Many African nationalists view African Christians as brainwashed sellouts who have been stripped of their original identity. They feel we need to rediscover our African roots and worship the god/gods of our ancestors.
However, Africans have to understand that what they call roots are essentially just branches. Africans don’t have different roots to other human beings, we’re all descendants of the same ancestor, Adam in the garden of Eden. Their roots, just like everyone else’s are in the garden of Eden.
After Adam procreated with his wife, Eve, the earth was filled with violence because of sin, and God cleansed it with a flood. Only Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their wives survived.
Other than being descended from Adam, the current human family can also trace its roots back to these eight people.
Of the three sons of Noah, I want to focus on two: Shem and Ham.
Genesis 10:21 says, ‘Unto SHEM also, the father of all the children of EBER, the brother of Japheth the elder, even to him were children born.’ Shem or Sem is the great ancestor of all the Semitic tribes such as the Hebrews and the Arabs.
In fact, Eber, which can also be spelled Heber, is where the word ‘Hebrew’ is derived from. This Heber is the ancestor of Abraham, Genesis 14:13a says, ‘A man who had escaped came and reported this to ABRAM THE HEBREW.’ Abraham was a Hebrew.
From Abraham, of course, we can trace the human ancestry of our Lord Jesus Christ through Judah who was Jacob’s son, Jacob who was Isaac’s son, Isaac who was Abraham’s son.
The second son of Noah I want to focus on is Ham. Genesis 10:6-7 says, ‘And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim (Egypt), Phut, and Canaan. And the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah: and Raamah, and Sabecha: and the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan.
‘Ham is the great ancestor of all dark skinned people, Africans. Mizraim is the Hebrew name for Egypt, therefore the original Egyptians were dark skinned. The current Egyptians are Arabic because of the Islamic colonisation of north Africa.
Cush is the ancestor of the Ethiopians, Eritreans, Somalis and those from the Sudan. Surely you can also readily recognise names such as Seba and Sheba (queen of Sheba) from whence all other Africans are descended.
The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the God of Noah, from whom Shem and Ham are descended. When Genesis 6:9 says, ‘These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God’ the Bible is talking about your great great great great grandfather, who begat Ham, from whom you are descended.
When God revealed Himself to Abraham, He was revealing Himself to the great great grandchild of Noah. The God of Abraham, whom we worship today, is the same God of our great great great great grandfather Noah.
The same God Noah, our great ancestor in the flesh worshiped, is the same God we worship today.
Over time, Africans forgot about this God and started worshiping other gods. But now, God has used a great great great grandchild of Noah, who came through Heber, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David, called the Lord Jesus Christ, to reveal Himself to us.
God has used the Lord Jesus Christ, a great great great grandchild of our great great great uncle Shem, to save us. Shem and Ham are related. The Hebrews and Africans are related. We’re brothers and sisters.
The same God who preserved the lineage of Shem through Noah, preserved the lineage of Ham through the same Noah. Our God is their God. He’s the God of both our great ancestor, Noah.
The Lord Jesus Christ is not for some people and not others. He has appeared to save all the ancestors of Noah’s sons: Shem, Ham and of course Japheth, who’s the great ancestor of the peoples of Europe.
Being a Christian is therefore not a betrayal of one’s roots. If anything, it’s an affirmations of such. The Lord Jesus Christ is not a foreign God but a part of the African family, just descended from a different brother, Shem. He’s not a foreign god but the God of our great ancestor Noah, who of course was descended from Adam in the garden of Eden.
(By the way, there is such a thing as ‘the Hamitic curse’ that many believe exists and refers to Africans. Genesis 9:25-26 says, ‘And he said, ‘Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
‘Canaan is one of Ham’s sons, just like Cush and the others. However, Noah cursed Canaan, not the others. Noah cursed Canaan, not his father Ham. Therefore Ham is not cursed, nor are his other sons. In other words, it’s not all the Africans who are cursed, just the Canaanites. There’s therefore no such thing as the Hamitic curse but rather the Canaanite curse, and we’ve seen how the land of Canaan was taken from them and given to the Israelites. Israel is therefore part of Africa because Canaan, even though he is an accursed ancestor in the flesh.)
Enjoy the rest of your Heritage month.