Back to (Mysteries) School
by Mel Hopkins
Is the oldest storytelling format, the monomyth, also known as The Hero’s Journey, one of the templates used for awakening the human consciousness in the Kemetic Mysteries System? The people of Kemet (Egypt) created this system that students took approximately 40 years to complete. Today, Writing Fellow, novelist, and award-winning media producer D. Amari Jackson encourages readers to return to the ancient African curriculum, the Kemetic Mysteries System, with his newest children’s middle-grade publication, Jelani’s Key.
Mr. Jackson takes us on a journey with two 11-year-old protagonists in this newly published adventure book for middle-grade students. We meet up with the two boys, Jelani and Bakare, mourning the loss of the patriarchs of their respective families. Instead of wallowing in grief and self-pity, however, the boys transform their pain into promise. As the two scale the levels of this pyramid-like structure of discovery, we find the quest will lead to personal and cultural insight, connection to the universe, linking with recently departed ancestors, and maybe even Descent from Antiquity.
Mr. Jackson packs a lot of ancestral African initiation trials and tests into the 80 pages of prose. So much so that after finishing the chapter book, I felt as if I fell down the proverbial rabbit hole connecting the dots of ancient Africa’s hidden but storied past to the present. I had plenty of follow-up questions. Luckily, I had set up an interview with him a few weeks prior.
It was the second full week of Summer 2023 in Atlanta, Georgia, when I met up with Mr. Jackson. Although no one who lives here calls it “Hotlanta,” it was one of those days when it was too hot to feel the heat. Instead, you’d experience it through your senses, like when the bright sun rays pierced the leaves of the trees and bounced off the car chrome that ricocheted off the street signs, making it difficult to read, although the GPS told me I’d reached my destination. When circling the block, I noticed it felt cooler, where lush green bushes and trees lined the street. And how I immediately felt parched as the treelined streets turned into sidewalks bordered by business storefronts, retail shops, take-out restaurants, gas stations, and Buzz Coffee and Winehouse, our designated meeting place. As I observed the climate and weather conditions while looking for parking, my thoughts returned to one of the four doctrines in Jelani’s Key.
Cycles of Nature
“…Ancient Africans studied the motions of the planets and viewed their world in the great cycle. It told of how the daily path of the sun and the changing seasons determined their activities on earth. It’s also noted how Africans created lasting stories to pass down information on life and death, planetary motions, and the cycles of nature.”
Source: Jelani’s Key — Book Three. Chapter VI
Climate and timing favored the Ancient Africans, who were the first to emerge from the ice age at an estimated 11500 BCE - 10,500 BCE (Before the Common Era). The land was so green that scholars report the ancient Africans named the area near the Nile River Valley “Khenthunnefer,” which translates into the “Garden of Eden.” The rest of the world, including Europe and Asia, was inhabited but covered in ice sheets. Therefore, according to legend and artifacts, Africans would center their educational system around nature, the cosmos, and the universe. The ancient Africans created the first Kemet Mysteries System as early as 10,500 BCE.
After surviving the ice age and the great flood in its aftermath, I could only imagine the people of Kemet would focus on understanding nature, environment, and its creator. Even today, we have evidence of how climate is affecting our economy, spirituality, and social development.
Lost in thought, I found myself trying to make sense of how to leave a 20 percent tip on my bill for coffee and bottled water in this no-cash point-of-sale screen at Buzz Coffee when Mr. Jackson spotted me. I’d only met The Savion Sequence novelist once at an author talk, but my fish-out-of-water awkwardness made me stand out among the regulars. Unsure if I parked in a towaway zone, Mr. Jackson walked me to my car to check before we settled outside at the coffee shop. Our “Q & A” discussion would mentally transport me back to the 25th dynasty in a land known today as Egypt. The school was in session, I thought. Not the West-styled sit-in-the-classroom while the teacher drones on. Instead, it was more like Jelani’s Key.
In the story’s format, the monomyth holds the key to education. Our exchange unearthed a lot of information I had been mentally carrying around but had no place to apply it. And often, that is how students arrive at school. Mr. Jackson said, “The Latin word for education is educere, which is to bring forth.” His innate understanding that children are filled with curiosity and a desire to learn, ready for discovery, adventure, and reward, Mr. Jackson brings that same thoughtful engagement to his storytelling.
