Another introductory speech is necessary to grasp the political organization of the nilotic region.
Historically speaking, it happens a long time ago, people living in the Sahara were all into pastoralism, but were forced to migrate in different directions due to climate changes. Some tribes went south, west, north or east. Those arriving to the nilotic likely had met some natives (like the Bantu pushing the Khoisans who were the natives), but that is even more lost to prehistory.
The desert progressions went so far the banks of the Nile were the only last strips of the land affording good crops thanks to the Nile floods rich in silt.
A spectrum of people lived by the banks of the Nile. Before the implementation of a centralized state by Narmer (Catfish King), Egypt suffered just like Mesopotamia of a eternal warfare between city-states. Nonetheless, it happened some fragile coalitions may bonded a serie of city-states around a strong one, forming the Lower Egypt and the Upper Egypt.
But beneath the Upper Egypt (i.e. non-delta Egypt), what lies there? One modern word: Nubia. Multiple names before depending the period.
Nubia bore many names, all of which came from Egypt who had writing 2300 years before the Nubia came with their own one:
Meroitic hieroglyphs.
Egypt's Ancient history is separated into three great historical blocks of pharaonic stability.
Old Kingdom [2686–2181 BC]
Middle Kingdom [2055–1650 BC]
New Empire [1550–1069 BC]
Each period, Egypt labelled Nubia in its own term.
Old Kingdom
During this period, the contacts with Nubia were starting. Many commercials exchanges were done like obtaining deep african goodies (wood, gold, panther skin, etc.) for egyptian goodies (crops, wine, etc.). Some wars happened too since relationships during ancient times are always tumultuous.
One denomination for Nubians was
Ta-Seti, which means the "land of Bow" because of the extreme reputation of Nubians being excellent bowmen.
Have you noticed the bow hieroglyph.
Looking at the administrative organization of Egypt (each "province" being called "
Nome"), the first one (at the extreme south) is the Ta-Seti nome, which is kinda near Nubia, isn't it?
Otherwise, Nubia had other names. Take this excerpt:
Now when I had pacified the chief of Yam...below Irthet and above Sethu, I found
the chief of Irthet, Sethu and Wawat . . . I descended with 300 asses laden with
incense, ebony, heknu, grain, panthers . . . ivory, [throw sticks] and every good
product. Now when the chief of Irthet, Sethu, and Wawat saw how strong and
numerous was the troop of Yam, which descended with me to the court, and the
soldiers who had been sent with me, (then) this [chief] brought and gave to me
bulls and small cattle, and conducted me to the roads of the highland of
Irthet. . . .
We simply infer, there wasn't one Nubia, but a number of tribes.
Like Egypt, it wasn't unified yet under the charisma of one strong individual.
Middle Kingdom
The Middle Kingdom was heralded by
Mentuhotep II, considered the second greatest pharaoh besides Narmer, for unifying Egypt once again after a long period of instability and power skirmishes. His stela named the southern region of the first nome as
Kush.
Nubia was finally "represented" as a political entity as the
hieroglyph indicates. It is the "foreign hilly country" sign. Ancient Egyptians represented other political entities as hilly desertic regions and that comes without surprise as almost 360 degrees of the Nilotic banks are reddish and yellowish dunes. In color, that hieroglyph had a strip of green below the hill, meaning it was the lush nilotic banks, reinforcing everywhere except Ancient Egypt was foreign and desertic.
New Empire
The term Nubia started to take its convention during the New Empire although Kush was already commonly accepted. Coming from the term NBW (Nuba), meaning gold, it is directly directed to the use of the Nubians to extract gold for the glory of Egypt. There is another theory about a later tribe named the Nouba, but that's another story.
Finally, there is also the denomination:
Ta-Nehesyu, literally meaning "The Southerner". You see ancient Egyptians didn't wring their tongue and brain while naming their neighbours.
From Nubians POV, what are they?
We don't know until near 800BC. They hadn't any writing system before to narrate their exploits. But excavations made by the greatest Egyptologist named
George Reisner and successors gave several inklings what happened to them without the biased lens of the Egyptians (because propaganda existed for all periods of history).
The last pending question is why Egypt created the hieroglyphic system while Nubians did so millenia later despite the second knowing them due to the multiple commercial exchanges. The reason lies not in the ethnology, but the pressing needs. Nubia had large zones of savanna to feed their pastoralist economy while Egypt was under pressure of a large population for a small surface of fertile lands. As any conjuncture of food distribution when starvation happens, the fertile nilotic banks had to be shared with organization so everyone had their strip to grow crops. Severe administration needs writing. Nubians didn't have the need since their available lands for cattle were larger.
Basically, if Nubians happened in the same nilotic region as Narmer, the story would have unfolded with many similarities.
Here we go.
) and he was the warlord of this small settlement originally. Succeeding pharaohs of two first dynasties were then called the thinite pharaohs. 
