Biblical education and history has generally been dominated by European pattern of thinking for centuries. Our perception of Biblical characters and events is based on the pattern set forth by European thinkers and historians. Da Vinci made the painting of ‘The Last Supper’ and Jesus Christ was made to be a white man. Imagine a black artist painting Jesus black in his artwork! The church and the general public will scream heresy, just like they’ve done to Madonna. Yet, it’s the same thing; nobody has proved beyond reasonable doubt that Jesus was white. Today, every representation of Jesus conforms to the Da Vinci illustration of the messiah. Actors must be costumed to conform to this dogmatic picture if they want to act Jesus in movies. Jesus trod the surface of this earth more than 2000 year ago. So far, there has not been discovered, any picture, portrait, sculpture or statue of Jesus that has survived from his time. So nobody really knows what He looked like. He could have been olive skinned like a typical Jew; he could be fair skinned or colored like a black man. For convenience, people have generally come to accept the Da Vinci portrayal of Jesus Christ as the standard.
Nevertheless, historical evidences point to the appearance of the black race in the lineage of Jesus. Mathew chapter 1 lists the lineage of Jesus Christ. Note that when the Israelites were coming out of Egypt , a mixed multitude went out with them (exod 12:38). Now, inferring from the black heritage of Egypt , many Egyptians must have been part of the Israelites that went out. Joseph, who became the second highest ruler in Egypt , married an Egyptian woman (most probably a black woman). Joseph married Asenath, the daughter of Pharaoh. It was this same Joseph that became the father of two major tribes in Israel ; Ephraim and Manasseh. Moses, the Hebrew leader married Zipporah, the daughter of Reuel, the Ethiopian Midianite. Now, the daughters of Reuel told their father that an Egyptian saved them. If Egyptians were majorly black people and Moses had resembled them, then most probably, Moses must have been a black.
Genealogically, Black Africans are called the sons of Cush . Cush is the Hebrew word for black; it is the Biblical name of Ethiopia . Can the Ethiopian change his skin? (Jer 13:23).
In second Samuel 18:21, during Absalom’s revolt against David, we come across Ha Cushie, who brought the news of Absalom’s death to David. In Hebrew, the etymological meaning of Cush is black. Zephaniah, one of the minor prophets in the old testament, was called the son of Cushie. Cushie means ‘the black one’ (Zeph 1:1). Also in the same Zephaniah chapter one, the Bible gives a short list of the family links. Here is the shocker; King Hezekiah was a grand uncle to Zephaniah. This was the same Hezekiah, who is a direct ancestor of Jesus Christ. We must understand that in Jewish tradition, unlike the Europeans, the name of a person is synonymous with his identity, e.g Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Therefore, we can logically infer that Cushie was a black man, and if so, Zephaniah was also a black man. Another case was that of Bathsheba, formerly, wife of Uriah, and later, wife of David and mother of Solomon. David and Solomon were two important figures in the genealogy of Jesus Christ. The Bible reports that Uriah was a Hittite. Today, historical evidences have made scholars to believe that Bathseba was also a Hittite. However, there is ongoing debate on whether she was a Hamitic or Semitic Hittite. (Hamitic here refers to the lineage of Ham, while Semitic is the lineage of Shem). The Hittites were a mixture of Semites and Hamites.
I could go on analyzing the various discrepancies in our historical heritage as regards the black man for the rest of this article. Yet, that would not be enough to correct the wrong nature and history that the black race has been branded with, for they have been embedded in deep ideological roots far beyond what the imprisoned intellect of the average Blackman could grasp. Even when he gets to be aware of the truth, the average Blackman of today is too complacent with his materialistic world and too concerned with the struggle for survival to reflect on the relevance of things as abstract as this. Yet, this is the basis of what we now know today as the inability of the Blackman to equal his other racial contemporaries in the ability to organize an orderly, sophisticated social order. Is any black nation a world power today?
It is now necessary for the Blackman to take it upon himself to know the truth about himself. So far, the research into the origin of the black man has been dominated by other races. A rapid ideological revolution is needed if the Black African nations are to achieve a sophisticated state of national development. It is not a sophisticated infrastructure that makes a civilized society, but a sophisticated ideology. If the people lack the right knowledge of their identity, infrastructure will fail. This is the case in most African countries of today. The origin of the Blackman’s identity is necessary in his quest for ideological development; for it is there that he find answers to fundamental questions plaguing him. He will be able to see the reasons why some things are how they are. He will be able to analyze the genesis of his current challenges and face them with the right knowledge. He will be able to learn that his people are not just timeless entities, contributing nothing to the history of civilization, but that they have had a glorious past, in which his ancestors flourished in civilization. Lastly, the Blackman will be able to define himself for himself and not be swallowed up in other people’s misconceptions about him. For our world to be a better place, historical truths must be acknowledged without racial sentiments. The purpose of history is to control the future by the past.
Ayodele Arowosegbe was born on june 1, 1986 in Ado Ekiti in Nigeria, he is currently studying Physics in Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria.
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