Ausar and Auset: A Template for Leadership and African Nationhood

Abstract

This paper is intended to reveal the meanings behind the enduring story of Ausar and Auset as ancient societal leaders that began their reign before written history. Their deified royal positions furthered the longevity of this mythological tale. Ausar’s and Auset’s mythology functioned as an oral storehouse of history which transmitted, values and ethic to Kemetic community members. The myth presents foundational principles and transmits intergenerationally key concepts of culture through the lively art of symbolic storytelling, to influence the community, especially the young. The Ausarian myth’s main societal function was to express the Kemetic community’s striving to live within the Confessions of Innocence based on Ma’at as the principal foundation of Kemetic nationhood. Citizens were to live a Ma’atian existence, which was to be practiced by each person in society through the implementation of the principle in their daily lives. The ideas of ritual, rights, and community leadership were first established and developed pre-dynastically by divine Queen Auset and Niswit Bity of Upper and Lower Kemet Ausar, who, by example, modeled the best qualities for the benefit of humanity. (Nehusi 2016, 46). This ancient story and the signs chosen by the ancient scribes to represent ideas and concepts will be dissected to comprehend connotations illustrated through actions of the deities within the Kemetic language and culture.