Saturday, June 6, 2020

The Tehenu and Tamahu



The original inhabitants of the Sahara where the Kemetic civilization originated were Blacks not Berbers or Indo-European speakers Winters,1994). These Blacks formerly lived in the highland regions of the Fezzan and Hoggar until after 4000 BC. This ancient homeland of the Dravidians, Egyptians, Sumerians, Niger-Kordofanian-Mande and Elamite speakers is called the Fertile African Crescent. ( Anselin, 1989, p.16; Winters, 1983,1985,1991). 


We call these people the Proto-Saharans (Winters 1985,1991). The generic term for this group is Kushite. This explains the analogy between the Bafsudraalam languages outlined briefly above (Winters, 1994). These Proto-Saharans were called Ta-Seti and Tehenu by the Egyptians. Farid (1985,p.82) noted that "We can notice that the beginning of the Neolithic stage in Egypt on the edge of the Western Desert corresponds with the expansion of the Saharan Neolithic culture and the growth of its population".

The inhabitants of the Fezzan were round headed Africans. (Jelinek, 1985,p.273) The cultural characteristics of the Fezzanese were analogous to C-Group culture items and the people of Ta-Seti . The C-Group people occupied the Sudan and Fezzan regions between 3700-1300 BC (Jelinek 1985).

The inhabitants of Libya were called Tmhw (Temehus). The Temehus were organized into two groups the Thnw (Tehenu) in the North and the Nhsj (Nehesy) in the South. (Diop 1986). The Nehesy represented as the singular Kushite or African type. As a result, in most translations of Egyptian text by Egyptologists Nehesy, was translated as Negro. They did this to imply that the Egyptians were non-Black, and only the Nehesy were Blacks in the Nile Valley.

A Tehenu personage is depicted on Amratian period pottery (Farid 1985 ,p. 84). The Tehenu wore pointed beard, phallic sheath and feathers on their head.

The Temehus are called the C-Group people by archaeologists (Jelinek, 1985; Quellec, 1985). The central Fezzan was a center of C-Group settlement. Quellec (1985, p.373) discussed in detail the presence of C-Group culture traits in the Central Fezzan along with their cattle during the middle of the Third millennium BC. The Tehenu and Tamehus are depicted on Rameses III Table of Nations.
The Temehus or C-Group people began to settle Kush around 2200 BC. The kings of Kush had their capital at Kerma, in Dongola and a sedentary center on Sai Island. The majority of the Tamehu did not migrate into Kerma, they remained in the Fezzan and other parts of Libya. The same pottery found at Kerma is also present in Libya especially the Fezzan.

The Temehus/ Tehenu were agro-pastoral population that lived both in villages and dmi'w 'towns'. The Tehenu lived in the Delta between the Temehu and the Egyptians. The Egyptians referred to all of the people in this area most often by the generic tern "Tehenu”.
Oric Bates, in the The Eastern Libyans (1914), wrote the following




As you can see from the quote from Bates the Temehu were recognized as an African population.

The Tjemhu/Temehu which included the controled an area from Cyrenaica to Syria. As a result, in textual material from the reign of Ramses II, there is mention of Temehu towns in Syria. David O'Connor makes it clear that Ramses III referred to these Temehu by the term Tehenu/ Tjehnyu (p.64).


The use of different names to describe the Tehenu and Asian in the Ramses III Table of Nations is understood in relation to the political and ethnic conditions in Egypt and Western Asia during this period. The research appears to indicate that the physiognomy of the Libyans had changed by this time. This resulted , for the most part from the invasion of Egypt by Sea Peoples in association with the Libu (Libyans).




The members of the coalition that attacked Egypt were led by Meshesher the wr 'ruler' of the coalition. Each group was led by a "great one" or a magnate. The Meshwesh were semi-nomads that lived both in villages and dmi'w 'towns'. The Tehenu lived in the Delta between the Temehu and the Egyptians. The Egyptians referred to all of the people in this area most often by the generic tern "Tehenu".


The Meshwesh were very hostile to the Tehenu/Tjehnya. In fact, the first mention of the Meshwesh in Ramses III inscriptions relating to 1188, was the attack on the Tehenu, by the Meshwqesh, Soped and Sea People .




David O'Connor makes it clear that the the records of Ramses III make it clear that the Meshweshy "savagely" attacked the Tehenu and looted their cities during their advance to Egypt (p.35 & 105).

The coalition of the Meshweshy had each unit of the army organized into "family or tribal ' units under the leadership of a "great one". As result to understand why the Asian and Tehenu figures on the Table of Nations are identified differently you have use both the pictorical and textual material from the reign of Ramses III to understand the representations.

As a result, Palestianian -Syrian personage or figure D, is labled Tehenu because he was probably a member of one the Meshwesh units that fought the Egyptians, thus he was labled Tehenu ( David O'Connor (1990).


