:27.517,0:31:33.897 [Music] 0:31:33.897,0:31:36.162 In wealthy houses surrounding the temple were found 0:31:36.162,0:31:40.300 some of the comforts and enjoyments of Meroitic life. 0:31:40.300,0:31:54.599 The style of these pots is uniquely Nubian, and repeated nowhere else in the Nile valley. 0:31:54.599,0:31:57.822 Half a day's journey from Meroe by modern transport, 0:31:57.822,0:32:01.430 a little further into the sand and rock of the Butana desert, 0:32:01.430,0:32:05.430 there stands another complex of stone buildings. 0:32:05.430,0:32:12.181 This time dedicated to the Gods of Kush, and not to the Gods of Egypt. 0:32:12.181,0:32:14.920 Nowadays, this place is called Musawarat. 0:32:14.920,0:32:22.045 [Music] 0:32:22.045,0:32:26.865 Strange hints remain among the ruins, like this old lion in the sand. 0:32:26.865,0:32:29.698 But what were these buildings for? 0:32:29.698,0:32:34.373 Perhaps the kings of ancient Kush strolled beneath these colonnades. 0:32:34.373,0:32:38.807 Historians have offered this or that explanation. 0:32:38.807,0:32:44.006 My own is that the principle function of this unexampled and powerful building, 0:32:44.006,0:32:46.339 made it unique in the ancient world. 0:32:46.339,0:32:52.224 This function, I think, was for the taming and training of the great African elephant. 0:32:52.224,0:32:59.225 That seems to be the best explanation of the remarkable stone ramps, which occur here, like this one, 0:32:59.225,0:33:04.903 and that one over there, and another long one going over there. 0:33:04.903,0:33:08.088 Narrator: We can accept that the taming of the African elephant, 0:33:08.088,0:33:11.255 bigger and more difficult to handle than its Indian cousin, 0:33:11.255,0:33:15.981 had become a speciality of the Kushites of Meroe. 0:33:15.981,0:33:20.147 With their skills, they converted this, the greatest of Africa's wild animals, 0:33:20.147,0:33:26.622 into the military tank of the ancient world. 0:33:26.622,0:33:30.506 When Hannibal of Carthage invaded Roman Italy across the Alps, 0:33:30.506,0:33:34.296 he had 38 war elephants in his army. 0:33:34.296,0:33:43.257 The skills of the elephant trainers of Musawarat may well have contributed to that legendary feat. 0:33:43.257,0:33:48.673 These temple walls provide a surprising reminder of much greener times, 0:33:48.673,0:33:52.004 with abundant pastures for domestic grazing. 0:33:52.004,0:33:56.118 All that has vanished, as the desert advanced from the Sahara, 0:33:56.118,0:33:59.790 the civilization of Meroe disappeared. 0:33:59.790,0:34:08.425 Today, away from the banks of the Nile, only nomads can survive. 0:34:08.425,0:34:11.964 This well has never been known to run dry. 0:34:11.964,0:34:16.137 The scene is exactly as it was when I first came here some 30 years ago, 0:34:16.137,0:34:29.674 and I doubt if it's changed very much in a thousand years. 0:34:29.674,0:34:34.058 Proud and self-sufficient, these people seem untouched by the modern world. 0:34:34.058,0:34:38.696 It's rare to see a single mass-produced item among their belongings, 0:34:38.696,0:34:41.631 or anything made of plastic. 0:34:41.631,0:34:49.003 It's as if they share a determination to rely on nothing but themselves and their animals. 0:34:49.003,0:34:54.242 Visiting Europeans have usually made the mistake of judging the degree of civilization 0:34:54.242,0:34:58.547 among different peoples by the number of their possessions. 0:34:58.547,0:35:16.215 [Talking in a foreign language] 0:35:16.215,0:35:22.457 The ancient traditions of these nomads reach back to the very beginnings of history. 0:35:22.457,0:35:32.264 [Talking in a foreign language] 0:35:32.264,0:35:34.728 And should they still remember their ancient Gods, 0:35:34.728,0:35:40.135 those too are still here, not yet swallowed up by the encroaching sand. 0:35:40.135,0:35:46.108 Here at Naga, there's an even more remarkable mixture of local and imported influences. 0:35:46.108,0:35:55.520 King Natakamani triumphs over his prisoners in a very Egyptian style. 0:35:55.520,0:35:58.817 The python, on the other hand, was an Inner-African religious symbol, 0:35:58.817,0:36:08.397 regarded in many lands down to this day as a figure of spiritual power. 