Why do many separate the history of Egypt and the rest of Africa?

Egypt is not traditionally part of Africa because of the Sahara desert. It effectively segregated Egypt from the rest of the continent, which made the Mediterrainean and Middle Eastern options far more lucrative, and much easier.

The Ancient Egyptians were a semetic people, so they probably had a skin colour ranging from olive to coffee, like Israeli's or Arabs.

And for the record:

rac·ism Audio Help /ˈreɪsɪzəm/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[rey-siz-uhm] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun
1. a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others.
2. a policy, system of government, etc., based upon or fostering such a doctrine; discrimination.
3. hatred or intolerance of another race or other races.

There is no racism here. Just fact, or misinterpreted data.

reply to post by Simulacra

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Cleopatra was Greek, and Greek woman range from very pale to very tan, and from blond to red, to brown to black hair, so Cleopatra could have look like Elizabeth Taylor or she mite not, People have no idea what she looks like, so i don't know where you get off being so smug about that movie

reply to post by truthseeka

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Please, don't make this a racial issue.
First of all, Egypt is in Africa. Ancient Egyptians were mainly Nubian. Nubians are black, they look like the Sudanese blacks, with fine features (think of David Bowie's wife, Iman).
They started to look more Arab much later in time when the Muslim Empire conquered a large part of Mediterranean lands, including parts of Europe.

Second, we all know much more about Egypt because at the time, although there were several kingdoms throughout Africa, none were as large and advanced as the Egyptians were, it had to do in part with their geographical location, trade routes, river, Mediterranean sea, etc.
The other important African culture that is somewhat known to some people is the kingdom of Eritrea (Ethiopia) which is starting to be known but due to its present political situation does not offer much in the way of tourism. And again, Egypt benefits from its location also for tourism.

Third, Cleopatra was from a Greek dynasty called the Ptolemaic dynasty, which was the last ruling dynasty in Egypt.

There's my 2 cents on this. Hope it helps.

Its always important to remember that the concept and limitation of words. Africa is an artifical description of a piece of land which was arbitrarily separated from Asia - just like Europe. The placing of that name on a piece of land doesn't mean that the people there are related or share a common history or have a common background (unless you go way way back). It means that at a point in history a name was applied to a piece of terrian in which different cultures lived.

As the drawings, art and literture of the AE point out, they were a Meditereanean people who enslaved Nubians and painted them differently. They considered themselves a separate group of people. As did the Greeks and others.

I'm Egyptian and I'm not gonna lie about it I'm really sick of Black Africans trying to claim our country's history, come on guys your just embarrassing yourselves go search for any history for your self in central or south africa and leave Egypt and Egyptians alone, youtube is full of this BS it's just a shame
and the problem is that this BS always coming from Africans who live outside in Europe or USA who left their starving African countries in bad shape ruled by gangs instead of staying and doing something to help their countries look at Africa now you will Find that Egypt is still the most Advanced and progressed country in Africa may be along with other "North Africans countries" the rest of Africa is just a hell holes that you guys even escaping from it and went searching for a better lives you guys has nothing to do with Egypt or Egyptians just get over it.

Archeology shows that Ancient Egypt went from primitive to suddenly civilized.
Much evidence has been erased by time, but from examination of the surviving mummies from mid times it appears that most of the ruling classes were white and mixed. The mummies that have any hair shows much of that hair to be bonde, and red. Others are brown, some black.
Their tomb paintings show many people to be blonde and red-haired.
During the 18th dynasty Egypt was an Empire. Do the research.
The famous Rameses were red-haired. THey had fine, silky hair.

See the renderings of these mummies here

Egyptians simply weren't negroid although blacks did rule Egypt for a brief period.
National Geographic - The Black Pharaohs

You wouldn't consider Greeks to be European, anymore than an ancient Egyptian to be African (with the exception of those above)

Did you get to this part yet in your classes?

Nubian Egyptians made up a sizable portion of the AE population, and even ruled the land for a period. AE was a part of Africa - when ancient Egyptians looked to unite their lands they looked to upper Egypt in Nubia, they didn't look at Sumer to the east or to the north at the Hittites, those were distinctly separate cultures. There was no "middle east" back then and certainly not Arabic countries, which is where Egypt is now placed. That's more of a socio-political affiliation than a geographic one.

AE depicted themselves as a mixture of a brown-skinned race, the Nubians as a black-skinned race, and the Semitic among them as a light-skinned and bearded race. Hittities married into Egyptian families as did Nubians. The Ptolemy's brought Greek blood into the mix.

It seems some people think of "black" Africans as a single race. There's as many distinct African races as there are white races in Europe.