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What is Kemet?

Kemet is the original name of Egypt. Before the Greeks used the word, “Egypt,” Africans referred to their land as Kemet, the Black Land, according to Anthony T. Browder’s Nile Valley Contributions to Civilization. It was the strongest term to indicate blackness. It meant “coal black.” The word Kemet (KMT), written in heiroglyphic form, was represented by a block of wood, which was charred on the end.

The word KMT or Kemet means “the country of the blacks or the land of the blacks” and not “the black soil” as some have suggested. The people of Kemet called themselves Kemmiu, which literally translates as “the Blacks.” Since the word Kemiu or Kemmiu was an original term used to describe the people of Kemet, contemporary scholars use the words Kemites and Kemetic when referring to the people and things of ancient Kemet.

It is important that we study and use the correct terms when referencing history. Otherwise, Europeans will continue to erase Africans from history and make their accomplishments as their own.



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