The Meshwesh are different from the Tehenu and the original Tamehu recorded by the Egyptians prior to the New Kingdom. Below we see the traditional depiction of a Tamehu, the sidelock, shoulder cape and clean face note absence of feathers in the hair.

The Meshwesh wore Tehenu traditional costumes but they are not believed to be real Tehenu. The Tehenu and the Temehu usually wore different costumes. In the New Kingdom depictions of the Temehu, the Meshwesh have "long chin beards", like the Syrian-Palestinians and Peoples of the Sea. They wear kilts, sheaths and capes open at the front tied at one shoulder. Like the earlierTehenu they wore feathers as a sign of High Status.

David O'Connor makes it clear that there was "marked hetergeneity of the Tjemhu" (p.41). The first attack by Libyans on Egypt were led by the Libu during the 5th year of Ramses III's reign. Diop has provided convincing evidence that the Libu, later migrated into Senegal, where they presently live near Cape Verde.

The difference in dress among the Meshwesh and Tehenu, and their hostility toward the Tehenu, have led many researchers to see the Temehu of the New Kingdom as a different group from the original Temehu of Egyptian traditions. O'Connor (p.74) in the work cited above makes it clear that the Temehu in Ramses III day--"[have] hairstyles, dress and apparently ethnic type [that] are markedly different from the Tjehnyu/tjemhu of the Old Kingdom (Osing, 1980,1018-19).


Various explanations have been offered: Wainwright, for example, concluded that 'Meshwesh was a mixed tribe of Libu like tribesmen with their native chiefs who become subject to a family of Tjehnu origin'(1962,p.92), while Osing suggested that the New Kingdowm Tjemhu had displaced or absorbed the earlier Tjehnyu but had selectively taken over or retained some Tjehnyu traits, in the case of the rulers for Meshwesh (1980,1019-1020). Dr. O'Connor is of the opinion "that some rulers of the later New Kingdom Tjemhu deliberately adopted traits they discovered from the Egyptians to be characteristic of ancient Tjehnyu/ Tjemhu, so as to increase there prestige, or in some way had these rtraits imposed upon them by the Egyptians" (p.74).

It is my opinion that given the organiztion of the Libyans into mhwt "family or tribal groups', sometime prior to 1230 BC over an extended period of time Indo-European speaking people later to be known as Peoples of the Sea entered Western Asia and Libya and were adopted by Tehenu families. This adoption of the new immigrants by Tehenu/Tamehu probably led to the Meshwesh and Soped adopting Tehenu customs but maintaining their traditional beards,. The original Temehu, like the Libu probably saw the integration of Sea Peoples into Temehu society as a way to increase their number and possibily conquer Egypt.

The C-Group or Temehus also founded the Kerma dynasty of Kush. Diop (1986, p.72) noted that the "earliest substratum of the Libyan population was a black population from the south Sahara". Kerma was first inhabited in the 4th millennium BC (Bonnet 1986). By the 2nd millennium BC Kushites at Kerma were already worshippers of Amon/Amun and they used a distinctive black-and-red ware (Bonnet 1986; Winters 1985b,1991). Amon, later became a major god of the Egyptians during the 18th Dynasty.

References:
Anselin,A.(1984). "Zeus, Ethiopien Minos Tamoul", Carbet Revue Martinique de Sciences Humaines,no. 2:31-50
Bonnet,C. (1986). Kerma: Territoire et Metropole. Cairo: Instut Francais D'Archeologie Orientale du Caire
Diop, A.(1987). Precolonial Black Africa. (trans. ) by Harold Salemson, Westport: Lawrence Hill & Company
Jelinek,J. (1985). "Tillizahren,the Key Site of the Fezzanese Rock Art". Anthropologie (Brno),23(3):223-275.
O'Connor,D. (1990) "The nature of Tjemhu (Libyan) society in later New Kingdom; in Libya and Egypt c1300-750 BC”. (Ed.) by Athony Leahy (pp.29-113), SOAS Centre of Near and Middle Eastern Studies and the Society for Libyan Studies, 1990.
Quellec,J-L le. (1985). "Les Gravures Rupestres Du Fezzan (Libye)". L'Anthropologie, 89 (3):365-383.
Winters, C.A. (1983). "The Ancient Manding Script". In Blacks in Science:Ancient and Modern. (ed.) by Ivan van Sertima, (New Brunswick: Transaction Books) pp.208-215.
__________. (1985). "The Proto-Culture of the Dravidians, Manding and Sumerians". Tamil Civilization,3(1):1-9.
___________. (1991). "The Proto-Sahara". The Dravidian Encyclopaedia, (Trivandrum: International School of Dravidia). Linguistics) pp.553-556. Volume l.
__________.(1994) Afrocentrism: A Valid Frame of Reference. Journal of Black Studies, December 1, 1994, pp.170-90.




