Wengrow, David; (2023) Ancient Egypt and Nubia: Kings of Flood and Kings of Rain. In: Parker, John and Adjaye, David, (eds.) Great Kingdoms of Africa. Thames & Hudson: London, UK.

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Abstract

History is often written as a story of the rise and fall of kings, but the history of kingship - in Africa, as elsewhere - is shaped as much by the people kings governed as by the varied nature of kingship itself. This is true of the Nile basin, where Africa’s earliest known kingdoms arose, as it is for other parts of the continent. Throughout history, institutions of monarchy in this region have been a way of extending personal authority, but also of containing it, by obliging the incumbents of royal office to perform sacred roles, and observe customary duties to their people. Nilotic kingship could be a stranglehold on power, as much as its vehicle; and up until relatively recent times, certain kings met their ends through suffocation or other violent means at the hands of their subjects, for failing to fulfil their ordained roles as protectors of life, fonts of prosperity, and bringers of rain.2 Which way the pendulum has swung, through the centuries, depended no less on the personalities of royal individuals than on the collective will of their subjects, and the extent to which they were free to refuse commands or, when faced with arbitrary violence, move away to other pastures. Viewed in such terms, the ancient past of Egypt and Nubia poses intriguing questions for the history of African kingship and politics, which this chapter sets out to introduce.

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