Nubian Gallery at Royal Ontario Museum re-opens

The Star (John Goddard)

Before Barack Obama there was Taharqa.

Last in a line of so-called Black Pharaohs, he ruled over ancient Egypt and beyond as king of the African civilization of Kush, the last black leader of a superpower before the current U.S. president.

Toronto enjoys a special connection to the time.

For 27 years, archaeologist Krzysztof Grzymski, head of world cultures at the Royal Ontario Museum, has been unearthing the remains of Kush and other lost civilizations of ancient Nubia, in what is now northern Sudan.

In 1992, he opened North America’s first Nubian gallery at the ROM.