0:36:08.397,0:36:12.646 And this representation of the lion God looks quite Indian, 0:36:12.646,0:36:20.710 with his 3 heads and 4 arms, but he too is uniquely Meroitic. 0:36:20.710,0:36:24.345 The kingdom of Kush collapsed in the 4th century AD. 0:36:24.345,0:36:30.397 But evidence has recently come to light that some of its people migrated across the planes of Kordofan 0:36:30.397,0:36:33.192 towards the Nuba Hills. 0:36:33.192,0:37:03.189 [Music] 0:37:03.189,0:37:07.287 Less influenced by Islam than the Nubians along the Nile, 0:37:07.287,0:37:11.599 the people of this region have become of considerable interest to historians, 0:37:11.599,0:37:16.321 because they may be closer in their way of life to the Nubians of old. 0:37:16.413,0:37:30.653 [Whistle blowing and chattering] 0:37:30.653,0:37:36.892 As it happened, we chanced on a special day among these Nuba people, a bit like a cup final. 0:37:36.892,0:37:42.199 This is Africa as it can still be found away from tourists, motor cars, and big cities, 0:37:42.199,0:37:51.055 celebrating in its own fashion. 0:37:51.055,0:37:54.679 A number of cultural links have been found to suggest that these people 0:37:54.679,0:38:00.517 may well share a common heritage with distant ancestors who lived in the time of the 0:38:00.517,0:38:05.220 kings and queens of Kush. 0:38:05.220,0:38:10.802 Village teams, each wearing its own distinctive color, have gathered from a wide area 0:38:10.802,0:38:14.470 to take part in one of the oldest of all sporting events, 0:38:14.470,0:38:22.305 but also a passion among the Nuba, wrestling. 0:38:22.305,0:38:26.308 So intricate are the rules governing not only the contest itself, 0:38:26.308,0:38:31.338 but also exactly who may wrestle with whom on the basis of family relationships, 0:38:31.338,0:38:37.553 that it's almost impossible for a visitor to follow all the moves. 0:38:37.553,0:38:43.292 But for the historian, there's another close relationship between the Nuba wrestling of today, 0:38:43.292,0:38:47.462 and that of ancient times. 0:38:47.462,0:38:54.203 Dating from around 2,500 BC, these vivid paintings have been copied from an Egyptian tomb 0:38:54.203,0:38:57.508 at Beni Hasan. 0:38:57.508,0:39:11.454 [Clapping and whistles blowing] 0:39:11.454,0:39:25.968 [Chanting] 0:39:25.968,0:39:30.173 Narrator: Increasingly, it seems that these people can indeed trace their past 0:39:30.173,0:39:34.923 back to civilizations in antiquity. 0:39:34.923,0:39:38.839 And their ancient sport provides one more small piece of evidence of a continuous 0:39:38.839,0:39:48.123 social tradition that's lasted for centuries. 0:39:48.123,0:39:52.172 Yet these are the very people whom the 19th century explorer, Samuel Baker, 0:39:52.172,0:40:00.739 described as human nature in its crudest state, not to be compared with the noble character of the dog. 0:40:00.739,0:40:21.339 [Cheering and clapping] 0:40:21.339,0:40:23.923 After the contest comes the celebration. 0:40:23.923,0:40:30.996 [Clapping and singing] 0:40:30.996,0:40:33.173 Some of these Nuba girls may well be Muslim, 0:40:33.173,0:40:38.921 but it's no part of their tradition to hide their faces behind veils. 0:40:38.921,0:40:41.375 They have a pride and place within society, 0:40:41.375,0:40:43.377 in line with the customs of old Nubia, 0:40:43.377,0:41:03.233 and even of Meroe itself, whose rulers were often women. 0:41:03.233,0:41:07.735 In another part of the Nuba hills, just a few miles to the southeast, 0:41:07.735,0:41:13.206 the teachings of Islam have made no headway at all. 0:41:13.206,0:41:21.919 The people of these villages have quite consciously chosen to reject either Western or Islamic dress. 0:41:21.919,0:41:26.639 Free spirits under an African sky, young girls dance as much for their own pleasure 0:41:26.639,0:41:33.975 as for the spectators, breathing life into these astonishingly similar images of Nubian dancing girls, 0:41:33.975,0:41:43.638 performing for the pharaohs 5,000 years ago. 0:41:43.638,0:41:48.973 Famed for their grace and beauty, they had an honored place in the life of ancient Egypt. 0:41:48.973,0:42:13.500 [Music and chanting] 0:42:13.500,0:42:16.139 That the one should still be regarded as primitive, 0:42:16.139,0:42:19.009 and the other as part of the world's cultural heritage, 0:42:19.009,0:42:25.681 reflects on the ignorance and prejudice of the modern world. 