Imhotep’s accolades seemed so unrealistic that people thought he was just a myth. In reality, he actually existed, and he was one of the earliest medicinal practitioners in history.
Throughout the 27th century BCE, Imhotep healed his people’s ailments. He recorded clinical trials he conducted, which have been recorded in the Smith Papyrus, the oldest surgical text in world history. Without Imhotep’s studies, we may have never known what ancient medicinal practices looked like.
Because of his work and recorded documentation, Imhotep’s is technically the world's first physician. But more importantly, he played a crucial role in preserving the history of an industry that we essentially created.
If this physician, who was referred to as a god, had his story remain a folktale, then we may have never truly known that an African was the foundation of the medical field we know today.
Stories of brilliant Black minds like Imhotep have been suppressed throughout our history, but it’s up to us to document and record our stories and control our narratives.