Powerful kings and emperors like Piye, Kaleb, Mansa Musa, Masinissa, Taraqa and others lived during a time that feels inconceivably distant on a land many men of African descent have never had the opportunity to visit. Although narratives from the spaces between then and now are riddled with the traumas of enslavement, imperialism and colonialism, they also hold literal and figurative jewels and gems that have been stolen and hidden from plain sight. These duplicitous efforts have been effective at deliberately hiding and strategically dismantling the bridges that connect the men of the past to those of today.
For many people of European descent, there exists a continuous thread of uninterrupted history that bounds populations of different chronosystems together across their entire diaspora. Most White people have a clearly articulated and well-published path by which their collective culture and cultural traditions reached the contemporary times and spaces in which they exist. Even when those histories included traumas like the agriculturally induced mass migrations of the Irish during the Potato Famine, systems arenât aimed at the deliberate erasure of links to the origins of their land and native people. The ancient men of Africa and contemporary men across the diaspora, though separated by time and space, share a socio-culturally grounded genetic continuity that has been deliberately censured and censored. These efforts inoculate the processes associated with individual and collective efforts to disassemble the history of oppression and its contemporary systems of disenfranchisement.
The African continent and its progeny hold the keys to a collective history that would have undoubtedly amalgamated to operational prominence absent systems of structured oppression and anti-Black supremacy. The paleontological and archaeological records of the continent and its people demonstrate longevity, innovation, resilience, collectivism, resistance and courage. The many men responsible for these archaic achievements across their ethno-linguistic spheres are the forefathers to the entire diaspora of Black men across the world. The chronological and geographic distances between contemporary Black men and these Black men of antiquity created great opportunities for negationists, revisionists, neo-Nazis and White supremacist to effectively co-opt their narratives to the devices of oppression.
The Deliverance
In 2019, Parts of the Holy Bible, selected for the use of Negro Slaves , in the British West-Indian Islands (1807) was made part of an exhibit at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. A standard Christian Bible includes 1189 chapters, but this one consists of only 232. The redacted Bible was on loan to the museum from Fisk University, a Historically Black College/University (HBCU) in Nashville, TN. One of only three known copies in the world (the other two are on display at universities in Britain), the majority of the Old Testament is totally absent, as is half of the New Testament. The Bibles were printed by the Missionary Society for the Conversion of Negro Slaves and used to convert enslaved people to Christianity (Martin, 2018).
The Hebrew Bible often referred to as the Old Testament of the Christian Bible represents a collection of writings compiled and preserved that chronicle Jewish history and genealogy. Propagandized Bibles are not unique; this is only one aspect of the evidence demonstrating how Christianity was used to both convert the souls of the enslaved while simultaneously oppressing them. This Bible and others like it were edited with the deliberate omission of chapters and verses thought to potentially insight self-esteem among the enslaved and rebellion against the enslavers. Verses that supported justice and liberation were removed. Verses that reinforced subservience and compliance were retained. In addition to raising faith and imbuing hopeful joy or coercing a set of behavioral norms, this religious text, like many others, has been used and weaponized to fashion stories that maintain disparities resulting in generations of suffering and despair.
The continent of Africa has experienced a history that has tattooed her from top to bottom. Many of these tattoos are beautiful works of art that tell stories of love, resilience, innovation, nobility and wealth. The remainder weave themselves up through and around the flesh like the poison of fear from an envenomation, the sting that tells the story of the injustices waged against a land and its people. Since their inception as professional disciplines, the research and literature on anthropology and archaeology have consistently incorporated race and cultural exploration into their work. As a consequence of their longevity, reach across varied socio-political contexts and many sub-disciplines, the vast body of work produced is rich and detailed albeit nuanced and at times conflicting. This chapter will ground its focus in the physical and biological paradigms of anthropology and archaeology to explore the histories of the people and cultures of ancient and pre-colonial Africa, their movement across the continent and a shared connectivity to their Black descendants across countries and continents.
Historical negationism is an extreme form of historical revisionism where facts are strategically included or withheld in a deliberate manner to support a new narrative or achieve a new goal. Christianityâs ability to manipulate their own Holy text for use as a tool to perpetrate oppression and enslavement is remarkably demonstrative of the oppressive institutionâs need for a robustly supportive narrative. The manner in which these systems materialized speaks volumes to the weight and value placed upon the institution slavery. While marginalized groups engage historical revisionists to re-incorporate contributions omitted by negationists, people across the globe suffer as the tools of oppression continue to build literal and figurative walls of injury (Etheredge, 2010; Jooste, 2009).
