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Ancient Egyptian Pharaohs related to

Ugandans - DNA
Friday, August 15, 2014 — updated on June 28, 2022

An ancient bust of Queen Tiye of ancient Egypt retrieved by archaeologists now at Altes Museum in Berlin, Germany, shows she was
a black African. Courtesy photos

What you need to know:

 A DNA test of a group of mummies from the Amarna Egyptian
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Pharaohs matched the genetic profiles of the population of the
Great Lakes region
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By David Sepuya Kalanzi

This year, Ugandans have witnessed the use of DNA tests to settle
prominent public cases in the media concerning the paternity of
children and of celebrities who have died. What has not been
known to many people is the dispute concerning the ethnicity of the
ancient Egyptians by scholars in the 20th Century. This dispute has
been solved scientifically by the DNA tests conducted on the
mummies of the ancient Egyptians in 2012 and 2013.
In December 2012, DNA tests were conducted on the mummies of
Pharaoh Rameses III and his son, which proved that they belonged
to human Y chromosome group E1b1a. This is the Y chromosome
group of Sub Saharan Africans who speak Niger–Congo languages.

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The disclosed Y chromosome group of the Pharaoh, at the time of

releasing the report, was considered as just one of the details to
make the investigation scientifically solid with facts. But its revelation
caused a stir equal to the purpose of the original forensic
investigation.
Another group of mummies from the Amarna period of Egyptian
pharaohs were tested by DNA Tribes, an American Company
which specialises in conducting DNA tests, in 2013.
The conclusion of the tests were that the mummies autosomal
profiles would be most frequent in the present day populations of
the African Great Lakes region and Southern Africa. Subsequent
analysis of the autosomal profile of the mummy of Pharaoh
Rameses III also concluded that this matched the genetic profiles of
the population of the Great Lakes region as well.
It was reported in the DNA Tribe’s digest of February 2013, that the
DNA match results of the ancient Egyptian Amarna royal mummies
with the present day world regions reflect the population changes in
Africa after the time of Rameses III .
One issue which remains unresolved is that of language. The
language of ancient Egypt is classified as belonging to the Afro-
Asiatic family of languages, which are spoken by people like the
Somali and Amhara of Ethiopia, while the genetic profiles of the
mummies match those of Niger–Congo language speakers. The
most likely explanation is that some of the Niger-Congo speaking
people, who were carriers of human Y chromosome E1b1a, moved
into ancient Egypt along the Nile from the Sahara region as the
 region dried up and fused with the Afro-Asiatic speaking people,
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giving rise to the unique language of ancient Egypt.
However, these speakers of the Niger–Congo language went on to
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form the ruling class producing pharaohs for Egypt, while retaining
the customs which they practised in common with their relatives
who had migrated south into the Great Lakes region as the genetic
tests have shown.
The writer is a cultural heritage consultant
THE CONNECTIONS
The strong cultural connection between the ancient Egyptians and
the modern people of the Great Lakes region of Africa have long
been noted for more than a century now by ethnographers (people
who study ethnicity). The following examples illustrate this
connection.
Female heirs. The Egyptian pharaohs, like the rulers of the Great
Lakes kingdoms of East Africa, ascended to their thrones with their
sisters or cousins as co-rulers. In Bunyoro and Tooro kingdoms, the
sister was called the Rubuga, but is currently called the Batebe. In
Buganda kingdom, she was called the Lubuga, now called Nalinya.
In Buganda, this custom from antiquity of having female co-heirs is
still practised in all cultural succession events.
Royal drums. Secondly, in all the Great Lakes kingdoms, ceremonies
were carried out at certain intervals to welcome the appearance of
the new moon. Regalia such as the royal drums and twin objects
were brought out on these occasions to pray for the wellbeing of the
kingdoms as was done in the courts of the ancient Egyptian
pharaohs.
Bows and arrows. Another custom of the pharaohs in common with
the kings of Great Lakes kingdoms were the use of bows and arrows
in the coronation ceremonies. The coronation rituals of the
 pharaohs were repeated in the Sed festivals of the pharaohs, a
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record of which has been kept by historians. A description of the
bow and arrow part of the coronation section reads: “Next, the
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pharaoh was carried to the chapels of the gods Horus and Seth,
where he was handed a bow and arrows with which he shot an
arrow in each of the four directions” i.e. East, West, North and South.
In Bunyoro. An identical ceremony was enacted during the
coronation of the Omukama of Bunyoro Kingdom. In his book:
Abakama Ba Bunyoro Kitara, published in 1947, John William
Nyakatura, a historian and a county chief of Bunyoro Kingdom,
recorded the following ceremony for the new king: “Then the king
was handed bows and arrows. He shot four arrows in all directions-
one arrow was shot in the direction where the sun rises (Buganda
and Busoga), the second one was shot in the direction where the sun
sets, the third one in the southward direction (Nkore and Rwanda),
the fourth one was shot in the northward direction (Bukedi and
other countries). This action meant every rebel/rival who came from
any of these directions would be killed with an arrow.
In Buganda. Buganda Kingdom in precolonial times also had a bow
and arrow coronation ceremony as part and parcel of the
enthronement rituals of the kings. In fact, the one of Buganda was
deadly. A captive would be shot with an arrow by the new Kabaka to
indicate that he would be vigorous in protecting his kingdom. The
victim would then be killed by the king’s guards thereafter.
Musical instruments. The similarities between ancient Egypt and the
Great Lakes also extended to the material culture. Scholars have
noted the resemblance of the musical instrument in ancient Egypt
and the kingdoms of the Great Lakes, notably the bow- harps and
flutes. This fact is mentioned in the display of Ugandan bow harps at
the Uganda Museum.
 The plank sewn canoes on Lake Victoria used in precolonial times
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were bound together using vegetative materials and were assembled
in a similar way to the boats used by the ancient Egyptians on the
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Nile. This similarity was noticed by the scholars when British rule
was established in East Africa.
Civilisation. In the 19th Century, explorers and anthropologists
encountered the Great Lakes kingdoms and noted the unexpected
sophistication of the societies in these kingdoms. It was assumed that
Egyptian culture had influenced the culture of the Great Lakes
region. In the actual fact, the direction of influence was the other
way round. The anthropologists were observing a society similar to
one out of which the ancient Egyptian civilisation had emerged.
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