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Heka: Magic or Science? - A brief note
Dr. Mubabinge Bilolo, in his 1986 work titled _Les
Cosmo-Theologies Philosophiques d'Heliopolis et
d'Hermopolis_, on pg 64 (fn. 110), states the following:
"Roeder translates /hike/ [read /HkA/] to 'Wonderland'*, others
translate it as 'magic.' Butthe word seems to be analogous to the
Luba word: /cianda/, which means 'high science',"extraordinary
science" science understood as "knowledge" and as an 'authority' or
"apower." /Cianda/ also means in some contexts
'witchcraft/sorcery.'" - [Asar's translation fromthe French].
ASAR's NOTE:
The word /HkA/** (as defined in the Egyptian dictionaries) means
"magic, charm, magic spell, magicalinfluence, bewitch, be
bewitched" or often "words of power." Bilolo in the excerpt above
correspondsthe Egyptian word /HkA/ with the Tshiluba-Bantu word
/cianda/and argues for a reinterpretation of"science, knowledge,
power and authority." Only in certain contexts are we to translate
the term /cianda/as "sorcery."
He does not expand or give a breakdown of how the word /cianda/
corresponds to Egyptian /HkA/. It ismy aim in this brief note to do
just that.
The word /HkA/ in the Egyptian is an expanded form of the word
/kA/ which means "to say"; thus theexpanded meaning of "words of
power." A variant form of the word is given as /Axw/"power,
magic,magical words, useful knowledge, mastery" by way of
metathesis. As we can already see, we can betterunderstand why
/cianda/ "science, high science, knowledge and authority" fits into
this greater schema of/HkA/.
However, knowing the roots of words helps us to better explain
what's going on. The root of theword /HkA/ and /kA/ is actually /A/
which derives from /-r-/ meaning "mouth, utterances" > rA
"word,saying, utterance" > rw/rAy "words, sayings, utterances."
The k- in /kA/ is a prefix and the H-in /HkA/is also an affix. We
note also in Egyptian /rr/ magic word. When the m- prefix is added
we get the
word /mdw/ (r>d) speak, address (someone), speech, word,
plea, to consult, to converse, to argue, tocontest, aMAGIC WORD
(Yoruba odu oracular utterance). [see also /mdt/ "matter, speech,
words,plea, talk, (written) words, discourse, dispute, message,
affair"].
There is yet another variant, a doublet to be exact, of this
word in Egyptian given as / Dd/ "statement,words, to command, to
assert, to maintain, say, speak, speak of, utter (speech), recite
(spell), tell (to),expect, mean (something)."The [D] sound in
Egyptian derived from [k] by way of palatalization. The [d]in the
C2 position derives from [r] or [l]. In other words, /Dd/ is just a
dialectical variation of theword /kA/ to say. See Proto-Bantu
*-ded- "speak"; *-jad-L "speak, give advice"; *-jad-L "spread";
*-
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bud- "speak, talk, say, tell"; *-bud-id- "speak, announce";
*-bud- "ask (question) (Egyptian bdHask for, beg, to request, pray
for, petitions): (l>d).
This root in Egyptian is the word /eela/ in Tshiluba which means
to send away, clear out or go out fromthe self (a sound, an idea,
word,object ...), issue, express, speak. In other words, this root
is associatedwith anything that exits from the self: an idea,
sound, word or object. In Tshiluba this root becomes
cila "cry, cry out"; diyi "voice, word, order, act" [l+i>di]
(Egyptian iri act, do); kalele(a) "make acommunication shouting
loudly"; lubila "call, cry" (kwelalubila "shout, a call")"; mulunga
"howl"(kwela mulunga "scream"); mulengu "flute"; aalula
say,explain, detail. Various affixes give the rootslightly
different semantic extensions.
The Egyptian word /kA/ [k-l] to say is cognate with Tshiluba
akula oral; -aakula talk, speak, utter,express; mwakulu language.
We can verify this correlation by the shared homonym in
Egyptian/HqA/ govern, ruler, rule over; TshiLuba -aakwila rule
over, govern.
The word /cianda/ given earlier is a variant of this root /eela/
where the rule [n+l>nd]. The ci- in ciandais a prefix. The word
mwand business is a variant of this term. One conducts business
(traditionally)by word of mouth in the marketplace; negotiating
deals/prices. This word is a variant ofmaalu"knowledge, science(s),
discipline, business, things, events, problems" > bwalu
"business, cause, reason,about, fault, difficulty." This word
becomes maadu business, science, history (Egyptian mdw;
Yorubaodu).
In Egypt knowledge was associated with good speech and the
ability to invoke by sound thespirit(s) behind phenomena (thus why
you had to "know" the names of the gods in Egyptian theology).This
was a science and not magic as articulated in modern Egyptological
analyses. Magic assumes thatone can break the laws of nature and
one cannot do that. These acts, /HkA/, was the product of
continuous observations of the laws of nature (/mdw nTr/). It
took forethought and reason and this iswhy we have the related
Egyptian term /kA/ "genius, to plot, to plan." Someone with a
scientific mind isoften referred to as a "genius." Remember the
root /eela/ refers to that which exits the self, includingthought,
ideas (the evidence of one's genius).
This is why comparing Egyptian to inner African languages is
important to the understanding ofEgyptian ideas and concepts. They
are still alive today in Black Africa in the everyday languages
andcustoms. More can be said (a whole book in reality), but this
was meant to be a brief note.
*The word translated by me as "wonderland" is given as "merveil"
in French. I am not quite sure of thistranslation and if someone
can give a better one, I'll correct it.
**the /A/ in Egyptian was actually an [l] sound. So insteadof
pronouncing the word something like kait is better to pronounce
itsomething like kVlV (e.g., kala;) where V is any vowel
*** see Wiki article for a brief synopsis on the deification of
the concept called /HkA/ among theEgyptians:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heka_(god)
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**** the Tshiluba terms were taken from from
http://www.ciyem.ugent.be/ . The Egyptian terms wegathered from the
Mike Vygus downloadable Dictionary (2012).