9 comments:

  1. I have rarely read such racist nonsense. Especially when the North Africans, including the Egyptians, are shown as more than clearly North Africans and also lighter-skinned. You can easily trace this back 17,000 years. The Sahra is the largest natural border in the world. That is why the North Africans exist there in the first place. Here groups are mixed that have nothing to do with each other. You also made the mistake of portraying a Nubian as an Egyptian. There are other similar comparisons of peoples from other temples. There the Egyptians all look different. There are tons of depictions of Egyptians and none of them look like the one you show from Ramses' tomb.

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    1. Why are you unfairly labeling this respectful and honest author as racist? In reality, your comment appears deliberately misleading and rooted in ignorance. It is you who is promoting a racist and deceptive narrative.

      These are our ancestors, the Tehenu, the Temehu, the Garamantes and the Libyan Pharaoh Sheshonq I who descended from the Tehenu origin and held the title “Great Chief of the Ma” (with Ma referring to nobility, not the Meshwesh). His lineage included his grandfather Buyu-Wawa and his son Auput the ruler and priest. There was also another Libyan Pharaoh named Bami, from the same family, and his grandfather was also Buyu-Wawa.

      Is there any Berber named Buyu-Wawa? Regardless of anything, these names carry meanings and my own 5th grandfather is called Buyu. If you look at the Duguwa dynasty list of the Kanem-Bornu Empire, you will find the 7th name is Buyu-Ma. This name appears again and again in our heritage.

      Our people come in every shade from the darkest to the lightest and vice versa however, we are all Black, all descended from the same Black ancestors. Are you blind to the fact that these people are Black people, not Berbers?

      Some writers have denied the facts, using olive-skinned Tehenu and invented European traits for Temehu and Messay Gerald claimed Tamahu means "created white" while others claimed blonde and blue eyes and other nonsense things.

      In truth:Tehenu = “Southern Land,” Te = land and henu = south Temehu = “Eastern Land,” te = land and mehu = east Garamantes = Ga (language) + Ra (speakerw) + Ma (in this context means people/sons), so the name means "Ga-Speaking People” or “Sons of Ga-speakers” for example call ourselves Garama to outsiders, the term Gara is our ancient term and Gara'an is derived from our ancestors Garamantes and the suffix an means people in our language Ga NOT Arabic. 

      Before the Greeks arrived in Africa, Amazigh/Berber invaded Aguila oasis—including Nasamones and 4 Tuareg tribes and now in Niger (moved to Niger around 11th or 14th century to Air) conquered Awjila. The name Aguila means "the low [land]" where "la" refers to the land itself. Aguila is the plural form used to refer to the inhabitants of the region, while "le" is used for a single individual. The term Agulie refers specifically to an inhabitant of Aguila. Historically, the area was originally known as Wajulo, which comprised three oases under this name. Eventually, the capital oasis adopted the name Aguila, while the other two oases became known as Jalu which carries a similar meaning etc.

      Pharaoh Sheshonq I, a Tehenu Libyan, is confirmed by the Pasenhor Stela, which lists his origin, sons, cousins and grandfather Boyo-Wawa. His son Auput, a priest-ruler, held the name meaning “Man of Status” and the Letter T = of

      Buyu-Wawa reflects place names in Libya such as Waw al-Kabir, Waw an-Namus, Wari, Ozwu in Chad and others. The term Buyu means “Big,” so Buyu-Wawa can be interpreted as “The Big Man of The Wawa.” The name Meshwesh the Berber group is never mentioned in the Pasenhour Stela, yet  Eurocentric have deliberately misled the world by inserting terms like "Meshwesh" to distort the truth—claiming that “Ma” refers to Meshwesh, even when the individual’s lineage clearly traces back to the Tehenu, as shown by his grandfather’s name and other historical evidence. These distortions echo the same mentality that was used to strip ancient Egypt of its Black identity and destroyed its history. Today, this mindset continues, targeting Black people in Libya especially my people by erasing and rewriting our history. But we will not be silenced and we will fix it. We are Black, and we are proud of who we are and where we come from. 

      This title echoes in the Kanem-Bornu dynasty: their Duguwa Mai Buyuma means “The Big of The Nobles" Sheshonq’s title, “Great Chief of the Ma,” reinforces this shared Tehenu nobility, showing a continuous lineage Tehenu (Temehu) are the ancestors of Garamantes who are our direct ancestors.

      The reply is quite long, so make sure to read the second part.

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    2. This is the the second part which is the continuation of my first message to you, Erkenntnisse so read it.

      Our people have lived throughout North Africa from the Mediterranean to the Sahel since the dawn of history. We know our history very well and these are our direct Toubou ancestors. We even know the direct descendants of the ruling family of the Garamantes. Everything will be corrected.