0:42:25.681,0:42:27.722 And not at all on them. 0:42:34.305,0:42:42.476 [Shouting in unison] 0:42:42.476,0:42:46.599 On the day that i visited Meroe, a pyramid was being rebuilt. 0:42:46.599,0:42:49.033 Not to the aid of bulldozers and cranes, 0:42:49.033,0:43:05.716 but by the traditional techniques used in their original construction. 0:43:05.716,0:43:11.125 As each great shaft of masonry was hauled up the ramp and pushed into place, 0:43:11.125,0:43:18.498 for me, the continuity of African history was brought directly alive. 0:43:18.498,0:43:23.940 The Egypt of the pharaohs did not spring whole and complete from its own local genius. 0:43:23.940,0:43:35.559 It owed much to Inner-Africa. 0:43:35.559,0:43:38.670 In the years ahead, more evidence will surely come to light, 0:43:38.670,0:43:42.866 which would emphasize that it's to the whole of the Nile that we must look, 0:43:42.866,0:43:48.564 and to lands lying far in the interior, for the source and origin of these great civilizations 0:43:48.564,0:43:52.804 that have flourished along its banks. 0:43:52.804,0:43:59.410 The last of these pyramid tombs was completed around AD 340. 0:43:59.410,0:44:01.246 Then came a time of change. 0:44:01.246,0:44:04.714 Meroe disappeared, and after the middle of the 6th century, 0:44:04.714,0:44:08.717 this old civilization underwent another transformation, 0:44:08.717,0:44:12.722 and one that brings us closer to our own world. 0:44:12.722,0:44:17.523 From the north, Christianity spread south into the lands of Nubia. 0:44:17.523,0:44:27.969 This was once the far famed monastery of St. Simeon, near Aswan. 0:44:27.969,0:44:37.513 The faded frescos on the chapel roof can only hint at its past magnificence. 0:44:37.513,0:44:41.097 But in the 1960s, by a stroke of great good fortune, 0:44:41.097,0:44:51.345 the full glory of medieval Nubian painting was suddenly revealed. 0:44:51.345,0:44:59.014 The story behind the finding, and the saving, of these wonderful mural paintings is almost a miracle. 0:44:59.014,0:45:04.596 As the waters of Lake Nasser rose to engulf the old Christian Nubian city of Faras, 0:45:04.596,0:45:10.883 archaeologists managed to dig down to the level of the long-buried walls of its cathedral, 0:45:10.883,0:45:13.717 founded in AD 707. 0:45:13.717,0:45:19.554 And pulling away the dry sand, they saw what nobody had seen for centuries, 0:45:19.554,0:45:23.347 these paintings, and removed them in the nick of time. 0:45:23.347,0:45:32.933 Now safely in Khartoum museum, they glow once again with their distant message of art and piety. 0:45:32.933,0:45:44.936 [Chanting] 0:45:44.936,0:45:50.083 Narrator: The Christian civilization of Nubia was one of wealth and comfort. 0:45:50.083,0:45:53.691 A visitor in the 10th century, Ibn Selim Al-Aswani, 0:45:53.691,0:45:57.769 described the city of Soba, one of Christian Nubia's three capitals, 0:45:57.769,0:46:03.189 as having fine buildings, spacious houses, churches with much gold, 0:46:03.189,0:46:07.004 and cool, delightful gardens. 0:46:07.004,0:46:15.144 He might well have added priceless works of ecclesiastical art. 0:46:15.144,0:46:17.715 Splendidly preserved by the dry sand, 0:46:17.715,0:46:22.604 these figures take us directly to the heart of Nubian Christianity. 0:46:22.604,0:46:28.187 Here is the nativity scene, with the virgin and the archangel Gabriel, 0:46:28.187,0:46:32.258 portrayed in the conventional style, and unnatural skin color, 0:46:32.258,0:46:36.830 of the Byzantine church, from which, of course, the Nubians took their beliefs. 0:46:36.830,0:46:43.639 Over here are the three kings of orient, riding to Bethlehem, one of them clearly an African, 0:46:43.639,0:46:59.187 and down here is a Nubian princess looking, I must say, very much like the Nubians look today. 0:46:59.187,0:47:01.989 Narrator: These are portraits of Nubian bishops. 0:47:01.989,0:47:06.630 25 of them were listed in Fara's cathedral as having succeeded one another 0:47:06.630,0:47:12.016 from the 8th to the 11th centuries. 0:47:12.016,0:47:14.571 The line might have stretched right up to the present day, 0:47:14.571,0:47:20.102 so settled and secure did Christian Nubia appear. 