At roughly the same time, but in a very different social and cultural milieu, Akhenaten and his family underwent another rebirth among African Americans. This was during the Harlem renaissance, the great flowering of African American artistic achievement centred around Harlem in New York. A ccntral figure in the Harlem renaissance was the hugely influential pan-Africanist W. E. B. Du Bois (1869-1963), leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, who argued passionately for the past and future cultural achievements of black people. In the 1920s his magazine The Crisis sometimes used Amarna-derived graphics by the black artist Aaron Douglas (1899-1979). Douglas' portrait of Tutankhamun, based on his famous funerary mask, appeared on the cover of The Crisis in September 1926 (vol. 32, no. 5); from the same year a poster for a black theatre group uses Amarna art elements.10 In his political works, Du Bois follows the standard line that Amarna was the apogee of ancient Egypt. Universal humanitarianism, pacifism and domestic affection were 'the ideal of life' there, but originated and ruled over by a black pharaoh. Du Bois cited Gardner Wilkinson, the first excavator of Amarna, to the effect that the facial features of Akhenaten's father Amunhotep III seemed negroid, and went on to quote his friend Anna Melissa Graves' observation that Akhenaten,
though less Negroid than his mother was more of the mulatto type than his father, and the portrait busts of his daughters show them all to be beautiful quadroons, though perhaps octoroons. And this Mulatto Pharaoh - Akhnaton - was not only the most interesting Pharaoh in all the
long lines of the many dynasties; but he was, in many ways, one of the most remarkable human beings who ever lived.11'
Graves' original publication of 1943, Benvenuto Cellini Had Mo Prejudice against Bronze: Letters from West, Africans, is illustrated with Amarna portrait heads next to photographs of African Americans, including one of a Maryland high school pupil who had graduated the same year. Her invitation for contemporary African Americans to identify personally with 'one of the most remarkable human beings who ever lived' seems clear - though rather illogical if she believed Akhenaten's daughters were 'quadroons' or 'octoroons' of mixed race and could pass as white.
Recent scholarship is more sceptical about Akhenaten's motivation and the originality of his achievements, but his importance continues for Afrocentrist teachers and educators. This is helped by the republication of works by Graves and Du Bois in black studies readers and course materials for teachers. Modern Afrocentrist curricula move the emphasis away from the traditional focus on Euro-American culture and values towards acknowledging the lives and achievements of black people, thus reorientating students of African descent to their continent of origin. In this process, feelings of self-worth, multicultural awareness and humanistic values are bestowed.1' Ancient Egypt obviously has a major role here as an ancient African civilisation whose achievements are easily demonstrable, widely known and with a long history of being valued by the west.18 Here Akhenaten has the most privileged place, though Ramcsses II is also important. A painting of the head of one of Akhenaten's colossi features as cover art for a recent book proposing a model Afrocentrist curriculum, C. Crawford's Recasting Egypt in the African Context (Africa World Press, 1996), as though Akhenaten is a sort of patron saint of the whole endeavour. Other educational projects are placed under Akhenaten's symbolic protection in the same way. An Amarna relief of him sacrificing appears on the cover of a teachers' pack produced in 1992 by the Equality Issues in the Humanities Project under the auspices of the Manchester City Council Education Department. The pack is intended to help the teaching of Ancient Egypt at Key Stage 2 (7-11-year-olds) in a non- Eurocentric way, based in part on American models. Akhenaten and Nefertiti are prominent in its contents, and are used thoughtfully to question racist and sexist assumptions about the ancient Egyptians. Students are encouraged to think about Nefertiti as an African woman of intelligence and political influence, rather than as a glamorous beauty queen, for example.19
