Africa and Major Global Religions
The entire human race shares an African ancestry. With that being said, it isn’t a surprise that Africa’s influences infiltrate almost every aspect of human civilization. One feature this article hopes to illustrate is the African influence on three of the major religions most prominent in societal use today: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.
To the western foreigner, missionary influences on African countries are obvious. Examples of western religions are apparent within numerous churches and embedded in African culture. However, when the missionaries arrived, African cultures were already practicing theism in an interestingly parallel model. What we don’t think about is whether or not missionaries were the original introducers of these “new” religions or if, in fact, Africa was a key factor in their very creation. Prominent contributors to each of these religions, and how they are practiced today, are indigenous Africans: Moses of Judaism, St. Augustine of Christianity, and Bilal of Islam. However, the role of Africa within these religions has been suppressed, their connection denied. Sadly, the major connotation linked to indigenous African religions is unjustly negative. Ancient practices such as paganism, voodoo, witchcraft, and black magic are seen as evil, but actually show the existence of “God’s signs” that are today included in the aforementioned religions.
To discern the likelihood that all of these religions have the same origin (African), one needs only to begin observing the vast similarities between them. Before examining each of the three religions separately, I will bring attention to a few major similarities shared by all. Take for example monotheism, the concept of having only one all powerful God. Humankind’s first effort to conceptualize that “there is a god” began with the worship of the sun god “Ra,” the first god of indigenous Africans. Ra became the Hebrew “Jehovah,” Jehovah turned into the Christian “Jesus Christ,” and Jesus Christ turned into the “Allah” of Islam. Also look at the concept of life after death. The African “Spirit World” (750,000 BC), translated into the Jewish “Hereafter,” the Christian “heaven and hell,” and the Muslim “Paradise.” Furthermore, the African “Mysteries” translate into the Jewish “Torah,” the Christian “Bible,” and the Muslim “Koran.” African “Libations” (sacrificial drinking) was wrongly linked to cannibalism and witchcraft, but in fact is an equivalent practice to Christians drinking wine to represent the blood of Christ during Holy Communion. And finally, the African Baba Loa (High Priest) shakes an Asson (rattle with dried corn kernel) just as the Roman Catholic priest shakes an incense holder before Holy Communion.
Judaism
Judaism is largely important because it was the religion from which both Christianity and Islam both derived. The values that Jews spread throughout the world were taken from Africans who had established them thousands of years prior in the Nile Valley, before the birth of the first Jew, Abraham. Three examples of this fact are the Mysteries, The 10 Commandments, and Proverbs.
The Mysteries of Egypt are a moral code developed by Africans along the Nile Valley, stemming from civilizations that preceded the birth of the first Hebrew of Judaism (Abraham), and centuries before the first Hebrew nation: Palestine. “Ra” was the prominent god of the Mysteries. Ra was the believed creator of heaven and earth, and said to have demanded “no other gods before me.” Hebrews copied this to portray Yahweh saying, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me, sayeth Yvah.” Also within the Mysteries is the “Book of the Dead.” This book describes heaven and hell as places in Egypt’s “Nether World.” It also describes immortality, man’s “life after death.”
The Ten Commandments are the moral code apparent in the Torah, as well the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. Most Jews and Christians teach the Ten Commandments as having their inaugural appearance to Moses on the top of Mount Sinai. However, the source of these laws are from Bantu(African) religions, established in religious laws and philosophical concepts from Africans living in Egypt 400 years prior to the creation of Judaism. They were used in Ethiopia 1,350 years before the birth of Moses, and 2,575 years before the birth of Jesus Christ. All of the commandments, amounting to much more than ten, are present in the “Negative Confessions,” in addition to the “Hymn of Adoration to the God Osiris.”
Proverbs are a distinguished portion of the Torah as well as the Christian Old Testament. These proverbs were said to have been written by King Solomon of Israel. However, records show these same proverbs were all found in a collection of poetry and songs 300 years before the reign of King Solomon by an indigenous African-American Pharaoh: Amen-em-ope.
Christianity:
The oldest body of institutional Christians in the world is the Copts of Egypt. The Koptic Christian Church (the Egyptian Church of North Africa), the oldest Christian church in the world, is located in Ethiopia. There was a Jesus Christ introduced in Ethiopia before it was introduced to the Romans. Interestingly enough, the Jesus Christ illustrated within this church is painted as a black man.
The first records of Christendom as introduced in North Africa were from around 115 AD. It was then that many North Africans became martyrs, the persecution of those guilty of “committing Christian acts against Roman State.” One notable martyr was 22 year old Perpetua (St. Perpetua). St. Perpetua has a chapel that was created in her name, still standing in what was the ancient African city of Carthage, present day Tunisia. In 200AD the Empire of Kush (Ethiopia) established Christianity as the official religion of Northern Africa. This was prior to the adoption of Christian symbols by Constantine the Great, Roman Emperor of the West.
