Free Virtual Screening of the "African History of Sport" Documentary
Black History Studies presents the virtual screening of the 'African History of Sport'
About this event
Black History Studies presents the FREE Virtual Screening of 'African History of Sport' documentary.
This groundbreaking documentary feature film focuses on over five millennia of ancient Egypt and Nile Valley Civilisations’ sport legacy; using artefacts and audio visual materials provided by various museums and archives; combined with written works by Wolfgang Decker, AD Touny and Steffen Wenig, etc., about rituals dating from the beginning of the third millennium BCE, and lasting for twenty-three hundred years before the first Olympic Games in Greece. The film concerns itself only with the sport, play and games traditions of Twenty Six Kemetic Dynasties ca. 2950 - 525 B.C. before Persian, Hittite, Graeco-Roman and Arab conquests.
The African History of Sport documentary examines sport's prehistory in Neolithic times; how hunter/gatherer techniques became transformed into leisure and sport, preserved by Pharaonic cosmic rituals such as Heb-Sed and other festivals; and the development of athletics as royal demonstration of good health, in keeping with Maat philosophies of governance.
African History of Sport documentary also examines the evolution of sports for both royalty and commoners; e.g. Pharaoh’s charioteering, athletics and archery; and wrestling, stick-fencing, jousting, boxing, aquatic sports—all precursors of today's blue ribbon Olympic Sports—for commoners. These sports were called Swetwet, Sedjay-Her and Shmh-IB by their Black African pioneers; and were primarily used to affirm and defend Nile Valley Civilizations; rather than for individual glory; despite the fact that they have evolved as competitive spectacles for entertainment. Similarly, Neolithic hunting activities and techniques, evolved into leisure and sport, thus losing their initial cultural significance.