WELCOME

Ankh, Udja, Seneb (We wish you life, prosperity, and health!),

Welcome to the beginning of this Kemet Study Tour that promises to be a very profound intellectual and spiritual journey. In the Instruction for Merikare, a prominent sebayet “wisdom instruction” transmitted from a Ruler to his son and successor, the cultural imperative to link generations in recovering and restoring ancestral memories through deep study is self-evident: “Maat (Truth, Justice, and Divine Order) comes to one distilled, shaped in the sayings of the ancestors.

Copy your fathers, your ancestors… see their words endure in books. Open, read them and copy in order to know. He who is taught becomes skilled.” For the Kemites, the goddess Maat was the fundamental concept that was the foundation of their civilization. Maat gave direction to both cosmic and social order. Maat was the norm and ideal that should govern all actions, the standard by which all deeds should be measured and judged against. There was an inextricable relationship between the Kemetic spiritual universe and cultural/social universe.

This study tour seeks to bring together scholars, thinkers, planners, artists, students, cultural workers, and Africans from all walks of life to learn about and understand many of the truths embedded in the wisdom of our African ancestors in the Nile Valley and to self-consciously utilize what we know and have learned in order to live meaningful lives and to improve the life of our communities.

In terms of site visits, the tour is modeled after the regular Kemet tours led by one of our most powerful and cherished educators and co-founder of the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations (ASCAC), Dr. Asa G. Hilliard (maa kheru “true of voice”). Over the course of two weeks, we plan to visit more than 50 sites, including major pyramid complexes, temple complexes, tombs, museums, a major mosque, and a Coptic Church. One of the greatest highlights of our tour occurs at the end when we visit a Nubian village on Elephantine Island and we commune with the community and provide them with a collective voluntary donation of money and school supplies.

A significant part of the intellectual preparation for the tour has already begun on the Knubia platform through the teaching of the Medu Netcher language course by Mario Beatty. These language lessons are archived to view at your leisure, and they will tremendously assist you in going to the Nile Valley as a deeply informed visitor. In addition to the language course, we will also provide participants with further detailed readings to support the study of various sites.

After the beginning of the new year in January 2025, we will provide periodic general orientation sessions for participants in order to provide more detailed experiences and advice on traveling to Egypt and to field any questions that may have not been answered or addressed by Consolidated Tours Organization, Inc., the travel agent managing the details of the tour.

It is our hope that this study tour will be a historic convening that both inspires and nourishes all of us from the “deep well” of the best of our African worldview and humanity.

Building for Eternity,

Dr. Greg Kimathi Carr Dr. Mario Beatty

meet our hosts

  • An Associate Professor of Afro-American Studies, Greg Carr is the only holder of a Ph.D. in Africana Studies among Howard University’s tenured faculty. The Howard University Student Association and the College of Arts and Sciences Student Council named him its 2005-06 Professor of the Year, and the College of Arts and Sciences’ Honors Student Association named him its 2007 Co-Professor of the Year. In 2004 and 2007, he accompanied Howard students in the College of Arts and Sciences summer study abroad in Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa. Dr. Carr wrote the course design and curriculum and co-authored the curriculum module for the mandatory African American History course required for public high school students in Philadelphia, where he also helped found the Philadelphia Freedom Schools. In May 2006, he was invited to present his curriculum work to over 400 educators in Salvador, Bahia gathered to discuss infusing Africana history and culture in public education and has traveled and lectured across the U.S. and in Ghana, Egypt, France and England, among other places. He is a former member of the board of the National Council for Black Studies and currently serves as the Second Vice President of the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations.

  • Mario Beatty received his B.A. degree in Black World Studies/History at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, his M.A. degree in Black Studies at The Ohio State University, and his Ph.D. degree in African American Studies at Temple University. Before recently accepting a position at Howard University as an Associate Professor in the Department of Afro-American Studies, he served as Chairperson of the Department of African-American Studies at Chicago State University from 2007 to 2010. From 2004 to 2007, he served as an educational consultant for the School District of Philadelphia where he helped to write curriculum and to train teachers in the novel, district-wide mandatory course in African-American history. In May 2008, he became the first African American to present a paper at the Tenth International Congress of Egyptologists in Rhodes, Greece. He is a former recipient of the UNCF/Henry C. McBay Fellowship and also has been a Scholar-In-Residence at New York University. In 2010, he received the Carter G. Woodson Award from the National Council for Black Studies (NCBS). In December 2010, he was formally invited to deliver a conference paper at the Third World Festival of Black Arts and Cultures held in Dakar, Senegal. On September 21, 2011, he delivered the Keynote address at the 2nd Nile Valley Conference, held in the Atlanta University Center. He currently serves as President of The Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations (ASCAC). His research interests include the Ancient Egyptian language, history, wisdom literature, astronomy in Ancient Egyptian religious texts, comparative analyses of African cultures, the image and use of ancient Africa in the African American historical imagination, the theory and practice of African American Studies, and Pan-Africanism.