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Obenga, T. (2004). Egypt: Ancient history of African philosophy. A companion to African philosophy, 28, 31-49.

Apparently, hieroglyphs have no hidden and impenetrable mysteries. What hieroglyphs disclose is of unique interest in the intellectual history of humanity. There are more than 800 hieroglyphic signs: they describe all the classes and categories of beings and things held by creation. Hieroglyphs are the complete and systematized conceptualization of all that is: they are an all-embracing knowledge of reality.

Egyptian hieroglyphs express the universe, as it is known and as it exists: they mean, refer to, the totality of things. It is because of the universe that there are hieroglyphs. In a sense, all things arc hieroglyphs, and hieroglyphs are all things. This is why it was impossible for the Egyptians to conceive the idea of non-existence in the sense of the absence of the existent. Since the universe is beauty, abundance, plentitude, diversity, harmony, and unity. hieroglyphs reproduce by drawings all these manifestations of the universe.

Everything is in hieroglyphs, such as, in random order, man and his occupations, woman and her activities, deities, mammals, birds, amphibious animals, reptiles, fish, insects, plants, trees, sky, earth. mountains, water, buildings. ships. domestic and funerary furniture, temple furniture and sacred emblems, crowns. dress, staves, warfare. hunting, butchery, agriculture, crafts and professions. rope, fiber. baskets, bags, vessels of stone, earthenware, cakes, writing. games, music, geometrical figures, etc. Hieroglyphs, being about reality in all its diversity, also feature abstract concepts, such as spirituality, consciousness, love, sexuality, happiness, beauty, ugliness, rites, eloquence, loyalty, sovereignty, joy, life, power, birth, death, immortality, motion, wind, knowledge, silence, wisdom, flame, light. day. night. darkness, fear, alteration. smell. perfume, truth, justice. etc.

The hieroglyphic script is a most complete semiotic system – complete. that is, systematic. and comprehending everything in the universe. Studying the Egyptian hieroglyphic script is like being in communication with all that exists. The discipline of Egyptology involves the learning of the Egyptian system of writing. Egyptian hieroglyphic writing is found everywhere: on temple walls and columns, tombs, sacred monuments, and so forth. Painted inscriptions do exist, illustrating the aesthetic sensibilities of the Egyptian scribes. Egyptian writing reached its full development around 3200 BC, and thereafter remained fundamentally unchanged for a period of 3,000 years.

The universal human need for communication and self-expression was graphically crystallized in the Egyptian script, which sought to represent the form of the universe itself. This is impressive from both a semantical and a philosophical standpoint, Africans. at all events, must study the Egyptian language and script.