Kemet Civilization
Mr. Jackson shows us through the boys’ journey of this reimagined curriculum of the ancient Kemet Mysteries System how important it is to first know thyself, so that you can discern the elements in your environment, and your place within.
As students head into the 2023-24 school year, Jelani’s Key couldn’t come at a better time. Especially as some middle-schoolers, like the characters Jelani and Bakare, are returning to an atmosphere of book-banning in most of the nation’s states. Or consider Florida and Arkansas where state legislation allows for the retelling of chattel enslavement of Africans in America or restricts teaching African American history. In Texas, the Houston school district administrator has decided to replace school libraries with detention centers. In short, there is a concerted effort of some school boards and administrations that are making it difficult for children to receive factual information they can use in their course of studies.
In the absence of learning facts, our children are poised for indoctrination. But students who will read Jelani’s Key will discover through Jelani and Bakare’s first trial, this isn’t the first time adversaries have attempted to hide African History from the world stage.
“Long line of Black African Pharaohs built the greatest civilization on earth with a higher knowledge of nature, math, science, medicine, and spirituality. It revealed that other cultures like Greeks, Romans, and Arabs later conquered Kemet when it was weak and, to this day have tried to hide or erase its great Black African past from history. “
Source: Jelani’s Key — Book One. Chapter VI
To combat cultural erasure, Mr. Jackson created ritual tests using a mnemonic device to help the boys gather and retain their history. “We talk about ancestral memory, or remembering, which comes from the Osirian myth about taking pieces and putting them back together. And that becomes a metaphor for African people being dispersed and trying to come back together as a whole.” Children access memories through levels of remembering, which Mr. Jackson says comes out of the African Mysteries Schools. “You go through one rite of passage or challenge to reach the next higher level. So, I replicated the process and made it digestible for kids,” said Mr. Jackson.
A Rite of Passage, AKA Hero’s Journey?
Anyone who has experienced the death of a beloved family member will immediately empathize with our young heroes in Jelani’s Key. Jelani and Bakare’s emotional struggle led to the crux of this story, showing how these two, turn pain into personal power.
The protagonists’ sheer determination to achieve their mission will engage young readers and have them cheering on the two every step of the way. We know to cheer them because of the cyclical nature of our existence. Mr. Jackson believes the Hero’s Journey story format is conducive to how we learn. He says the stages in the monomyth story exist within us, so it is easy for us to recognize and interpret the process from beginning to end.
“I’ll use an analogy from the universe. We didn’t invent math. The universe created math; we just acknowledge the cycles that were happening. The timing is already there. The earth rotates at a certain speed, and the sun goes up and down. So, we tapped into math because it’s how we interpret math.
So, I would use the same for the Hero’s Journey. That’s part of us. Ancient Africans would talk about the cycle [of the sun]. They would talk about Khepri in the morning, Re at the highest point, and Amun [Sunset]. The Resurrection…the underworld or at night, then come back around. So, yes, that process is something that’s built into us. It’s those normal cycles and rhythms of the universe,” Mr. Jackson said.
Conquering Kushites
While these two middle schoolers possess self-control even through their darkest moments, their perseverance illustrates:
“Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. ”
David (Psalms 30.5)
This African ancestral message found its way into the Christian scriptures. Yet, it comes from our ancestors trusting the cycles (the process) to help us believe we can turn our pain into the promise of a better tomorrow through discovery, dedication, and diligence.
“…Another book covered a special period almost 3000 years ago where Black African pharaohs from the south reclaimed the country from foreign invaders. Known as the 25th Dynasty, these proud Kushites — with names like Piye, Shabaka and Taharqa, restored Black African rule in the name of their southern ancestors who had ruled Ancient Egypt long before them.”
Source: Jelani’s Key — Book Two. Chapter VI
And like clockwork, the Kushites are back in the news.
