African Unification Front
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KUSHITE ERA 5000 BC - 652 AD
Ancient African Light Infantry Platoon
This era is marked by the dominance of large stable long-lived continental African empires, with well disciplined, high-capacity military forces able to match and dominate foreign armies, as well as to deploy globally. Some famous military events in this era include the campains of Sesostris III in Europe and Asia, the campains of Taharka, the defeat of the Romans in 25BC at Premnis, and the signing of the Baqt that marks the begining of the slave-based economy in Africa.
The organization of Africa's defense in ancient times radiated from a hub that was the cross roads of Africa, in what is now the Republic of Sudan. This region is where the main migration and trade routes meet, and a great deal of military integration and dispersal began and ended on the banks of the Nile in Sudan.
 It is important to keep in mind that the first armies to be organized on what is now the traditional military basis were in Africa. Nesu Biti (King) Zosar, of the Third Dynasty (Old Kindgom) is credited with establishing the first regular army with all the familiar military formations and professional military command ranks in 2686 B.C. Zoser formed an ocean-going fleet, and established military headquaters at the city of Menf.
The Kushite and Egyptian armies of the predynastic era, leading up to the formation of Egypt, differentiated their formations on the basis of skills and type of weapons. The armies consisted two divisions, one of spear and another consisting of archers. The army consisted of a womens' formation and a mens' formation. More subdivison was based on age (generation). Units consisted of people belonging to the same age set, and moreover, people from the same locality were assigned to the serve in the same unit.
The main fighting units of the Egyptians were organized into Battalions during the Old Kingdom and up until the New Kingdom. During the New Kingdom, these units were organized into Divisions. The Divisions were named after principle gods. The army's pharaoh commander directed the Divisions during battle.
Besides the soldiers, Scribes and Administrators accompanied the army during travel. These positions gave their holders high rank and status. These officers usually came from the Core (an elite permanent unit maintained by the Royal House), which was a part of the larger Egyptian communities, and which existed even in times of peace.
The Egyptians kept a core of professional soldiers managed by the king. Among the composition of these soldiers were professional soldiers, Nome conscripts, and Nubian and Libyan troops. Nomes during most periods were required to fill a quota of men for the army when the king called for it.
During the 1st Intermediate Period, the armies were comprised of a core of house troops belonging to the king. The core was comprised of conscripts and supplemented by allied troops. Kushite troops were also used in most of the battles of this period.
The Middle Kingdom made no changes as far as the composition of the army was concerned.
The oldest military fortifications in the world were located in Kush, with the northern fort of Semna serving as a launching location for the first Pharaoh of Egypt in 3100 BC. The military forces in Egypt came to be known as the Medjey (Maje), named after a nubian tribe whose members made up the bulk of the army. In fact in many places in Africa today, the word for soldier is a varietion of the word Maje.
Trades routes connecting the west African coast to the Nile ran along the Niger, to lake Chad and then to the Nile. Those routes connecting the southern portions of Africa to the Sudan, connected the Zambezi to the Congo and the White Nile. Another route ran along the East African coast northward through Somalia and along the Blue Nile into the Sudan. Finally the Mediterannean, the Red Sea, and Egypt were connected directly by the Nile to the hub in Sudan.
The routes were used for seasonal migration, and exchange of information, and goods. Armies protected wells and food supplies, trade caravans, kept order in states, and formed alliances in order to responded to major threats from Romans, Persians, Arabs or other hostile empires. In 25 BC, faced with reinforcements from the African interior, the Romans decided to withdraw from Sudan and to make peace with Kush.
The relationships between the migration/trade routes allowed for the creation of Africa's longest lived empire, Kush. Kush (Chus) maintained its center in Sudan between Khartoum and Aswan. Kushite dynasties had a great deal of power and influence across Africa. A great deal of African social organization and cultural sensibilities are in fact indistinguisahble from the prominent rituals and habits associated with Kushite history. Cheik Anta Diop and other historians have showed that Kushite rituals are found in all African societies, a reflection of the reach of Kush, or the absorption of all cultures from all over Africa by the ancient Kushites.
The military organization of the Kushites is rather well documented. Accounts by Heliodorus, Heredotus and other writers provide abundant information about tactical, operational and strategic capacities, army structure, the quality of life of the individual soldiers, and their discipline. Primary sources of information are found the ancient Egyptian texts of the 25th dynasty as well as those of the Greeks, the Romans, the Celts and the Persians.