Revered religious texts like the Bible were not immune to such tampering as evidenced by the one on display at the Fisk University Library. This type of negationism as it relates to a religious doctrine is very clear and straightforward. In scenarios less conspicuous than the removal of 80% of an entire book, it might be difficult to determine the deliberateness of this strategy. If this was not done deliberately to disenfranchise, they would have maintained a sense of its integrity and not removed such a large portion. Iâm sure any oncological surgeon would agree that the removal of a large tumor from an organ is wrought with many more risks than the removal of a small one. The strategy required to remove a malignant tumor that has taken over 80% of oneâs GI track requires a team of experts to remove the menacing growth while minimizing assault to the organ systemâs purposeful functioning. It would be interesting to know how many strategy sessions were held to determine what should remain and what should go. Which verses might inspire or compel enslaved people to see their value and rise to their birthright of freedom against their enslavers?
There are several noteworthy stories illustrated throughout religious text that historians, archaeologists and anthropologists use as points of reference. The deliverance of King Hezekiah and Israel from the Assyrian army is one that is described across three different books of the Bible and celebrated across continents of Christians worldwide. Described in the books of Isaiah, Chronicles and 2nd Kings, the Assyrian siege against Israel was a low point for King Hezekiah and the residents of what would come to be known as The Holy Land. According to the biblical recollection of events, the citizens of Jerusalem were afraid yet prayerful as the Assyrian army grew close and surrounded the walls of the city. Chapter 19 of 2nd Kings focuses on King Hezekiahâs handling of the Assyrian siege. His administration was communicating with the Assyrians and continued to receive news of their own demise. Hezekiah and Israel, inspired by the prophet Isaiah, prayed for deliverance. Each verse in this chapter reads as a historical account of communication and engagementâlike a court stenographerâyet the end of the chapter tersely transitions into a numinous explanation of events that appear to negate what the historical record supports.
After over 30 verses with descriptions of very tangible and observable activities like exchanging communications, tearing off of clothing, securing prayer garments, praying and consulting elders, the tone for two near-end verses becomes unusually mystified. In chapter 19 of the Bibleâs 2nd book of Kings, verses 35 and 36 describe the end of the Assyrian siege as follows: â35That very night the angel of the LORD went out to the Assyrian camp and killed 185,000 Assyrians troops. When the surviving Assyrians woke up the next morning, they found corpses everywhere. 36Then King Sennacherib of Assyria broke up his camp and returned to his own land. He went home to his capital of Nineveh and stayed there.â The final verse of the chapter describes where, how and by whom King Sennacherib was murdered.
As a part of worldwide curricula, many students learn about the pharaohs of Egyptâs antiquity very early on in their academic careers. From the very archaic pharaohs Qaâa and Khufu responsible for the Great pyramid of Giza to the relatively modern pharaohs like Ramses II, Akhenaten and Tutankhamun, this uncontested pharaonic kingdom would rule the area for over 5000 years across over 30 dynasties. Many, however, are sadlyâbut not surprisinglyâunfamiliar with the 25th dynasty of Ancient Egypt that ruled during the eighth century Before Common Era (BCE). For many reasons, negationists have manipulated phenotypic features, topographical maps, narratives and reflections of the country to deliberately separate it geographically, socially and culturally from African continental membership. To be clear, almost all of the pharaohs during the dynastic period of Egypt were Black Africans in spite of attempts from artists, film makers and authors to overtly imbue them with Eurocentric features and sensibilities.
Earlier in 2nd Kings, Chap. 19, verse nine reads: â⊠King Sennacherib received word that King Taharqa (Taharka) of Ethiopia was leading an army to fight against him.â King Taharqa is only mentioned twice in the Bible (again in Chap. 37 of Isaiah) and sparsely throughout the commonly shared record of ancient Egypt. Taharqa, son of Piye, was a noteworthy ruling Pharaoh in Egyptâs 25th dynasty, a notably darker-skinned and incidentally less celebrated dynasty than any other. In The Rescue of Jerusalem: The Alliance between Hebrews and Africans 701BC (2002), author Henry T. Aubin, Hebrew expert, indicates that the âangel of the LORDâ credited with saving King Hezekiah and Jerusalem in 2nd Kings 19:35 was actually a young Taharqa and his army. Aubin and other scholars believe that had Taharqa not intervened on Israelâs behalf, this small Hebrew community would have disappeared. Without the survival of Jerusalem, Judaism, a fledgling religion of the time, would not have survived. They add that because Judaism birthed both Christianity and Islam, Taharqa of the 25th Egyptian dynasty would be responsible for the proliferation of each of the three major contemporary world religions.
Unfortunately, in spite of his accomplishments, Taharqaâs legacy would largely be painted with the Assyrian rise to power later in the seventh century. This powerful dynasty of darker-skinned kings who revived Egyptian intellectual and artistic roots marked the last pharaohs of the golden age of Egypt. Why is this dynasty of kings noticeably absent from the continentâs strategically selected celebratory narratives? Why is this dynasty not as prominently reflected in the Museum of Cairo as others? Whyâas late as 2018âmight the Sudanese government have supported the plan for the constr...