Mr. Jackson is a world traveler who visited over 20 countries, including Egypt, in the Fall of 2010 during the dig of Karakhamun, a noble who lived during the late 25th Dynasty circa 755 BCE. “[The excavation] has been ongoing since 2008 under the ASA restoration project, and my good friend Anthony Browder has been part of it for the last 14 years. According to standard Egyptian chronology, the 25th Dynasty is known as the “Black Pharaohs” period. [I say] quote, unquote, because of the fact they were all Black. We’re [Black Africans] still there. If you go up South, to this day, we’re still there. Aswan, Luxor, Abu Simbel, right down to what they call now Sudan, Mr. Jackson reports.”
Ciphers | Return to Roots
In the boys’ final test, Mr. Jackson illustrates how the initiates in the oldest education system, the African Mysteries School, connects with the Divine Creator through language. Yet, the original language is lost for many in the African Diaspora. Still, there’s the proverb, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. When the student is truly ready, the teacher will disappear.” The master, in this case, is Baba Aton, who helps facilitate the boys’ age-appropriate “conversation with the DIVINE.” The Divine Conversation is a brief description of The Mysteries School’s curriculum. Students came from around the world to study in the Mysteries Schools in ancient Kemet; once there, they studied nature, mathematics, medicine, the environment, the cosmos, and their connection to the universe. In short, the students didn’t say, “when will I use this information in life” — life was the information. And the language of life connected those students to DIVINE.
“…big words can be understood by breaking them down into smaller pieces or root structures…Letters and Numbers were special symbols that could be substituted for one another.“
Source: Jelani’s Key — Book 4. Chapter VI
“The beautiful thing about root structures is you can disguise them and have all kinds of different meanings around, but the root structures are basically the same. Medu Neter are called hieroglyphics. We still have many of those roots; that’s how we can interpret the hieroglyphics in the first place. You said the word, “Kuumba.” I don’t know the root, but I know how to break it down. The vowels are interchangeable. K-U becomes K-A as in KA as Ba-ka-re; ku-ka, which is SPIRIT. BA means soul or body. That’s why it became a God-type of creativity. And you’ll find that every single name, every single idea, is really a divine name. All the scripture goes back to being God or matter which means “mother, Mr. Jackson said.”
More than an hour after we started our conversation, Mr. Jackson answered a lot of my questions. He left me with a better understanding of what the African Mysteries System hoped the students would accomplish. In other publications I’ve read, scholars have indicated the goal of the initiates was to become a god. But what if the goal was to communicate with THE DIVINE? What if courses were set up like puzzles in the African Mysteries Schools? And no one could fail a course; a student could only get stuck and not move on until they solved the mystery. So how does this become a conversation with THE DIVINE? Unlike games with a set of rules, where players can win or lose based on skill level, a puzzle requires a certain level of intimacy. With puzzles, you’re not playing against an opponent; you’re not even playing against yourself — instead, you’re gaining access into the mind of the puzzle-maker, or in this case, the creator of the universe, i.e., THE DIVINE ENIGMATOLOGIST. As you work to solve the puzzle, whether it be quantum physics, sacred geometry, or even why the sky appears blue, you are conversing with THE ONE who created it.
Since the climate conditions were right for the Ancient Africans to ponder their environment, they likely used the time of reacclimating to their warming environment to discover the cycles of life and all that it contained.
As Jelani and Bakare worked through emotional discomfort, they made a sacred rite of passage by traveling the path of the Hero’s Journey to receive their reward. In doing so, they followed the same path to enlightenment as their African ancestors thousands of years before.
Today, we all benefit from their sojourn because they’ve helped us remember who we are and what we’re capable of.
Jelani’s Key. by D. Amari Jackson was released for publication on August 29, 2023 —The 12-chapter book is available for purchase through aalbc.com and anywhere fine books are sold.
25% of the profit from the sale of Jelani’s Key goes to support the ASA Restoration Project, a non-profit tax-exempt organization. For more information, visit the IKG Cultural Resource Center.
Jelani’s Key Book Review by Mel Hopkins ▶
In this era of public school administrators poised to indoctrinate students with half-truths, Jelani’s Key’s protagonists share with readers how to employ critical thinking skills, including fact-checking statements before accepting them as accurate.