      The name Ama-Zagh in our language means "camp-people", where ama means people and zagh means camp. We are also called Zaghna, both of which carry the same meaning: zagh = camp and na = people. This reflects the existence of two dialects among our people. Across the entire Sahara, zagh consistently means camp, and its origin traces back to our language GA.

      Even the name Tamasheq follows a similar structure: T stands for land, ama for people, and sheq like jegh, hegh, and others is a later phonetic variation or corruption of zagh, still retaining the original meaning of camp. Over time, these evolved into locative terms used throughout the region.

      It is disappointing to see misleading interpretations such as those promoted by a Libyan Berber-named author, Nesmenser, on his site "https://www.temehu.com/Temehu.htm" Despite identifying as a Berber himself, he fails to explain the true meaning of Nesamones, the name of his own ancestors or even Amazagh. Nasamones = Basa‑meh “Nasamones” is a corrupted form of Basa-mehu “Eastern Sands”. Or Ne = country Basa = sands Mehu = east so “Country of the Eastern Sands” It fits perfectly between Aguila and Zelia, just as Ptolemy and Pliny the Elder described, and the name is clearly linked to a specific locality and these people of Aguila ruined our history our Garamantes history and also for the Psylli the Amazagh group too and they reappeared during Pliny. Pliny mentioned many of our Tubu place names and our people names. We have already clarified meanings even beyond our own cultural scope, yet such distortions persist continuing the cycle of misrepresentation, cultural erasure, and historical concealment. Figure out the meanings of Zelia and Fezzan. Our name, Tubu, means "Great Land." Tu (also expressed as "Ta", "Te", "Ti" etc.) means "land", and Bu means "Great". Even the structure of our names reflects that of our ancestors, the Tehenu ("Temehu") and the "Gara'an", like our Garamantes ancestors, true proud warrior race and true Great the Sahara Desert Men. Jaghbub means "Great House". And what about Birdia and Fodiboui? You will never guess it. Fodiboui refers to present-day Ajdabiya. And Zelitin? Figure that one out first, then come speak to me.

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    3. You claimed 17,000, but I don’t believe that’s accurate. By the end of the Old Stone Age, around 10,000 BCE, only the Tehenu (Temehu) were present throughout the Mediterranean basin, from Egypt to Morocco and beyond. We, the Toubou, at least have 30,000 in the region today, and that is confirmed. So if the Tehenu (Temehu) are considered the oldest, then who came before them? Who is truly the oldest? Figure out the true name of Zelitin and who lived there first. It’s not even that old then come speak to me.

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    4. Thousands of prehistoric rock art pieces were created by the Tehenu (Temehu), who engraved images of themselves in one of our homelands in Libya not Akakus somewhere else. These depictions are still there thousands and our homeland continues to carry the name of our ancestors Tehenu (Temehu). Yet, this legacy is often overlooked or downplayed by Eurocentric scholars, who frequently avoid acknowledging its significance. The name Akakus is of our Tubu origin, which may explain why Eurocentric sources doesnt explain its meaning. since the name clearly traces back to our people and heritage. We have many of our ancestral names called Jerman (German) G pronune as "J". The Jerman Oasis also holds cultural significance and meaning tied to our history.

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    5. Keyboard mistake Jerma Djourma, Germa etc this is the true name of Garama

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    6. To clarify, in the name Wajulo, the element “la” does not refer to land itself—as I had previously noted in error due to writing too quickly. In reality, “la” is a plural suffix indicating the inhabitants of a place, while “le” refers to a single inhabitant. The oasis known today as Aujila (Awjila) was originally called Wajulo, a name that means “the curved and low.” A nearby location called Julo oasis carries a similar meaning, which reinforces the descriptive nature of the name and its connection to the region’s geography.

      As for the name Buyu, the first word “Bu” means “Big,” just as it does in our ethnonym Tubu (Tu-Bu). However, in this context, “Bu” does not refer to his physical size but rather to greatness, status or importance. The second part of the name, “Yu” is an augmentative form that intensifies the meaning so Buyu essentially means “Very Big” or “Great One”.

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  3. The discovery of this article is greatly appreciated, and it is reassuring to see that scholars continue to engage with and recognize the importance of our history. The terms discussed within the article can be accurately translated, as they reflect the heritage of our earliest ancestors, who played a pivotal role in shaping the core of our identity, alongside other ancient Libyan tribes and many others. In contrast, those who have attempted to claim these terms have demonstrated a lack of understanding of their true meanings and have been unable to provide accurate translations, often resorting to arbitrary speculation, among other things. Furthermore, the coastal regions of Libya and Egypt experienced a gradual southward shift due to the arrival of various peoples for a variety of reasons. Excellent work, and sincere appreciation for this important contribution to the field

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