Pharaohs on parade

This week on The Sound Kitchen you’ll hear the answer to the question about Egypt’s pharaohs. There’s a bit of WW II history – it’s Victory in Europe Day - and you’ll find out who the Hyksos were (didn’t you always want to know?) There’s wonderful music chosen by The Sound Kitchen’s producing engineer, musician Erwan Rome, and the new quiz question too! Just click on the “Audio” arrow above and enjoy! 

Sound Kitchen Podcast RFI

Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday – here on our website, or wherever you get your podcasts. You’ll hear the winners' names announced and the week’s quiz question, along with all the other ingredients you’ve grown accustomed to: your letters and essays, “On This Day”, quirky facts and news, interviews, and great music … so be sure and listen every week.

I am busy cooking up special shows with your musical requests, so get them in! Send your musical requests to [e-mail]  Tell us why you like the piece of music, too – it makes it more interesting for us all!

Be sure you check out our wonderful podcasts!

In addition to the breaking news articles on our site, rfienglish.com, with in-depth analysis of current affairs in France and across the globe, we have several podcasts which will leave you hungry for more.

There’s Paris Perspective, Africa Calling, Spotlight on France, and of course, The Sound Kitchen. We have a bilingual series - an old-time radio show, with actors (!) to help you learn French, called Les voisins du 12 bis. And there is the excellent International Report, too.

As you see, sound is still quite present at the RFI English service!  Keep checking our website for updates on the latest from our excellent staff of journalists.

Send me your music requests! I’ll make programmes of your favourite music when I can’t be in the kitchen to cook up something new for you … write to me at [e-mail]

To listen to our features from your PC, go to our website and click on the three horizontal bars on the top right, choose Listen to RFI / Podcasts, and you’ve got ‘em! You can either listen directly or subscribe and receive them directly on your mobile phone.

To listen to our features from your mobile phone, slide through the tabs just under the lead article (the first tab is “Headline News”) until you see “Podcasts”, and choose your show. 

Teachers, take note! I save postcards and stamps from all over the world to send to you for your students. If you would like stamps and postcards for your students, just write and let me know. The address is [e-mail]   If you would like to donate stamps and postcards, feel free! Our address is listed below. 

RFI Clubs: Be sure to always include Audrey Iattoni ([e-mail]) from our Listener Relations department on all your RFI Club correspondence. Remember to copy me ([e-mail]) when you write to them so that I know what is going on, too. N.B. You do not need to send her your quiz answers! Email overload!

And don't forget, there is a Facebook page just for you, the RFI English Clubs. Only members of RFI English Clubs can belong to this group page, so when you apply to join, be sure you include the name of your RFI Club and your membership number. Everyone can look at it, but only members of the group can post on it. If you haven’t yet asked to join the group, and you are a member of an independent, officially recognised RFI English Club, go to the Facebook link above and fill out the questionnaire!!!!! (if you do not answer the questions, I click “decline”).

There’s a Facebook page for members of the general RFI Listeners Club, too. Just click on the link and fill out the questionnaire, and you can connect with your fellow Club members around the world. Be sure you include your RFI Listeners Club membership number (most of them begin with an A, followed by a number) in the questionnaire, or I will have to click “Decline”, which I don’t like to do!

Would you like to join the RFI Listeners Club? Just write to me at [e-mail] and tell me you want to join, and I’ll send you a membership number. It’s that easy. When you win a Sound Kitchen quiz as an RFI Listeners Club member, you receive a premium prize.

This week’s quiz:  On 10 April, I asked you a question about the lavish Pharoah Parade that was held earlier that week in Cairo, Egypt, which was extravagant, to say the least! There were specially built gold-colored carriages fitted with special shock absorbers, made especially for the mummified remains of 22 Egyptian pharaohs. There was a symphony orchestra and chorus, chariots, and of course, women and men dressed as priests and priestesses. And the pièce de résistance: the 22 golden carriages. It was a thing to behold. It is definitely worth your while to look for it on the internet and watch the whole ceremony.

