706 Wa t e r
A Kassena baby’s first bath with cold water serves as both a ritual awakening and a way to stimulate its circulation.
Source: Carol Beckwith/Angela Fisher.
to the present, water, in the form of primeval
water, has been at the center of the explanation of
the origins of existence. In this world, water is the
ultimate cleansing agent, both internally and exter-
nally. It is also the ultimate agent and symbol of
spiritual purification and a most important offer-
ing to the Creator, to other divinities, to the
ancestors, and toother cosmic forces that are pro-
pitiated by libation and other rituals. In Africa, if
humans cannot live by the proverbial bread alone,
it is even more certain that all life, human or not, in
its physical, social, and ritual aspects, will perish,
swiftly, if there is no water.
The ancient African fluvial environment had a
profound impact on the African spiritual system,
which in turn impacted back on African humanity
by giving order, meaning, significance, and higher
purpose to daily life. Nowhere is this more dramatic
and obvious than in Kemet. It is here that the River
Nile and an imaginary underground river, of which
the Nile was undoubtedly the archetype, respec-
tively ordered and regulated the life of the living and
that of the Dead and, in fact, profoundly influenced
all existence and all conceptions of existence.
The Nile is the longest and one of the most
dominant rivers in the world. It runs for more
than 4,000 miles from south to north through
East Central and North East Africa, from its
source in the region of the Great Lakes to its estu-
ary on the Mediterranean; from the place of the
beginnings of humans through to the places of the
beginnings of civilization, in Kush, also called Ta-
Seti, literally “Land of the Bow” or Nubia. People
as well as progress also flowed northward, follow-
ing this waterway along its valley from the heart
of Africa. The Nile was the world’s first transcon-
tinental cultural highway. But it was not only
water, people, and their culture that this river has