Indigenous Africans helped to develop much of what is practiced as present day Christianity. Tertullian, one of the most important “Church Fathers of Christendom,” was born in 155 AD. His contribution is the language of the religion. His preference and strong rhetoric in Latin caused him to make it the official language of Christianity. It was an indigenous African who founded the world’s first monastery of hermatic living. This was “Anthony the Hermit of the Sahara,” who abandoned his wealth and lived his life in the desert amidst poverty and meditation. St. Augustine, also an indigenous African, became Bishop of Hippo (North Africa) in 395 AD and lived from 354 to 430 AD. He can be accredited for writing many prominent philosophies of Christianity, most notably the “Confessions,” “On Christian Doctrines,” and “City of God.” These works were vastly distributed and used fervently within the teachings and practices of Christianity during the time and now today.
Islam
This brings me to my final religious examination: Islam. Not surprisingly, Africans were also involved in the creation of Islam, yet failed to be mentioned as vital components. An indigenous African by the name of Bilal was the creator of many Islamic practices. However, I must start before Bilal.
In 610 C.E. a wealthy Arab merchant named “Mohamet” claimed to have spoken to “an angel of Allah.” This “revelation” led to the succeeding plight Muslims to disperse and convert the people of the world. The first soul that Mohamet was believed to have converted was Bilal, an African from Ethiopia. Bilal was a former Koptic Christian who, at the time, was serving as an Arab slave. Bilal went on to become the first Muezzin (High Priest) and Treasurer of Islam.
Bilal can be accredited for much of what present Muslims believe to be the description of “Paradise,” and for many of their first prayers and doctrines. Bilal created the rewards of Paradise to be rewarding enough to entice conversions by Christians and Jews alike. Seemingly one of the most notable of Muslim prayers is the “Calling of the Faithful” known as the Azan (call to prayer). The Azan calls for the worship of Allah each morning at 6am. Bilal introduced this prayer from his experience in Ethiopia, where it was an established and practiced Divine Rule for Koptic Christians and Judaism. In the prayer’s original usage, it was intended to worship the sun god “Ra” from early African religions.
Conclusion:
It is necessary to accredit Africa as an integral part of the creation of these three major religions as we practice them today, but let’s not stop there. In addition to religion, Africa has also contributed much of what today’s civilization has become. As an audience, we sometimes don’t think about what is not presented. History can more or less be written to portray however the writer wants to depict the subject matter. For example, European painters illustrate biblical characters as all being Caucasian and we are led to believe they were.
Religions, along with their moral codes and guidelines, have become the solution to the mystery we all share, the mystery of life and death. If humankind all shares this same quest for answers, it is not surprising to see these three major religions all originating from the same source; the source where humankind itself first originated.
Written by Jennifer Ferland
The above article was written from subject matter found in the following books:
Ben-Jochannan, Yosef A.A. African Origins of the Major “Western Religions”. Bltimore: Black Classic Press, 1991.
Jackson, John G. Introduction to African Civilizations. New York: Citadel Press, 2001.
Mudimbe, V.Y. The Invention of Africa: Gnosis, Philosophy, and the Order of Knowledge. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1998.
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Africa and America Pre-Columbus
Western education leads most to believe that in 1492 “Columbus sailed the ocean blue” to “discover” the New World. However, the “New World” did not seem as “new” as Spanish and other western cultures perceived.
The colorful history of Egypt, relished by colossal pyramids, the mighty Sphinx of Giza and other commanding feats, should not fail to mention the black kings of the 25th Dynasty. The ancient term “Ethiop”—literally translating as “burnt face”—was treated as a broad title for all dark peoples. Therefore, Egyptians referred to this “black power” period of rulers in Egypt as The Ethiopian Dynasty.
The Ethiopian Dynasty was originally founded by the kings of Kush—with its base at Napata, Nubia (a region in eastern Sudan). Therefore, Egyptians referred to this black royalty as Nubians during their period of rule. Nubian princes were seen on Egyptian wall paintings in the Huy of Thebes sitting in ox-drawn chariots, shade by parasols.1
The relationship between these Nubian Kings and the Phoenicians during this era is of particular importance. During the Ethiopian Dynasty, the Phoenicians evolved into a nomadic sea peoples that conducted trade around the Mediterranean, the British Isles which ultimately expanded out into the Atlantic Ocean. With the Phoenicians, Nubians began to travel beyond the boundaries of their empire and traveled to new worlds.2
In 1939 a discovery in Vera Cruz, Mexico, started the western world in the way it underscored the world-wide impact the Ethiopian Dynasty had on the Americas. Dr. Matthew Stirling led a team to uncover a six-foot high, ten ton statue made out of basalt. The artifact’s “…features [were] bold and amazingly negroid in character,” (143). Since this slab of basalt was extracted from a source only ten miles from which the artifact was discovered, it strongly implied Nubian traders must have spent time in Central America as a settled peoples. Carbon-14 dating techniques confirm these artifacts were constructed in 291 B.C.— 1783 years before the arrival Christopher Columbus in 1492 A.D.