The mummified remains of the Pharaohs were being moved to their new home, the brand-new National Museum of Egyptian Civilization. It’s not too far from their previous home, the Egyptian Museum, which doesn’t have state-of-the-art temperature control and all the other technical necessities for preserving antiquities.  The new museum does. I can’t wait to see it, but I’ll miss the dusty old Egyptian Museum, where you never knew what you’d find when you turned the corner. 

I asked you to send me the answer to these questions: who was the oldest Pharoah transported in last month’s parade to the new museum in Cairo? What is his name, and what were the dates of his reign? You were also to tell me, out of the 22 mummies moved, how many were kings, and how many were queens.

The answer is: 18 were kings, and four were queens. The name of the oldest mummy is Seqenenre Tao II, called "the Brave". He reigned over southern Egypt some 1,600 years before the Christian era; scholars think he came to power in the decade ending in 1560 BCE, or perhaps in 1558 BCE. 

The mummy of Seqenenre Tao II has five massive head wounds, which he received in the battle which killed him.  What was the battle all about? Well, my very own personal research librarian, listener Jayanta Chakrabarty from New Delhi, India, was also curious about all this and did a bit of research and sent me a letter about his findings. Jayanta discovered that “During 1650-1550 BCE, the Hyksos rulers had invaded and occupied the Nile Delta in northern Egypt. Seqenenre Tao II was intent on unifying Egypt to drive out the Hyksos. He died in the attempt.”

But who were the Hyksos?  I did a bit of amateur sleuthing on the web, and of course, as with all of ancient history we can never be sure, and scholars disagree all the time, but what I did discover excited me to no end … one thing everyone agrees on is that the Hyksos people were Semitic people from the Levant. Scholars believe that the story of the Hyksos in Egypt, and their subsequent defeat and expulsion from the country, was the inspiration for the stories in Genesis and Exodus – key stories from the Torah (the Hebrew Bible) about the Jews in Egypt and their flight across the Red Sea. I love finding the sources of our myths and stories.  And it seems that this tiny bit of known history is the source for perhaps the most important story in the development of monotheism.

Jayanta also added in his letter that one of the queens in Egypt’s recent Pharoah Parade was Queen Hatshepsut, touted as Egypt's most powerful and successful pharaoh to rule Egypt. Hatshepsut came to the throne of Egypt in 1478 BCE.  She was the second historically confirmed female pharaoh, and is also known as "the first great woman in history, of whom we are informed.”

The winners are:  Jobayada Aktar Jai, a member of the Nilshagor RFI Fan Club in Nilphamari, Bangladesh, and RFI Listeners Club members Samir Mukhopadhyay from Kolkata, India; Ilyas Fachri from Pekanbaru, Indonesia, and Kashif Khalil from Faisalabad, Pakistan. Last but not the least, RFI English listener Kriparam Kaga from Rajasthan, India.

Congratulations winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: “The Night Has A Thousand Eyes” by Jerry Brainin and Buddy Bernier, played by Herb Ellis and Remo Palmier; “The Physical Body” by Michael Atherton, performed by the composer; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and “Matilda” by Norman Span, performed by the Cuarteto d’Aida.

Do you have a musical request? Send it to [e-mail]

This week’s question ... You'll have to listen to the show to participate. You have until 7 June to enter this week's quiz; the winners will be announced on the 12 June podcast. When you enter, be sure you send your postal address in with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

Send your answers to:

[e-mail]

or

Susan Owensby

RFI – The Sound Kitchen

80, rue Camille Desmoulins

92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux

France

or

By text … You can also send your quiz answers to The Sound Kitchen mobile phone. Dial your country’s international access code, or “ + ”, then 33 6 31 12 96 82. Don’t forget to include your mailing address in your text – and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

To find out how you can win a special Sound Kitchen prize, click here

To find out how you can become a member of the RFI Listeners Club, or to form your own official RFI Club, click here