Kemetism (FAQ)

The term “Kemetism” is derived from the endonym (the name of a geographical object adopted by the local population in its language) of Ancient Egypt, and “Netjerism” is from an ancient Egyptian word denoting a deity or object of worship. Both terms apply exclusively to modern reconstructions and not to the ancient Egyptian religion itself.

Kemetism as a phenomenon began in the 1970s. and did not have one single hearth. Moreover, the reconstruction of the ancient Egyptian religion was undertaken for different purposes by both representatives of the Caucasian and Negroid races. Among the latter, a political ideology called “Afrocentrism” was widespread. Most likely, the word “Kemetism” first appeared among them and came to mean a belief system according to which all traditional African beliefs have roots in the ancient Egyptian religion. Many indigenous African peoples are searching for their historical and cultural identity, but they are unlikely to find it in Ancient Egypt. The fact is that the ancient Egyptians considered themselves to be a red race, and they considered the Nubians (southern neighbors) to be a black race, relations with whom were most often hostile.

A number of scientific studies of the cultures of the Caribbean countries, where many slaves were taken from West Africa during colonial times, have shown many similarities between their religious traditions and Ancient Egypt. Especially many similarities with the ancient Egyptian religion were identified in the traditions of Haitian voodoo.

There have been various attempts to reconstruct the ancient Egyptian religion based on Haitian voodoo, the most famous of which was undertaken by a white American woman, Tamara Logan Siuda (born 1969). At the end of the 20th century, she founded the Kemetic Orthodox House of Netjer religious community in Chicago, dedicated to the practice of their own religious tradition called Kemetic Orthodoxy. This is what is most often cited as an example when talking about Kemetism, but this example is far from being the only one, just the most famous.

Nope.

Not everyone who claims to profess an ancient Egyptian religion is comfortable with the term “Kemetism.” Some people are only satisfied with “Netjerism,” while others don’t even consider that they are engaged in reconstruction. Therefore, these terms are more often used by researchers involved in the classification of new religious movements on any basis. It so happened that it was the term “Kemetism” to become more widespread, compared to all other attempts to name the phenomenon being described. We don’t see any problem with the terms and use the most common ones.