Nubian influence in the Americas, however, did not end there. The tedious and astounding mummification techniques found within the tombs of ancient kings of Egypt were discovered in parts of Central America since these techniques were originally created among Negoids south and west of the Nile River3. As settled people, the Nubians introduced this practice in Central America, where the practice has been found in places as widespread as Columbia, Peru, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida4. This was shocking to many Westerners, yet Nubian mummification practices are so consistent across continents as to leave little room for doubt.
Nubian presence in modern-day Mexico led to the trade of both African artifacts and African culture across the Americas. In addition to building astounding works of art in continents which for a long time remained “undiscovered” by western cultures, the Ethiopian Dynasty established the healthy trading ties that led Nubians to new worlds where they not only practiced trade between foreign peoples but also permanently transferred cultural influences.
It is interesting to find an ethnic group, still to date considered by many to be more “primitive” than other ethnicities, discovering new continents and different peoples around the world nearly two millennia before ages before Western cultures. Surely as Westerners this causes us to rethink our perspective of Africa, African innovation, and the possibilities of Africa’s future.
By Austin Jennings Leary
References
1. Sertima, Ivan Van. They Came Before Columbus. Random House. NY, NY. 1976. pg.128.
2. IBID., pg.134-135
3. IBID., pg. 112
4. IBID., pg. 157
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Ancient Africa
Some fact that you may not have known:
• The human race is of African origin. The oldest known skeletal remains of anatomically modern humans (or homo sapiens sapiens) were escavated at sites in East Africa. Human remains were discovered at Omo in Ethiopia that were dated at 195,000 years old, the oldest known in the world
• Africans were the first to organize fishing expeditions 90,000 years ago, they engaged in mining 43,000 years ago, they pioneered basic arithmetic 25,000 years ago, they invented animal husbandry 15,000 years ago, they cultivated crops 12,000 years ago, they mummified their dead 9,000 years ago, and they carved the world’s first colossal sculptures 7,000 years ago.
• The Ancient Egyptians had the same type of tropically adapted skeletal proportions as modern Black Africans. Including Pharaoh Djoser, the second king of the Third Egyptian Dynasty, who ruled between 5018 and 4989 BC. He built the earliest monument in the world still celebrated today, his Funerary Complex in the city of Saqqara, including the first of 90 Egyptian pyramids, which Dr. Charles Finch, a leading African-American scholar, notes to be “humanity’s first great architectural triumph. It established architectural forms, styles and cannons still in use today” and included the first stone-built columns known to historians.
• In around 300 BC, the Sudanese invented a writing script that had 23 letters of which four were vowels and there was also a word divider. Hundreds of ancient texts have survived that were written in this script, some of which are on display in the British Museum.
• Many old West African families have private library collections that go back hundreds of years. The Mauritanian cities of Chinguetti and Oudane have a total of 3,45 hand written medieval books. There may be another 6,000 books still surviving in the other city of Walata, some dating back to 700 AD. There are 11,000 books in private collections in Niger and in Timbuktu (Mali) there are about 700,000 surviving books.
• The city of Eredo, of the Ijebu kingdom in southwest Nigeria, was one of the largest city the world has ever seen. Buit during the middle ages, the rampart encircling this ancient kingdom was “100 miles long and formed a rough circle, enclosing more than 400 square miles” dwarfing Baghdad, Cairo, and Rome. It is comparable in size to modern London. Found in what is now a rainforest, it is thought to have been built by Queen Bilikisu Sungbo and is being considered as a World Heritage site.
• Ethiopia, in East Africa, minted its own coins over 1,500 years ago. One scholar wrote that: “Almost no other contemporary state anywhere in the world could issue in gold, a statement of sovereignty achieved only by Rome, Persia and the Kushan kingdom in northern India at the time.”
• Cheques are not quite as new an invention as we were led to believe. In the 10th century, an Arab geographer, Ibn Haukal, visited a fringe region of the West African empire of Ancient Ghana. Writing in 951 AD, he told of a cheque for 42,000 golden dinars written to a merchant in the city of Audoghast by his partner in Sidjilmessa.
• Chinese records of the 1400s AD note that the East African city of Mogadishu (modern-day Somalia) had houses of “four or five storeys high”.
• The medieval Nigerian city of Benin was built to “a scale comparable with the Great Wall of China”. There was a vast system of defensive walling totaling 10,000 miles in all. Even before the full extent of the city walling had become apparent the Guinness Book of World Records carried an entry in the 1974 edition that described the city as: “The largest earthworks in the world carried out prior to the mechanical era.”
• Excavations at the Malian city of Gao carried out by Cambridge University revealed glass windows. One of the finds was entitled: “Fragments of alabaster window surrounds and a piece of pink window glass, Gao 10th-14th century.”
For a verification of these, and more facts, read When We Ruled, by Robin Walker (Every Generation Media 2006)
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