Dr. Rkhty spent many years as a community activist in Chicago. She attended Chicago City Colleges, The University of Illinois as an undergraduate, Spertus College of Jewish Studies, and then received a full Four-year Fellowship to the University of Chicago, Oriental Institute (This is the leading School of Egyptology in the United States) to study in the PhD program in Egyptology.
While in Chicago, she began working with Dr. Jacob Carruthers and others at North Eastern College. A group of them founded the Kemetic Institute, and later founded the Kemetic Temple of Chicago. Rkhty was initiated as a Priestess-Hmt Ntr of the temple. Among the many things that she did at the Kemetic Institute was teaching Mdu Ntr (Egyptian Hieroglyphs), and directing and teaching in the Institutes Adult and Children’s programs.
Dr. Rkhty also taught Egyptian Hieroglyphs at North Eastern College in Chicago for two years. She has been an Instructor of Mdu Ntr now for 25, years teaching privately and hosting workshops on the language and other related topics.
In 1983, Dr. Rkhty spent four months in Senegal West Africa working and visiting with the renowned African historian Dr. Chiek Anta Diop. Later she translated two of his books from French to English. Rkhty was a founding member of The Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations (ASCAC) in 1983.
In 1985, she moved to New York to teach Hieroglyphs at City College of New York. While in New York Rkhty established ASCAC study groups and was a regular speaker at First World, a community lecture forum in Harlem. She became a popular much-demanded lecturer, being one of a few African American experts on Mdu Ntr language and at that time the only woman lecturing on the subject of Kemet. She has lectured and continues to lecture on a variety of topics relating to ancient Africa and Kemet at Universities and Colleges all over the US and overseas.
Dr. Rkhty has contributed to numerous special programs in the United States with museums and several Universities. In 1988, she founded her own Institute for the study of Mdu Ntr language and history, the Institute of Kemetic Philology.
From 2005 – 2009, Dr. Rkhty was an Instructor of foreign languages at Rust College in Holly Springs Mississippi, teaching French and Mandarin Chinese. She has a strong background in Linguistics, having studied and obtained some proficiency in French, Chinese, Egyptian Hieroglyphs, ancient Coptic and Biblical Hebrew.
INSTITUTIONAL AFFILIATIONS
Founding member of ASCAC ‘Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations’
ASCAC World History Project board member
Founding member of the African Community of Chicago Temple
Founding member of the KM WR Melanin Science Consortium, and board member of KM WR.
Hmt Ntr Kera Jhuty (Priestess of the Shrine of Jhuty)
Member of International Black Women’s Conference
Founder/Director of the Institute of Kemetic Philology
Founder/Director of the Montclair Saturday African School Program
Member of United Families of African Descent, Freehold New Jersey
Founding member of PAKMNOS ‘Pan African Kmt Kush Mdu Ntr Outreach Society
Founding member of the Fannie Lou Hamer Cultural Center Mekan Kedus Spiritual Gathering
Member of the Detroit Study Group
Faculty and member of Global Learning Network
PUBLICATIONS
- Translation from French of “The Genetic Relationship of the Negro African Languages” By Cheikh Anta Diop
- Translation from French of “New Researches in Ancient Egyptian”
- “The Kemetic Name Book” Published by the Kemetic Institute
- “The Calendar Project” Co-Authored with Frederick Reese. Self Published
- “The Kemetic Writing System” Self Published
- “Mdu Ntr Reading Book One” Self Published
- “Mdu Ntr Correspondence Course”. Self Published
- “The Final Rite of Transformation” Self Published
- Numerous articles in African Journals, including:
- Kemet and the African World View, “The Unity of African Languages”
- The Journal of African Civilizations, “Female Horuses and Great Wives of Kemet”
- The World History Project, “The Calendar Project”
- The Kemetic Calendar Project, self-published 2008
- A Life Centered Life, booklet self-published 2008
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