Kushite armies were multi-ethnic and diverse. They employed siege warfare, built forts, and were famous archers. The Kushites also used elephants in war. According to Helidorus, the physique of the Kushites was generally better than that of the Persian invaders. Kushite skulls tended to be stronger. Some of the Kushite divisions included the Troglodytes who were famed to be good runners.
In one battle scene, the writer states that Kushite archers were so skilled they would shoot their arrows with deadly accuracy at the eyes of their opponents hundreds of yards away across the battlefield. Kushites also included Chinese troops in their ranks. The Romans first encountered the Chinese while fighting Kushites.
Kush may be the only empire to have unified Africa. It certainly was the last one to do so, between 800 BC and 600 BC. In the centuries that following the Kushites repulsed Persian, Greek and Roman inavsions while retaining effective over vast areas directly or through alliances with lesser states. The continental Kushite empire was greatly reduced in size and broke up into several lesser empires in 4BC. This collapse was brought about because a massive rebellion and failure of the Kushite alliance. The Numidian empire of Ghana stregthened its control over the Niger basin, and the Garamantes in the Chad Basin rebelled, and the Beja rebelled and captured Meroe, the Kushite capital.
The Garamante rebellion was incited by the Romans, specifically the Third Augustan Legion, who raised funds for the effort. The Beja dynasty was never able to equal the Candacian dynasty they replaced, but they were able to retain control over large area of Central Africa, Abysinia, Somalia and Madagascar. Even today the term Beja, one of the dynasties that govern Kush, is still in use parts as far south as Madagacar and Tanzania to mean royalty, or some less flattering apparition, depending on the ancient treatment of the locals. In Central Uganda, Omum'Beja, means a member of the royal family. There are still Beja Nubians in Sudan and Egypt. The Beja dynasty was the last continental dynasty, and rose in Kush in 4 BC.
The Beja came to dominate the Sudanic Kush, and parts of central and east Africa, but were never able to recover equal the Candacian dynasty that they overthrew. The Garamantes went on to dominate formerly Kushite regions in west Africa, and the Wangara dominated futher west. To the south Kitara, also formely Kushite, maintained control over an area covering what is now Uganda, Eastern Congo, Western Kenya, Tanzania, and Rwanda and Burundi.
The last Kushite ruler was the Kandake Amanirena. The title Kandake, equivalent to Empress, is the origin of the name Candace. The Kushites also had the title "Gore" for the equivalent of the Queen Mother or King Maker, a political position found throughout Africa, used for a female who settles disputes between the King, other royals, and high officials. The Gore is in effect a Chief Judge or final authority on protocol. The relationship between the Kandake and the Gore meant that the Kandake was the army commander.
Until the rise of the Beja Dynasty in 4 BC, Kush showed a remarkable political stability and military strength. Records show that Kush was able to survive longer than any other empire in world history, inspite of wars with most aggressive empires that rose and fell in the course of its existence. The Kushites withstood rebellions and wars of conquest, even though their capital cities were located at militarily indefensible trade route intersections. The Kushite city of Napata was attacked during the Thutmosid Dynasty by the Egyptian army under the command of Moses. Later on the Persians sacked the Kushite city of Saba, also known as Sheba (which Cambyses renamed Meroe). Meroe was also sacked by the Romans in 25 BC. In spite of these three destructive episodes, the Kushites repulsed the invaders.
Kushite armies encountered their gravest threat in the Assyrians. At a time when Kush controlled the whole of Africa and parts of the middle east and the mediterrenean, the Assyrian empire was menacing Asia and the middle east. Kushite troops were spread thin as they deployed in Europe and Asia in efforts to protect afflicted nations that asked for assistance. In 701 BC Kushite troops under the command of prince Taharka broke the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem. The wars with Assyria compromised Kush's position in international affairs, and depleted it militarily and politically. However, the Assyrian empire collapsed under the strain, while Kush lasted another millenium.
For most of its existence Kush and Egypt were military allies, and Kushite royal princesses gave Egypt their Pharoahs. As in the rest of Africa, a lot of authority and power was wielded by these Kushite women. One of the most celebrated is Tiy of the 18th Egyptian Dynasty. Many Kushites regularly served in the Egyptian armies, and defended Egypt and other African states against invasions.
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