African countries are currently the poorest on the planet. The consequences of the colonial policy of Europeans, which for more than 500 years did not allow most of humanity to develop normally, will not soon become completely obsolete. Throughout this period, the representatives of the white race took away all their wealth from the local aborigines, giving nothing in return.
Possessing an indisputable technological advantage over indigenous peoples, the colonialists even came up with a whole theory that, they say, backward peoples are fundamentally different from normal people, so they should not have any rights inherent in "white people". However, over time, another justification was born - in the form of fairy tales about the "burden of the white race", carrying the light of knowledge and enlightenment to the backward people …
Be that as it may, given the extremely low level of development of the African population, for too long it was believed that, in fact, it has always been so. The scientific world meant that in Africa there never existed any more or less developed civilization, except for the Egyptian one. And even then, the Egyptians were not Africans in the full sense of the word - they were not black.
However, it was the study of Ancient Egypt that opened the veil of secrecy that surrounded the mysterious civilizations of Africa. The comic of the situation was that the first mention of them was on the very artifact from which official Egyptology began - the Palermo stone.
This artifact consists of 4 parts located in the largest museums in the world (none of which are located in Africa - this is what the colonial robberies led to). It dates back to the 5th dynasty of the pharaohs, that is, approximately 2400 BC. Among other things, this stone mentions the state of Punt, located in the western part of Central Africa.
Moreover, this state is not just mentioned, but it is said that the pharaoh Sahura (who ruled about 2500 BC) sent a trade expedition to Punt, which he personally headed. It is generally nonsense if the pharaoh left the country anywhere, except for the war. Even negotiations for peace with all sorts of princelings were signed in Egypt, since it was "out of order" for the pharaohs to travel to remote provinces and towns of barbarians.
Over time, the facts of a special attitude towards Punta increased. Travels with similar expeditions to Punt were undertaken by many pharaohs - from the same Sahura right up to Ramses III, who ruled in 1180 BC. That is, for almost one and a half thousand years, the pharaohs regularly traveled to Punt in person. And even the matter was not in the distance of several thousand kilometers: The only time when the pharaoh for some reason left Egypt, it was a case of signing a peace treaty with the Hittite kingdom and it was signed not by someone, but personally by Ramses II the Great. But this was a very special case, since the Egyptian-Hittite War and the subsequent dynastic marriage of the Egyptian and Hittite dynasties changed the political map of the Ancient World for many centuries.
Once there was even a very amazing case. The only female pharaoh, Hatshepsut, who lived a millennium after Sahura, it was during her trip to Punt that she “blinked” the revolt of her brother-in-law, Thutmose the 3rd, and lost power. That is, in fact, the trip to Punt was more important for her than preserving the throne.
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This raises two very serious questions. First - why did the pharaohs, in fact, the then rulers of all progressive humanity, go to bow to unknown blacks for something? Not that the Egyptians were racist, but they had a little prejudice towards the black race. This has been the case since the time of Narmer, the first pharaoh of the united Egypt, who constantly fought with representatives of Nubia and other states located on the southern border. Black Nubians constantly suffered defeat from the Egyptians and, of course, the Egyptians looked at them, like everyone else like them, a little down.
And the second question - what did the inhabitants of Punta trade, that the Egyptian pharaohs from time to time controlled this trade personally?
One of the fifth dynasty papyri mentions a list of goods that Punt sent to Egypt. Among the mass of useful and necessary things, such as trained monkeys, jaguars and hair dyes, there was one seemingly insignificant detail - aromatic oils and incense. It was them in large quantities that Egypt bought from Punt. Moreover, paying with the most expensive commodity of that time - slaves. The Egyptians, despite the large number of wars, captured prisoners relatively rarely, so slaves were highly valued.
Why were incense and aromatic oils so important to the people of Egypt? Yes, everything is very simple - these resources were used in ritual mummification. Considering the fact that for the inhabitants of Egypt the afterlife was much more important than the earthly life, then, as it were, everything falls into place. The Egyptian elite, priests and pharaohs, were dependent on a strategic resource that they had to buy from Punt.
But that's not the most interesting part. It is believed that Egypt at that time was an advanced technical power, why was it not able to master the production of these goods in its state? After all, the climate of Punta and Egypt was not much different, and it would be possible to grow plants from which these components are obtained without problems. However, the Egyptians could not do this.
The reasons for this can be very different, but when a developed state cannot master the technologies that are important for it and remains dependent on an external supplier, this is at least strange. It is quite possible that Egypt was not such an advanced state and Punt was much more developed, and perhaps even stronger than Egypt.
Hints that the Egyptian kingdom is critically dependent on its strong southern neighbor sometimes slip through in one source or another. Naturally, this is not said directly. This is understandable - almost all sources from Ancient Egypt that have come down to us speak of the state and its leaders exclusively in a laudatory and pretentious tone. Almost nowhere can one find criticism of the government or the existing system. The only time that Egyptian power is presented in a negative light is the rule of Akhenaten. But everything is clear there: the people who carried out the coup d'état, who took power after him, even wanted to erase the name of Akhenaten from history (in the literal sense - chipping his name off the granite steles). Naturally, they spoke of their predecessor very unflattering.
After the conquests of Ramses II, Egypt was finally able to get rid of the unpleasant need to buy something from Punta. Items necessary for rituals were supplied to the country from Lebanon and Mesopotamia. In addition, after these conquests, the vector of direction of Egyptian policy was directed not to the south, but to the north. The main tasks now were the enslavement of the Kingdom of Judah and further expansion to the northeast. And Punt after that remained in the minds of the Egyptians as a mythical country inhabited by demigods and fabulous creatures. And after 500 years they completely forgot about him …
What kind of country was this, who inhabited it? Currently, little is known about this unique historical phenomenon. Archaeologists have just begun an active search for a bygone civilization. Perhaps in the future, new secrets of the ancient inhabitants of Africa will be revealed to us, and who knows, perhaps the history books will be rewritten again …