When you think about contemporary politics in the United States, Pharaonic Egypt may not be the first place that comes to mind. But stories and ideas about that civilisation have shaped the African American experience for decades; more recently, they have begun to affect more mainstream politics.

Ben Davies was at UCL’s Petrie Museum on 24 November to hear Birkbeck’s Dr Anna Hartnell give a lecture on the topic of ‘Excavating ‘Egypt’ in the African American Imagination’.

Dr Hartnell identified two main ‘narratives’ that have been appropriated by African Americans. Although at first they seem entirely at odds with one another – and indeed are often presented as such – she explained that they are actually harder to separate than it appears.

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