0:47:20.102,0:47:31.290 But it was not to be. 0:47:31.290,0:47:34.182 This monastery did not simply fall into decay, 0:47:34.182,0:47:38.997 it was sacked by the Saracens in the year 1172. 0:47:38.997,0:47:44.350 The origins of that disaster lay not with the Christian Nubians, who'd been at peace for centuries 0:47:44.350,0:47:47.183 with their Muslim neighbors to the north. 0:47:47.183,0:47:54.478 The origins lay in Europe. 0:47:54.478,0:47:59.602 The first of the great crusades whose purpose was to recapture the holy places from the Muslims 0:47:59.602,0:48:04.221 set out in the year 1096. 0:48:04.221,0:48:06.154 Many knights fought for God's purposes. 0:48:06.154,0:48:13.765 Many others fought for those of Mormon. 0:48:13.765,0:48:19.517 As one crusade followed another, those first high purposes became corrupt. 0:48:19.517,0:48:30.348 The holy cause turned into a reckless rush for loot. 0:48:30.348,0:48:33.716 Very soon they provoked a massive reaction. 0:48:33.716,0:48:41.791 The holy war of Islam was launched under a brilliant Saracen general, Saladin. 0:48:41.791,0:48:46.765 From his great citadel in Cairo, Saladin set out to crush not only the European invaders, 0:48:46.765,0:48:54.934 but also, and this is something that a later world forgot, their African allies in the south. 0:48:54.934,0:49:00.176 Historians have moments of bubbling excitement when they find proofs of something 0:49:00.176,0:49:01.935 they'd only guessed to be true. 0:49:01.935,0:49:08.664 I almost jumped for joy when I first saw this small wooden plaque from Nubia. 0:49:08.664,0:49:11.686 For it's a unique proof of something that I'd guessed 0:49:11.686,0:49:18.229 that the Christian Nubians of 7 or 8 centuries ago also took part in the old wars of religion, 0:49:18.229,0:49:21.332 the crusades against conquering Islam. 0:49:21.332,0:49:28.440 And here you see a crusader from Nubia with his cross wearing chainmail and his sturdy steed, 0:49:28.440,0:49:38.607 just as we in Europe can still see portrayals of our own crusaders. 0:49:38.607,0:49:41.272 Narrator: In this old film taken half a century ago, 0:49:41.272,0:49:47.156 Nubian horsemen can still be seen in their chainmail. 0:49:47.156,0:49:50.858 The black crusaders of 800 years ago must have looked very similar 0:49:50.858,0:49:58.067 as they gathered at fortified monasteries before setting out on that disastrous venture. 0:49:58.067,0:50:06.021 Safe within his mighty Cairo citadel, Saladin was waiting to annihilate them. 0:50:06.021,0:50:09.027 And there came an end to Christianity in these lands. 0:50:09.027,0:50:13.250 An eclipse, so final and complete, that the world forgot, almost 'til now, 0:50:13.250,0:50:16.519 that Christian Nubia had ever existed. 0:50:16.519,0:50:22.593 Yet, distant echoes of that long lost epic can still be caught on the winds of history, 0:50:22.593,0:50:27.190 and in unexpected places. 0:50:27.190,0:50:32.835 [Bells tolling] 0:50:32.835,0:50:37.442 Narrator: The cathedral of Magdeburg, a famous capital of medieval Germany. 0:50:37.442,0:50:45.315 From here, in the year 1228, the German emperor Frederich led out his knights on the 6th crusade. 0:50:45.315,0:50:52.920 And a few years later, a new statue was raised to the patron saint of Magdeburg, St. Maurice. 0:50:52.920,0:51:03.965 Astonishingly, but beyond question, an entirely black St. Maurice. 0:51:03.965,0:51:07.137 Until then, the many statues of St. Maurice around western Europe 0:51:07.137,0:51:15.079 had invariably shown this military saint as white. 0:51:15.079,0:51:19.551 But here at Magdeburg, St. Maurice suddenly became black. 0:51:19.551,0:51:23.520 Unmistakably to my mind, the black knight of Christian Nubia, 0:51:23.520,0:51:27.391 Christ's warrior from the distant south. 0:51:27.391,0:51:30.426 So here his noble figure stands to this day. 0:51:30.426,0:51:35.066 Certainly the most important, perhaps the most moving sculpture 0:51:35.066,0:51:38.633 of an African in all the history of European art. 0:51:38.633,0:51:43.189 It was created and set up in this great German cathedral 0:51:43.189,0:51:48.690 to honor the fame and virtue of an African friend and ally, 0:51:48.690,0:52:04.727 different in face and form, but just as surely equal in dignity and human worth. 0:52:04.727,0:52:08.727 ["Africa" Theme Music]